Page 19 of Breaking the Dark

Malcolm slides her coffee across her desk and then unloops his bag from his torso and sits down. “Fire away.”

“You’re seventeen, right?”

“Yup.”

“Where do you live?”

“A few blocks up from here.” He takes four packets of sugar out of his jacket pocket, rips their corners off in one go, then tips them into his coffee.

“And who do you live with?”

“My mom.”

“Just the two of you?”

“Yeah. Why are you asking all these questions?”

“I’m trying to get a handle on you for some undercover work. Trying to work out how adaptable you are.”

“Oh my God. I am super, super adaptable.” His brown eyes are gleaming with excitement now. “Seriously. I have so many different types of friends, you know, and I just fit right in with all of them. I’m like a freakin’ social chameleon. I can—”

Jessica stops him by putting her hand between them. “Fine,” she says. “I get the picture. But are any of your friends unbelievably wealthy and living in Upper East Side penthouses?”

“Well, no—but I still think I could fit in. I mean, look, you went to a salon and got flicky hair to go undercover, I’m pretty sure I can find a Ralph Lauren polo shirt in a thrift shop and slick my hair back. What’s the job? I swear, whatever it is, I can do it.”

Jessica leans back in her chair and appraises Malcolm. He has a nice face; it’s one of those faces that looks like it comes from everywhere. But he is so very intensely himself, so very Malcolm in every movement of his face and intonation of his voice, she cannot possibly imagine him in the Bleeding Heart eating steak with the right cutlery, or on the subway with Lark’s pretentious friends and their talk of Hamptons houses and therapy.

She leans forward again and says, “The job is sixteen-year-old twins, went to the UK for the summer, came back as different people, mother wants to know what’s going on but everyone’s acting like everything’s normal. I’ve shadowed them both and there’s definitely something not right with them. They came home with freakishly perfect skin, they go out without their phones, the boy’s skin crackles, and he talks to the sky when he thinks no one’s looking. But these kids, Malcolm, they’re rarefied as hell. They live a life that’s so far above and beyond anything you and I could possibly imagine. Getting close to them would be hard enough in the most normal of circumstances, let alone these circumstances.” She pauses, suddenly doubting herself. Is this in fact a terrible idea? But seeing Malcolm’s face gleaming with excitement, she relents. “I need someone to get really close to them, close enough for them to share their secrets, and you are literally the only teenager I know, and you are far from perfect, but I am willing to take a chance on you, if you think you can do it.”

His eyes light up again. “I can so do this, Jessica. I mean, I feel like I was born to do this. You know, I was always the lead in the school plays at elementary and middle school. Always, ask my mom. And I’m the one my friends always sent into any situation they felt uncomfortable about, you know, like getting balls out of backyards, asking parents if their kids can come out, it was always me because I’m good at talking to people.”

She puts up her hand again. “Okay,” she says. “I hear you. How would you go about this?”

“Well, is there anything they do after school? Like an extracurricular thing I could join to be around them?”

Jessica scribbles this down. “I’ll find out.”

“And what do they do socially? Where do they hang out?”

“Well, the girl, she’s an Akinesiz fan, that’s why I was asking after him the other day. She’s a bit of an emo.”

“I can do emo. I can totally do emo. I’m kind of already half emo, I just hide it.”

Jessica sighs. “Great. Good. Well. Let me find out more.”

“So, what now? Do I need to fix my hair? What next?”

She drops her eyes to her notepad, wanting to think. “I’ll be in touch.”

A moment later, she still sees him loitering in her peripheral vision. “We’re done here.”

He nods, then holds his thumb and pinkie up to his face. “Call me.”

“I will.”

“Soon.”

“I will.”