Oliver is a manga artist, but he was once an angry little boy with a sunny best friend: Ian Miller. Then, one day, they weren't friends anymore. Oliver doesn't know when was it exactly that Ian disappeared from his life, and refuses to remember why...
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"Nah, man. You're kidding."
That's Jack, complaining as soon as I cross the door and step into the LED-string-lit living room— loud music and drinks all out. There are even more people than I expected, but it's not like I'm surprised. Jack's definitely popular.
"It just... Never did it for me, you know?"
Of course Ethan's getting on his nerves again. I chuckle as I reach for a red cup and pour some beer in it. I'm in a pretty good mood tonight, go figure. It's obviously rare so we'll see how long that lasts.
"You know it's not original to say you didn't like The Godfather, right?" Jack points out. "It doesn't make you some kind of contrarian."
And Ethan's already rolling his eyes, shifting on the couch even with his cast. "That's not why—"
"Oh, shut up, bro!" Jack interrupts. "You're such a hipster. Next you're gonna say you don't like Marvel or something like that."
"I'm actually fine with it."
"Fine?!" Oh, shit.
"You know it's not original to be a Marvel fanboy, right?" Ethan thinks he's shooting back.
"I ain't trying to be!" Jack makes his point, getting off his seat. We blindly slap palms and quickly pat each other on the back as in 'hey, man'.
"Exactly," is Ethan's final word, which is a stupid one.
Jack agrees with my face and he turns to him, eyes wide open in exasperation. "...what?!"
"Just leave it for tonight," I tell him, digging into my jacket for his present. He's a hardcore Loki fan, so...I drew him as Loki. It could have looked better but— "Happy birthday, dude."
"Oh shit!" he gushes, staring at the drawing. He frowns, turns it, stares at it from up-close and then moves it away again. "That's me!" he finally exclaims, turning it over for people to take a look. "I look good."
Ethan stretches over to look at it. "Oh, neat."
"Boy... Look at my arms!"
I grin. "Yeah, I gave your lazy ass an upgrade," I tease him and Jack bumps my shoulder three times in excitement, still staring at it. It took me a month to get it right,but he deserves it.
"Thanks, man," he says, and then starts sharing it with some people around us that I don't know. They all do the little song and dance of 'That's so good! Who did it? Him? You? You're crazy good!' that I generally reply with 'I know.' to so they'll shut up. But like said— I'm in a good mood. So I just nod.
