Trouble in paradise (official)

Chapter 71 "Figuring it out"

"I'm getting a headache going through this, man; it's so much!" Derek sighed, scattering a few papers off his desk. "I don't wanna read no more."

"Come on, quit your whining and pass me that."

"This big encyclopedia-ass book, I'm sick of it,"  he slammed it, nudging it toward Koha. "This shit has my brain fucking fried. I'm over it. Can't we just skip to the part where we find out how this works? It would make my life much easier, please."

"You're always trying to cut some goddamn corners," he snapped, flipping through the pages of the book. "You're always doing that, whether it's school or work, and look. Tell me where that's getting your dumb-ass? Nowhere. We can't gloss over any details, Derek. All of it is very important, okay?"

"God, you're irritating the fuck out of me, shut up!" He snapped, spinning around in his chair, balancing a notebook on top of his head. "I hear you, damn. You say the same shit every day; it's old."

"Why do I feel like it's only me who's really invested in this shit?"

"It's not. I wouldn't be here with you if I wasn't invested. I literally sat there and watched my girlfriend slip away, and I couldn't do shit about it. Do you know how that feels? I'm still processing."

"Well, I need you to hurry up and fucking process quickly."

Derek grew increasingly frustrated with his bullshit. He took a deep breath, trying to stay calm, but Koha was definitely pushing him to the edge. Closing his eyes in silence, he counted to ten, trying not to pick at his cuticles, but it was no use. Ever since that day, Koha had been tirelessly working them nonstop. He was fed up with the assumption about his feelings as if the relentless work held no emotional weight. He hated how Koha thought he understood without truly knowing.

But he didn't, he felt like he didn't know anything about him. Everything finally reached a breaking point.

"Does it not bother you that you didn't get to see Lani at all?" he firmly slammed his hands on the desk before snatching Koha up by the collar. "How can you sit here and keep your cool, not knowing if she's okay or not, you fucking bastard! You're over here playing calm while reading a book of bullshit!"

Koha looks up at Derek and grips his wrist, tearing it off of him. "One of us has to be the one to keep our cool around here, Derek, get a grip," he says, pushing him away. "You really think this shit is easy for me? Huh? Because it's fucking not."

"You act like nothing fucking bothers you."

"And you act like a fucking child half the time. But now you want to pick and choose when to randomly be mad and upset about shit? Grow up."

"That's not fucking true."

"Well, act like you got some goddamn sense then," Koha snapped.

"I am. I'm just more of a hands-on type of person."

Koha throws a bunch of papers his way, "Well, put your hands on these fucking notes and get it together."

"That's not what I mean," he says, shuffling through the papers. "We should be investigating; I need to hear from the actual source on what the fucks going on. Come on Koh. There's no reason why we haven't been up to that hospital. We could get a lot more information if we just—"

"Nope, nope, hell no. We're not doing that. We can't risk scaring off the one reliable source we have." Koha starts highlighting a few pages in the book before switching over to his computer. "I refuse to get them caught up in your antics."

"Why not? I feel like we're just sitting like fucking ducks here. This is getting ridiculous. All of this shit is fucking ridiculous; it feels like we're wasting too much time."