Page 48 of Head Over Feels
"Yeah?What?"Heslammed the driver’s door shut.
Igestured at the outdoor staircase with its unforgiving concrete steps. "Maybeyou should stay down here whileIrun up and grab my things."
Malcolmshrugged nonchalantly. "Notan issue."Heswung out on his crutches and headed for the stairs.DubiouslyIfollowed.
Whenhe got to the bottom of the steps,Malcolmhanded me one of his crutches.Likehe did it all the time, he climbed the steps with his left hand on the railing and the crutch in his right hand helping to stabilize his right leg.Hisprogress was slow, but he didn’t seem to be in any pain.
Ifollowed a few steps behind him, concerned he would trip and fall.Malcolmdid rest a moment when we got to the landing halfway up, but then he kept going and made it to the top of the stairs safely.
IhandedMalcolmhis other crutch and he immediately headed down the hallway.Shakingmy head,Icalled out my apartment number.
Malcolmwas several feet in front of me when he hesitated at the corner before rushing ahead. "Hey!Whatare you doing?"
Iraced to catch up. "Trent?"
Itwas him.Shortdark hair over a large forehead.Squareblack glasses framing gray-blue eyes.Trentof the trains, asIhad uncharitably called him in my email toMarcie.Hewas standing in front of my apartment door.Athis feet was a flower arrangement in a vase.
Malcolmcrutched forward rapidly. "Whatthe hell are you doing?"
TrentignoredMalcolmand stepped to the side so he could see me. "Thepolice told me about the bomb.Felix,Ipromise youIhad nothing to do with that.Itold the detective everythingIknow.”
"Okayyy."Icame to a stop next toMalcolm.Heedged one of his crutches in front of me, creating a barrier.Ididn't comment. "Whatare you doing here?"
Trentwrung his hands, looking down at the flowers. "Iwanted to apologize."
Ifolded my arms, my temper going from zero to code red in seconds. "Oh?Whatcould you possibly have to apologize for?Hmmm, let me see.Couldit be for the ceaseless deliveries of glitter bombs?Couldit be for refusing to let me apologize to you?"
Malcolminterjected, "I'vegot one.Howabout the fact that you may not have made the bomb, but you probably know the person who did?"
Trentlooked like he wanted to cry. "IpromiseIdon't know who it is.Idon’t want it to be one of us, but realistically....”Heshrugged.
"Us?"Malcolm'svoice was sharp. "Whoall is us?"
Trentcrossed his arms and stared down at the flowers again.Ibriefly considered inviting him to go inside my apartment so we didn't have to have this conversation in the hallway, butIdidn’t want him in my space.
Trentsighed and rubbed his chin. "Allof us who had our dates withFelixturned into episodes ofFeliciain theCity.Or, at least as many of us as we could find.Andywas the first to go public about it.Heposted aTikTokvideo back inDecember.Abunch of us saw it and replied.Weset up aDiscordserver so we could talk privately."Heshook his head and fidgeted with his pen. "I'mreally sorry,Felix.Wewere pretty pissed about having our stories used like that without our permission.Butonce we figured out you were the person we all had in common, it became less about the show and more about retaliation on you."
MalcolmandIwere silent.Trentgrimaced and then went on. "Inhindsight, one or two glitter bombs would have gotten our message across just fine.Butwe kept egging each other on.”Heshrugged and gave a little half smile. “Andto save moneyIfigured out how to make my own glitter bombs.Ienjoyed it so muchIset up anEtsystore."Hespread out his hands. "It'sbeen a great little side income for me,I'vegot customers all over the world."
Iglared. "Well, congratulations,Trent.Isthat why you're bringing me flowers?Becausesending me those freaking glitter bombs led you to financial success?"Myvoice may have been a teensy bit aggravated.
"Well,Imean,Istill haven't quit my day job, butI'mhaving so much fun with it,Ican't even tell you.”
Istared stonily at him until he kept talking.
"Um, and that's not the only good thing that’s happened to me.YourememberXavier?"Inodded.Xavierwas the guy who’d cried to me about his ex.
"Yeah, so we got to talking separately from the group, and, well."Hegave a goofy smile and said, "We'redating, andIthink he might be the one."
Iwas mad atTrent.Iwanted tostaymad atTrent.Butwhy was his datingXaviercute?Icould feel myself thawing toward him, dang it.
Butheck, it wasn’t likeIwas blameless in this situation. "Wow, congratulations.I’mhappy for you guys."Icould feelMalcolmgiving me a look, butIdidn’t glance his way.
"Yeah, so, when the police came to talk to me about the glitter bombs, and told me what had happened yesterday morning,Ifelt horrible.Imean,Iwas super pissed off in the beginning because you talked about me to the show.Butin the end, you did me a huge favor.IrealizedIactually owe you a great deal."Hetilted his head toward the flowers. "Anapology is the bare minimum."
Wechatted a little more, and—onceMalcolmhad verifiedTrenthad shared the other ex-dates’ contact info with the police—Trenttook his leave.Hetold me he’d written his phone number and email address inside the note card.Hesaid wanted me to have a way to get in touch that didn't require him to log into the dating app. "Xavierwouldn't appreciate it."
Icarried the vase of flowers inside my apartment.Mymind spun with everythingTrenthad told us.ButIwas distracted again as soon as we got inside.Thecorner of the living room was empty, making the space appear even less likeIlived there.
