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Casey does this thing now, when they pass each other at school.
Whenever the little friends Casey's acquired from his brief stints as front-page news and Delilah’s boyfriend call out to him, he beams the new smile he’s cultivated. The casual one that says I’m smart enough to write for the school newspaper, but don’t take myself too seriously. Zeke fucking hates that smile. Feels his own face lifting into a sneer before he catches himself. He doesn’t give a shit what Casey’s turning himself into.
And then as soon as polite society turns away Casey drops all the endearing quirkiness from his face like a black hole sucked it up. He aims those huge blue eyes at Zeke like he can burn him to the ground with their shared knowledge of what it’s like to save the world from aliens and literally live to tell the tale.
When he’s sure he’s got Zeke’s attention, that pale little foxface cracks into a wicked half-smile he never used to have before he knew what it was like to run for his life from something straight out of his geeky science fiction novels. Zeke would know; he’s seen all the different Caseys that exist inside that puny, victim-waiting-to-happen exterior.
The smile deepens to a smirk as Casey’s eyes light briefly on the football helmet tucked under Zeke’s arm. Daring him to call the kettle black.
Casey's always had too much bravery and too little confidence. Until now.
One of the linebackers slaps Zeke back to what passes for reality now with a heavy arm around his shoulders, forcing him to choke back a snarl. He’s distracted for a second by the invasion of his personal space and inane talk about the new plays Coach drew up.
When he looks up again, Casey’s skinny ass is vanishing around the corner. Zeke’s pretty sure he heard the little shit laugh before he disappeared.
He grits his teeth and the tension in the air feels brain-meltingly absurd and dangerous, like watching Miss Burke's decapitated head move across the parking lot on tentacles. Like biting back the kind of smile Casey throws at him these days without warning.
[-end-]