THE sun is relentless in it's endeavors to roast every inhabitant of Earth alive, and Xiang is just one of it's many victims. His messy crop of hair - if one could call it that, in this moment - had long ago succumbed to the combination of gravity and sweat working against it.
He was squatting in the middle of a dusty baseball field, hair plastered to his forehead uncomfortably as he traced lines - names - into the dirt. His countenance was one of intense concentration, even though the task at hand wasn't particularly arduous in nature.
"How long does it take to drag your finger in the dirt, shrimp?" came the teasing jeer of the boy looming over him, which he responded to with a frustrated scowl.
"Don't rush me," Xiang hissed, squinting to look at the taller boy, who's outline was halfway obscured by the merciless sun. "You were the one who dragged me out here. We could have went home already."
A reply came in the form of a snort, and no other complaints were voiced for the time being. He was still wearing his full baseball uniform from the game they had participated in a few hours ago, and it was half of the reason that he was perspirating so heavily. But his friend, a fellow twelve year old named Xolotl, was wearing the same gear and hardly looked as disheveled as he did in the moment. Then again, Xiang couldn't recall a time where he had ever thought that Xolo resembled anything other than a body builder in the form of a middle schooler. But that wasn't particularly awful, all things considered, because Xiang had been described by adults as stocky for his age.
The difference between him and Xolo, however, was that one of them looked more like a model than a oddly muscular mutant. He shook his head vigorously in an attempt to clear the thought from his head somehow, and almost jumped out of his skin when he felt a sudden slap on his neck.
"Ow, dude, what the fuck! Shit!" he exclaimed, voice echoing through the field as he rubbed at the stinging area with his clean hand. Grimacing in pain, he finished tracing the last letter into the dirt and spat on the ground as some sort of 'fuck you' to the name written in the sand.
"You were being weird again," Xolo mumbled, squatting down next to Xiang and watching his friend's pitiful attempt at revenge for the hit. "I should slug you for spitting on my name. I should take a whizz on yours."
Xiang scrunched his nose in disgust and shoved the boy away from him, who only laughed triumphantly in return.
"I'm starting to think you take the bait on purpose, because you always get riled up when I tease you."
He didn't know what to say in return to the jab, and so he opted to give Xolo the silent treatment instead. The boy in question simply shuffled back into his proximity, examining Xiang's writing in the dirt. He had dared him to accompany him back to the baseball diamond to draw stuff in the sandy field, but ended up forcing Xiang to do most of the work to avoid getting his hands dirty. And although he had mumbled obscenities under his breath for the first few minutes, Xiang had complied to the order he'd been given. But Xolo felt as if it was missing something important, something he couldn't quite put his finger on.
"Draw a heart around our names."
"Huh?"
"Y'know, a heart?" As a demonstration of what he meant, Xolo began to trace one into the dirt himself until Xiang slammed his palms onto ground, stopping him in his tracks.
"I know what a heart is, stupid. But why do you want me to draw one?" The answer came in the form of a shrug, but Xiang had a feeling that he boy wasn't saying it just because he felt like daring him to do something once more. Or at least, it's what he hoped. He stared at his dirt stained hands, balling them into fists and inspecting his knuckles as well.
"I won't tell," Xolo muttered, rising to his feet and tilting his head so that he felt the heat of the sun on his face. When Xiang continued to be unresponsive, he assumed that his friend had forgotten about the previous topic and added, "If you draw the heart. I won't tell anyone."
"It's not weird, yeah? Just a friend thing." Xiang could hardly hear himself because of how softly he spoke, and wasn't exactly sure how Xolo had managed to do so, but his friend nodded all the same.
"You trust me, right? I wouldn't tell you to do anything weird." It was a lie, because there were plenty of times where Xolo dared him to do unsanitary or illegal things, like key people's cars or drink toilet water. But Xiang knew that those actions didn't classify as the type of 'weird' that Xolo meant right now. "Do you trust me?"
Yeah. "Nah. I know you too well to trust you with that kind of blackmail."
The excruciatingly long pause that follows his comment makes Xiang shift slightly, and he's caught off guard when Xolo bursts into a fit of laughter. His lips twitch into what resembles a nervous smile as his friend slings an arm around his shoulders, forcing him to stand.
"I'm offended by your lack of belief in my faithfulness. This relationship is falling apart." He's merely joking, but something about the implication of a relationship between them makes Xiang's chest feel tight. He dismisses it as late pain from squatting for so long. "We should get going. Erase the names."
He attempts to do as Xolo tells him to, but finds himself indiscreetly tracing a shape around the names carved into the dirt with his foot instead. If Xolo notices, he says nothing, and Xiang ends up dragging his foot over the dirt to cover any evidence of anything being there beforehand.
Being in one heart was enough for Xolo, for now. And if he noticed, he said nothing.
