It is the weekend, and Skeppy and I are currently chilling at the couch watching a movie. Once it is over, I say, "You should go put on some clothes to go out, I'm taking you to town today."

Skeppy turns his head to look at me in quiet shock so fast that he could've gotten whiplash. Though he looks shocked, there is an evident sparkle in his eye, which I noticed a few times in the past but haven't exactly figured out what it is. Even though his eyes have seemed more lively than the dull eyes that he had when I first met him, it feels nice to see that certain sparkle in his eye, even if I don't know what it exactly is. Seeing that look in his eye makes me subconsciously smile. He says in almost a hushed tone, "Really?"

With a grin, I respond, "Yes. I'm going to take you to meet some friends of mine."

Skeppy looks even more surprised at this. He says, "You... want me to meet your friends?"

"Yup! It's been a while since I've hanged out with them, and you will probably like interacting with more than one person for a change. I'm probably not the best company to have around when by myself."

I chuckle at the last part, showing a cheeky grin to display that I'm joking. Regardless, Skeppy stares at me for a silent moment, almost looking unnervingly serious. Despite the look on his face, he then says in such a soft tone, "I think you're great company. Even if it's only you that I talk to."

For a moment, my heart flutters at not only the words but the touching gentle tone in his voice as he looks so serious about it, meaning that he meant every word. But what absolutely makes my heart stutter is when Skeppy smiles so sweetly and says, "But thank you anyways for thinking about me and letting me meet your friends."

God. That should not pull on my heartstrings as much as it did just now.  For a moment, I thought I could feel a light burning sensation on my cheeks. What's wrong with me? Am I blushing? No- that can't be it. My mind is playing tricks on me at this point. But if I am- then it must be an effect of Skeppy's cute face. Gosh- how can someone be so pretty!? Anyways, there's nothing wrong with thinking that someone is cute or attractive, right? I mean- multiple people can admit if they think that someone is good-looking, so why can't I? I bet anyone would react the same way I did just now from watching Skeppy's adorable smile. So there's nothing special from the way my body reacted, right? Oh my goodness, why am I still thinking about this!? Snap out of it, Bad! I reply, "N-no problem, Skeppy! Now come on, let's go get ready."

Skeppy giddily nods and stands up, hurrying over to his room to change clothes. I soon stand up as well, heading over to my own room.

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It didn't take too long for me to change my clothes, as I already had an idea of what I was gonna wear based on what I had worn before when hanging out with my friends. I only had to wait one or two minutes at the front door before Skeppy was done changing and came out of his room. Quickly after, we made our way to town. Currently, that's where we are.

I am leading Skeppy to where we are going to meet up with my friends. Just like the last time that we visited town, he is wearing his hood over his head. It's as if he wants to hide his whole face behind the hood of his hoodie. He's never done that back at the house, and he didn't even do it until we arrived in town. I want to ask why he does that, but I don't want to make him uncomfortable. It is clear even when trying to hide his face that Skeppy is nervous- maybe even scared, which is quite a big contrast to how (I don't like that the word "how" was autocorrected to "ho*". Again. I never even type that word out like- kehdiehd8ejwkn why!? 😭) he was earlier. I don't want to make him feel any worse.

As we walked down the streets, I caught sight of the familiar coffee shop that my friends and I agreed to meet up on. The closer we get, I start to notice my friends sitting on an outdoor table of the coffee shop. As we get even closer, Sapnap, Ant, and Red immediately notice us, and once they do, they jump up from their seats in excitement and head over to us. Sapnap seems significantly more excited. The commotion gets the attention of Foolish and Puffy, who were deeply invested in their conversation. Once they notice us, they also get up quickly with excitement, rushing over to us. Sapnap is the first one to reach us. He quickly wraps his arms around me in an embrace, "Bad! Dude, how've you been!?"

I chuckle, hugging him back and saying, "I've been well. What about you guys?"

Everyone crowds me, telling me how they've been, taking turns to hug me, and bombard me with questions. I try to keep up with their pace, but I can't help glancing every now and then to Skeppy, who is standing a bit to the side awkwardly. He looks nervous, and I feel increasingly guilty as the seconds go by that no one is paying attention to him. But just when I'm about to call out to him, Sapnap notices Skeppy and grins. He then says, "Well, as much as I'd looove to keep overwhelming you with questions Bad- I also want to meet this new friend of yours."

The rest of my friends quiet down a bit as they shift their attention to Skeppy, who seems like he doesn't know whether to be grateful or more nervous about the attention shift towards him. Sapnap goes to stand in front of him and asks, "Soooo, what's your name, dude?"

Skeppy blinks at him for a moment before he replies with, "S-Skeppy..."

Somehow, Sapnap's grin gets even wider. He says, "Well, it's nice to meet you, Skeppy. I'm Sapnap!"

He holds out his hand for Skeppy to shake. Skeppy stares at it for a long second before he realizes what he's meant to do. He tentatively puts his hand in Sapnap's and shakes it gently. Sapnap's grin goes softer at that, realizing just how nervous Skeppy must be. He retracts his hand and points behind him to our friends, saying, "Let me introduce you to the others. The one with the red hair is Redvelvet, but just call him Red. The one oddly close to him in a protective manner is Antfrost, but just call him Ant. The one with the most chiseled jawline you'll ever see is Foolish-"

Sapnap glances at me tauntingly for a second, and I mentally scowl at him. They won't get over the fact that I complimented Foolish's jawline once. Then Sapnap gestures to Puffy and says, "And of course, the only girl you see here is CaptainPuffy, but just call her Puffy."

My friends each wave at Skeppy when they get introduced, and Skeppy offers them all a nervous smile in greeting. Sapnap then gives Skeppy a pat on the back, placing his hand on his shoulder, startling Skeppy a bit. Sapnap says with a grin, "Before doing anything else, let's go sit down at the table. We don't anyone taking our spot there after all."

So that's what we do. We all take a seat at the table. Skeppy and I are sitting next to each other. Quickly, my friends start to talking to Skeppy and I about various things. I respond lightheartedly to them, but I make sure glance at Skeppy every now and then to make sure that he's fine. At first, he seems nervous and afraid to talk much, but he quickly learned to go with the flow and started to talk more. Sooner or later, he seems quite comfortable and is pretty cheerful, meaning that he's having a good time.

As I expected, my friends seem to like and get along with Skeppy. They all share interest in wanting to get to know him. Everything seems to go well. Then suddenly, Puffy asks out of the blue, "Soooo, how did you two meet? After all, it's quite rare for Bad to make any new friends nowadays."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Skeppy tense up, some fear evident in his eye. A memory of the first time that my eyes landed on Skeppy flashes before my eyes. He was unconscious and bleeding from the head, wearing rags and other old injuries on his body. The thought of the state that he was in before compared to now almost makes me shiver. Sapnap exclaims, "Oh yeah! I want to know too! After all, it's quite hard to get this f*cker to go anywhere that isn't his job. At this point, I'm surprised that he isn't officially married to his work."

I scoff at this. I say, "Don't exaggerate, Sapnap. The work that I do is necessary. It's not my fault that it takes up so much of my time."

"A bit too much time if you ask me..."

I glare at him, which makes hi, take it as a signal to move on. He says, "Anyways- do tell us, how did you guys meet? How did this friendship blossom in the first place."

Skeppy has a mix of nervousness and fear in his eye, not knowing what to say. Quickly thinking of something, I make it look casual by shrugging my shoulders dismissively and saying, "We just met by chance one day at the shops. Nothing special."

The others look at me slightly surprised. Red raises an eyebrow and asks, "Really? That's it?"

"Yeah, that's basically it. We met at the shops, we seemed to quickly hit it off, and agreed that we should hang out some time. Soon enough, we became friends."

My friends look at each other in turn, silently questioning if I'm being honest or not. As they process my words, I look at Skeppy and notice that he's already looking at me. He seems grateful that I didn't give off the details of how we actually met. He offers a small, soft smile as a thank you, and I receive it with my own smile. Of course I had to lie. Skeppy still seems uncomfortable about that topic after all. My attention goes back to my friends as Ant says, "Well then, there must be something special about you, Skeppy, if you were able to catch Bad's attention so quickly."

I feel my heartbeat getting faster at the insinuation that Ant could be making right now. I stare at him in quiet disbelief. He notices me looking at him and just shows a teasing grin. That muffinhead is getting a firm talking to the moment I catch him alone. Skeppy seems to be shocked as well, but probably not from the same reason as me. After a moment, he says softly, "I... don't know about that... I think we only got really close because I live with him."

The moment the words are out in the air, there's silence. The next moment, they all exclaim, "WHAT!?!"

The sudden outburst makes Skeppy flinch. They all then look at me in disbelief. Foolish exclaims, "Wha- since when!? How!?"

I say, "It... hasn't been too long. Skeppy really needed a place to stay, so I offered him a room in my house, and now we're roommates."

Puffy says, "Wooow- then, props to you, Skeppy. I don't think I could ever live out on the outskirts of town like Bad- I would dread going home just at the thought of being so far away from everyone. And it would be torture to just walk for about two hours each day leaving and going back home."

I grin and say, "That's perfect for me. That way, none of you ragamuffins will come to my house daily just to press me to going out more often. At least Skeppy isn't obnoxious like you guys, and he is actually understanding."

My friends groan at that. Sapnap then grins and looks at Skeppy, saying, "Hey, Skeppy. Do me a favor and bug Bad more often to make up for all the time I miss out on annoying the hell out of him."

Skeppy blinks at him, not knowing what to think. He then says, "I'll... think about it."

Sapnap accepts that response. Soon enough, the conversation changes topic and moves on. Skeppg starts looking comfortable again and seems to be pretty social. Once we all had to go, I notice on the way home that Skeppy had a soft, small smile plastered on his face the whole way home. I guess he did have a good time.