The Bad Boy and the Other Bad Boy

Chapter 23

"Yes! But crossed with Among Us. So - "

I scoffed again.

"Stop scoffing. I'm green - "

I scoffed, again.

"STOP! As I - "

"Mal, don't yell. " Mal's mother drifted into the kitchen, frowning at Mal, then turning her smile to me.

"Hey, that rhymes, " I laughed. "Hi, Melinda."

Mal's mom was wearing a robe just like Ben was, but hers was a blue that contrasted with her dark, dark skin. Hers was so long that you couldn't see the fluffy brown monster slippers that I knew she was wearing on her feet.

"Hi Rocco, how are you, dear?" She smiled mistily, her hands clutching a steaming mug like Ben's, swirling it gently around.

I gestured to the bowls on the wooden counter. "Would you like some apple crumble?"

Melinda turned her heavily made-up eyes to the bowls. "Oh! Yes, please! It will go perfectly with my applebalm lemonsvein cider wolfsbane tea." She took a sip of said tea, then reeled back, screwing up her face.

"Hot, " she murmured.

I fought a smile, then handed a bowl to her with a spoon that had the Queen's head carved on the handle. I got out a few more spoons, all with squirrels on the handles this time.

"Mom! What colour do you think Rocco is?"

Melinda's eyebrows rose. "Colour? I love colours! Hmm, let's see..."

They stared at me.

"Green?" Melinda suggested. "No... He's not connected with nature enough..."

Mal narrowed her eyes at me. "Blue? What about like a dark midnight blue. "

Malinda nodded. "Hmm, possibly. No, he's too angry."

My mouth fell open.

"No! I know! Red! Of course, yes, he's red. " Mal yelled.

Melinda laughed and smacked her forehead. "Of course! Silly us. So obvious. "

"Huh," I laughed nervously. "So obvious. "

"Perfect!" Mal beamed. "We'll do red for you!"

"Great, " I muttered. "So exciting."

Mal didn't seem to hear me, just kept murmuring to myself and measuring my face or something by holding up her fingers to make a square in the air.

I handed a bowl of crumble to her, and took the last two for myself and Ben.

Ben was watching some sort of crappy movie with an unfinished crossword on his lap in the purple-themed lounge. It had an assortment of unmatching rugs covering every inch of the floor, 5 purple armchairs of varying sixes, a bookshelf with only purple books, three purple cuckoo clocks on the walls (apparently, yes, you can get purple cuckoo clocks, and none of those three were on time), and four purple pigs on the mantlepiece, as well as a picture of Mallory dressed up Randal from Monsters Inc. from one Halloween, and that was only a few of the things in the room. I placed a bowl of crumble on a round purple table next to Ben, who clapped me on the arm in thanks and returned to watching his awful movie.

I followed Mal up the stairs to her room, which was huge, just as messy (but clean? I don't know how this family does it) as the rest of the house, but thankfully not colour-themed.

I sank down into her big red armchair, chowing down on my apple crumble.

Mal stuffed a gigantic spoonful of hers into her mouth, set the bowl down, then proceeded to rummage through her vast supply of cosmetics.

"I'm not wearing makeup. " I said. "It doesn't feel nice. "

"No, it's not really make up." She turned to look me over. "You're already wearing black, as usual, and I obviously don't really have anything you can wear... This will have to be enough. "

She sank her arm deep into the sea of bottles in the drawer, wincing in pain as their sharp edges dug into her skin, then finally pulled out a small bottle of red glitter.

"What the hell? How much shit do you have in there?"

She didn't reply, just came over to stand in front of me, unscrewing the bottle, perusing my face.

"Your bone structure is just. Wow. It's out of this word. " She said, dipping a finger into the glitter.

"Thanks, I try," I said, resignedly letting her smear the glitter up on the ridges of my cheekbones and beside my eyes.

"I'm a gang member, did you know. " I said flatly.

"Oooh! Oooh! You're so scary! I'm terrified!" She mocked, adding another "helping" or whatever of the red stuff.

She leaned back to take a look at her handiwork.

"Wow. " She marvelled. "I am a genius. "

I rolled my eyes, then got up to look in the mirror.

It did actually look like kind of cool, the glitter reflecting a solid bar of light whenever I tilted my head right.

Mallory screwed the lid back onto the bottle, which she then threw violently back into the drawer, making me jump.

"Damn, " I muttered.

She grabbed a neon green puffer jacket from the floor beside her bed, then looked at me impatiently.

"You coming or not?"

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