“How was class today?” Jason asked over the phone. His voice sounded so sweet, and by the way he spoke, Mark was sure he was smiling.

“Good! I think I’m finally getting the hang of these kids. Only took two weeks,” Mark answered with a smile as well. He held his phone pressed between his ear and shoulder while he was walking through the grocery aisles. 

“This is so exciting for you!” Jason's voice in and of itself felt like a warmth Mark had been missing from his whole life until then. “So this position is only until the end of the month? Do you who will come after you?”

“Oh goodness no,” Mark said, he paused to tap on some watermelons until he found a suitably hollow-sounding one. “They have kept their plans secret from me. It could potentially be me, but I’m not going to hope on it.”

“Why not? You’ve got the degrees, haven’t you? And class has been going well for a week so far. If I were in charge there, you’d be my top choice.” Jason the paused for a moment, his voice muddled as he pulled the phone from his mouth to speak with someone in his office. “Sorry, Jenny was just dropping off some papers, you should keep hope though. Cautious optimism never hurts,”

“Ah haha, we’ll see. Enough on me, how is work for you? How has the merger that got finalized been in the mergificating process?” Mark laughed again at his own unique word choice, well, creation more than choice.

“It’s good you’re a history teacher Mr Lee,” Jason mocked him, but Mark couldn’t care when he still so clearly heard the sweetness in Jason’s voice, and the smile sitting right behind the phone. “The mergifying or– how did you say it?”

“Shut up,” Mr Lee smiled while he bagged some apples in plastic before placing them into his cart. 

“Fine fine. It’s going well, projections for the rest of the year look great, and all the new folks in my department seem nice enough.”

“That’s great! Work must be busy if you’re at the office on Saturday.” Mark’s reply was only met by a simple “Mhm,” from Jason, a sound effect which was followed by a moment of awkward silence.

After he pushed his cart out of the produce section, Mark placed a loaf of bread into his cart before breaking the silence asking “So… was there anything specific you called me about?”

“No, not so much. I just wanted to hear your voice while I had my lunch. Work is busy but talking with you makes the day feel worth it.” God, if only that man knew what his words did to Mark’s heart. They sent the poor thing skipping just about every other beat.

“Jason!” Mark exclaimed a little too loudly, garnering the glare of a middle-aged man who was intensely investigating the pita bread section. “S-sorry,” Mark said to the man in a hushed voice, while he spun his cart around quickly and moved to the next aisle as fast as he could. “You can’t just say things like that, I’m in a grocery store!”

“Ahh, so that’s what you’re up to today. I was just about to ask.” Mark could hear as the smile behind the receiver became a sly grin, making his face flush redder than the diced tomatoes he pushed his cart past.

Sighing into the receiver, Mark shook his head before grabbing a few cans of lentil soup off the shelf.

“So that’s how you’re gonna be now?” Jason laughed, “Well I guess I can’t offer to cook you dinner if you bring ingredients over to my house then.” He said with a feigned sigh and the voice used by anyone enticing someone into what was already a surefire yes.

“No one said anything about that…” Mark said, his face would be staying red for a while it seemed. “What would you make me, in this hypothetical situation?”

“Well, I would have to ask you to pick up some produce, celery carrots and such, then some cans of beans and one of corn, oh– and an onion too, plus a bell pepper and a jalapeno. I have the necessary spices at home, but I’d need chicken stock.”

“I asked what you would make me, not for an ingredient list to reverse engineer,” Mark teased back, which was only fair at that point.

“Hey! I was just getting there. If you brought me all those ingredients, hypothetically, of course, I’d make you the best black bean soup you’ve ever had. And I’d send you home with plenty of leftovers for lunch at school the coming week.”

Lord help him because at that moment Mark feared his face would stay red forever. At least let it be only a subtle shade of pink, this flaming hot red was all too extreme!

“Well…” Mark’s smile grew as he grabbed his phone from its crook in his neck and held it properly to his ear. “I’d need you to text me that list, and then what time I should stop by. But if you did all of that, then I guess, hypothetically, that I’d love that plan.”

“Six then?” Jason asked. God, Mark could hear that grin growing and he loved it. 

“Yeah, six.”

They sat in silence for a moment after that. Mark continued pushing his cart through the aisles, listening to the barely audible sound of Jason’s pen scratching across the page.

“Mark,” Jason spoke first, after what must have been five minutes. 

“You gotta go?” Mark said it was embarrassing how sad saying goodbye made him.

“Yeah. I’ll text you those ingredients though, and then see you at six.”

“Okay, see you at six.” Mark said, holding the phone away from his ear in his hand, watching the screen until Jason hit hang up.

Mark didn’t even have the chance to put his phone back into his pocket before Jason texted him. At the end of a not too long list of ingredients, was a kissy face, made by a colon and a three. It was such a stupid thing, a silly face kids used with each other, but seeing it made Mark smile. It made him smile, yet it also made his lips, his poor lips, feel so bare. God, the clock couldn’t tick to six fast enough!

✧⚞✦⚟✧

Soft rock music played quietly in the background, as Skyler and Chloe sat on the shag rug of her bedroom working on their homework.

Well, Chloe was at least, her calculus homework almost giving her an aneurysm. Skyler on the other hand, had finished some homework –the reading Mr Lee had assigned– but now decided to pull out his sketchbook. Black hair subtly gelled back that always fell forward towards the end of the day, narrow glasses that somehow made the face look friendlier, a proud smile and that grey cardigan. Even with just a quick pencil sketch, it was easy for Skyler to capture that man’s likeness, he’d drawn that face about a thousand times before. He even put a little doodle on the top of a quiz which he wasn’t confident in last week, the drawing earned him one point of extra credit bringing his grade on it to an 80.

“Skyler, if you aren’t going to do homework, go grab me an apple at least,” Chloe said as she looked over her work for the third time. “Why do you even come here to study, if you’re just gonna draw him?”

“Shut up, I’ll go get your damn apple.” He said standing up and walking to the door. Before he left however he turned to see Chloe’s hand reaching out for his sketchbook. Snatching it off the floor, he walked out of her room for real this time, heading down the stairs to her kitchen.

“Mrs Robberts, hello,” Skyler said he walked past her in the living room. She was sitting on their couch with a cup of hot tea reading, but when Skyler walked past she instantly closed her book.

“Oh hello honey, how are you? I must have been out when you got here.” She replied sweetly, turning to look at him when she spoke. Mrs Robberts was the manager of a local clothing store, a very –if not the most– active member of the local church, and Chloe’s mother, of course.

“I’m good, thank you. How was your day?” Mrs Robberts had been as much of a mother to Skyler as his mom had, maybe more even. She had seen him every single of his birthdays since he met Chloe, something neither of Skyler’s parents could claim. She’d made him many a Sunday dinner, and dinner on some weekdays too. She had even been the one to teach both Skyler and Chloe how to drive, how she managed that while never yelling once was a miracle from god.

Skyler’s parents weren’t bad people, they just weren’t meant to be parents. They loved each other, but both of Skyler’s parents loved their careers more than anything. Having a kid– it had been an accident that they did their best with. Some people just don’t have the knack for it. 

Still, every year they sent him plenty of money for Christmas and his birthday, and they sent Mrs Robberts generous gifts too even if she insisted they didn’t. They just didn’t know how else to show their love, money makes the world go round after all.

“My day? Oh, oh oh! Let me tell you” She said with a dramaticised laugh. “There were these girls at the store today, little brats, who kept picking up shirts to hold up against themselves in the mirror, and when they didn’t like how it looked, guess what they did. Hm? Guess!”

“What?” Skyler said, a smile growing on his face.

“That’s hardly a good guess, tsk,” Mrs Robberts replied shaking her head, “Anyway, they tossed the shirts they didn’t like on the floor. Tossed em!” She threw her hands up in the air, shaking her head some more. “You and Chloe better never do anything like that, hm? Or I’ll find you both and smack you upside the head.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Skyler replied with a smile as he made a move to walk to the kitchen.

But before he could take two steps, Chloe’s mom tutted loudly and looking over his shoulder, Skyler could see her beckoning him with her finger. “You practically live in my house, so show me what you’ve been drawing, hm?”

“Ahh, but Chloe wanted me to get her an apple–” Skyler said, clutching his sketchbook a little tighter.

“Oh that girl can get her own damn apple, c’mere.” She said, sliding over on the couch making room for him. And reluctantly, Skyler walked over.

“Let’s see…” She said taking the sketchbook from Skyler as he sat down beside her, and flipping to the most recent drawings. Going backwards from the sketch Skyler had just finished, she saw about half a dozen drawings of Mr Lee in a row, the realism and detail ranging on them, but they were quite clearly Mr Lee. She then got to a few drawings of ideas to make at Daria’s studio, and after looking at two of three of those she closed the sketchbook.

With a smirk on her face, she handed the sketchbook back to Skyler and asked him “So who is he?”

Skyler was shocked for a moment, he had been scared she would know it was a teacher from his school and think him a weird boy, but since Mr Lee was a new sub, she’d only seen his name in emails from the school.  “Just someone from school,” he replied the now nervous smile on his face struggling to remain.

“Oh, just someone from school he says,” She replied that smirk on her face only growing stronger, it was easy to see how she and Chloe were related. “Well, that someone from school seems very handsome, your drawings of him at least. Is he a nice boy?”

“Yeah, yeah he is nice,” Skyler said with a smile.

“Well, I’ll let you bring miss bratty-pants upstairs her apple now.” Mrs Robberts said patting Skyler’s back as she reached forward and grabbed the book she had set down. “Nice seeing you around, make sure you study some alright?”

“Yes Ma’am,” Skyler said, finally going into the kitchen and grabbing the apple Chloe wanted from the fruit bowl. By the time he finally made it upstairs and tossed her the apple, Chloe was still in agony over the calculus homework, but at least she was on problem four now, not on three as she had been for ages. 

“What took you so long, did you go pick the apple fresh?” Chloe said, venom in her eyes as she glared at Skyler taking a bite of her apple.

“Shut up,” He replied simply plopping himself back down to the floor as he opened his history textbook. The chemistry homework he had, wouldn’t get done tonight. Rather, Skyler read ahead in his history textbook so he could ask a smart question in Mr Lee’s class on Monday.