the bugz 💫

Chapter 6

Staying with Malakai was a great privilege Ant got to experience. His family was caring, loving, and all of the above. In school, he hung out with Malakai, which Spider wasn't happy about. Ant just had to get away from his mum, his dad, and most importantly, Spider.

Ant and Malakai were walking into the gates together, sharing AirPods and laughing loudly. They approached Dusty and Spider, and continued their conversation.

"You two seem to be getting along." Spider said, bitterly.

"Yeah, Malakai has been great to me recently." Ant said, smiling at Malakai, who placed his hand on Ants shoulder. Spider rolled his eyes, and went back to talking to Dusty, not that Ant or Malakai cared.

They all headed to SLT's, and sat together as usual, but the energy was different. Spider was feeling spiteful, Ant and Malakai seemed happier than ever, and Dusty wasn't included at all. The whole class kind of noticed, but didn't care enough to speak up.

"Alright guys, get into your groups and read the scenarios to eachother. Even act it out, share opinions." Jojo said, sending them off. The whole class started shuffling and moving around loudly, eventually they were separated into their groups. In Ants group, there was Spider, Dusty, Malakai, Missy and Amerie. Usually, Amerie and Malakai would sit next to each other, but Malakai thought it would be better for Ants situation if he'd sit next to him, and Amerie didn't mind. Spider on the other hand, silently stared at them, looking away whenever one would notice.

"Ok, scenario one. Joel thinks that Beatrice is cheating on him, but is too scared to ask her about it. This continues and Joel breaks up with her with no reasoning, Beatrice is mad. Opinions?" Spider read very unenthusiastically.

"Beatrice deserved it." Dusty said, clicking the little clicky part of his of his pen and setting it down on the table.

"Well if she was cheating on him then Joel must've done something." Missy added.

"Maybe he didn't talk to her for a week." Spider said, staring at Ant whilst he did so. Ant picked up on it, and decided to have a chat with Spider after class. Everyone except Ant and Spider were talking about the topic of Joel and Beatrice, Missy defending Beatrice and literally everyone else defending Joel. In conclusion, they agreed that Joel should've spoken to Beatrice about it, but Beatrice is still in the wrong.

When class ended and they were all walking out, Ant tapped Spider on the shoulder and asked if they could talk. Ant dragged Spider out to a private area, particularly underneath the stairwell.

"So now you want to talk?" Spider said, leaning against the wall. "Yeah I know, it's shitty but I had a good reason."

"Well I want to hear it."

Ant hesitated, but still decided that Spider needed to hear it.

"I'm not living with mum anymore, we like got in a fight, I think? It was mainly her saying stuff to me and me storming off but, that's not the point. I'm staying with Malakai, his parents are great to me, I just had a lot."

"What does that have to do with me? You replied to Dusty just fine."

"Maybe it was what happened on Saturday, I just had a weird feeling whenever you messaged."

"Ant we were drunk! It didn't mean anything. You would've kissed Zoe if you were as drunk as we were." Spider explained, throwing allegations here and there. "And don't blame the kiss on me, you were pretty into it too."

"You initiated it! I wouldn't do anything like that."

"Oh please, if you had enough confidence, or maybe if you liked yourself a little more, you would've done it too." Spider replied. Ant just started to walk away, but he stopped and turned around.

"My mum was right about people like you, don't talk to me Spider." Ant said, walking off to find Malakai, leaving Spider in the stairwell. Was that mean? Fuck, if it wasn't mean it was homophobic. Why would he say something like that? He hated his mother for it. A few short seconds after storming off, he bumped into Darren, who looked at him disappointingly.

"Did you happen to hear any of that?" Ant asked, scratching the back of his head.

"No, just all of it. You guys were practically yelling. But I thought you were better than him, Ant." Darren sighed, almost being able to walk off, until Ant pulled them back. "I didn't mean that last part, I just felt so mad and Spider was being a dick too and I don't know to do now because Spider was basically my best friend-."

"Don't worry, sounds like you have a lot on your plate. I'll take you to Amerie and Quinni, and we can sort this out."

"It's okay, I should probably find Malakai now-."

"Your boyfriend's up there too, let's go." Darren urged, pulling Ant to the library.

When they arrived, they were greeted by Malakai giving a small wave, and Amerie looking at Darren in a confused way. Darren let go of Ants hand, and they let him sit down next to Malakai, who was on a bean bag. Darren sat on the steps next to Amerie, and Quinni was in-front of them all as if she was their leader.

"Why's Ant with us? Is it because of the fight with Spider?" Quinni asked, looking at both Darren and Ant.

"How did she.."

"Yeah I texted all of them whilst I was listening to it, don't worry, no like details." They said, explaining guiltily. Ant sighed, putting his head on Malakai's shoulder, who was holding hands with Amerie, assuring her that he wont replace her.

"So are you going to tell us how we're going to save Ant's soul from Spiders influence?" Amerie asked Darren, exaggerating at the whole soul part.

"Well, we can start off by establishing why Ant and Spider fought." Quinni suggested, getting a note pad to write things down. Darren gave Ant a look, in a way of asking if he'd like to share. Ant sighed, and started explaining.

"After the party, me and Spider kind of kissed. And then I snuck out of his house and went home, greeted by my mum who yelled at me about the whole map thing one more time, so in the end I ran away to Malakai's." He said, too calmly and quickly for comfort. Quinni didn't write in her notebook, most probably because she'd remember something as bad as this.

"Oh, you can't tell anyone about this. Not anyone." Ant said, specifically looking at Darren.

"Sorry about the map, again." Amerie said softly, hoping it'd change something with the energy. Ant just nodded in forgiveness, and they all started brainstorming what to do with him.

"He could hang out with us, oh it'd be so cool if we had someone from Spiders friend group in ours! People would give us such weird looks!" Quinni suggested excitedly, completely ignoring the fact that Malakai and Cash were also a part of the friend group. Ant laughed along, agreeing with the idea as long as Malakai stayed with their friend group as well. He wanted nothing to do with Spider, not after everything that's happened.

author note
ouhh longest chapter yet, that's pretty cool. sorry for not updating for like a few days but I could not think of anything 😭. BUT anyways here's a new chapter, only took me an hour and a half but oh well 🙈

(btw im not checking for spelling or grammar so like yall gonna ignore that.)