When Hands Touch

34. space buns

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

SPACE BUNS

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"Friday the thirteenth, fuckers, we about to get wrecked."

Rolling her eyes, Faiza pulled her earphones out of her ears and gave Jude a bored, slightly annoyed look. "Jude, if you don't shut your mouth, I'm going to fail my test," she stated, reaching over to flick his ear and grinning at the yelp that escaped his mouth.

Jude just pouted, resting his head on Milo's left shoulder. "Can I— ?" When Milo nodded, he continued, "Y'all, I'm so fuckin' bored. Y'all are borin'. I wish my family celebrated Christmas, I wanna put up a tree. And— ooh, I wanna drink eggnog. Do y'all drink eggnog?"

Milo adjusted himself slightly so that his shoulder was more comfortable, hand reaching out for Xen's hand and taking it in his own to play with his tiny little fingers. He had painted his nails yesterday because Milo had wanted to paint his own nails, but he didn't want to get a mouthful of nail polish every time he bit them.

So, Xen offered up his nails, but he had said that Milo could only paint his nails if he let him cook dinner for once. And obviously, Milo had agreed, because really, that was a win-win situation for him.

"We only sort of celebrate Christmas," Milo pointed out, lips pulling downward into a frown when he saw that one of Xen's nails was already chipped, crimson paint only covering half his fingernail. "We aren't even religious, but we still put up a tree. And we have our dinner thing— y'all are coming over this year too, right?"

Eyebrows furrowing, Xen glanced at Milo. "You put up a tree?" he questioned, grip on his pen faltering.

Milo nodded. "I didn't tell you? We'll probably do it on Sunday! It's super fun, you'll love it."

"I'll pass on the tree," Evangeline started, taking a bite of her pizza. "We have to put up our tree too, but fuck yeah, Christmas dinner! Your dad cooks the best food."

Grinning in response, Milo took a bite of Jude's sandwich, chomping down on it as he listened to him talk about the amount of work teachers are giving them to do over the vacation.

Honestly, Milo agreed with Jude— there was so much fucking work to do, and college applications to send out, and everything. Life was speeding by so quickly, and Milo just wanted to pause for a minute, take a tiny break from life just to gather his thoughts.

"... And then, we got another assignment in—"

Before Jude could finish, Xen interrupted him with a low hiss as he glared at Evangeline, head snapping up from the assignment he had said that he was supposed to finish before his next class. "The fuck was that for?"

Evangeline gaped at him, eyes wide. "What did I do?"

"You kicked me!"

Ray laughed, wiping his mouth with a tissue paper. "Sorry, that was me," he admitted, causing Xen to shoot him a seething glare. "You were zoning out, so—"

"Why d'you look so pissy?" Jude interjected, curiousity written on his face as he leaned over Milo to look at Xen. "C'mon, Rathore, don't revert back to pre-Milo era. Pre-Milo was a fuckin' shitty ass time, you were literally angry all the motherfuckin' time. And for what reason?"

Xen stared at Jude for a second, before dryly stating, "Because I was stuck in an abusive household and I didn't have any friends because my parents didn't let me make friends. Oh, and I was having panic attacks every other night in my bathroom because if I had them in my bedroom, my parents would slap me. Oh, also, because—"