Intrigue

Chapter 29

Sean's POV 

And that was how I ended up spending the night at Malcolm's....twenty feet away from Ella's bedroom and just one wall away from Mrs Campbell. Thinking about it made me feel uncomfortable, and I was very hesitant about running to the bathroom before going to sleep, in case I bumped into either of them.

I watched Malcolm study for a bit before he returned to bed next to me. After some quality time together, he fell asleep, my arm around him. I regarded him affectionately for a while before looking towards the ceiling. It was going to be a long night filled with thoughts.

It was around midnight that I stood up from the bed and reached for my flask. Then I thought better of it, and took a large sip from the water Malcolm had brought to me from downstairs. Our fervent discussion, together with the unsettling knowledge that Ella or her mum could come in, see me and recognise me at any given time had left me feeling uncomfortable and brought me insomnia. But no one barged in and I was left in peace, Malcolm asleep even more peacefully next to me. I picked up my phone and opened WhatsApp, and opened up the group chat I hadn't been active in for the past few weeks.

I typed, Hey everyone, and sent it. If Malcolm wanted to meet my friends, then we were going to make plans to meet them.

Replies from the other six immediately started popping in. There'd been more people in the chat before, but there had been many fallouts and we were the last remaining seven. They all said hey or hello, except for Jeremy who sent MICHIGAN IS BACK in capital letters. Oh yeah... if I was going to take Malcolm with me I needed to stop them from calling me by my surname.

Sorry for going AWOL for the last few weeks. I've been busy, I wrote back.

We figured, my friend Sarah said. Busy arresting the bad guys or being one yourself? She added a laughing emoji to the message.

In spite of the offensive message, I laughed. A bit of both actually. So, have you made plans to meet this weekend and can I join?

Replies from the others continued punching in, saying yes and of course. They'd be meeting at a bar on Saturday and see where the night took them. It was a different outcome each time, I knew that well.

Can I bring a friend? I asked, heart throbbing.

Within seconds, there were five replies, one from everyone except for Hayley, who was my version of Malcolm's Christine - the inquisitive and the jealous type. We'd deal with her on the day. I scrolled through the messages.

I KNEW IT. I TOLD YOU GUYS THAT'S WHY HE DISAPPEARED.

Ooooo Michigan has a friend!!

"Friends" are always welcome ;)

Sean has a new toy!

YES we want to see your friend ;)))))

I chuckled, and turned off the vibration on the phone, in order not to wake Malcolm up.

Haha, I wrote. It's different this time.

That's what you said when you brought Riley, Camille answered me. Then you took me home instead.

I exhaled. Towards the end of my relationship with Riley, when I'd realised that she was cheating, I'd made it very obvious that I could also cheat. And so I did, directly in front of her face. Several times.

That won't happen this time, I said.

Who ARE you bringing? Warren asked. He was the only one from the remaining friend group with whom I'd never had any kind of messing around. He wasn't really into that kind of thing.