How to Find the Truth

I'm apparently a traitor

🐚🐚🐚

"How to get out of the friend zone," Carlos muttered to himself as he typed the words into Google. He was sitting on his bed, on his computer, waiting for Mal to show up. Unbeknownst to me, Carlos was trying to ask me to Cotillion, and he really liked me. He just couldn't figure out how to tell me.

Carlos looked over to his right where Dude laid in his dog bed on the boy's bed. He gave him a little doggy smile as the boy scoffed at him. "I see you reading over my shoulder." When the dog didn't seem to react, Carlos grinned and scratched the dog's head.

Suddenly, the door to Carlos' room opened, and Mal rushed in, slamming the door behind her. She hit her back against the door, happy to be away from the paparazzi on the other side, but still freaking out from all the stress. Carlos looked up at her, where she quickly locked the door and began to rapidly pace the room, still panting. He looked at her confused, as she grabbed the remote to the TV, where it was playing the same newscast about her from earlier, and struggled to turn the channel off. Once she did, she started to pace again, but then her eyes lit up with a green light. She almost looked possessed.

"Whoa," Carlos told her, trying to calm her down a little. "Easy, girl."
"You think this is so easy?" Mal yelled back at him, coming closer to the bed. "You don't have people taking a photo of you every single time you open your mouth to say 'boo!' I mean, it's not that I could even say 'boo' but, you know..." She sighed.
"I'm sorry," Carlos said, looking back down at his computer. 
"Carlos," Mal asked, getting his attention back, "don't you ever miss screaming at people and just making them run away from you?"

He gave her the slightest smile, almost like saying, you can't be serious. "You're thinking of my mother. And I was usually on the other end of that. So, not really. No," he told her. She sighed and shook her head, thinking no one could possibly get how she was feeling. 

Carlos went back to his computer for just a second, then remembered why he had been waiting for her. "Oh, hey," he said, putting his laptop down and standing from the bed. Mal looked back at him, annoyed, waiting for him to continue. "Did you bring it?" He asked excitedly. Dude also got up from his bed, waiting for the action to happen. She sighed and pulled it out. However, the door handle began to jiggle, making them look over there.

In came Chad, who thought he was being sneaky by gently closing the door behind him, and cockily throwing his key into the air. Once he had caught it though, he saw Carlos, Mal, and Dude all staring at him. Dude gave him a small growl.
"Hi," Chad chuckled, trying to cover up the fact that he had just broken in. "Just came to use your 3-D printer. Won't be a sec." 
"How'd you get a key to my room?" Carlos asked him.

Chad looked back at the key in his hand in surprise, almost as if it had appeared from thin air. "Oh, I printed it off last time I was in here." Carlos and Mal looked at each other, quite creeped out. "You guys were sleeping," Chad explained.

When he seemed to realize that Carlos was beyond annoyed with him, he tried pleading. "Look, I just...Your printer's so much better than mine. And you installed these hacks. And everything runs so much smoother than mine--"
"Out," Carlos interrupted, pointing at the door. Mal just had this amused grin on her face. "Now."
"Fine. Fine," Chad obliged as he headed back to the door.
"Chad," Carlos called, still quite annoyed. Chad looked back at him, ticked off as well, not knowing what more Carlos could possibly want from him.
"What? Hmm?"
"Leave the key."

Chad slowly walked back over, dramatically showed Carlos the key, sat it on some books on the table, then left, slamming the door behind him. Glad that was over, Carlos looked back over at Mal, who was lost in thought again. "Mal?" He asked her. 
"Mmm?" She looked up at him, still quite lost.
"My potion," he grinned.
"Mmm."