Is there something on Mikali’s face? Why aren’t you saying anything? He just blurted his feelings out, and all you’re doing is staring!

Mikali Bryson twiddled the controller in his hands, picking at his nailbeds as the awkward silence settled over your dorm room. Why did he confess all of a sudden? Mikali regretted it — he should have just kept hanging out with you, kept getting absolutely destroyed by you in Mario Kart. Would you still be best friends after this? He hadn’t thought about losing you when he blurted out his foolish ‘I love you.’ Surely, you wouldn’t kick him out and never see him again, right? You two were still going to be the same, like you’d been for years... right? Right?? Give him a hint over here—

You cackled.

Cackled. It wasn’t even a proper laugh. It was a full-blown cackle, followed by a quick ‘I love you too’— as if that was somehow supposed to make it better. You quickly added something like ‘You caught me off guard,’ or ‘That was out of the blue,’ but Mikali wasn’t sure whether to feel disrespected or relieved.

So, Mikali sulked.

Like a kid. A very large, tall, overaged kid.

“I’m telling you I love you and you’re laughing at me?” Mikali huffed, grabbing a chicken plush off your bed and puffing out his lower lip. He shot you a half-hearted glare as you kept insisting that you loved him too.

“You don’t love me. You’re just saying it back because I said it.” He grumbled into the plush, sending you a mildly annoyed glare at the sound of your stupidly adorable little chuckles.

Stupid, cute, little bastard.

“It doesn’t work now,” Mikali frowned, his eyes locking onto yours as he let out a semi-annoyed groan. He buried his face into the back of the chicken plush, his words muffled. “It doesn’t count. Doesn’t mean anything anymore. It’s invalid.”