The Boy Behind the Counter

✑ chapter three: you may be right

you may be right— [we] may be crazy
but it just may be a lunatic you're looking for

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Phoenix ran down the hall as fast as he could and into his apartment, and then he tried his hardest to slam the door shut in time to lock it and save himself from the embarrassment that was becoming more inevitable by the second.

He failed. Maya reached the door and thrust her shoulder into the frame, preventing him from locking her out.

"I don't wanna talk about it, Maya!"

Phoenix tried holding the door closed enough that she would give up and go away. Instead, he heard rapid footsteps approaching from within his own apartment.

"Ha— nice try, Nick, but I've already got agents on the inside!"

Phoenix looked at the approaching double agent, his own roommate, with horror.

"Larry, you traitor!"

Larry shoved Phoenix away from the door, and then Maya burst in. She grabbed Phoenix, who was trying to crawl beneath them and back into the hallway, by his legs and dragged him to the couch. Larry closed and locked the door.

"We're doing this for your own good, Nick! We're trying to help you!" Maya shouted over his protests. Phoenix caught sight of Ema out of the corner of his eye as Maya threw him onto the couch and Larry positioned himself behind it to hold him in place.

"Sorry, but I already know your little secret," Ema admitted. She, at least, sounded somewhat guilty.

Phoenix had been walking home from his latest trip to the bookstore, this time empty-handed, when Maya tackled him from the shadows of an alleyway and demanded that he tell her when, exactly, he had fallen for "that cute clerk". Completely mortified, Phoenix had taken off running. His efforts, it seemed, had been for nothing.

"How'd you know I would run?" Phoenix asked, hoping to change the subject long enough to regain some kind of sanity. Maya laughed haughtily.

"Have you even met you?"

"By definition, no, I haven't! It's impossible to meet yourself—"

"Enough stalling! You've been caught red-handed and there's nowhere you can hide!"

"At least you didn't waste any money this time," Larry teased. "You were gonna go totally broke at that rate."

"W-Well, they hadn't restocked this time, so..." Phoenix grumbled.

Ema sighed, sounding very dissapointed, as she pulled out her notebook and the pencil she kept behind her ear at all times. She talked to herself as she scribbled something down. Another story idea, probably. Phoenix wondered what inspiration she could possibly draw from his plight.

"Hey, there's nothing to be ashamed of. These things happen sometimes," Maya reassured, suddenly turning very serious. She sat beside him on the couch and patted the top of his head.

"Of course there's something to be ashamed of! I don't even— I don't even know the guy, and I keep spending all of my money just so I have an excuse to talk to him!"

"Well, surely you know something," Ema suggested. Phoenix groaned.

"He's a college student and he may or may not like dogs and classical music."

Ema stared at him and waited for him to elaborate.

"That... That's all?"

"Oh— well, he also calls it a stepladder. And, I mean, that's something."