𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐄𝐒 | 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐒𝐎𝐍

• chapter 3 •

Mark POV

About a week has gone by and I'm pretty sure I've gotten used to sitting next to Jackson. I'm wasting my time hating him. If I'm gonna sit next to him for a year anyways, I might as well just get used to it. And I'm almost certain he thought the same thing. It's becoming quite boring annoying each other if we do it everyday. In fact, at this point, I think I maybe, just slightly, not dislike. Right now, he was just as good as an "aquaintance" to me. I think I'm making pretty good progress on not hating him so much. I have been tolerating him recently to the point where I'm actually not pissed when he eats with us during lunch. And, I think that maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to handle him this year. But if he starts something, it's not gonna be my fault.

Even if I have to share this title of being "the best student" thing, I'll probably lose interest and won't care at the end of the year. All I want to do this year is have fun with my friends. Why is life making "fun" complicated? 

As I started walking to class to take my seat, Jackson waved a 'hello' at me. I waved back but as soon as I did, I thought to myself how weird it was. Think about it, I didn't say anything about 'tolerating' him to him... so maybe he thought the same thing? Maybe he's trying to be nice to me..? But I didn't do anything for him or to him. He probably realized that if he continues this war we have going on, this year would be a complete waste. And I am not going to let my senior year of high school go to waste. Eh...at least this isn't a bad thing.

Jackson POV

I'm tired and bored from wasting my time hating Mark. I decided that I was going to either make life hard for myself and make this year awful and impossible to enjoy by thinking about how I sit next to an idiot, or I could just try to not waste my time and have fun with my friends. I picked the latter.

After a little bit of careful consideration, I thought about why I hated Mark so much but strangely, when I tried thinking hard about it, the only conclusion I came to was that I was either secretly jealous of him (which I highly doubt), or that there was really no huge reason I hated him. No wonder people mistook us as friends; we probably looked like we're just messing around when we're fighting. Oh well... it's not like they ever tried to get to know us instead of just looking from afar. And since I can't really think of a reason, maybe we should... start over? I don't know. I didn't think everything would be so confusing. But what if Mark thinks of a reason we're enemies? Are we going to stay like this? Isn't he tired of this competition?

As I was thinking, the bell for lunch finally rang and I felt grateful for the opportunity to excuse myself from hell, even if lunch was short.

As I was about to walk over to our group's usual spot, I heard a sudden yell. And the voice sounded familiar so I decided to follow it. The yell lead me to the empty hallway where Mark was getting beaten up by a some tall kid. What did he do now? But as far as I know, Mark isn't the type of person to get himself into trouble. He isn't even the kind of person who starts anything with others...
Then I heard the guy yell something about how he got a bad grade on a test because Mark wouldn't let him copy off his paper. Now this actually made a lot of sense. "Hey! What are you doing around here, beating up a kid?" I yelled at the person to get their attention. Their head turned toward me but he recognized who I was and decided to walk away quickly. I shook my head in disaproval but decided to see how bad he hurt Mark. I walked over and Mark had a bloody nose but didn't have any cuts and scars from what I could tell. Just a bloody nose and some bruises. I decided to walk him to the nurses' office and on the way, Mark didn't say anything. But I couldn't blame him. If I had gotten beaten up and then my enemy decided to help me walk to the nurse, I wouldn't say anything either. When we got there, she told me to wait and watch him so she could get some medicine and band-aids. Mark lied down on the edge of the bed in the resting room and decided he would stay awake for now. I spoke first.
"So what happened?" He switched his attention to me and answered quietly, "That guy basically wanted me to do his work and I just simply refused-- it's not my fault he's failing in class and is ranked last out of all the students." "Hmm..okay true but shouldn't you fight back or at least tell the teacher about it?" I asked confused at his situation. "I was going to. But he got to me first." I nodded my head and then awkward silence filled the atmosphere between us once again.

"So why'd you help me out back there?" Mark asked, obviously trying to clear up the silence.

"I don't actually know but uhm... I was thinking that maybe you want to start over since this 'enemies' thing is kind of getting old...?"

He looked surprised. Shit. He probably still hated my guts for some reason I forgot about. But what he said next had me surprised. "Okay. Sure. Actually..." he laughed casually. Actually, I didn't notice before but he kind of has a nice laugh... Stop it, Jackson. What are you even thinking about?? "I was actually feeling the same way but I wasn't sure if you thought the same thing." He finished.

"Great. Jackson Wang, nice to meet you." I greeted- trying to make a beginning in starting over.

"Mark Tuan, nice to meet you as well."

We shook each others' hands and then thankfully, before another silence started, the nurse walked back in and dismissed me to go back to class as she helped Mark. 

Is this actually going to work?

Are we actually starting over?

And maybe... we can actually one day be friends?

A/N: I am SO SORRY. I tried to update every eight days but I was in the hospital yesterday to check if I got hurt from something that kind of happened... and um pm me if you want to know what. I know this update was like awful and short but I will try to make the next chapter longer and my goal is at least 2000 words so yep. Thank you for reading as always and don't forget to comment (and vote if you want but like this chap sucked) to tell me what you think. :)