Rooming with the Wicked

38 | five sins

"Is he...?"

"How many cookies did you give him?"

Jaydis' entire being shook with unbothered laughter. Wiping a tear out of the corner of his eyes, he said, "Chocolate, huh. What do you know?"

"Shouldn't we—I don't know—get him some water or something?" I asked, trying and failing to keep the tinge of worry out of my voice at seeing Haze's unmoving form on the grass behind Jaydis. Only the steady rise and fall of his chest kept me from barging right over to him.

Syn scratched the back of his head and sighed like he would rather be anywhere but here right about now. Kenas arched a brow, looking between a still chuckling Jaydis, me, and the chocolate-high demon.

I'd already raised my fist to knock some sense into the one that clearly needed it most—yup, that'd be the seelie whose continuous laughter made me wonder if he was somehow affected by those cookies too—when a low groan made me hesitate.

Haze raised one of his arms to cover his face, stifling another sound.

Seeing his chest no longer moving rhythmically, I pushed myself off the bench and darted over to him, nearly tripping over his foot in the process.

No one else moved. Jaydis was laughing even harder now—no idea how that was possible—and Syn merely shook his head and chewed on the last bit of his cookie. Kenas just rolled his eyes and brought the cup to his lips once more.

Haze had just collapsed! Why weren't they worried? For all we knew, multiple cookies worth of chocolate could seriously harm him.

Eyes closed and mouth drawn into a frown, he looked distraught. My fingers automatically touched the grove next to his throat, searching for this carotid artery, and I started counting in my head.

I was no expert, but his pulse was much, much too fast. And that wasn't all. He'd started shaking too.

"Guys, cut the crap," I hissed. "I don't think—"

More laughter. But this one was lower, deeper. No less amused though. And it didn't come from Jaydis.

But—

My eyes snapped back to Haze. His arm still covered his eyes, but there was no mistaking the stupid smile splitting his face.

"Aww, Cupcake," he drawled. "You're worried about me."

"You... You jerk!" I pulled my hand back with such force that I found myself sitting on the cold grass next to him a moment later. "You too!" I added when Kenas started laughing right alongside Jaydis.

"You see?" Jaydis grabbed himself another pastry. "He's fine."

Haze grumbled a soft complaint when I used this chest to push myself up. "I clearly need to get myself some new friends," I muttered.

"When you find some, let me know," Syn said with a slight eye roll.

In a movement that should not have been possible for someone in his current state, Haze did some sort of reverse combat roll and catapulted himself onto the tabletop, nearly knocking the platter and its contents onto Kenas. "Cookies..." he breathed. "More cookies."

Before anyone could react, his hands latched onto the last remaining chocolate peanut butter ones. He'd already inhaled the first one and taken a huge chunk out of the next one when Syn, apparently the only one with a brain, snatched the others out of his unsuspecting hand.

"Hey!" Haze protested. "I was gonna eat those."

"I'm aware," Syn replied dryly and bit into a cookie himself. "Not anymore."