Screen Burn

Episode 16

The first thing Mihir said when he regained consciousness and saw Mateo was, "Am I in heaven? Because you look like an angel."

"Shut up," Mateo replied, chuckling.

He picked up his friend's hand and held it gingerly. He looked away from their entwined fingers, to inspect Mihir's bruised face. Gauze was wrapped around his left ear, and stitches held together a cut about his eyebrow. His eyes didn't look damaged, however, and were twinkling with mischief.

"Seriously, who knows how many opportunities I will get to use that line again?"

"Hopefully, none," Mateo answered, frowning. "Try to stay away from dangerous situations in the future, please?"

"It's not like I went looking for trouble this time."

"You accused homophobes of having repressed homosexual urges."

"It was pretty funny. You should've seen their reactions."

"What happened after that wasn't funny."

"You're right, it wasn't," Mihir agreed. "Breaking a rib kind of robs you of your ability to laugh, anyway."

"Did it puncture a lung?" Jake questioned, suddenly joining the conversation. "I've read that can happen."

"No, I suppose I was lucky."

"I wouldn't call getting away with just one broken rib lucky," Jake muttered, surveying the plastic flowers in a nearby vase with interest.

"You know what I mean."

"You gave everyone quite a scare. Mateo had a breakdown in the parking lot."

"Oh, really?" Mihir glanced in his direction, a smile spreading across his face. "Tell me more."

"Do not tell him more," Mateo cut in, grabbing Jake and leading him out of the room. "I need to talk to you."

"You're leaving me alone in here?" Mihir yelled.

"Your sister will be here in a few minutes. You can irritate her," Mateo declared, before closing the room's door behind him.

"Did you just want me to shut up, or did you have actually have something to tell me?" Jake asked.

"Both. Let's go for a walk."

The two strolled down the corridor, until they reached the end. Mateo opened a door that led to the staircase meant to be used in emergencies, and sauntered through the entrance. Jake sighed and followed him, aware that he couldn't simply walk away.

"Sit," Mateo ordered, pointing to the stairs.

"I'm not your dog," Jake grumbled, but took a seat on the second step.

"No, you're my little bitch."

"That was a really bad joke."

"You're right. Bitch is a term with misogynistic implications. My apologies."

"Are you going to tell me what you wanted to say or should I leave?"

"I wanted to apologize for lashing out at you in the parking lot. That was unnecessary."

"That's okay. A lot of what you said made sense and made me look at the situation from a different perspective," Jake replied, surprised that Mateo was apologizing for something that he was right about.

"I meant a lot of it too. It's been on my mind lately. But you should not have been on the receiving end of that speech, especially when I couldn't control myself in the moment."