who ya gonna call?

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Joey was like a Wikipedia for Micah Abiola, so how had she not known this? She’d done nothing to earn him thinking about her so highly, and yet instead of feeling like she was being rewarded, all she felt was a deep pit of dread in her stomach.

Everything is going to change now, she realised. The thought filled her with horror.

She nodded quickly when he reassured her that she would always be his best friend, hope flaring in her chest - and then the most awful word in the world came. The but that made Joey realise there was no coming back from this now.

“Micah,” she said softly, more tears spilling down her cheeks. She’d never been an overt crier, not even in front of Micah, but there was no keeping them at bay right now.

She knew he was handing her an olive branch when he told her that she could ignore what he was telling her. Her heart hurt so, so much. She sniffed pitifully. 

“But… everything has changed,” she pointed out, softly. Now she knew she would second guess every hug she gave Micah, wondering if she was accidentally torturing him or worse, leading him on. She remembered all the times they had laughed at tweets their friends had sent them, of fans over analysing their body language and declaring them secretly in love. Had Micah’s laughter been false all this time and had he thought that Joey was laughing at him?

Inhaling a deep breath, Joey lifted her head, watery brown eyes landing on Micah’s face and the pain in her chest increased tenfold. She loved him so much, more than anyone, but why could it not be in the way he wanted? She couldn’t imagine herself preening under his attention and batting her eyelashes at him like the leading woman in every rom-com she’d ever watched. When she thought about spending the rest of her life with Micah, she’d never pictured candlelit dinners and declarations in the rain, just her and the most important person in the world to her, living together side by side with their matching coffee mugs and their shared beanie and their ghosts.

“Are you mad at me?” she whispered.

“Right, yeah. Of course,” Micah nodded, his heart sinking in his chest. Everything had changed, and he couldn’t do a thing about it. He’d made his bed. 

Micah hadn’t ever been a fidgeter. He wasn’t exactly prone to panic attacks or major fits of insecurity, even in spite of the mess of his family and the grief that he carried around with him every day. He tried his best to be pragmatic and always approach a situation logically, never letting his doubts and anxiety get the better of him, but right now he felt himself unravelling. His fingers trembled as he shoved them haphazardly into the pockets of his jeans, too tight as the denim chafed against his knuckles. 

He wanted nothing more than to cross the room and pull Joey into a hug, to rub warmth into her arms and soothe the ache in her chest, to wipe away her tears and reassure her everything would be fine. That was how things worked for them. He was always on hand to be her shoulder to lean on, but he was the one responsible for her tears. Micah was the very thing causing her distress now, and all because he’d dared to love her in a way that she couldn’t return. 

“I’m not mad at you, JC,” Micah sighed, his heart thudding against his ribcage. “C’mon, I could never hate you. I just... I wish things didn’t have to change, that you didn’t have to...” 

He paused, cutting himself off. That she didn’t have to what? View him differently? Distance herself? That was what was happening here, wasn’t it? Joey knew things would be different now because she knew she wouldn’t be able to be around him. They would be living together yet living separate lives, worlds apart. 

“I wish I hadn’t ruined things,” he murmured, guilt etched across his features. 

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