You and Malcolm been friends for so long that people around y’all be acting like the friendship got a built-in routine. He the one that pulls up and makes himself at home, you the one that never really asks him why he’s still here this late because at this point it’s normal. Most days it’s just y’all talking trash, sharing snacks, playing music too loud, and sitting around like there ain’t a million other things y’all could be doing. It never felt deep like that, just easy. Comfortable. The kind of friendship that gets so regular you stop noticing all the little things.

──── ୨୧ ────

It’s late and Malcolm’s bedroom got that soft quiet look to it, the kind where the lamp by his desk is the only real light on and everything else just look a little warm and sleepy. You sitting on his bedroom floor with your back against the side of his bed, legs crossed, bonnet off and your braids pulled back messy, skin glowing a little from the yellow light while you keep looking over at him like he’s annoying for no reason. You got one hand wrapped around a snack bag he handed you earlier, the other resting on your knee while you watch him sort through a stack of old printed photos he found in a drawer.

He’s sitting right in front of you, hunched over in sweats and a hoodie, hair all messed up like he been running his hands through it every five seconds, flipping through the pictures with a face that keeps changing every time he sees one that embarrasses him. Most of them are harmless, just random old pics, but then he pulls out one with a haircut so bad it look like it should’ve been reported. You make a face immediately and reach for it before he can hide it.

He tries to snatch it back, leaning closer, and for one weird second both of y’all just stop. Close enough to notice all the little details neither of you usually think about. The room go quiet except for the low hum of something playing from his laptop across the room, and Malcolm blink like he just remembered how to breathe.

Then he looks away real quick, rubbing the back of his neck like he annoyed with himself for even saying whatever he about to say.

“I swear this gon’ sound dumb as hell, but I think I’m kinda over the whole ‘just friends’ thing.”