This one's a fun one : D Happy Readings!!

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"He tried to ruffle your hair?! Dude. He was definitely flirting with you," Mason huffed, tugging at the straps of his backpack as we speed-walked to our next class. Blame the creator of time, not me.

There were so many things we could be talking about, or even better, we could just... Not talk at all. But of course, Mason had been upset that I'd 'barely talked to him the last few days' as he had put it. Which wasn't even true, but he wouldn't accept the truth, apparently. So now, he deemed it was only right if he got to analyze every little detail of my life. Specifically, my friendship with Seth.

I rolled my eyes, something I had to do a little too often around Mason. "He was not flirting with me. We barely even know each other!" A turn to the left and... Great. Another staircase.

Mason scoffed, a little skip in his step. He skipped in front of me to block my way. "And why's that an excuse?" he asked, now skipping backward —I don't know how he does it either— with his eyes narrowed at me. This little fucker.

"Well—" Yeah, no. It really wasn't an excuse. "Uhm.. It's just— that's just not how it works!"

"Keep telling yourself that, bud." After shooting me what I assumed was supposed to be a smirk, Mason fell quiet. His pupils dilated ever so slightly, and they stayed that way until he almost walked into a pole if it weren't for me yanking him by his backpack. He chuckled, shaking out his hands before his eyes sparked up. "Oh! I totally forgot to tell you. So I met this guy— well he says he's a guy— on Roblox and like, he keeps saying I'm his girlfriend. Kinda weird right?"

This guy.. I had to suppress a long, disappointed sigh and instead just pursed my lips into a thin smile. "Have you ever heard about internet creeps? I don't know, seems like you could use some education on that part."

Mason frowned. "He's not a creep! Just a little confused," he tried to justify as we sat down in the back of the classroom, waiting for the other students to pour in.

Pulling out my books, I sighed. "How many times have you told this guy that you're a dude?"

"I mean, maybe a couple of times, but I probably just wasn't being clear enou—

"Just shut the fuck up."

Mason pouted, but he complied anyway, sinking into his seat. I offered him a smile, to which he just grumbled something incoherent. Sadly, my satisfaction didn't last long, because I soon realized that Mason wasn't even in this class. Either that, or he'd never shown up before. Fucking idiot.

I sucked in my lip, exhaling slowly through my nose. "Mason?"

Mason hummed, toying around with some eraser crumbs. No clue where he got those from, either.

"Do you—" My sentence got cut off by the teacher who entered the classroom with a look that screamed 'say one more thing and I'll kill you.' Even though no one had said anything yet. How fun. Lowering my volume to a whisper, I carefully leaned closer to Mason. "Do you even take this class?"

Eyes widening, Mason remained quiet for a moment before he let out a massive groan. Safe to say the entire class was now staring at us, including the teacher. Her eyes were pretty much spewing fire at this point. I mentally face-palmed myself.

The teacher— Ms. Zara Model from last week, except all the color and energy were long gone and replaced by some awkwardly fitted jeans and a gray hoodie— glared at us. "Mason. What are you doing in my class?!"

Mason grinned sheepishly, eyeing me for help. I decided to stay completely quiet, staring him down with a raised brow as if to say 'yeah, Mason. Why are you in her class?' Which he didn't seem to appreciate.

"Ha.. That's actually a really funny sto—

"I don't have time for this." The teacher sighed, pinching her nosebridge as she shook her head. She snapped her eyes to Mason before pointing a straight arm at the door. "Out. Now."

-

Today, my incredibly smart rice grain of a brain just forgot that I was supposed to bring my own lunch if I wanted to avoid being stuck with Jackson and the gang for the entirety of lunch break. Thus, there I stood, sandwiched up between two other students with my pastel pink tray pushing into someone's spine. Fun times, amirite.

Once my tray was filled with what I could only describe as hotel breakfast food, I began to make my way to where Jackson and his friends were seated as they bouldered out obnoxiously loud laughter.

Amberly was the first to greet me, pearly white teeth contrasting her dark skin as she grinned at me with a little wave. "Hey you! Come, sit!" She patted the empty spot beside her, which was when Jackson noticed my presence.

"Robbie, hey. How's classes been?" he asked as I sat down, clasping his hands on the table.

I shrugged, shoving two apple slices into my mouth with great force. "Mhm, dunno." It took me a few seconds to properly chew and swallow the apple. "Not bad, I guess." In all honesty, I just didn't really care all that much, but hey.

With a high-pitched hum, Amberly raised her finger while swallowing down her water. "I have serious beef with the chemistry teacher, I swear to God. I need someone to study with," she whined, tapping her manicured nails against the table.

My thoughts immediately went to the study session I'd planned with Seth. And of course, since apparently everyone was struggling with Chemistry, I could be a kind friend and offer Amberly to join us. But then again, Seth had asked me to help him, not Amberly. And maybe I was simply a selfish loser who just didn't want to share Seth with people who didn't like him in the first place. Just stay quie-

"Oh," Jackson murmured suddenly, now glancing at me. "Robbie, weren't you going to study for chem today?" he asked, raising his brow expectantly as he motioned between me and Amberly.

Fuck you, universe. Real nice one. Sucking in my bottom lip, I tried not to express the blatant hatred I felt, but knowing me, I doubted it was working. "Uh, yea-" I paused, my brows pulling together in confusion. How the fuck did Jackson know about my study session with Seth?! I for sure wasn't the one who told him, because why would I?

Jackson had an easy smile playing on his face, his eyes fixated on me as he agreed to something one of the other guys said. Weird. I cleared my throat, regaining the original focus of the conversation. "How'd uhm, how'd you k-

"Ha, don't worry 'bout it!" Amberly suddenly called out, waving me off before I could finish my sentence. "I'll just slide an extra five hundred across Mr. Duran's desk," she said with a chuckle, causing everyone to let out whole-hearted laughter that gave me the creeps.

"So, Robbie, what do your parents do?" one of the other guys -the short one who everyone seemed to dislike- asked, leaning onto the table with his elbows to get a better look at me.

Not this shit again. "Uhm." What do my parents do? Well I don't know, my dad does nothing and gets paid for it, somehow- the government's real interesting- and my mom... Hell if I knew, I hadn't heard from her in ages. If I'd told him that, the rest of the cafeteria would probably fall quiet and everyone would stare at me. "I uh- I live with my sister. She works with kids. Special needs kids." I hated calling them that, but I doubted these uneducated nepo-babies would understand anything else.

"Oh my gosh, that's adorable," Amberly gushed, and the entire conversation shifted to her as she went on to tell everyone about her disabled cousin. Well.

I fell quiet, tuning out everyone's voices so I could focus on my perfectly cut sandwich with plastic-y, sweet cheese and bland tomatoes. At this point, I was well aware of the universe's intentions with me, but I sincerely prayed time would pass just a little faster. Of course, it didn't.

-

Nyx is going to kill Mason someday. And I wouldn't blame them. I already found myself worthy of complaints because we shared a few classes together, so I couldn't imagine what it'd be like to live with that guy.

"I'm going to tell Mom that you failed your English lit. test," they huffed, kicking their legs up in the air from the little sandy brick wall we were seated on, right next to the main entrance. Well, Nyx and I were sitting down. Mason, on the other hand, was busy skipping around the top steps of the concrete stairs while belting Olivia Rodrigo's Vampire. Completely out of tune, if I may add. "He does this at home too," Nyx groaned, picking up a little pebble before tossing it at Mason.

The pebble hit Mason's head, who then abruptly stopped his ballad to glare at us.

I threw my arms up in defense, laughing when Nyx shoved me in my side. "I'm innocent! I swear!"

Mason shook his head, his face dead serious. "Tsk. It's always the siblings. Betrayal's real," he deadpanned, sticking out his tongue at Nyx when they gave him the finger. Then he just continued hopping around, switching from Vampire to Deja Vu.

The three of us all had an extra thirty minutes because class ended up getting canceled last minute, so we decided to wait outside for Reagan and Seth to finish their class. And even though the sun had set this world on fire, it wasn't all that bad. With a laugh, I watched as Mason twirled around, mumbling parts of the lyrics he couldn't remember. "What's got you this energetic, anyway?"

Halting to a stop, Mason glanced at me and then shrugged. "Dunno, I was about to fall asleep like ten minutes ago. Probably forgot my pills this morning," he said as if it was the most logical thing ever.

I raised my brows. "Pills?"

Nyx nodded, swooping a lock of hair out of their face just for it to fall right back into place. "In case you hadn't noticed, which I highly doubt but then again— the teachers don't seem to give a fuck either, so, like, yeah. Mason's got ADHD."

Oh. That makes sense. Mason nodded eagerly, eyes bright and energetic. "Yep! I used to play basketball to like, let out the excess energy but.. I don't like basketball."

I snorted —to which Mason giggled— and gently kicked Nyx's leg with my foot. "Mood. I used to be like, obsessed with puzzles. No idea why, 'cause I fucking hated everything about them, but I'd even get them for my birthday and all. Weird shit."

"A puzzle obsession?" a new, much raspier voice suddenly said, snapping all of our attention to the entrance doors. "We havin' a group meeting here?" Seth asked, kicking up his board to jump on it before quite literally flying down the first quarter of the stairs. He landed abruptly right below Mason, throwing a hand through his hair before resting his arms on the mid-railing. I found myself smiling. Show-off.

"Dude, that was sick," Mason gawked, swinging himself underneath the railing to sit down on the steps.

"Yeah," I agreed, my voice soft— something that happened often around Seth.

"And fucking dangerous," Nyx said with a snort, their attention only half-focused on this conversation.

Seth offered me a small smile (which caused Mason to wiggle his brows at me) before chuckling at Nyx. "Can't argue on that one." Copying Mason, Seth set down his board and sat down on it, rolling backward until he gently the wall. He lowered one of his legs down a step to stabilize himself. "So, what're y'all waiting here for?"

Mason sighed a long sigh, his hands pressed against his cheeks, causing his lips to squish into a pout. "Waiting for Reagan to get out of class," he mumbled, the end of his sentence faded out by a yawn. He squinted his eyes at the burning sun. "I wanna go hoooome."

"Energy burst's over, I see," I said with a chuckle, to which Nyx mumbled a quiet 'finally.'

They offered Mason a gentle smile. "We'll go home soon. Reagan should be here any minute now." They took another glance at the door when a couple of students came walking through, but still no sign of Reagan. I'm running out of patience here.

"So, how'd y'all become friends anyway?" Seth asked, breaking the silence. The sunlight broke right into his face, highlighting the brilliance in his eyes. It made me happy to see.

When Mason remained eerily quiet, most likely completely zoned out which— mood, Nyx spoke up instead. "Mason and I were the new kids here during freshmen year, so we kinda stuck together. Then one day, I needed some art supplies from the storage space— well actually, the teacher needed art supplies. She'd just sent me to get them because everyone else was already working in duos. Love teachers," Nyx stated dryly as they took a sip of water from their water bottle (which was covered in stickers) before continuing, "Anyways, Mason'd seen me walk down the corridor on my own, and he quite literally escaped whatever class he was in to ask if I was okay. Then we went to the storage space together because the bitch wouldn't leave me alone, and there we found Reagan."

I smiled. It made my heart feel warm to know that, despite their constant fighting, Nyx and Mason still cared for each other a lot.

And as if on cue, Reagan emerged from the entrance doors, looking beautiful as always. Her olive green dress flowed along with the rhythm of her walking, its thin straps covered by a little vest. And of course, a mazillion (that's not a word, is it?) necklaces. A wide grin broke out on her to see all of us sitting here, and she skipped over to us. "Hey guys! Are you telling the story of how we met? I love that story!" She plopped down on the ground right beneath Nyx's dangling legs, reaching over to fix the laces of their ragged Converse.

"That's a wholesome story," Seth said with a smile, nodding at Reagan who happily smiled at him. "Wish I could say the same for me and Robbie. The guy crashed into me at the promenade because some seagull didn't see his face."

Heat rose to my face —this time not from that ball of fire floating in space— as everyone burst out laughing. I buried my red face into my hands, squeaking out a "Seth!" which only caused him to laugh harder.

Even Mason, who was suddenly fully awake again, couldn't stop snickering. "Dude! why'd you never tell us?"

"Because it's fucking embarrassing!" I cried out, glaring when Mason had to hold back another snort. Bunch'a bullies, they are. When even Reagan offered me an endearing— no, scrap that— a sympathetic smile, I'd had enough. Jumping off the wall, I nodded at Seth. "Anyway, shouldn't we get going?"

"Ooh, going on a date, Blue?" Mason mocked, swinging himself up from the railing. Nyx hopped off the wall too and smacked Mason on his head.

Before I could clarify this massive misunderstanding, Seth had to open his mouth- again. "Study date!" he called out while stuffing his skateboard into his bag, laughing involuntarily as I began to drag him away, reconsidering my life decisions.

Once my friends were far out of sight and Seth had quieted down, it was actually quite nice outside. Shadowed by the vibrant greens of the trees— a combination of palm trees and other bushy... things— and the faint smell of salt in the air, a constant reminder of the white noise whooshing in the back of my ears; it was all so peaceful. Little birds chirped from branch to branch, hitting vocal runs even Ariana Grandé would be impressed by. Sandy gravel crunched under the soles of my sneakers, and it kinda made me miss the soft sand of the beach.

"So," Seth hummed, swatting away a fly that kept trying to sit on his head. "I think Harvey misses you," he said with a chuckle, hopping over a rock on the side of the path.

I grinned, jumping onto a bench to walk over it as I always did. It was like parkour, but easy. Wiggling my arms around for balance, I replied, "I take that as a compliment."

Seth laughed, swiftly catching my arms when I hopped off the bench. It kind of made me feel like a kid, but not necessarily in a bad way. "As you should," he agreed, his eyes suddenly widening. "You live near the basketball court?"

I nodded, jumping up on the fence that separated the basketball court from the park. Seth followed right after me, tossing his bag over first before jumping after me. And yes, this fence had a perfectly functional door, what about it?

The field's polymeric rubber surface was long faded, its yellow and pink colors worn out by the sun. Right behind the shorter fence, opposite of us, stood the big brick apartment complex I could call home, though it still felt weird. The building itself ranged from a peachy orange to blue, accompanied by the usual concrete grey.

"I'm getting massive nineties vibes from this place," Seth said, grabbing one of the basketballs off the little metal railing they were stored on— no clue how they hadn't been stolen yet, but I was grateful for it. They were pretty fun to bounce around. He effortlessly tossed it into the basket and turned around, proudly grinning at me with the basketball balanced in one hand.

"Beginners luck," I teased, grinning despite myself. Raising a brow, Seth tossed the ball at me and moved aside so I could try and prove my point. Well shit. I pursed my lips, eyes trained on the metal basket, its net ragged and torn. With my hand tightly gripped around the ball, I jumped up and threw it in what I hoped was the right direction. It flew up, landed on the rim of the basket, and tragically rolled off. "Oh."

Seth just laughed, jogging over to grab the ball off the ground. "Beginners luck, you said?" He carelessly hurled the ball away, and of course it landed right on the railing, in a perfect line next to the others. Upon seeing my dropped jaw, Seth shot me a wink as he picked up his bag before tossing it over his shoulder. "C'mon, we should get going or we'll never get any studying done."

Smooth motherfucker. "You're right," I said, shaking off the final bits of irritation on my face. Which, thankfully, wasn't all too difficult with Seth smiling at me like that. "Right this way!"

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I love writing scenes with them together:D Study date next chapter woop woop! Can we all just take a moment to appreciate Mason, I love that hyperactive idiot<3

Random question. If you could make anything happen in the next few chapters, what would it be?

Don't forget to leave a vote if you enjoyed, it means a lot! Love you always and STAY HYDRATED>:(