Yes, Mr. President (ManxMan)

Chapter Three

"Parker? Come in Parker. You there?" Markus reached across the table to tap on the back of my hand. I had been thinking about what happened earlier and had been neglecting him. I was terrible company to have around right now.

"Yeah, sorry." I reached to take a sip of my water. "Just been thinking."

"I don't have a penny, but I can still listen if you want to talk about it." He was being so understanding and I was being so gloom and doom.

I shook out my hands, smoothing them on my pants. "No, I'm here. Let's talk."

He leaned back in his chair, one arm around the back. "Alright. What are we talking about?"

"Uh, we can talk about the fact that you're the most amazing person ever. Those chocolates worked like a charm. He even took the whole bag with him."

He laughed, tilting his head back. "I told you! What did he say? How did it go down?"

"Funny enough, I was actually just getting hungry because I hadn't eaten all day and I was trying to be sneaky." I smiled, thinking about how terrible I was at trying to be quiet.

He furrowed his brows. "With that foil? I doubt it."

"I know! It was so loud. But I offered it to him and he takes it. And then he starts asking me about the treaty-"

"Which you read up on, I hope." He interjected.

"Of course I did." I didn't spend all that time in my car listening to the mechanical voice of my phone drone on and on for no reason. "But he didn't want to hear my typical political response. He wanted to hear what I really thought."

His eyes were wide. "And what did you tell him?"

I proceeded to reenact the speech that I gave the President of France and Markus put his hand underneath his chin, staring intently at me, soaking in each word. When I finished, he shook his head, seemingly awe. "Wow," He scoffed. "I can't believe you're still here. Most politicians don't like having their ego shattered like that."

I shrugged. "Hey, he laughed it off and said he hoped that I stuck around."

"Hell, I hope you do too." He took another sip of his water.

Well, I wasn't going to let that slide. "Little old me? The one having a nervous breakdown in the bathroom? You want me to stay?"

He rolled his eyes. "I mean, I guess. You seem alright. You have a good head on your shoulders. You're not terribly boring."

"Those all sound like ways for you to avoid saying that you actually like having me around." I teased. "Not even two full days and I already have a friend. I'm having a better track record than school, that's for sure."

"Oh, we're you one of those loner kids? Into kpop or alternative music or something that 'nobody understood' but really everyone was secretly into?"  He was teasing me back.

"No, not like that, but fuck you." I pointed a finger at him. "Honestly, I was just a shy kid. Always feeling not adequate enough to approach people, but just confident enough to be able to make conversation if somebody spoke to me. It was a weird combination that left me with few friends."

He shrugged. "Not like we talk to anybody past high school anyway." Tell me about it. "Adult friends are where it's at."

"Oh, am I one of your adult friends now?" I smiled, wiggling my eyebrows.

He shivered. "Oh, you make it sound so gross."

"Hey, you said it, not me."

He sighed. "I must admit, even sitting here now, it's been fun having you around. Everyone else is older than me. It's nice to be someone's elder."