🏃Clark's POV🏃

I sat back on our living room couch, glowing as I enjoyed my day off. Working at a bookstore is surprisingly fun and I love working there tremendously. But that doesn't mean I don't get sad when I can't watch episodes of my favorite TV shows (The Challenge) as they air, or can not just wake up and stare at the ceiling because I'm tired and I can.

So on days off before possible plans with the four munchkins I call friends, I lounge around, and enjoy my company. The company of the TV.

I was yelling heatedly for "Johnny!" to "Beat him into the ground! DON'T LET HIM WIN!" When my phone suddenly rang and I reluctantly paused my show, picking up the phone while mumbling under my breath.

"Whoever this is better have a damn good reason to-"

And then I heard his voice.

"Hey Clark? It's me uh Santiago. I don't know if you remember but we actually exchanged numbers and I thought that I may as well call." Santiago spoke through the phone hesitantly and I felt my heart warm. "Umm, are you busy today? Cause if you are that's fine but if not then do you want to hang out? Maybe for coffee or tea or something I don't really care."

"Yup." I grinned smilling when I heard his breath hitch in surprise. "That sounds good. But I am going to meet up with my friends today, are you okay with some quick coffee?"

I don't know exactly what he did but I heard some rustling and muffled "fuck yeahs" through the phone so I think he was happy.

"Yeah sure, I'm fine with anything, I really want to get to know you." He rushed out through the phone. "As a friend."

I smiled.

"Same here. Do you want to meet up in like, two hours maybe?" I asked pulling the phone off of my face so I could check the time.

"Yeah, sure. I'll text you the address." Santiago agreed. "So I guess I will see you then."

"Yup, bye."

Neither of us hung up for a moment, and just stayed there listening to the others breathing through the phone, but when I glanced back up at the TV and saw Johnny Bananas face on the screen I knew I had to finish the episode.

"Bye." I repeated, and hung up.

~~~~~~~~~

"Ah, Clark! Over here!" I snapped my head in the direction of the voice and beamed when I saw him smiling warmly at me, and in no time I was in front of Santiago.

"Hi." I smiled stupidly at him, sitting down.

"Hey." Santiago replied. After that the two of us just sat there grinning at each other until I decided that we had been sitting like that for way too long. So I sparked up a conversation.

"So I wasn't able to ask the last time we met but I'm actually quite curious, what is your family like? You never mentioned them." I asked, leaning towards him eagerly awaiting his answer.

His expression got soft as he thought about his family, smiling softly as memories came to him.

"Yeah they really are something." He said, laughing shortly. "Well I come from a big family. there's my Mom and her husband Stephan, my Dad, who is just dating at the moment. The oldest..."

And we spent the next hour just talking. The conversation was about our families for the first twenty minutes but it soon moved onto other topics. Our likes and dislikes, favorite TV shows now, favorite childhood shows, and pets we've had in the past. It seemed never ending and I was totally okay with that.

We had ordered drinks earlier and the dry empty paper cups sat in front of us. Though they tried to be a reminder of the time that past they only ended up being acknowledged when Santiago finally checked his phone to realize that an hour had gone by.

He winced, awkwardly chuckling as he looked up at me.

"Man, we've been talking for a while now." Santiago laughed, looking at me almost apologetically. I pulled out my phone and felt my eyes widening when I saw the time.

"We have been talking for over an hour." I told him in shock. "That's crazy."

We both chuckled.

"Yeah, I thought I could only do that on dates." He joked, laughing as he spoke. I found myself laughing as well, ignoring the odd feeling that came from his words. When we finally calmed down he tried to give me a small smile but it just came out as a grimace.

"You probably have to meet up with those friends of yours right about now." He sighed, looking away from me for a moment then glanced back, and finally succeeding in giving me that smile.

Sure it was sad but it was a smile and that was what I payed attention to.

I thought of the time and realized that he was right. After I finished my phone call with Santiago earlier I had texted Mason, Mark, Jasmine and Daniel to ask if our little group of four could all hangout later and once I got everyone's conformation I set it up for 4 o'clock. So if I wanted to arrive at a reasonable time I would have to leave in a matter of minutes.

"You're right actually." I told him. "I should get going soon."

He nodded and didn't say anything else, almost as if "soon" meant "right now."

"You do know I can stay for a little longer right?" I asked him, holding back my smiled at the light blush that started to taint his cheeks.

"Of course I knew that." He argued, sitting up fully to seem more sure of himself. Unfortunately for him his blush only got stronger as I laughed, unable to hold back any longer.

After thoroughly embarrassing him and sobering up I gave him a smile.

"Why don't you come with me?" I suggested suddenly. "I mean if you're not busy. I'm sure my friends would love you and I think they're not so bad themselves. You would have fun."

Against his will, his eyes light up like fireflies and he was already standing up.

"What are we waiting for then?" He took his jacket and book bag and after hastily putting them on he went over to the counter. Shaking my head I got my stuff as well and followed him.

"Why are you up here?" I asked, gesturing to the counter.

"Well we may as well get a couple of drinks before we leave." He explained cheerfully before reaching into his jacket and pulling out his wallet. "You like hot chocolate?"

"I'm more of a french vanilla kind of guy." I told him, watching as he ordered the drinks for the two of us and then proceeded to pay. I wasn't about to stop him from paying since he did ask me out and free food.

Once we got our drinks we made our way out of the coffee shop, steeling ourselves against the chilly winds and rushed down to the subway entrance.

We talked and joked around all the way onto the train and whispered to each other in lowered voices until we got to our stop. I looked at Santiago for a moment once we got onto the bus and let a thought pass through my head.

After only speaking with him on two occasions I came to realize that Santiago wasn't very good at hiding his feelings. He wore his heart on his sleeve and I found that aspect of him very endearing. It was cute but also made it easy to read him and I had to admit to myself that I was pretty cautious when it came to people and that trait of his eased that tension I usually had quite a bit.

~~~~~

"Thank you so much Mark." Jasmine said sarcastically, the smile on her face twitching uncontrollably. "I totally needed you to tell everyone here about the time I thought Francesca's Tampon was for picking your ears. I appreciate that so much."

The twins shared the fakest smiles known in existence while the rest of us cracked up, reaping the full benefits of the exchange.

We were all over at Daniels place this time, Jasmine and Mark had picked up the snacks and since Mason's family loved hoarding movies we borrowed a couple of the old comedies so we could watch them but occasionally just talk over them. Luckily before we got to his place Daniel asked if we could get some Soda so we weren't just stuck with water.

And now we were having one of those moments when we would just talk over the movie. I could see that Daniel was getting slightly annoyed since he actually wanted to watch the movie but eventually we just muttered something about asking Mason for the movie later and gave up, fully listening to the conversation that had ensued during one of the dramatic points.

Santiago fit right in, after I introduced him it took seconds before he was deep in a conversation with Daniel and Mason about his Major or something along those lines. I hadn't been paying much attention since Mark and Jasmine had been dishing out some of their juicy family drama at the exact same time but he definitely was having fun.

It made me almost proud that I was able to give him this and I had a puffed chest the whole time we were there.

Eventually though it got late and Santiago had told us all earlier that he had to be at his apartment before three or else the family that he was staying with would be upset so he had to leave. Plus I had work and Daniel had a Saturday morning class so laughing until five in the morning was not an option at the time.

So after long winded good-byes we left.

Santiago and I stayed together for as long as possible but when the time came for us to go our separate ways he got off the train with me and we talked until until the next train came. He got on to continue on his journey home and I walked away to do the same.

We shared peace signs from opposite sides of the train doors right before his train went off and when I finally got back to the condo I realized that I had been smiling the whole way home.

I had been smiling because of him.

I went to bed thinking of Santiago.