Page 13

The rain drips down the side of Zach’s face, and he curses at the way his car fucks up his phone signal. If his mood could get any worse, it would. Alas, he’s already hit rock bottom, so the way his jumper sticks to his back is nothing.

Zach had to stay late after practice because the entire team was ecstatic Mali is so close to getting the Blyke contract. The atmosphere was electric, and usually Zach wouldn’t care, but he’s trying to be a better member of the team, and it has nothing to do with him and everything to do with Mali telling him he should be a better member of the team. Well, she was kinder than that. She just said it would help her get this contract, and he wants her to have whatever she wants.

He knew this would be good for her, and even better for the team. He wishes he helped her out more. She keeps doing videos with players in the office, and she says it’s to improve their social media presence. Every day since she started, he’s made sure he looks good, but she hasn’t asked him once. Kai has done three of them. Zach wonders if Mali knows Kai flirts with her. He wonders if that’s why she keeps asking him back. He wonders if he’ll break something like a Neanderthal if it’s true. She’s even done one with Toby, and yet, Zach walks past her, and she smiles only.

Zach isn’t supposed to be trying to make friends anyway, which is good, because Mali doesn’t want to be his friend. She smiles at him in the office, and she looked somewhat concerned when he got knocked out, but she didn’t even come over. He’s not sure he’s allowed to want her to, considering he’d have pushed her away anyway. Still, there’s a part of him that hoped she would, but he sat on the bench, holding the gauze to his face, alone. As he is now.

It’s just after five, and Mali hasn’t left the office, and it’s raining, so he’s here, ignoring the texts from his agent because his agent is a knob, and desperately trying not shout at Devon. Zach hasn’t had any time to see his mum, which was supposed to be fine because Devon got out of jail at the weekend and is supposed to be staying with her. It’s part of his licence, and while Zach’s not going to rat on him, he needs to be able to trust him. Him being out is supposed to be helpful. Instead, it’s just another thing for Zach to worry about.

“I need you to just go and fucking check on her, De,” he says, his voice as low as he can manage, but it’s a struggle. His brother lists off a load of excuses, and Zach knows that no matter what he says, Devon’s not going to go. Still, he tries.

“Look, I need to go look at another apartment tonight. I don’t have time. It’s your day. Devon?” He moves the phone from his face, and sure enough, his home screen looks back at him. “Fuck.” Even without traffic, he’s not getting to the flat before five forty-five. He was supposed to be there by five thirty. He could leave now, but then Mali would have to walk home in the rain. His phone rings again, and he sighs.

“Hello?”

And it’s his landlord. Of course it’s his landlord. Asking him when he’s getting his stuff out like he doesn’t have another four days.

“It’s not the twenty-eighth yet,” he replies. “If you throw my stuff onto the street, I’m going to sue.” His landlord is a prick—he’s always been a prick—but threatening to get rid of his stuff is something he’s not even thought about. Zach pinches the bridge of his nose so hard he thinks it might crumble beneath his fingers as he hangs up. His chest hurts. His chest hurts, and his shoulder is still throbbing from this afternoon. His chest hurts, and he’s going to have to live in his car. His chest hurts, and he’s going to get a call in a few weeks that Devon is back in jail. His chest hurts, and he’s standing in the pouring rain, alone.

“Zach,” Mali whispers, her hand lightly against his wrist. She pulls his hand away from his face, and he’s barrelled through three two-hundred-pound men before, but now, he’s rooted to the spot.

“Hey,” he mutters. He doesn’t look at her, but she holds the umbrella higher so it covers him too. He takes it from her, stepping closer. She’s so pretty under the yellow glow of the streetlight.

“What’s going on?” she asks, her hand still against his wrist. Her brow is furrowed, and she looks sad. Zach racks his brain for anything that’s made her smile before. “Honey,” she says. “Why are you in the rain?”

Honey. He lets it soothe his chest. “I… I’m having a bad day.”

Mali frowns, then holds his wrist tighter. “Come on. I’ll make you a tea.”

Zach drives to her house, and she doesn’t say anything, but he knows she’s watching him intently. Like she thinks he might have a breakdown or something. He walks behind her into her house, and he doesn’t register anything at all until Buffy wraps himself around his legs.

“Hey, buddy,” he mutters. Buffy jumps onto the kitchen counter, and Zach’s not sure if he’s allowed up here, but Mali isn’t here right now. Zach can hear her moving around upstairs, and he wants to know what the rest of her house looks like. Her kitchen is nice. Fancy looking bottles and a spices in matching jars. There’s not even a hint of purple, but he’s seen this room already. He wants to know what her bedroom looks like. What the front room looks like. If it matches what he expects from her—bookcases and a fireplace, maybe a wooden beam if the outside of the house is anything to go by. Probably neutral colours, even if her hair suggests otherwise.

“Here,” she says, when she’s halfway down the stairs. Zach turns to look for her. She’s changed into other clothes, and his throat gets tight at the tightness of her leggings and what he thinks is a pyjama top, but his name is on it. It sits against her chest, and he’ll blame that on the reason he knows she doesn’t have a bra on. She hands him some clothes.

“Is that mine?” he asks, and she blushes as she looks down.

“Uhm, well, no, because I bought it, but if you’re asking if it’s your old rugby team, then yes.”

He smiles. That is what he was asking.

“You can change in the back room,” she says, avoiding his eyeline. “Or there’s a bathroom at the top of the stairs, or you can use the ensuite in my room…”

He wants to use hers just to see her house, but he steps into the back room. Zach leaves the lights off and takes a deep breath as he pulls her clothes on. He tries not to inhale, but it smells so much like her he feels criminally insane. He spends at least a minute wondering if he should take his wet boxers off. He decides he should, but he’s not sure Mali will thank him for it. Thankfully, she sleeps in clothes that are too big. That or they’re her boyfriend’s clothes. Wait, does she have a boyfriend? He frowns, but he pulls the too-short tracksuit trousers on anyway.

“Thanks,” he says, when he comes back into the kitchen. He makes a note in his phone to pick his clothes up on the way out. Mali turns to smile at him, then pours the milk into their mugs, and Zach realises she knows how he takes his tea. It’s not a difficult task, but she remembered all the same.

“Sorry if they don’t fit,” she says. “You’re like twice my size.”

Zach smiles. Not her boyfriend’s. “My ankles are freezing.”

She laughs, and he feels all the better for it.

“I was going to bring you down some socks but I think we'd be pushing it." Zach let's the use of we travel around his body as Mali grabs a pen from the drawer. She writes on a notepad stuck to the front of the fridge. He leans as subtly as he can, but really, he wants to know all the thoughts in her head. Luckily for him, she tells him anyway.

"There. Now I'll remember to get some bigger ones." Zach wonders if she's getting new socks because she thinks she'll need to save him from being a loser again, or if she's just hoping he'll be here. He tries his best to force his brain into believing the latter.

"Where are your clothes? If you want, I have to do a wash tonight anyway, so I can throw them in for you.” Maybe she does pity him. He looks over at the wide eyed, hopeful look on her face. Maybe she just wants to take care of him. He wonders if he’d let her if she tried.

“Oh. Thanks.”

“Sure. Let’s sit in the front room. Buffy is raging that I’m not on the couch already.”

Zach follows her and tries to avoid how comfortable he feels here. The walls are somewhere between white and cream—probably what his mum would call beige, but he thinks it looks nicer than that. There are floor-to-ceiling bookcases, a wooden beam on the ceiling, and a fireplace. If there were a quiz show on Mali Okeye, he’d do well. The couch swallows him a little bit, and he lets his head rest against the back cushions.

“How’s your shoulder?” Mali asks. She tucks her feet underneath her, turning to face him on the other end. He wonders how to get her closer without actually touching her, because she held onto his wrist earlier and the weight of her fingers is still in his mind.

“It’s alright.”

“Yeah? And your face?”

Zach smiles, it pushes at the cut on his eyebrow but if he looks at her, it doesn't hurt. “It’s alright too.”

Mali hums. “I wanted to come over, but I didn’t know if I was allowed, or if I’d pass out.”

Zach frowns, but his heart thumps. “Why wouldn’t you be allowed?”

She swallows, placing her tea on the coffee table. “Well, I didn’t know if you were mad at me about the Toby thing. I haven’t told anyone we’re sleeping together—obviously, you know, because we aren’t.” She blushes, and he tries hard not to think about them sleeping together.

“I’m never mad at you.” Mali smiles, but before she can say anything, he asks, “Why would you pass out?”

“I hate blood,” she replies. She grabs her cup again and takes a sip of her tea, and he winces, his hand reaching out for hers in preparation because there’s no way it’s drinking temperature, but she stops just shy of the liquid touching her lips and blows on it instead. “I wanted to come see you, but I thought if I fainted and made you look after me, that would have been worse. But I’m practicing.”

“I would have looked after you, but I’m glad you weren’t hurt. And I definitely wasn’t mad at you,” he says, thinking back to the situation. How he left her there. “I didn’t mean to make you think I was. I’m usually pretty good at dealing with Toby—I just ignore him, ’cause he’s a prick and I’m good at ignoring shit like that anyway—but, I dunno. Something snapped when he was rude to you. Why’d he think he can speak to you like that? Like, who the fuck does he think he is? Tosser.”

Mali giggles, holding her mug in front of her face. She’s so cute.

“That’s the most you’ve ever spoken to me. I should wind Toby up more.”

Zach laughs and takes a sip of tea. It’s almost ready. “I talk to you more than I talk to anyone.”

“Really?”

Zach hums. “And you still won’t ask me to do those question videos.”

Mali gasps, leaning forwards. “You want to do it?”

“Not if you don’t want me to,” he says, with a pout.

“I thought you’d hate it!” And he probably would if anyone else asked him to do it. “That’s the only reason I haven’t asked you. You always look so pained when you have to say no, and I didn’t want to make it worse just because I want to know things about you.”

He’s pained when he has to say no to her. He also hates to do things like this, but usually he doesn’t have a choice. If Mali knows this about him, what else does she know? But she’s happy, so it’s possible he’d let her know the most embarrassing parts of him, the deeply unlovable side of him, if she asked him with a smile.

“What do you wanna know?”

Mali pouts. “Is it rude to ask what I want to know when I have hundreds of questions from the public who are desperate for you to ask them out?”

Zach laughs. “What?”

“You’re very popular.”

He hums and takes another sip of tea. He still needs to see his mum, and get his shit out of his flat, but he’s thinking about making her another tea, in her own house.

“Ask me."

"Ask you what?"

He shrugs, thinking of the things he'd tell her. "Whatever you want.”

While Mali thinks about it, Buffy jumps into his lap.

“Hi,” he says, scratching under his chin.

“He’ll drink your tea if you’re not careful,” Mali says. “Okay, so…” She holds her phone up, and he frowns, but it’s not a video. She just takes some photos of him.She hums with a small smile as she rests the phone against her thigh.

“What’s your favourite colour?”

“Purple.”

Mali frowns at him. “You’re not allowed to lie! That’s not in the spirit of the game!”

“I’m not lying,” he says, with a laugh.

“You said your favourite colour was orange!”

Zach looks at her. The way her hair falls over her shoulder. The way he’s always waiting for a time to move the front pieces out of her face. The way he watches her doodle on her post-it notes when she’s on the phone.

“It changed.”

Mali humphs. “Okay, fibber. Who’s your favourite member of the team?”

Zach laughs. “Kai.”

“Mine too,” she replies, looking at her phone.

“I thought I was your favourite.” It’s desperate, the way he speaks. He’s not even sure why he said it out loud, as if she’s not fully aware he’d hold onto her every word, even if it was against him. She could say he was the worst person alive—that she wishes he didn’t exist—and he’d wait with bated breath to see what hair colour she was wearing when she said it. She smiles, and he wants to know what question she’s looking at.

“Well, after you, obviously. Are you staying with the Titans?”

“I hope so,” he replies. He wonders if he should tell her the rest. “But I have a Hardship Fortunes contract.”

Mali frowns. “What’s that?” She must type it into her phone, because she turns from confused to furious. “What the fuck? Is that even legal?”

Zach shrugs. “I don’t think they are now, but I can’t get out of mine.”

“Why not?”

“It’s a five hundred grand buyout.”

“What the—when did you sign that?”

“The day before I turned fourteen.”

Her jaw drops. “ Shit . You can’t sign anything as a minor.”

“I know,” he groans, thinking about how stupid he was when he was finally of age. “But I signed again at eighteen.”

“Fuck," she mutters. There's something truly wrong with his brain, because all he can think about is how pretty the word sounds when it's coming from her mouth. His gaze drops to her lips, but he pulls it back when she talks again. "So you don’t know where you’re going from year to year?”

“Nah,” he replies. “I think they’ll keep me here, though. Especially if we make it to the premiership.”

“Do you want to stay?”

“Yes.” He wanted to stay before he met her, but now, if someone asked, he’s not sure she wouldn’t take up the first ten spots on his “please let me stay in Toulshire” list. Maybe the way she flips her hair over her shoulder only for it to fall back in front of her face would come before the uprooting of his life.

Mali frowns. “Can I help?”

“What do you mean?”

She rolls her lips. “Well, I know you don’t want any sponsorships, but I’m working on some bigger ones. If I can get you out of it, will you let me?”

Zach blinks. “Okay.”

Mali smiles. “Okay. Cool. Nice. Uhm, next question. Who’s the hottest person on the team?”

Zach laughs at the difference in questions. How effortlessly Mali offered her help without making him feel like a deadweight.

“What’s the team? Like, on-the-pitch team, or are outside members included?” Mali counts as someone on the team, and she’s the hottest person he’s ever seen.

Mali frowns. “What are you talking about? People on the pitch!”

Zach hums. “Ezra.”

She nods. “He said you. Well, most people that answered the question said you.”

“Am I allowed to ask questions?” Zach asks, and Mali scrunches up her nose.

“I suppose.”

“Okay. Rapid-fire. I’ll ask and you answer, then you ask and I’ll answer. No explanations.”

Mali laughs. “’Kay.”

Zach thinks.

“Who’s the hottest person on the team?”

Mali rolls her eyes like she knew it was coming. Zach’s not even sure he wants to know the answer. “Wait,” he says, as she opens her mouth to break his heart. If he pretends to be a master in reading people’s lips, he’d say her pretty mouth was shaped to say something starting with Z . “I changed my mind. Do you have any siblings?”

Mali laughs. “No. Do you have any pets?”

“Yes. Buffy,” he says, pulling her cat closer to him. Mali kicks him in the thigh, and he wishes he had a third hand to keep her foot there. “Who’s the next sponsorship?”

“Goliath,” she says, and his jaw drops. “Don’t tell anyone. Why were you stressed out on the phone?”

Zach looks at her, and she looks nervous that she asked. He takes a deep breath.

“My landlord evicted me. Well, I have to be out in four days, but he called and threatened to put all my stuff in the garden if I didn’t go get it. My brother just got out of jail, and he’s supposed to be watching Mum, but he’s refusing. My mum has memory issues, and I should be round there right now making sure she’s had her pills, but I’m a selfish son who is sitting with his friend instead.”

Mali blinks, then frowns. “You’re not selfish.”

“It’s my question.” She pouts but waits for him to continue. “What’s your biggest dream?”

“I want a family,” she says. “Do you like to cook?”

“Yes. Do I have to give this T-shirt back?”

Mali laughs, and he knows he’ll let his stuff be thrown into the road in the rain and photographs of it plastered over the back of a newspaper just to sit here and listen to her laugh. “No. Will you move in with me?”

Zach frowns. “What?”

“Will you move in with me?” she repeats.

“Mali,” he starts, moving his cup to the coaster on the coffee table. Buffy is less than impressed. “You don’t have to do that. I’m fine.”

“Will you move in with me?” she asks again. “It’s rapid-fire, Zach. Yes or no. No explanations.”

“I made you uncomfortable,” he says, stroking Buffy again. “When I was in your house before. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

“I was nervous. I’m not nervous now.”

“Nervous isn’t better.”

“It’s not worse,” she mutters. “Besides, I wasn’t nervous because you’re scary or anything.”

“Why were you nervous?” he asks, as if he wasn’t a large, rude man who had already offended her that day. “Rapid-fire, Mal.”

She kicks him again, but her foot stays closer to him. “You’re really hot. That’s why I was nervous,” she says, playing with her fingers. Zach almost short-circuits. She thinks he’s hot. It might be the greatest thing he’s heard since they decided to do a Spider-Man reboot. “And you’re my favourite player, but right now, you’re moving underneath Toby.”

Zach takes a deep breath that he only partly hides. “You’re so rude to me.”

“Zach,” she says, and he swallows. “I want you to move in. I want to force you to play games with me. I want to sometimes walk to work together. I want to make sure you don’t try and steal my cat. I want to be your friend. Please, move in.”

“Mali.”

“Yes or no.”

He frowns, and she smiles like she knows he’ll do whatever she wants. She downs the rest of her tea, and Buffy jumps off him like he knows something Zach doesn’t.

“I’m going to feed Buff, then we’ll go get your stuff,” she says, standing up. She stretches, and her top rides up, and he sees the outline of her arse perfectly. Being her roommate might kill him. “And, if we go see your mum after, we can go to the drive-thru. Then I don’t have to cook, which is excellent news because I forgot to defrost the mince.”

Zach looks up at her, and she holds her hand out.

“Come on. Let’s go!”