Sand Between Our Fingers

03~

MARK'S POV

It had been about an hour since Jackson and I parted ways and the admins took me to the office. Of course my parents weren't going to be happy when they got here in the first place because they had to leave work. On top of that they were going to flip when they saw what I was wearing. My father would probably disown me. Sitting in this chair was torture because waiting for the inevitable...well you get it.

My head turned when I finally heard someone come through the door and then the chatter about how poorly the school was decorated confirmed that it was my parents. Now, when I tell you I didn't know whether I should've been insulted or not when they walked past me and asked where their son was...I guess I really did look different after all. When the administrator pointed at me in the chair my parents' jaws dropped to the floor.

"Mark, why are you wearing that kind of clothes?" My father asked me with distaste in his tone.

"Dad I can explain," I began.

"No, you don't have to explain anything Mark, I know why," My mother said. I just raised an eyebrow and a stupid hope grew inside of my stomach. "Those mean kids put you in these clothes and beat you up," she finished before giving the death glare to the admins.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Oh Mark, don't you be sorry son, we should've taken you out of this school sooner anyways," My mom told me. "I want him home schooled, I don't want him exposed to filth that this school offers," she finished.

"Wait? Home school? You can't be serious. What about my friends?" I asked her. Of course all I was thinking about was Jackson.

"You'll have friends later Mark, right now your school is critical, come on," My mom said while my dad nodded in agreement. My hopes to have any kind of happiness went into the trash now. All of this because I just wanted to be myself without the repercussions.

JACKSON'S POV

I found my way back to the door of the admins office after Mark's parents had entered to try and hear what was going to be done to him. I felt really bad for him if I was being honest. I'd never seen a truer version of him before today and it all crashed around him. I don't know why I was so involved with what happened to Mark, but I just told myself it was part of being friends with him.

"Homeschool? No, he can't go to homeschool," I said under my breath when I heard that part.

Now all I could do is try and find out how I would be able to see Mark outside of school and keep our friendship rolling. I didn't want to go back to the place that I was in before I met Mark. He made all of the pain go away and actually made me feel like myself despite the social status quo.

After Mark left with his parents my heart pounded in my chest with worry about how he was feeling. This was new, I was actually more worried about him than I was myself. It was the friendship at work for sure, otherwise I wouldn't care, right? With nothing else that I could do I returned to my classes and made sure that I didn't raise any alarms for any of my friends so that I didn't have to answer to them.

*     *     *

When I heard the bell ring I don't think I'd ever grabbed my backpack so quickly. With nothing else on my mind I ran out of the room and went to my motorcycle and thoughtlessly made my way to Mark's house. When I got to his subdivision I hadn't seen houses this nice before. I lived in a nice home and all but these were like, fancy fancy.

Mark wasn't kidding when he told me that he lived in a posh neighbourhood last year, I just didn't know that it was this posh.

Soon I arrived to his front door. The driveway had two entrances both paved with brick complete with a fountain in the center and the landscaping was beautiful. There were flowers of all sorts and bushes, trellises with flowers growing up them, this was nice. My heart couldn't stop pounding when I went to the front door of the house and rang the doorbell. What were his parents going to think of me? A boy in a varsity jacket? Oh they were going to hate me....

The door opened and my heart stopped beating...

MARK'S POV

I was laying in my bed in my room just staring at the ceiling ever since we had gotten home. I didn't know what to do, how was I going to have a good senior year of high school from homeschool. I didn't even ask Jackson what I really wanted to ask him today, so much for that hope.

My attention was ripped from me sulking as soon as I heard my Mom talking to someone at the door.

"Are you one of those boys who bullied my son? You have nerve coming to this house," I heard her say while I dashed down the stairs.

"Mom, it's okay, he's a friend. I promise," I told her and smiled as I got to the door, it had to be Jackson and if I was wrong I'd just look stupid. Thank god it was Jackson. I gestured for him to come inside, "Mom, we will be upstairs if you need me just yell," I said before taking him up to my bedroom locking the door safely behind us.

"Jackson, you still came," I said.

"Of course, you're my best friend," he said without hesitation.

"You sound like you care more than a friend," I teased.

"No way, just friends. You made me wild today when you got whisked away like that, I didn't know what to think of not being able to talk to you, are you okay?" Jackson asked.

"Yeah, I just...I don't know how I'm going to make memories from home. I wanted to do everything different this year. You're the only one who knows that I like, ya know boys. I actually wanted to go the prom this year and have a prom date....I wanted to get a boyfriend. I guess I can do that from home...I don't think the guy I like will ever see me," I said venting off a lot.

"I'm so sorry, I am really sorry Markie," Jackson said using the nickname that he had given me last year.

I found it particularly weird that he only saw us as friends but he gave me a nickname like that.

"It's okay, I'm sure love will find me," I said.

"Well don't rush into anything. You never know what could be waiting for you on the other side of the door that you knock on," Jackson told me.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Oh it's just positive talk, do you want to go and grab dinner and see a movie or something? I want to let you out of your shell," Jackson said with a quirky little smile on his lips, this was honestly so nice of him to want me to be me.

"Sure," I said grabbing my coat.

Here was to beginnings of something beautiful...