More Than Friends?

Chapter 15

"There's my graduate." Mark says as I storm into his basement.

"I need a drink." I say as I pace back and forth, pissed at my parents. We were only home for ten minutes before they grabbed their bags and left me.

"It's only 11." Mark starts to say but I make my way over to the fridge that I know houses the beer. "Tanner you don't drink during season." Mark says as he stands up.

"I'm not in season anymore." I say as I search for a bottle opener.

"You have that training day in a week. Yes you are." Mark says as he takes the beer from my hand and sticks it back in the fridge.

"Now why would you do that?" I say as I look at Mark.

"Babe what's wrong."

"What's wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong is that I have parents who don't even want me. Do you know they left for the city five minutes ago. Aren't they supposed to keep me from hanging out with my friends today because they want to spend the day with me? Apparently not, they said here's a free house, have some friends over just clean up and have them gone before we get back home. You know it seriously blows my mind that I even graduated because I've had almost no supervision growing up. I mean-"

"Whoa wait a minute. Did you say your house is going to be empty tonight?" Mark interrupts my rant.

"NOT THE POINT MARK."

"Yes. Yes the point. Babe, we don't have to stay at those stupid parties tonight. We can actually have some time together where it's just you and me. No Craig, no parents."

"I don't know babe..." I say hesitantly.

"We don't have to do anything you don't want to. All I'm saying is we haven't technically had a real date. Let me cook dinner for you and we can watch a movie or something."

"I guess I wouldn't mind a night where we don't have to worry about Craig pretending to be grossed out when we kiss. And there is a soccer game on tonight..."

"Great! Perfect! I'll be over at 5 to start cooking." Mark plants a sloppy kiss on my cheek.

"Ew. Gross." Craig says as he bounces into the basement.

"Ugh get over it." I say as I roll my eyes and stick my tongue out at him playfully.

"Mememememememe." Craig mocks at me. "Okay but in all seriousness congratulations on graduating. We're so proud of you."

"Aww thank you." I say as I'm wrapped into a massive bear hug.

"Do you have any plans today?"

"Mark and I are going to hit up some of the parties later probably. But nothing until then."

"Well then how about you come to lunch with us?" Craig suggests.

"Sounds lovely."

"Alright, I'll get mom and dad and we'll head out."

***

After lunch with Mark, Craig, and their parents, I go back home and decide it'd be a good idea to tidy up a bit. The house is actually really clean since the maids were here Thursday, but they never touch my room and it's a disaster. Mark has seen it tons of times before, in even worse states than the one it's currently in, but I want it to be clean...just in case. I also decide to take a shower and make myself look halfway decent. I contemplate going to the parties but decide that none of them are really worth going to and I really hope Mark is okay with this. I'd rather just spend a laid back night with him and see where things go.

At five o'clock on the dot Mark rings the doorbell.

"Hel-- oh." I say when I open the door. I can't see Mark's face because he is holding a plethora of grocery bags, stacked to the point where I can't see his face.

"I wasn't sure if you had the ingredients I needed." I hear him say.

"Well that shouldn't be a problem now." I laugh as I grab two bags from him and give him a peck on the lips when his face is visible.

"Tanner. Whoa." he says when he sees me.

"Yeah I did a thing with my hair. Come on in, the island in the kitchen is clear so you can put all the bags down there."

"Thank you." he says when we reach the kitchen.

"Alright, so how can I help."

"Nope, no help. I am treating you tonight, go into the other room and put on the soccer game. I'll call you when dinner is ready."

"Absolutely not."

"Why not?"

"You're not going to burn my house down while my parents aren't here."

"Haha, very funny. But seriously I live by myself most of the time now, and as shocking as it may sound I don't enjoy takeout every night. So I educated myself."

"You educated yourself?" I question trying to stifle a laugh but failing.

"Cooking shows." Mark mumbles.

"AWW how cute and independent of you!" I joke, and pinch his cheeks.

"Yes, adorable. Okay you can leave now and let me work my magic."

"Mmkay. Oh but first, I wanted to talk to you about something." I say as I jump up on the part of the island that is free of bags.

"Shoot."

"I was wondering if you'd be okay if we didn't go to any of the parties tonight. I was hoping we could just stay here, together, and do some of this." I say as I pull him into a kiss. I wrap my legs around him when he's close enough.

"Whoa, whoa, Tanner, we don't have to do anything. We shouldn't rush this." Mark says as he pulls away from me.

"Look, I'm not saying we have to do anything I'm just saying that I would like to spend the night with you and whatever naturally happens, we'll just let it happen. Is that okay with you?" I ask.

"Sounds like the perfect plan to me." Mark says as he snakes his hands around my hips and places a tender kiss on my lips. His lips are so soft and I can still feel them on mine moments after we've stopped kissing. "Okay, stop distracting me. We won't eat until eleven if you keep this up." he laughs.

I slide off the counter and make my way to the living room, where I turn on the game.

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, don't forget to like and comment if you did! Happy reading xx.