Before the Ceremony | Caleb & Mickey
"You read books?" Mickey said incredulously, before breaking into a smile. "Must be really, really deep in the desert if they haven't got television reception there." Last year, Mickey read very few books, not more than one per month. They were usually bad ones too: he would swap his book at the bookcase in whatever hostel he was staying at for something that did not look too awful. "But yeah, it might be... on-the-nose, but it's good. Clever."
Mickey wanted to latch onto Caleb's story, but the siren had moved on to him. "Oh, uh, yeah! Leon's great! We're great. I mean, it's... We're trying a thing? You... I mean, okay." Mickey obviously had to rehearse this better, because he wasn't sure how to tell this. "So, I'm with Leon, right? But Leon was with Andrei - it's that vampire thing. So we're now trying that thing where it's just the three of us together. Like a threesome, except a better word that evokes 'couple' more."
Mickey brought his hands together, shrugging. "So, yeah. Leon and I attend classes and Andrei works in a carshop. Sort of like you."