The Show Must Go On

Chapter Twenty-Six: FU In My Head

Chapter Twenty-Six Soundtrack: FU In My Head by Cloudy Jane

Somehow he is already charming my friends, and while I would once have found this insincere—and yes, it's a little annoying that they're so much more charmed by him than by me—I now find it a little endearing. It seems like he can't enter a room without working it.

'Sorry to interrupt.' I insert myself into the small group: Nas, my university friend Tom, his new girlfriend Alicia, and a former colleague Sierra. I'm between Nas and Mei, and I try not to notice how he turns slightly towards me, opening up, like I could lean against him if my feet ached. I do not succeed in not noticing.

'Mei, this is Nasir, my colleague. He hates me.'

He laughs. 'Hi, Mei.'

'Nasir, this is my best friend Mei. She hates men.'

'Someone has to.'

Nas extends his hand. 'Thanks for your service.'

'You're Nas?' Mei asks, as though she didn't have a shirtless poster of him in her pre-teen bedroom.

'Uh huh.'

She looks at him appraisingly. 'I get it.'

'Get what?' His expression tells me he already knows.

'Oh-kay,' I say, mentally preparing to kill her. 'I think that's enough introductions.'

'Tom was just telling us about his crypto investments,' Nas helpfully informs us. I can physically feel him trying not to roll his eyes. It's like his body is tensing up with the temptation. 'And then he was listing the tech founders he admires.'

Tom is my friend, but he is also an asshole.

Mei thinks so too. 'Oh, really Tom? That's great. Any women?'

Tom stutters, and shoots her a look clearly signalling 'Don't embarrass me in front of my new girlfriend.' Mei ignores this look.

'No? Any women you admire at all?'

He hesitates. 'Hilary Clinton?'

'The war criminal?'

'Okay,' I interject, 'let's wrap that up too.'

'Careful, Ellie,' Sierra cautions me. 'That almost sounded like criticising someone.'

I am about to defend myself—just to prove a point—when Mei cuts me off. 'Ellie loves to criticise. Just ask Nas.' The look she shoots me is so pointed that I nearly laugh. Subtlety has never been Mei's strength.

Luckily, Sierra is too tipsy to decode this. 'Ellie? Criticising? You're deathly allergic to pineapple, and you once downed two and a half pineapple daiquiris at my birthday party because you didn't want to hurt my flatmate's feelings. We had to rush you to hospital, remember?'

Well, this has not gone how I expected. 'I am not deathly allergic to pineapple,' I protest, 'and we did not go to hospital.'

'No, but we should have. Your whole face swelled up. Like a pufferfish.'

I am used to this teasing from them, but it feels different with Nas here. Personal.

Alicia cuts in. 'I think it's a good thing, arguing. You only argue when you feel safe. Okay, well Ellie does, anyway. Not you, Tom. With you, the challenge is getting you to stop arguing.'

Tom starts to argue.

Why is Nas being so quiet? Nas is never this quiet. It's ominous.

I sneak a peek to find him biting his lip, literally, like he's having to physically restrain himself from laughing. It warms his eyes, behind his glasses, and brings up that dimple he tries to hide. It's hard not to smile back.