on the first day keefe came, he was yelled at. on the second he was tolerated. on the third day, tam thought he was ready.

but then again, this was keefe sencen. who was he fooling?

this time, tam was sitting on his bed shoveling mallowmelt in his mouth, barely turning the pages of the wizard book fast enough. (it turned out the boy's name was harry, not henry.) it took three minutes of knocking & a loud choking noise for him to glance up.

quickly, he ran to the door. linh! are you o-

keefe stopped his fake coughing & glanced up at tam. oh, hey, he said mildly.

what the hell? tam snapped. i thought linh was choking!

i was knocking for like an hour, keefe said. what were you even doing in there?

as he opened his mouth to say that he'd been reading, tam became very aware of a small gathering of mallowmelt crumbs on the side of his mouth. there was no logical reason for this to even bother him, considering the fact that until the day before, he hadn't showered in around a week. still, it threw him off-kilter. i-

keefe shook his head, probably seeing that tam was uncomfortable. never mind, it doesn't matter. can i come into your room?

sure, tam said, ducking his head as keefe followed him inside.

there was a short, awkward silence. then keefe said, almost in awe, wait, tam, you live here?

tam looked at the blonde, confused. um. yes?

how is it so neat? his eyes settled on the bed. i'm genuinely impressed right now. you eat in here?

tam tried to look at the room from a stranger's point of view. it was true that everything was where it was supposed to be, aside from the mallowmelt and the book. & yeah, the bed was made, although the pillows on it were slightly smushed from his earlier position on them.

for some reason, tam felt embarrassed. he had been to candleshade before, but he didn't remember much about keefe's room, other than the amount of hair products.

biana & everyone are always saying how similar we are, but i kind of don't buy it, keefe said. i mean, this room compared to my room?

tam almost asked, how are we even similar? he didn't, though. there were some things, of course. like their dads. but there was also the reason that keefe was there. the whole... neverseen thing. so he stayed silent instead.

keefe studied tam, considering. so, linh wants me to help you with your guilt.

tam:

keefe looked away. it's your feelings, though. so, like, i can go if you want me to.

tam:

keefe's eyes settled on the floor. do you want me to go?

tam:

tam: no.