Mabel

21

And as Talia predicted the next morning, sipping on her "holier than thou" tea (it's a shitty brand, anyway), I was absolutely, undeniably fucked once I snapped out of my Kai-Adkins-Kissed-Me-?? and Are-We-Dating?? haze and promptly become one Red Bull away from a heart attack after three all-nighters in a row and a literal stack of empty energy drink cans, arranged like a pyramid because constructions are fucking cool when you're sleep deprived in an art department.

"What's the meaning behind this one?" Kai asks sarcastically, feet propped up on the desk beside me, observing the mountainous product of my failure to function as a decent human being and hand intertwined with the one I'm not holding a pencil in (I technically need both but catch me telling him not to hold my hand).

"It's a representation of my impending doom," I say very sweetly—far too sweetly for talking about doom, "I call it 'I've spent all year hopelessly infatuated with a grossly attractive boy instead of doing work and now I'm cripplingly behind'."

Kai hums in faux thought before clicking his fingers at me and concluding, "Catchy."

"True," I correct, followed up by a, "you've made my art project so difficult, Kai."

I watch him practically splutter at that, swiping his feet off the desk to swing around in his chair and face me, prompting, "What? Why? I thought I was helping!"

I grin, knowing the upcoming effects that my next, very cliche, statement is going to have on Kai.

"Because I'll never create something as perfect as you."

The Top Ten All-Time Favourite Things of Mabel Ortega:

10. Kai Adkins blushing.

9. Kai Adkins' face turning red in embarrassment.

8. When Kai blushes.

7. Blood surfacing in the face of Kai Adk—ah, you get where this is going.

-------

Fish & Kai Adkins (particularly when blushing.)

Kai lightly swats my arm, nose crinkling with half-cringe as he laughs until his cheeks tinge pink.

I catch his hand as it trails down my arm after its brutal attack, and interlace our fingers together–who needs to hold a pencil when you can hold both of Kai's hands?

"Seriously," I sigh, reminder of my own deadline reminding me how Kai's doing with his and how much better he is at life in general as I stress, "I don't know how you're on top of things like, what the fuck, Adkins? A physics final, a photography project and a dance recital–yet you're still here every day babysitting me."

Kai gives both of my hands a squeeze as his eyes drift across the opposite wall, deadpanning, "I'm part cyborg."

"Please exterminate me."

"I said cyborg not Dalek," He tells me but he laughs bright and loudly anyway– mostly out of sympathy for how melted my brain has gotten, probably. 

"But, seriously, May–you're stressed. And tired. And about to overdose on sugar and/or caffeine."

True, true and already starting.

"Point?" I ask bluntly, making him shake his head with a tinker of affection but also a large amount of concern.

"My roommate's out for the next couple of days–housed himself in the music department–so, why don't you come back to mine for a while? Have a break."

Interesting proposition.

"What's on the agenda?" I ask as he disconnects our hands and starts cleaning up my supplies, having apparently decided for me.

"Well," he says, snapping the lid back onto a bottle of acrylic, looking up at me and suggesting, "getting the paint out of your hair before it goes matted—"

"Getting steamy in the shower," I cut in with a scoff and disappointed shake of my head, "I see your angle here, Adkins."

Kai snorts, but politely ignores me as he dumps out the leftover globs of paint swirled into a vomitty-green colour on my palette.

"And we could order food and watch a movie—"

"Netflix and chill? Really?"

He half-laughs, half-chokes this time, mid-cleaning and whipping around to point at me with a rather unthreatening paintbrush, whining, "Shut up! Fine, how about you borrow one of my hoodies and you can take a nap?"

Kai Adkins is honestly adorable, trying to make things sound as cute and wholesome as possible, even with my teasing.

Unfortunately, I'm not done yet.

"Undressing and in bed? How convenient."

"Okay," Kai decides, giving me a coyish look out of the corner of his eye as he stacks the paintbrushes in their pot, "I think you're the one with the angle."

Maybe.

Yet, I shake my head at him, staying adamant when I say, "If anyone here has an angle, it's you. Know why?"

"Why?"

Drum roll, please.

"'Cause you're acute."

Three seconds pass in which Kai simply blinks at me, before turning around and busying himself with the art supplies once more, not paying attention to my clear distaste at being ignored.