Promise Me ~ A Style Fanfic ~

Chapter 3| Experiment 🍋

I was at the mall shopping for a birthday present for Stan. His seventeenth birthday was coming up in a week and I've been looking for a present for him for a couple days now. It was an already difficult task to buy a present for your super best friend who you secretly harbored romantic feelings for but it was even more challenging because Stan didn't like anything. For the past seven years, Stan has been a cynical asshole, particularly around his birthday. He hated everything and referred to it as shit. I had a hard time figuring out if he was being literal or metaphorical. Regardless, he wasn't easy to please.

I had already gotten him a couple of smaller gifts but I couldn't find anything for a main gift. I bought him a shirt with his favorite band on it and a glass pipe from Hot Topic. I didn't approve of Stan's drug addiction to marijuana but when he was high he was mellow, nice and not an asshole. I hoped to one day convince him to give it up but right now I didn't have that kind of influence over him. Maybe the glass pipe wasn't such a great present after all. I wasn't being a super best friend by buying him this. I was being an enabler.

'But I want him to be happy,'I thought to myself.

It was getting late and I had school tomorrow so I decided to call it quits for today and resume this project tomorrow. I turned the engine on of my silver Volvo S60 2001 and I drove home. I ate my moms very kosher grilled lamb with brown sugar glaze for dinner and I brushed my teeth and I went to bed. I sighed. Birthday shopping shouldn't be such a trial.

The next day at school, I walked through the main entrance and was immediately approached by Stan. I smiled. He hugged me in greeting. He was high and possibly tipsy. He was always affectionate when he was under the influence.

"Kyle! How are you?"

"Good. I would ask how you are but I think the answer is very high," I joked. He laughed. Everything was funny to him when he was high. The one good thing about my best friend being a stoner was that weren't any serious negative effects to his health. Though his grades were dropping and he never wanted to do anything.

"Here, Kyle. Take this and you better come," he said and he handed me a blue envelope. I slid my finger under the crease and tore it open. It was an invitation to his birthday party. It was a handmade card with a stick figure playing the guitar.

"I'm surprised you made this. You could have just made a Facebook event, you know."

"Facebook is shitty, Kyle." Oh yeah. I forgot. Stan was the one person in the whole world who despised social media. I sort of admired him for being different but I didn't see what the big deal was. Facebook was harmless.

"Are you coming?" He asked. He looked genuinely worried that I wouldn't go.

"I don't know. I'm pretty busy," I teased. He grabbed my shoulders frantically and shook me.

"No, Kyle! You have to go! Your my best friend! My guest of honor!"

"Relax, dude! Of course I'm coming!"

"Good. Now I have to go hand out the rest of these invitations so I'll see you in class," he said. And then he was gone.

"I love you..." I whispered to his retreating body.

"I love you too," a voice said from behind me. I whirled around and came face to face with Kenny. He had blossomed into a handsome young man. He finally wore his hood down and revealed his pretty face. He had messy dirty blonde hair and his hazel eyes complimented his orange parka quite well. His cheeks were rosy but mostly because he was still quite sensitive to the cold and it would make his face red. It suited him though.

"Kenny! You scared me!" I shoved him.

"Dude! I knew you were gay for Stan! I've been watching you stare at him for years. I can't blame you for liking him though. He's got a nice ass. Nice and bubbly," he said. Kenny was always saying stuff like that. He was always flirting with anything that had a pulse. I wasn't sure if he was joking or not. I'm pretty sure he was. I've never seen him with a guy and every week he had a new bimbo hanging off his arm, though today his arm was bimbo-free. 'Wait! What the fuck did he just say?!'