Our Life: Beginnings And Always Oneshots

Coffee

[A/N] Pretty long. 2.2k words. Enjoy!

Edit: Republished this. Hopefully I'll make something I like more later but I may as well let this stay up.

The charcoal pencil glided along the page as he added detail to the dry-looking grasses and the hill a bit further back. This was coming along pretty well, Mark thought. He was on-track to ACTUALLY have a decent-enough product to submit to the contest. If all went according to plan, he'd finally be able to join one— perfectionism and perhaps a smidge of anxiety preventing him from doing so previously.

The door swung open. Elizabeth— Liz? He wasn't sure which one she preferred at this point— walked in with her usual swagger, phone in hand. "Guess who?" she teased lightly, tossing it to her brother.

"Lee?" he asked tentatively.

A joyful laugh rang out from a distinctly non-female voice. "No, wrong one. But I can understand why you expected her."

"DEREK!" Mark cried out, a beam immediately filling his face.

"Heya! Sorry it's been a couple weeks since my last call. I've been pretty busy."

"I relate. How's school?"

"Oh, you know. About as well as you could expect. And you? I bet you're crushing it!"

"Damn right! It's stressful, but I'm still acing everything." He sighed. "I miss you."

"I miss you too! Which is why I have to tell you something."

At this point, Mark had migrated from his desk to his bed, laying on his stomach and kicking his legs idly. This got his attention, though. "Everything okay?"

"Don't worry, everything's fine. It's good news! My school's soccer team is gonna play against yours in two weeks! We're playing at a field that's in between our two towns, and anyone can spectate for free! If you want to stop by, we can even make a day out of it afterwards!" Mark's heart filled with longing; it had been so long since he'd seen Derek in person. He wondered if Derek was taller than him by now. He cast a glance at his calendar. "Still there?"

"Oh! Um, yeah. What day of the week?"

"It's a Saturday. Feel free to invite Cove, too, by the way! I don't want him feeling left out of the party!" Mark could hear the wink in his voice.

He hesitated. The contest deadline was the day after that, so he'd be missing out on his last day to work on the packet of drawings. "I'll be there!" he blurted out despite it. "And I'll tell Cove! I'm sure he'll come. He likes sports more than I do, anyway, so he can teach me how everything works."

"Awesome! I can't wait to see you guys! And hey. Just cause I'm playing against your team doesn't mean I'll go easy on them!"

"Make it an uphill battle! I wanna see what you can do!"

"Alright! I'm pumped!" Contented silence fills the air for a few seconds. "Okay. I have to go now. I promised my brothers I'd play some board games with them. Have a fantastic day!"

"Bye, Derek!" There was a click, and then nothing. Mark let out a sigh before hoisting himself out of bed. Welp. Time to buckle down.

...

"It has to be five pages, and you need to make sure to cite at least seven reputable sources. Maybe go to the library to read up on the court cases you were assigned. And if you prefer a more tech-based approach, you can try the search engines we taught you like EBSCOHost and Jstor..."

The teacher's instructions gradually became like background noise in Cove's mind. He'd turned to look at Mark's expression. That was an unfortunate due date. Two days after the soccer game and one day after the contest deadline. Mark's eyes were wide open and he blinked rapidly, pressing his fingertips to his temples. "Hey, umm... if you're too busy, I can go to the game and take lots of pictures for you?" he offered in a whisper.