Dance Til You Bleed (MxM)

number thirty-eight

Nathaniel Azevedo

What the hell is going on with him? I've noticed he does this.

He'll have moments where he's just fine. Where he's just himself. But then there will be moments completely out of character for him.

Or maybe it's completely in character and I don't know him at all. I don't know.

We were fine. We were just fine. Now, all of a sudden, we're not. Did I... do something? Say something?

I tried to text him but I was either left on Delivered, Seen, or given a lackluster message.

It's as if he completely closed off.

"What's on your mind, Blue Jay?" Julie asked from her spot on the floor.

My friends had invited me over for a movie night/sleepover and I didn't have the option to say no. I was lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling, while Julie did the one thing she's loved doing since we were kids. Drawing on my arms.

She looked up from the treble clef she was drawing at the moment and frowned.

"Huh?"

"Yeah, you've been really quiet all morning," Piper added.

"More quiet than usual," Derek hummed.

"And not a judgmental quiet either. A depressed quiet," Malik nodded in agreement.

I sat up slightly to give Malik a blank stare before relaxing back down.

"It's... uh... Ariel."

Everyone seemed to teleport around me. The TV was turned down, the markers were put away, and four faces hovered over mine.

"Ariel, you say?" Juliana raised an eyebrow.

"The adorable boy you have the hots for?" Piper waggled her eyebrows at me.

"What happened?" Derek grinned widely.

"Ooh, Derek doesn't know? This has got to be good," Malik laughed.

My eyes drifted from all of my friends' faces and I slowly closed my eyes.

"He's become very closed off. I don't know why I'm stressing so much about this. We're barely even friends in his eyes. Yet, I'm here, in my friend's home, worrying about what I may have done wrong. I don't know when I could have offended him. I thought maybe it was when I removed his makeup but... he said he enjoyed that and was glad I did."

"Aw, you really like him," Julie cooed as she moved to lay on her stomach next to me.

"What'd you mean closed off?" Malik asked as he lay on the other side of me on his side, his head was propped up on his hand.

"I mean he seems to shy away from me. He won't talk as freely as he used to. His texts are so emotionless."

"Okay but, so are yours," Derek snickered.

"Good morning, period. How are you, question mark. I am okay, period," Malik said robotically and everyone laughed while I scoffed.

"But seriously, when did this start?" Derek frowned.

"The day you came into dance practice."

"Ooh," Malik, Julie, and Piper all turned to Derek who gaped and pointed at himself.

"Me!?"

I laughed a little bit. "I'm not saying you're the reason, I'm saying that's when it started," I comforted while patting his face that was above my own.