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“Hey, you guys gotta…”
Bruno rushes into Mr. Wilson’s office, his frantic warning to Kamala and Kamran coming out of his mouth in the split-second before his eyes register what’s right in front of him.
Kamran.
And Kamala.
Sitting on the floor together…
…fingers intertwined…
…faces waaayyyy too close for Bruno’s comfort…
…looking for all intents and purposes like they were half a second away from…
Bruno can’t even finish that thought.
Instead, he awkwardly finishes his previously-abandoned sentence to fill the silence.
“…Go. Um, there’s a team of agents heading down this way. I’ll—” he feels his voice almost crack, hates himself for it. “—keep them busy. Okay? Come on, come on.”
At that, Kamala yanks Kamran up to his feet and then hurries past Bruno, not daring to so much as even look at him.
And somehow, it makes the white-hot hurt even more refined.
Kamran follows closely behind her, halfway through the exit before he takes a retreating step back into the office and approaches Bruno, his expression loaded.
“Hey.” Kamran clearly has more to say, but Bruno knows there’s no time to parse everything out right now.
…Knows that it’ll likely take actual months in a dorm room in California for him to properly sift through everything that’s swirling in his mind right now about Kamala and their relationship.
So instead, he just nods at Kamran. It’s okay.
Karman appears to understand. “Thanks, Bruno.”
He claps him on the shoulder before slipping out into the darkened hallway, and Bruno is stunned. He takes a moment. He blinks.
Maybe people can change.
Remembering where he is, and what’s at stake for him and more importantly, for his friends, for the people — person — he cares far too much about, Bruno sighs and pulls his phone out of the pocket of his maroon hoodie, refocusing on the task in front of him.
“Okay.” He pushes past the desk in the office, his mind briefly snagging on his meeting with Mr. Wilson not too long ago.
You know that part in the movie where someone comes in to the main character and they say…
Well, that’s this moment. That is happening to you right now. You’re the lead character.
You’re the lead character.
Bruno certainly doesn’t feel like it in this moment.
In fact, he knows he’s destined to be the supporting character, to always support her. It’s just a fundamental part of who he is, and he’s never had a problem with that.
He clears his throat before pressing his thumb on the start button on his phone, the lively sound of a familiar Punjabi song filling the office.
“Hey!” he shouts into the empty space, and it’s the loudest his voice has ever been heard within the walls of the high school. “Ooh guys, come dance with me. You know you like these moves.”
He recalls the last time he heard this music, performed these moves…how different it all was.
“Hey, guys, what’s going on? You want to…oh!”
The shouted commands of several DODC agents descending upon Bruno drown out his continued provocations.
“Freeze! Hands up!”
“Don’t move!”
“Shut up!”
As the power-tripping DODC agent clocks him square in the face — Talk about overkill, dude — and then he feels himself get slammed into the plastic blinds offering some semblance of privacy for Mr. Wilson’s office, all Bruno can think about is how he almost welcomes the physical pain.
Because it’ll always hurt less than what he just witnessed.