2. Love

Jake had to reason to worry when Amir was chatting away, dancing around like an idiot, or snoring loudly; however, he had a well placed anxiety when his coworker was notably silent. Silence meant Amir was scheming: plotting something that Jake rarely, if ever, enjoyed.

Today, Amir had been abnormally quiet, a fact that put Jake ill-at-ease. He had avoided glancing between the two obstruction monitors all day, but the workday was no waning thin and his curiosity was nagging him on.

Jake hesitated a moment before finally peeking around his screen- when he had, his heart leapt up his throat in surprise when he found that a pair of brown eyes were now staring resolutely into his.
The blond put a hand over his heart and felt it hammering against his palm, "Jesus Christ man, what the hell?" he yelled, "Why the hell are you staring at me?" he demanded accusingly.

Amir continued staring for a moment longer; his face (for once), completely unguarded. Eyes that were normally dull with stupidity were now glowing with a hidden intelligence. It was the moments like these when Amir wasn't hidden by that shell that Jake put up with the annoyance Amir was 99.9% of the rest of the time... He had fallen in love with this secret, hidden Amir.

Amir then shook his head and grinned like a moron, "'Sup brotha!" he exclaimed, then his voice went high pitched "'twas takin' a snooze- I was takin'-"

Jake frowned at the re-emergence of the idiotic front, "Taking a snooze, yeah. With your eyes open?" his voice now heavy with exasperation.

Amir grinned a little wider, looking as mad as a hatter "Yeah, it was so ace." he answered, rubbing his cheeks that were red from resting on his palms.

Jake frowned a little further, frustrated by this stupid little act and the use of his stupid made up words, and just his stupidity in general that had seeped back into him. "So... You were just sleeping?" he got a dramatic nod, "With your eyes open?" another nod, "Staring at me?" he asked, quickly becoming impatient.

"And?" Amir retorted quickly.

"That's really fucking creepy." Jake baited, as if he were speaking to a child.

"And?" Amir repeated.

"And what? You shouldn't be sleeping at work.", Jake said, looking back at his work-screen, almost (but not completely) regretting that he had looked away in the first place.

There was a momentary silence before "Well, sorry man, I love you." reached Jake's ears and he quickly looked back between the monitors at Amir.

"What?"

"I said... I love glue." Amir quickly improvised. "It's so sticky... and sticks to stuff... oh goodness, there's glue all over the place. Jake. There's glue all over the place." Amir frowned, then grinned, then laughed louder than necessary.

If it would have been anyone else Amir said that to, they probably would have believed him. But no one else in the office had seen past that mask...

It filled Jake with a strange hope, he knew all he had to do is wait.