Array
(
[text] =>

Chapter 31: Yes, New Friends

Mason Moore was graduating for the fourth time in his life. The first time was from preschool. He'd barely understood what was going on and his cap had been made of paper. The second time was from middle school. His parents had overvalued the experience, taking dozens of photos yet most of them had him with his eyes closed. The third time was from high school. Mason was ashamed to say that he cried as he was coming down from the steps (Clark was quite relentless with his teasing). And finally now Mason was graduating from Adam's Nursing Intensive.

She had set up an entire ceremony for them, the hall decorated with so much red and white, Mason was getting High School Musical flashbacks. The hundred or so people who'd finished the program, aging from 17 to 55 were all forced to wear a cheap graduation gown and matching red cap. The oldest among them who had long graduated from high school and college seemed to find it especially amusing from how they laughed while staring down at the thin material of their gowns.

Mason was personally really enjoying staring at Mark. Everyone knew that Mark looked like Troy Bolton and seeing him in the bright red gown only confirmed it. Mason watched silently as Mark adjusted the gown, trying to hide the collar of his shirt behind the red fabric. Once a minute passed with the taller boy struggling, Mason decided to intervene.

"Let me do it." Mason said, stepping up to Mark and taking the collar into his hands. Mason was focused on his task, his tongue pushing against his inner cheek as tried to hide Mark's black t-shirt. But Mark was less focused. The entire time that Mason worked, his eyes stayed trained on him. Mark's eyes became dazed after some time, staring at the delicate curve in Mason's eyelashes or tensing at the feel of Mason's hot breath on his collar.

Mark had a flash of a time in his bedroom when Mason was panting against his neck and Mark hadn't had to keep his hands to himself. Before Mark could get himself more worked up, Mason stepped back, a triumphant smile on his lips.

"I did it." He grinned cheerfully. "But you really made it hard with that black shirt."

Mark blinked a few times to process what Mason had said.

"Uh, sorry about that."

Mason waved off Mark's apology with a smile, going to stand next to Mark again. Mark stared at the side of Mason's face for a moment, his previous thoughts filtering back in again. Mason was startled when he suddenly felt Mark's hand around his, intertwining their fingers together.

"Do you want to go to the bathroom?" Mark asked breathily, whispering as he stared at Mason's lips.

"The bathroom? For wha-" Mason had begun to ask, cutting himself off when he caught Mark's expression. "Are you serious Mark? We were just together yesterday."

"You really think that would make me stop wanting to kiss you?" Mark said huskily, his free hand snaking up Mason's back. Mason's breath hitched at the urgency in Mark's voice and the featherlight touch on his back.

Mason started gnawing on his lip, unsure of what to do. Mark wasn't making it any easier with his teasing touch and piercing stare. It was only when Mason looked away from Mark, noticing the graduation ceremony prepared for them that Mason was able to focus.

"Later, okay." Mason told him, taking a step away from Mark. "Once we're done here you can get a lot more than a kiss."

Mark now wore one of the largest smiles and Mason tried not to let that get to his head.

The two of them talked quietly for another minute about random things when Aubrey found them.

"There you guys are. We were all wondering where you were." She told them, sounding a bit out of breath.

Mark's brows furrowed, a bit confused.

"Who's 'we?'"

Before replying, Aubrey turned around, pointing at a group of people on the opposite end of the hall.

"Tobias, Gabe and I were talking to a bunch of the college kids. They're all super chill and we were telling them about you guys as well. They wanted to meet you but none of us saw you come in."

Mason followed Aubrey's finger to the group, a look of recognition crossing over his face.

"Oh, I've seen them before. I think we talked to that one girl Breanna before. Remember Mark? After CPR." Mason said, hitting Mark's arm lightly.

"Oh I remember." Mark replied, seeming a bit teasing as he gazed at Mason. "It was a very memorable day."

Mason struggled to keep his smile at bay. Aubrey was the curious type and it would be awkward trying to lie about why they were smiling so much. As Mason feared, Aubrey narrowed her eyes at the two of them, detecting something odd between Mason and Mark. Luckily, though, she let it go, her face relaxing again.

"Great! That will make this all a lot less awkward." She laughed softly, turning away from the boys. "Let's go."

It was still a bit awkward walking up to the group of 10 or so people. They noticed the three of them walking over pretty quickly so the two groups just smiled awkwardly until they got there. With such a large group of people there, Mason had trouble remembering any names. There were about six girls (two black, one brown, one latina, one white, and one east Asian) and two latino guys. While Mason worked to get to know as many of them as he could, Mark just sparked up a conversation with this short black girl named Breanna.

By the time Mason got all of their names memorized, Mark had already found out some of Breanna's back story and they'd exchanged contact info. Evidently, they had all gotten along pretty well. Mark was going into detail about a recent piece he was trying to choreograph when it was announced that the ceremony was starting.

"We'll talk about it more once we're done." She assured Mark as they waved goodbye.

It was a beautiful ceremony--tad cheesy since it wasn't for an actual school, but still nice. She had photos of them during her lectures and activities and some people gave testimonies of their experience. Finally she called up each person, individually, to receive their certificate. And, as he'd done on the day of their graduation, Mark cheered way too loud for Mason. It was arguably more embarrassing this time than before because most just got the polite applause. Therefore, Mark screaming "Mason!" for the entire room to hear was unbearably loud.

The only plus of that gave people in the room a good laugh at Mason's expense. He considered doing the same for Mark in return, but chickened out last minute. Mark wore a cheeky grin as he got back to his seat.

"Why didn't you scream for me?" He whispered, leaning into Mason's ear. "I would have assumed you wanted revenge for what I did."

"And embarrass myself as well?" Mason responded, scoffing quietly. "Either way you win so I chose the latter."

Within a matter of minutes, the last person had picked up their certificate, and the ceremony was over. An odd inkling of sadness came over Mason when he realized that this would be the last time he came for the nursing program. The last time he'd scribble down notes on skin conditions. The last time he sat down in the light plastic chair. The last time he and Mark would hold hands at the back of the room. The last time he would hear Mrs. Lorraine Adams speak passionately in the hopes that they would be better nurses for it.

Mason's smile wobbled as all of them stood up and turned their tassels from one side to the other. Mason was definitely getting too emotional about this, but he couldn't help it. Another moment of his life was over, and hopefully what came ahead would live up to everything he ever imagined.

Mason was still recovering from his emotional turmoil when Mark led him to their new friends. Before anything else was said, Gabe had an announcement to make.

"We should all go out tonight! Celebrate completing the program." Gabe suggested in a booming voice, arms stretched out wide as he spoke.

"And paying a shit ton of money to do it." One boy, Peter, joked. Gabe seemed slightly miffed as the attention left him while everyone laughed.

"Okay, okay. Focus." He drawled, annoyingly snapping his fingers until everyone was silent. "I'm serious, I think it could be a lot of fun."

"Well, I haven't gone out in a bit." Breanna said to herself, rubbing her chin as she thought.

Watching the reactions from the group and seeing how everyone had warmed up to his idea, Gabe decided that he had the green light. With a surprising amount of efficiency, Gabe went around collecting everyone's number and creating a group chat.

"Me and Mason went to this cool club that accepts younger people like us." Gabe told the group, producing an eye roll from Mark. Of course Gabe had to just ignore his and Tobias's presence that night. "I'll send you all the address. Let's meet up there at, say, 9:30?"

And just like that Gabe had single-handedly coordinated their night out. Mark couldn't help how offput he felt about going out with Gabe again. He always rubbed Mark the wrong way and found it impossible to keep his freckled hands off of Mason. Mark let out a heavy sigh as he looked over to Mason. The other boy was excitedly talking to a tall white girl and the two seemed to be demonstrating different dance moves they would try that night.

Mark's only consolation was how happy Mason would be. The guy lived to be around other people, whether he knew it or not. As Mark continued to watch Mason try twerk with little success, Mark rubbed his hand over his mouth to hide his smile.

—————

Mark wondered if the music had gotten louder since the last time they were here. The bass vibrated his eardrums with each beat to the point where he had to fight the urge to cover his ears with his hands. Colored lights flashed through the room, making the dancing bodies in the middle of the floor look much cooler than they actually were. Their group was standing off to the side, allowing those who'd never been here to get used to the club and giving them a chance to drink before they went their separate ways.

Mark was already sipping on a glass of water. Most of the people they came with tonight he'd only had one conversation with and had little trust in them to stay sober. So he was going to be one of two designated drivers, along with a guy named Anton who explained he had a date the next day. The vietnamese girl, who Mark found out was named Mary, brought over a tray of shots with a wide smile.

"The shots as requested." She joked, bending at the hip whilst placing the tray down. "Three shots each. Drink up!"

Anton and Mark watched the twelve of them throw back the shots as fast as they could. Gabe, as expected, did it quite easily hissing a bit once he finished. Mason also did it pretty quickly but wore the nastiest expression all throughout. Mark got a good laugh out of their reactions, also acknowledging that this would be the last time he saw them all together until they left later that night.

Now on their way to being healthily buzzed, the group set off for the dancefloor. Anton sat down in one of the newly free seats and Mark did the same. Right before he got out of sight, Mason looked over his shoulder to wave Mark's way. Having no regard for how stupid he looked, Mark waved back, pleased by the large smile that appeared on Mason's face.

Anton had no visible reaction to the entire interaction, drinking more of his soda. After a moment passed, the man's low timbre suddenly cut through the music.

"Are you two dating?" He asked casually, eyeing Mark from over his glass. Mark's throat suddenly grew tight, nerves hitting him out of nowhere. He tugged at his shirt's collar to cool himself down, even a bit. Anton had very circular eyes that, while not being objectively large, appeared big on the man's face. That, coupled with his unwavering stare made Mark more nervous than he'd been in a while.

"Uh, no. Not exactly." Mark finally answered, his response more unsure than he'd intended.

Anton raised a brow, catching something unusual in Mark's response.

"'Not exactly?'" He repeated inquisitively, leaning forward lightly. "Kind of an odd answer to a yes or no question."

"No, we are not dating but we're not just friends anymore either." Mark explained, a bit conflicted as he stared into his cup. "Please don't tell this to everyone. We're trying to keep this more of a secret."

Anton nodded slowly, glancing around the club. After a moment of silence passed, Mark assumed that he'd dropped the subject. His shoulders fell as he relaxed and he sunk further into the seat.

"Mason likes you." Anton stated suddenly, startling Mark so much he nearly fell out of his chair. "In case you didn't know."

"No he doesn't." Mark replied, more out of habit than anything else. "We've been friends for years. I think I would know if he had a crush on me."

"Then you always knew he was attracted to you?" Anton asked, sounding slightly condescending, as if he already knew the answer. "I mean, before you guys started sleeping with each other."

Mark ignored Anton's comment about them sleeping together. Even if the guy was right, he didn't want to confirm it.

"Well, no." Mark begrudgingly admitted, scowling at the triumphant smile on Anton's lips. "But trust me, sexual attraction is the full extent of his feelings for me. And . . . I'm exactly the same."

Anton started staring at Mark with his annoying eyes again, so Mark started fiddling with the free material on his chair while he waited for him to finish. Slowly, Anton pulled up his left hand and began twisting the silver band on his finger.

"I'm engaged by the way, in case you didn't see the ring." Anton chuckled, still staring down at the thin piece of metal. Mark's jaw had visibly dropped. He'd known that Anton was in college and in his early twenties, making the news a huge surprise to him. As if he'd just mentioned the time of day, Anton continued to speak without a care to Mark's shock.

"Bec and I used to just sleep with each other. We became friends our senior year and became fuck buddies not long after that. We kept this up for a year, not seeing other people but not making anything concrete either. When she finally admitted that she liked me I was shocked. After thinking about it for more than two seconds, though, I realized that I had been in love with her for months but was trying to ignore it to keep things the same. Once I stopped being so scared, I found out that dating her was a lot more rewarding than just fucking her."

Anton took a large gulp of his soda which gave Mark a moment to process everything he'd heard. Anton's large burp broke into the contemplative mood he'd just created, making both of them laugh aloud. Pushing his cup to the side, the taller man in front of Mark crossed his finger together, his silver ring standing out against his naturally tan skin.

"So, why'd you sign up for the Adam's Nursing Intensive?" Anton asked, the conversational topic catching Mark off guard. Mark quickly realized that Anton was giving him a chance to talk about something other than his relationship with Mason. With little hesitation, Mark took it.

Mark relaxed considerably over the next hour. Anton was pretty easy to talk to when he wasn't trying to pressure Mark. They also discovered that Anton went to the same university Mark and Mason would be enrolling in that fall.

Mark was typing Anton's number into his phone when a giggling Mason came up to their table.

"Mark! There you are! I missed you on the dance floor." Mason told him through a pout, his hand on Mark's left bicep. Anton smirked into his cup, in spite of the fact that it was already empty. Mark ignored the man's teasing reaction, his sole focus on the man holding on to him.

"I'm sorry. I was just talking to Anton over here." Mark explained, covering Mason's hand with his own.

"It doesn't matter." Mason said with a shrug. "Come on, let's go dance!"

"Are you sure you don't want to take a break?" Mark asked. He'd done so out of concern but in his state, Mason didn't really notice. Instead, he continued to pull at Mark's arm with both hands, trying to pull the heavier boy out of his chair. When this didn't work, Mason stopped to look at Mark's face. He was staring at Mason with a firm look which Mason identified as his stubborn face. Mason realized he would have to actually answer Mark's question with words before anything else got done.

"I'm sure, okay. Come on!"

Mark was completely satisfied with this, but still stood up. Before Mason could drag him away, Mark quickly grabbed his phone and spoke to Anton.

"Anton, I'll text you later so you have my phone number, okay?"

"Got it. Go have fun."

Mark pursed his lips when Anton winked at the end of his sentence. This guy really wouldn't stop teasing him and Mark just couldn't get used to it. Mark hated talking about the status of their relationship and tried to avoid the topic at all cost, so he looked over to Mason, worried he'd question it. Mason was luckily too focused on getting Mark on the dance floor to hear what Anton had said.

Feeling relieved and far more relaxed, Mark allowed Mason to pull him away from the table. They walked side by side for a while until it started to become denser in the middle so they were forced to weave and squeeze through the crowd. Mason stopped suddenly and Mark was forced to clench every muscle in his body to stop his forward movement. He followed Mason's arm to see what had almost made him crash into him, pleasantly surprised when he saw familiar faces.

As Mark had predicted earlier, their group was now separated. Most of the people they came with were gone, but Tobias and the tall white girl, Aliyah, were grinding and Breanna was jumping around by herself.

"Hey guys!" Mason yelled, catching their attention. The three of them smiled and waved but Tobias and Aliyah got back to what they were doing soon after. Breanna, on the other hand, walked up to them, holding her side as she panted.

"Hey you two. Mark, nice to see you." She said casually, doing a poor job of covering up her shortness of breath. "You know I was going to keep dancing but I think I just realized that I'm actually exhausted so I'm going to take a break."

Mark and Mason laughed as they watched her walk out of the crowd.

"I really like her." Mason said, a smile on his face.

"Me too." Mark agreed earnestly. Mason turned to Mark sharply, a frown on his face.

"Not more than me though, right?"

Mark took the comment in stride, even though it was very unlike Mason. He threw his arms over Mason's shoulder from the back, pulling Mason tightly against his body.

"Of course not." Mark assured. Mason hummed happily as Mark placed a soft kiss on his forehead. "Now come on, let's dance."

It had honestly started off innocent. The way they danced was less dancing and more like jumping in time with the music. Then, a slower song came on and Mason's immediate reaction was to cozy up to Mark. Mark, not being one to deny him, went along with it. Before long, the two of them were looking a lot like Tobias and Aliyah had a few minutes earlier.

The two of them spurred each other on, doing more and more until Mark finally cut it off. He'd started to become aroused which was a bad idea around a man too drunk to give consent. Mason was reluctant to stop, trying to pull Mark's hips back against his own again. To distract him, Mark tried to spark up a conversation.

"Do you remember what happened the last time we were here?" Mark asked him, using a soothing tone to calm him further. "When we were upstairs?"

"Of course I do. We almost kissed that night and-wait a minute." Mason cut himself off, looking up at Mark in surprise. "I thought you didn't remember that."

Mark looked a bit bashful, his cheeks tinged pink as he looked up at the ceiling.

"I was really confused the next morning. I think the alcohol just brought up the attraction I always had towards you but I'd assumed I was just so shitfaced, I didn't realize I was doing. I thought that making you think I didn't remember it would put it behind us."

"So what I'm hearing is you actually wanted to kiss me." Mason said happily, beaming as he looked up at Mark.

"I want to kiss you now, honestly." Mark admitted, thumbing Mason's belt loop slowly. "But that will have to wait until you're sober."

"Nooo." Mason whined, tilting his chin up to try to catch Mark's lips. With a laugh, Mark pulled away further, creating some distance between them.

"Yes. Now, are you going to keep whining or do you want to dance?"

Mason was coherent enough to realize when he'd lost. With a disappointed huff, he stopped tring to kiss Mark.

"Fine I'll- oh my gosh look!" Mason yelled, turning Mason to look at something to Mason's left. Mark was confused for a second, squinting in that general direction for a while until he saw.

"Oh, is that Aubrey?"

"Yes! And that guy she's making out with is really cute."

"Not cuter than me though right?" Mark asked, half-joking since he expected Mason to automatically agree.

"No, he's definitely cuter."

"What?!"

Mason was laughing uncontrollably as Mark started tickling him, punishing him for his disrespectful response.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was joking!"

Mark believed but continued to tickle him regardless. Mason's laugh was a thousand times better than any music they could play so Mark would keep him laughing for as long as he could.

——————————————————————

Good Afternoon (or whatever time of day it is for y'all)

I currently have to go walk my dog so this isn't going to be long.

Just wanted to ask how are you? I hope you are doing well amongst all of the craziness.

My family and I are faring better than most since none of us have gotten sick which is quite a luxury right now.

Anyway,

Vote, Comment, Share, Follow, anything else you can do with this book and I will see you next time. Bye!!!

[text_hash] => bbd37848
)