Mark and Henry were beyond themselves.

They just couldn’t or did not want to accept this absurdity, it was getting absolutely out of control. They thought about that as they ran from opposite sides of the university to get to the place where a crowd was gathering up. There was no way –

“THEY ARE JUMPING FROM THE FOURTH FLOOR, LOOK!” A random person shouted from the crowd and indeed, four floors up were two figures racing down the corridor heading towards the low balcony.

“Oh my god” Mark exasperated to himself watching the scene unfold before his eyes.

The two figures ran as fast as they could and they just jumped out of the balcony.

Yes, they jumped.

Off the fourth floor.

Landing graciously (not) on a giant tree right below as the people around them cheered as if this was a spectacle and not two dumbasses being ridiculous. Mark and Henry pushed people around, from the opposite sides of the crowd, not caring if they complained, to get to the bottom of the tree right in time to hear:

“I WON!” From two voices, at the same time.

Right there, at the feet of the tree, were their respective friends looking completely disheveled, hairs messed up, cuts and scratches everywhere, leaves in every crack of their body, their uniforms ragged up at some places and yet they both held triumphant expressions on their faces. 

Mark thought they looked like primates.

“Huh?!” Nick, Henry’s friend, scoffed first “You did not, my feet were on the tree first” He smirked, cleaning up some blood by his mouth with his thumb.

“Bullshit!” Leon, Mark’s friend answered by snapping an angry expression at him “My feet were on the ground first” He pointed down as if to make a point.

“Why are you lying to yourself? Everyone saw that I got here first!” Nick pushed Leon’s shoulder like a kid.

Everyone had not seen that. Everyone was hardly preoccupied with who got where first. Everyone avoided eye contact.

“Look! They are looking away because they know it was me!” Leon shoved Nick back.

Everyone did not know.

“You are just a fucking sore loser!” Nick yelled, his temper raising up.

“You’re the loser, you goddamn liar!” Leon threw his hands up.

“Don’t call me a liar, you loser!” Nick grabbed Leon’s ragged collar, already enraged enough to throw hands.

“Don’t call me a loser, you liar!” Leon grabbed Nick’s collar back making their noses almost touch.

Mark and Henry decided this was enough. Both of them stepped up behind their friend without them noticing. They made eye contact and nodded to each other. Both of them raised a hand at the same time and slapped away at the back of Nick and Leon’s head, their forehead slammed against one another.

“OW!” Nick and Leon yelled out, snapping away from each other, both of them holding their foreheads.

“Alright, show’s over” Henry said out loud for the crowd still surrounding them. They got booed at.

“Oh, get a life people!” Mark growled, and reluctantly people started to disperse.

After that Mark and Henry pulled their idiotic friends away from the floor, dragging them to opposite directions while Nick and Leon kept grumbling insults at each other.

—  

“I swear to god–!”

“Ow! Ow! OW! Damn it Mark, it hurts, do it with love” Leon pleaded.

“I HAVE NO LOVE LEFT TO GIVE TO YOU!” Mark exasperated as he pushed the cotton with some medicine on Leon’s scratched cheek, as hard as he could.

Mark and Leon were in the college’s east infirmary, because Mark knew Henry would take Nick to the West side. This kind of situation was so common that they already knew it well. Even the nurse could not bring herself to care anymore as everytime Leon appeared there she would leave, eyes rolling, for coffee break.

“I am not paid enough for this” Mark huffed out, gently placing a bandaid on the deep cut of Leon’s nose. Despite his outburst, he has no intention of adding more injuries to his friend.

“When did I hire you?” Leon answered nasally, because of the bandaid.

“My point exactly” Mark flicked Leon’s forehead, right on the bump from before.

Leon let out a cry holding his forehead, glaring as Mark leaned to the side to get some more bandaids and ointment. Then he smiled cheekly when he knew Mark couldn’t see it, happy that even with all the cursing, his friend always took care of him like this.

They were childhood friends, you see.

They grew up together, glued at the hip. They survived pre, middle and high school together, eventually landing at the same major at university, if you can believe it. Despite all the harsh words they were always throwing at the wind, it was not uncommon to see them hugging, laying on each other’s laps or leaning on each other’s shoulders, all the while complaining between them.

Mark and Leon were so used to one another that no amount of bickering could even make them mad anymore, it was just how they were, too comfortable to even care how people saw it.

Right here, Mark was actually between Leon’s legs. Leon had one led hanging from the side of the infirmary bed, the other one was up on the bed, angled to accommodate his friend. Mark had one leg bent, his knee resting comfortably on Leon’s tight, the other leg also hanging from the side of the bed. Mark was shorter than Leon by a whole head and a half, so this way was easier for him to tend to his injuries.

“Off with the shirt” Mark said.

“Geez, pay me a meal first” Leon answered, taking off what was left of the ragged shirt.

“Asshole” Mark snorted, feeling his anger subduing.

Leon’s torso was full of dark bruises that would hurt the next day, and a whole lot of other scratches and cuts from the branches. Mark just sighed and kept cleaning and wrapping the wounds.

“What was it this time?” Mark said after a few minutes of silence.

“Hm?” Leon who had spaced out muttered.

“What bet could possibly make it seem like a good idea to jump off a building?” Mark asked, putting a little too much force on cleaning another cut on the ribcage, earning another cry from the taller.

“I slammed into him because I was running late to class and was not paying attention. Then I lost balance, tripped over my own damn feet and fell on my butt” Leon said, shrinking back with embarrassment.

“And?” Mark laughed at the scene.

“He called me a giraffe cub and said I should learn how to walk” Leon rolled his eyes at the memory, Mark barked a laugh at that again as Leon kept talking “I said I could walk, run and jump better than him by a mile. He laughed at me like I was mad and asked if I wanted to bet. Then one thing led to another, and the rest you saw”

“How does that scale to jumping from the fourth floor?!” Mark asked, indignante. Leon just shrugged, not bothering to explain the details. “What did you even bet?”

“Lunch” Leon answered simply.

“You risked your life for food?? Are you a beggar?” Mark poked a darker bruise and Leon squirmed at it.

“Ow, stop that! The prize it’s not the point, winning is” Leon said as if it was an obvious matter of fact.

“Are you two kids?!” Mark growled.

“He started it!” Leon snapped back.

“... Oh, please don’t confirm my question in such an obvious way” Mark answered flatly.

“Get out of my infirmary” Leon answered back also flatly.

“The infirmary is not yours, I’m ripping off your bandaids!” Mark motioned directly to Leon’s nose.

“I am deeply sorry, you may stay” Leon said, holding Mark’s wrist before his friend could reach his face.

“Ah, yes, the sweet sound of the morning” A third voice came from the door where a boy with an easy smile was leaning with his arms crossed. “Are you sure you two are not dating?” He raised his brow jokingly.

“Fuck off” Both of them answered flatly, Leon letting go of Mark.

John was the name of the boy, who was now laughing softly. They met John two months ago, on the first day of college and the three of them instantly hit it off. John became Leon’s roommate at the dorm when the sophomores drew the names of the freshman to pair them. After a month Leon and Mark found out that John thought they were dating the whole time.

But who could blame John? Just the way they were sitting with Leon’s bare torso and Mark between his legs would be enough to make people think that.

They’d be wrong though. Mark and Leon had no feelings of that sort for each other, as they vehemently explained to John afterwards. They were just really close and actually quite caring. After some days of observation John decided that he believed them, not only because there seemed to be no romantic implications whatsoever, but also because they started doing the same things to him. John felt like he was adopted by the other two and made the decision to indulge in it.

It then became a joke between the three of them for someone to ask that everytime he found the other two in otherwise suspicious poses.

“You look like shit” John said, still laughing, walking up to them. He sat behind Leon propping his chin on the taller shoulder, as John was still a good half head smaller than Leon.

“Oh my, thank you” Leon said ironically, while letting his head lean on John.

Really, they were quite the weird trio.

“And just where were you John?” Mark asked, finishing up the last bruises.

“Filming” John smirked and evaded a flick Mark tried to give him.

“You filmed??” Leon inquired, twisting to look at John and then wincing in pain “Which one of us won?” He asked nevertheless.

“Would you believe me if I said it was a draw?” John held up his phone for Leon to snatch and look at it himself.

“Shit” Leon breathed out.

It was a draw. He and Nick jumped at the same time, landed on the tree at the same time and plopped to the floor at the same time.

“Wow, you’re so in synch that It looks rehearsed” Mark blurted out much to Leon’s displeasure.

“Oh shut up” Leon growled.

—

Leon hated Nick. 

Nick hated him right back.

And still… Their friends thought They always end up together. They’d sigh to deal with the banters that were always happening.

Really, no one could really understand.