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Malik never complained. It was in his entire being to never complain. Instead, he argued, he protested and stood his ground. He stood his ground and fought for what he wanted. However, the only person in the entire world who could make him do anything he didn't want, despite his protest and arguments, was his mother. She was just like him in many ways, fighting for what she believed in and getting her way with her words and words only.
"You are going to your senior prom."
Malik has argued, and protested and argued and protested. Prom was overrated. You only had fun if you were a popular kid [which was an entirely valid point, because it was true. Despite the fact he was going to be their valedictorian, he knew he was in the 'lower class' of the high school system]. People would bully him because he was likely to have a shabby suit [also true, he didn't think his mother and him could afford to rent himself a nice looking suit]. He had several more points that were coming out of his mouth, but he was rudely interrupted when:
"Prom is a social milestone. You are going Malik and that is final."
Defeated, Malik was now at his prom. He had a decent enough suit, it was a soft grey shirt with a black blazer and matching black pants, along with some black shoes. Since he had no other choice but to be here, Malik decided as the vigilant individual he was, he would guard the punch bowl from being spiked. He was hovering at the table and keeping an eye on it, apparently, his school was even more inadequate than he thought, and had not even left a teacher to guard it themselves. How stupid. He took the responsibility on himself as he had no intention of having his first bout of alcohol drinking at 17 years of age, and he didn't want anyone getting hurt from not knowing they were drinking alcohol. He didn't want to be here so he had no intention of being bored to death and not doing anything productive or practical.
He was actually having fun doing this, keeping an eye out and watching all his classmates dance around. It was also peaceful, which he liked. Sure, people would come up and get some of the punch to drink but they didn't talk to him... so it remained a peaceful night for him. That soon changed. All because of a stupid semi-celebrity called Altair. Malik was just standing around by the punch keeping an eye when Altair had come up to him and complained to him. He complained that most of the girls at the dance were giving him hungry eyes and how he didn't like it, and Altair guessed sure Malik would have understood... Right?
Bam. They were at it the next 10 minutes arguing. Malik was good at that and he found his enjoyed /educating/ this ignorant man. At some point, his entire attention gravitated between Altair, while before he could have kept an eye on both, and they continue their heated argument. At some point they had mutually agreed they both needed a drink before the got dehydrated from all the yelling. So they both, while giving each other stink eyes, got a drink from the punch bowl and then continued to argue. In hindsight, Malik can distinctly remember how the punch burnt his throat a little while he drank, but ignored at the time and thought his throat had just been really dry. Even in more hindsight, after the first drink Malik's mind had began to wander. Altair was stupidly handsome, his tuxedo was a like one from a James Bond film and his eyes were that weird colour that amber was... After the second drink, he kept glancing down Altair's face, at his lips, and licked his lips in an unconscious gesture because they looked so kissable. He shook his head every so often. He thought he'd trained himself out of such thoughts but apparently not.
They'd been arguing for a full hour but it had drifted aimlessly and now they were just talking, after the fifth drink Altair asked him:
"Wanna get out of here?" He said with a slight slurred edge to his tone.
Malik looked around at the place lazily, not like he had wanted to be here in the first place.
"Sure." He said before he really thought it through.
Soon enough, they had gone to a pizza shop because Malik said he felt hungry. He'd told Altair he'd forgone eating all night because he didn't want anyone to spike the punch [oh the irony of that statement now]. So Altair had gone in and ordered the largest pizza they had in, and now him and Altair were headed for a hotel.
"I don't take people home with me." Malik had said in a bit of a slurred tone, dragging out the sentence to make it seem longer than it was. Altair hadn't protested.
"Looks like an 'otel ahead." Altair said with a grin, but then it vanished. "Wait, wait here!" He said then ran off somewhere. He left Malik confused and standing there, not wanting to be left alone in the middle of the town at night. It wasn't long lasting and soon he was back with a bag from a supermarket.
"Dessert." He said and lifted up the bag in a "whatever" sort of gesture. Malik just nodded, he never usually could stomach a dessert after pizza though, but he'd try. Altair went inside the first hotel they went to and Malik stood outside on Altair's direction.
"Come on." Altair said to Malik as he came out with a big grin, keys, a bag from a local supermarket and a box of pizza.