Mark's POV

It was starting to get late, so I decided to start getting ready for bed. I took a quick shower and changed into some gym shorts with a white t-shirt. My head had just hit the pillow when my phone rang. Tony's name flashed on the screen, so I pick it up and answered.

"Hey dude, what's up?"

"My mother is picking on me again!" He whined through the phone.

It's kind of funny to me how his mom picks on him, but still loves him like a son. I wish my mom and I, or at least my dad, had that kind of best friend relationship. Sometimes we do, but then they go back to being regular parents.

"What do you want me to do about it?" I asked him trying not to laugh, even though he wouldn't get too mad if I did laugh.

"Make her stop!" He whined some more. I could feel him pouting through the phone like a little child. It's kind of adorable when he acts childish, but we're both in high school so it's not that acceptable.

"Dude, that's something you're going to have to do. She's your mom, not mine." I heard him groan through the phone. "Bro, you wanna meet me again tomorrow morning at the beach?"

"Yeah! I would love that. I bet my mom would too because I think she's trying to get rid of me... again." He deadpanned.

I chuckled. "A'ight then. Cool, well goodnight."

"Nighty night, love you..." He cut himself off. An awkward moment of silence was built between us. "...buddy, love you buddy. That's what I totally meant to say. Goodnight, love you buddy," he stutters.

I blushed a little then started to laugh lightly. "Ha you're funny, love you too then, I guess, dude. Goodnight," I hung up the phone. I felt my face go red... why the hell am I blushing? That's weird, I rarely blush, and whenever I do, it's when I flirt with girls. GIRLS!

Wait, was he trying to flirt with me? I asked myself.

Oh well, Tony has a weird mind sometimes. I do too, but his is weirder than mine.

I put my phone on charger, pulled up the cover, and went to sleep.

*****

At 9:30 in the morning, I woke up to the sound of my ringing phone. Tony called again.

"Hello?" I answered in a groaning, sleepy tone.

Tony giggled. "Was somebody still sleepy?" He said, obviously mocking me.

"Duh bitch, what do you want?" I rolled my eyes, then closed them again, while trying not to fall back asleep.

"Well, you wanted me to come to the beach with you, right?" He asked.

My eyes flew open. I was pretty tired last night, so I forgot. "Oh yeah, totally dude," I lied a little.

"...you forgot, didn't you?" Somehow, he and his mom have this weird trait of being able to tell if someone is lying. Which is a bad thing for me because I'm a good liar... not that I'm proud of that trait, but yeah.

"Yeah dude, I forgot." I managed to say while yawning. "I'm not that much of a morning person you know. Sorry I had you up this early, how about later in the afternoon?"

Since I was yawning a lot, Tony asked me to repeat it again.

Then after he understood, he said, "Ok dude, well I was already up with my mom who had to work. Now she's off but later, she has to go to her other job. So I might be a little late. Just letting you know."

"A'ight dude. I'm going back to sleep, goodn--" I didn't finish my sentence because I was knocked out on top of my phone.

Tony heard me and giggled. "Goodnight my sweet prince, love you."

"What?" I asked in my sleep.

"I said goodnight Mark, see you later. JEEZ!"

"Whatever." Then I fell back asleep. I was asleep for a good hour, then my phone rang again. It was Kyle, one of my other surfing buddies. I answered it.

"Hello?" I groaned in my sleep.

"What's up dude!" His loud ass screamed through the phone.

"Sleeping." I yawned.

"Ah-haha! Mark, you're hilarious!" I heard a girl's voice in the background. Probably Kyle's obnoxious, loud girlfriend, Lola. I also heard him laughing in the background.

"Dude, you wanna come surfing with us?" He asked.

I was about to say yes, but then I just remembered that I promised Tony that I'd go surfing with him, and they don't like him because he's gay.

"I would but... I'd rather go back to sleep." I cleverly made up, which was partly true.

"No Mark, don't do that!" Ugh, his girlfriend's voice gets on my nerves. She nearly sounded like a chipmunk.

"And why not?" I rolled my eyes.

"Because we're almost at your door dude. You better get ready." Kyle hung up the phone.

"Ugh, what the fuck!" I groaned loudly, throwing my hands in the air.

"Mark! Watch your language!" My mom scowled from another room.

"Sorry, my bad." I got out of bed, stretched, put on my swim trunks, grabbed my board, then went in the kitchen for a small snack. I barely had time to finish my granola bar, because by the time I took my first bite, they knocked on the door. When I opened the door, I was already regretting it.

"Hey Mark!" They both screamed. Ugh, it's too early in the morning for all this damn screaming.

"Hey, y'all ready?" I said, rubbing my eyes and squinting.

"Totally dude! The others are already at the beach, just waiting on you brah."

"Yass! Let's have some fun!" The girlfriend squealed.

Few seconds later, we arrived at the beach. They handed me a bottle of water before we actually went surfing. Sadly, the waves weren't too big today, but I don't mind riding medium sized waves.

I hopped on my board, sat on it, and waited until the waves were a decent size before I began to stand on it. I did my usual routine: leaned to the left when the wave pushed me to the left, and so forth.

However, I didn't feel a cool breeze like I usually do when surfing. I looked down and realized that I never took my shirt off, as it was blowing in the wind. I blushed at myself, then tried to smoothly get off the wave without getting my shirt wet. As I landed onto the shore, I saw at least 5 girls giggling at me.

"Why didn't y'all tell me that my shirt was still on?" I screamed. The girls shrugged, still giggling. As I pulled my shirt off the girls squealed, ran over to me and started to feel my abs and muscles.

"Oh Mark, just your usual chick magnet." Nick, my other friend, teased while shaking his head.

"Hey, it's not my fault that I'm so sexy. Am I right, ladies?" I said in a "sexy" voice, flexing my muscles a bit to go along with my acting. The girls totally bought it because they were nodding like crazy. I kissed one girl's cheek, smacked another girl's ass, then blew kisses at the rest. They squealed some more as one girl pretended to faint.

I asked one of the girls to hold my shirt. Of course, she had sniff it, then put it on. I chuckled a bit at her, picked up my board, and stared at the waves. They were still the same as before, not big enough for me to enjoy surfing on but relaxing enough to watch.

"Hey Mark! What's up?" I heard someone call out to me. I turned around, and see Tony running towards me. Why? Why here, why now? My other surfing buddies laughed and pointed at Tony as he came over here.

"Mark, you know this fag?" Kyle asked while trying to hold a snicker.

"Um, no, not at all. Dude, I think you have the wrong person."

"But Mark, you told me to come here--"

I grabbed Tony's shoulders, turned him around and walked him in the other direction.

"Bro," I said, keeping my voice low so the others won't hear me. "I can't talk or hang with you now, come back when the guys and girls are gone."

"Why? What's gotten into you?" Tony asked, but also starting to get upset as he creased his eyebrows in concern and confusion.

I hated that I had to do this but I pushed Tony so hard, he fell into the sand. "I said scurry along, fag!" I yelled in a fake tough guy tone. "You can barely surf right, you don't deserve to be here with the rest of us."

Ouch! That even hurt me. Tony was obviously hurt as tears ran down his eyes and his face became an extremely horrible shade of red. He stood up, grabbed his board, shot 'the finger' at me and my friends, then left sobbing. My guy friends pointed and laughed viciously, the girls giggle and said stuff like "Omg, what a loser!" "Who would want to date that fag?"

The guys heard the girls and laughed even harder, but I didn't laugh. Instead, my heart was in pain and I felt like I wanted to cry.

It wasn't his fault that he was gay. I absolutely hated that I had to act like a jerk to my best friend in front of my buddies. I felt like I should do something to make it up to him, so I could fill up the void that was growing in my heart.

After a while of sitting in front of the ocean and staring out into space, I decided to leave a little early and as my excuse, I told them that my parents needed me. I went home, and called Tony. He never answered. I called him 4 more times, then he texted, 'YOU DON'T LIKE ME ANYMORE, SO WHAT'S THE POINT OF TEXTING ME?!' in huge capital letters. That really made my heart jump.

I texted back. 'Dude, I need to tell you something.'

'For what? Wanna push me into the sand again and call me a fag?'

Wow, I really hurt this dude without intending to. 'Leave your front door unlocked' I probably sounded like a creep just then, but I had finally thought of a surprise for him.

*****

"Here goes nothing." I sighed then rang Tony's doorbell.

His mom opened the door. She had a fake smile on her face when she saw me, which probably meant that Tony confided in her over what happened. Once she saw what I was holding, her smile turned real.

"Hey Mark, what can I do for you?" She asked in a weirdly nice tone, like how parents act when they see their child's friend.

"Hey Megan. Listen, I was being a dick to your son and I ordered a pizza to show him how sorry I am. Would you like a slice?" I said honestly with a straight face, showing how serious I was.

Megan stared at me for a while, before taking the box and then taking two slices of pizza. She nodded. "Sure, he's in his room. He's really hurt and I'm pretty sure that this pizza will help. I asked him if he wanted anything to eat but he said no, and he's probably starving. That's really thoughtful of you to buy this pizza for him. Good luck."

"Thanks, I'll probably need it," We both chuckled, then I went by his room and knocked on his door.

"What Mom?" He yelled. You can obviously tell he was crying just by listening to his voice. I feel really hurt.

"Dude, it's me, Mark," I turned the doorknob. It was locked. "Could you let me in?"

"No! Go away!" He screamed. My heart did a backflip. He never screamed at me before.

"Come on dude. Give me a chance and let's talk about this."

"You two sound like a married couple." Megan laughed while walking to her room, happily eating the pizza.

"Megan! Really?" I rolled my eyes, trying not to laugh. I saw that she was trying to lighten up this situation, but I honestly think that this won't work.

From the sound of his voice, I could tell that Tony has been crying a lot, as he was also squeaking. "I knew I shouldn't have told you that I was gay. Now you're going to abandon me, like my old friends did. You can go back to your perfect normal life without me"

A tear had ran down from my eye. "Ok then, just wanted to say that I was sorry. And to prove that I was sorry," I cutted myself off. More tears ran down my eyes, and I began to sniff with every other word that I spoke. "I stole my parents' money just to buy this pizza for you. I'm probably gonna get in a lot of trouble when I get home, but that doesn't matter. I hate that I hurt you because you're my best friend man. Sorry for being so insensitive. Do you forgive me?"

It had gotten quiet for a while. I was wiping away the tears, then I heard the door unlock and Tony opened it. His face and eyes were red. When he saw the pizza box, he smiled a little.

"You bought that for me?"

I smiled. "Yeah dude. I got your favorite."

He took the box and opened it. "Hawaiian pizza. Yum!" We both laughed. "Thank you."

"No problem man." I turned around, then he grabbed my shoulder. I looked back and saw his smile.

"You can come in."

"You sure?"

He nodded, then pulled my wrist to prove he was serious. I came in his room and sat on his bed. "You really meant what you said? About you not intending on hurting my feelings?"

"Yea bro, I'm really sorry." I apologized for probably the 5th billion time.

"I'm sorry too."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why you sorry?" I asked.

"For overreacting. I kinda knew that you didn't intend on hurting me, and you was trying to be cool in front of your friends--."

I cutted him off by bringing a finger to his lips. "Don't be sorry. If I was you and someone said that to me, regardless of whether they meant it or not, I would be crying too."

We both chuckled. He stood up, so did I. Then he wrapped his arms around me and gave me a hug. He was cold, just like his room. I was still shirtless so his body felt like ice towards my skin but I didn't care, I hugged him back. I'm not sure how my body temperature is to him, but we were hugging for a long time, which probably could mean that I was warm to him.

We laid back down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. His hand ended up on top of mine... again but this time, I didn't care.

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(4/15/2018)