Mason sat on his large mattress, phone in hand and thumbs moving quickly over the screen. His back began to ache from the awkward way he was bending over his device, but he didn’t really care.

It was nearly 1 in the afternoon, and Mason was currently on a mission. He wanted to get all of his friends here so he could make Jasmine and Daniel’s actions an example of what not to do to your friend that is crushing on your other friend.

Sure it was dramatic of him, holding a grudge like this when the class had gone so well. But Mason felt disrespected. While he wasn’t completely sure why Daniel hadn’t felt the need to mention the fact that he had told both of them about the program, Mason knew that Jasmine had done it on purpose.

Jasmine did this all of the time. Somehow organize a plan where two people, often Mark and Mason, were forced together and waited by the phone to hear how her wonderful plan had gone. If she wanted to play that game, then Mason was going to call her out on it.

Mason texted the usual friends, Mark, Jasmine, Daniel, and Clark, to come over to his house this evening to hang out and have dinner with his family.

While most of them responded back, quickly agreeing, Clark was hesitant and eventually declined since he had work and would be tired afterward. Mason didn’t mind, he knew how dedicated Clark was to work and promised that he would get him over to his house another time.

But, now he could focus wholly on drilling those two for what they did. And, with any luck, Mark would be willing to help.

—————

Jasmine and Mark were the last to arrive. Mason had already been entertaining Daniel for a while, the two of them playing an intense game of Crazy 8’s, and grinned widely when he found out that they had come. Daniel eyed him suspiciously but didn’t comment on his creepy expression. Mason quickly paused their game and ran down the stairs to meet the twins at the door.

The doorbell rang right when Mason’s hand touched the knob, and he swung it open with a wide smile. Jasmine jumped back, eyes wide, and released a sharp yelp. Mark’s eyes widened slightly from surprise, then they narrowed when he saw Mason’s expression. He knew what he was up to. But, he didn’t seem opposed.

Mason opened the door wider, letting them enter, and followed behind them as they walked up to his room.

“Welcome, welcome,” he grinned, gesturing to his cleaner-than-usual room. “I hope you enjoy your time at my Bed and Breakfast.”

“Then where’s the food?” Daniel asked, a brow raised in Mason’s direction. Mason placed his hands on his hips and cocked them out to the right sassily.

“If I remember correctly, it isn’t morning. So breakfast time is over,” Mason deadpanned before sitting on the floor again. “And this is actually the time for me to be asking the questions.”

Daniel seemed slightly taken aback, and Jasmine turned to Mason with a curious expression.

“What are you talking about?” Jasmine asked, a small smile on her face even as she was confused.

Mark sat down beside Mason, and Mason decided to take it as a sign of his support. Jasmine eyed her brother, likely noticing it. Of course she did, she was hipper aware of anything that had to do with Mason and her brother.

“We’re talking about the fact that the two of you wanted to be sneaky and manipulative,” Mark said finally, glaring at the two in front of him. “You know it is kind of childish to keep the fact that we’re going to the same nursing program from each other.”

Jasmine grinned sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders, while a look of understanding fell over Daniel’s face.

“Oh . . . ”  he gasped loudly, facepalming with a groan. “I didn’t even think to tell you guys that I messaged the other person about it. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal and I thought that it might even come up before then.”

Mason sighed, shaking his head fondly at his friend. That was so like Daniel, so Mason didn’t have much energy in him to fight about that. Jasmine on the other hand just shrugged casually.

“I’ll admit, I kept it from you guys on purpose,” she said, not seeming very apologetic at all as she speaks. “I thought it would be a cute surprise and I hoped it would maybe spark some action-”

“Jasmine, I don’t get why you’re still on this,” Mark groaned, rolling his eyes as he crossed his arms. “Mason and I aren’t going to start randomly fucking anytime soon, let alone date.”

The burn of rejection hit Mason hard. The painful sting came from his chest, growing in blood-curdling strength before it rolled down into his stomach. It rested there for a moment, burning Mason with the presence of it in his chest and stomach for some time before it slowly spread and dissipated throughout his body.

As this was happening, Mark laid a comforting hand on Mason’s shoulder and looked down at him apologetically.

“I’m sorry that Jasmine keeps making annoying assumptions,” Mark apologized, staring at Mason sincerely with his warm green eyes. “You know how she gets.”

Mason nodded despite how his stomach was churning and waited for the feeling to pass.

“Hey, I’m right here,” Jasmine complained. This encouraged Mark to get into a mini argument with his twin over randomness. As Jasmine was arguing, she took careful moments to give Mason sympathetic glances. She knew how bothered Mason would be by Mark’s words, regardless of how he tried to hide it. While Mason appreciated Jasmine’s attempt at help, there wasn’t much she could do about Mason’s emotions.

Mark was straight and had quickly friend-zoned Mason. As long as Mason held feelings for Mark, moments like this would come up over and over again.

While the twins eventually stopped arguing and began to talk to Daniel and Mason, they decided to finish their game of Crazy 8’s. In less than half an hour, the four of them were talking animatedly over another game.

Daniel began to speak about a new job he got. From what he told everyone, he was working in a successful location of a popular bank and was finding that his job was more fun and interesting than he expected. The best part was that it paid really well.

Daniel had moved out of his parents’ place right out of high school to exercise his freedom. But, with this job, he would not only be able to get a bigger place but also live more comfortably than before.

All of his friends were so excited for him, taking plenty of time to cheer and scream over his accomplishment. In fact, they did so until the poor boy was forced to beg them to stop.

Mark then talked about some Universities he was looking into and how many of them had dance clubs outside of classes.

Mark, like the rest of his siblings, was trained intensely in Latin dancing. While many of his siblings did not venture much further than doing it in their free time or during parties, Mark found that he did have a passion for dancing, but for a different type.

He quickly became obsessed with some of the many types of Hip Hop and Urban fusion, and quickly tried to be involved in anything involving those styles of dance when he could.

Mason didn’t mention it, but he kind of loved it whenever Mark and dancing were involved. The taller boy lit up when he discussed his passions, especially this one, and looked sexy as hell when he danced. For those reasons alone, he thoroughly enjoyed anything that Mark did that involved dancing.

After Mason had plenty of time to secretly drool and gawk over the ever-amazing Mark, Jasmine started discussing thoughts she had about her future.

No one brought it into discussion since it was a touchy subject but Jasmine had a very hard time figuring out what she wanted to do with her life.

It seemed to be the one area of her life that she didn’t have a full grasp on, and the entire situation bothered her immensely.

Jasmine told us about how she had recently started to consider journalism and had thoughts about becoming a reporter. As Jasmine described it, she would “spill the tea and snatch all the wigs as one of those CNN bitches”.

That got a loud laugh out of her friends, but Jasmine pouted when they didn’t quiet down.

“Guys, I’m serious!” She whined, not helping with the humor factor that had everyone laughing around her. Eventually, they sobered up and listened to the pouting Jasmine. “It’s still really confusing to figure out what I want and how I'm going to get there, but I might be figuring it out.”

A wide smile fell over Mason’s face, and he noticed that similar expressions could be found all throughout the room. They were proud of Jazz and what she was doing, and Mason hoped that she could feel that. A glint suddenly came into her eye and she turned to Daniel with a wide innocent smile.

“Hey, Daniel. Do you want to go get some food with me?” Jasmine asked sweetly, flashing her eyelids a bit when Daniel paused to consider it. “I haven’t had a snack all day and you know how I get when I’m hungry, right?”

Daniel squinted slightly, analyzing Jasmine’s face. Despite Jasmine’s innocent expression, he was still cautious of why she was suddenly asking him. He knew Jasmine and knew that there was an ulterior motive for her invitation.

His eyes soon widened in understanding and he quickly nodded. The two of them left in seconds and it was after the door clicked close that Mason realized what was going on.

They had left Mason and Mark alone.

Mason ground his teeth together, mentally grumbling about his manipulative friend. He had planned on grumbling and being upset for a while afterward, but he swallowed all of his anger when Mark turned to him with his wide smile.

Mason forgot in nearly an instant, and soon he and Mark were talking as if nothing had happened. For Mark, it really didn’t. He hadn’t realized how he affected Mason emotionally and chose to ignore the fact that Jasmine purposely left them alone. He was talking to his friend of several years and nothing more.

The conversation flowed easily. Especially since they could now also talk about another shared interest: Nursing and the program they were in. They discussed how they were completing their homework from the day before and raved or complained about tiny aspects of the program.

Multiple times, Mark wanted to bring up Gabe. Complain about him, make the man a problem, and smear his name with enough slander to convince Mason to stop speaking to the jerk. But seeing the carefree expression on Mason’s beautiful face was too great, Mark really did not want to mess it up. So, he bit his tongue, distracting himself with Mason’s smile to get his mind off of Gabe.

It was after another one of Mark’s slightly cheesy jokes that Mason noticed how close they had gotten. In the time that the two spoke, they had unknowingly moved closer and closer to one another. As they laughed, hands found their way onto shoulders, arms, and even laps. Mason’s eyes traveled up from where his hand had been squeezing Mark’s really firm bicep and met Mark’s eyes.

The smile on his face slowly dropped, his mind too focused on the distance between him and Mark. Their eyes locked, faces close together as they stared into each other’s eyes. Mark’s mouth opened in a silent gasp and Mason’s eyes followed the movement, now locked on Mark’s mouth.

The thin, smooth lips were all he could think about. Mason glanced back up and found that Mark’s eyes moved down to his lips as well. Their eyes locked once again, and Mason just felt the need to kiss him. Neither of them had spoken, simply staring at each other’s eyes and lips.

It was the perfect time to do it. He wanted to, he had to. But, this wasn’t the first Mason wanted to kiss Mark with all of his being, so he knew how to hold back from doing anything.

Mason pulled back, laughing softly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Your jokes are terrible," he told Mark, still laughing even as Mark looked a bit disoriented. Mason was able to pull back by reminding himself that Mark would never want to kiss him. But because of Mark’s disorientation, Mason had to wonder if Mark wanted to kiss him too. Mark opened his mouth to respond but stopped when he heard a loud yell sound throughout the room.

“Dinner!”

Mark grinned, albeit uncomfortably, and pointed to Mason’s door with his thumb.

“I think they want us down there,” he chuckled, eyes moving from Mason’s face to the floor and back again. Mason nodded, standing up and leading Mark down the steps to the dining room.

Mason wanted to continue to think about what had happened and obsess over it for as long as possible, but he decided to push it to the back of his mind. Besides, his dad was cooking today and had made one of the limited meals he knew how to do well.

Dinner would be great. He could worry about his crush and all of the complicated feelings that came with it later.