6.

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When school had finished, and the two (mostly Zak) managed to not get detention again, they walked out of their last class.
Zak was soon able to spot Darryl and Vincent outside of the school. He grinned, lightly tapping Techno on the shoulder.
"Come on."
Techno narrowed his eyes.
"Absolutely not. I'm not talking to either of them again."
"Why not?" Zak whined, complaining about it until Techno finally reaponded.
"Because," He muttered, "I don't like talking to people. In fact, I don't know why you kept trying to talk to me."
Zak bit his lip, unsure of what to reply with.
"I talked to you because I thought you were cool," Zak said slowly, though that wasn't the entire truth. "Not everyone is out to get you, Techno."
"I know that." Techno replied evenly. "Anyways, you need help with anything?"
Zak wasn't an idiot (or, at least, not as much of one as Techno took him for). He could tell this was clearly an attempt to shift the conversation to something else. But, he decided to not question it.
"No, I think I'm good. But," Zak felt a smile form on his face. "Let's go to a coffee shop."
Techno seemed like he might have agreed, but he shook his head.
"No. I have to study for a test. Go talk to Vincent and Darryl, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
Zak couldn't hide the grin that formed on his face.
"Oh, don't worry. I'm inviting them to the coffee shop too. Besides, you can study in there if you insist."
Techno was about to protest before he just sighed, deciding to agree.

"Woah! Muffin, we haven't been here together in ages," Darryl said to Zak, practically radiating positive energy.
"Why does he call everyone muffin?" Techno mumbled quietly to Zak when Darryl was out of ear-shot. He had been called that a couple times, and in all honesty, he was kind of curious.
"It's a nickname he called me a couple years ago, and it just stuck." Zak responded in a soft tone, "Now, come on, let's go order something!"
Luckily, everyone had notified their parents where they were. Even better, all of their parents agreed to letting them go out.
Once everyone had ordered what they wanted, they sat down at a table. The fresh, coffee scent of the place was nice. It would have been a great place for Techno to study if there weren't three snickering teens sitting at the same table as him.
"We were in Math, and I told the teacher to fuck off," Vincent forced back a laugh, "and, instinctively, Darryl stood up and shouted "language!" in front of everyone. He was even more embarrassed than me, and I was the one who swore at the teacher!"
Techno made the safe assumption that Darryl was going to keep getting more wholesome each time he interacted with him, so he just narrowed his eyes at Vincent.
"Why'd you tell the teacher to fuck off?"
"He told this kid in my class named George that he was stupid."
Darryl bit his lip, fidgeting.
"I didn't agree with what the teacher said! But Vince said a swear word and it was natural for me to shout language," He huffed.
A waitress soon came by their table, a smile on her face.
"Here it is," She set down the cups.
Darryl murmured way too many "thank you's", and as she walked away, she gave another smile, this time directed at Zak.
Zak didn't know what to do, so he just smiled back. When he looked down to take a short drink of coffee, he noticed numbers scribbled on the cup.
"Um," He hesitated, not realizing he said it out loud. "Is this legal?"
He didn't know what else to say. I mean, you're not allowed to write your number on stranger's cups, are you?
Techno took one glance at the cup and noticed the numbers.
"Huh. You're pretty cute, then, if you managed to get her number."
Zak crossed his arms playfully, raising a questioning eyebrow.
"You think I'm cute?"
"Nope. You're ugly."
Zak complained about that comment for the next five minutes until Darryl finally told him he was pretty. That shut him up.
Vincent was only leaned over to Darryl, whispering.
"How long is it going to be until they date? My bet is two weeks, since a week has already passed."
Darryl shoved him.
"Muffin! I told you I'm not betting on anything!"
Techno rolled his eyes, though you could see a soft tint of pink on his face. He didn't find this amusing.
"According to a lot of evidence, you can't truly know you have feelings for someone in two weeks, let alone one." Techno said, picking up his latte and taking a sip.
Vincent stifled a chuckle.
"Oh, you're a smart kind of person-"
Vincent was about to say more when Zak dropped a small sugar packet. A bit of it fell onto Techno, but most of it ended up on the table and Zak.
"Your mother would not agree with how much sugar you are adding to that," Techno commented, brushing the sugar off of him.
"Shut up, it has a bitter taste."
"Isn't that your seventh sugar packet?" Darryl tilted his head, the question completely innocent.
"Yes," Zak muttered, "You're really helping, Darryl."
The number written on Zak's cup was mostly forgotten until the same waitress walked towards them.
"Hi! Is everything good?" She asked, looking at Zak expectantly for the most part.
Zak felt obliged to respond, so he stuttered, "Um, yeah. It's great. Thanks."
"Call me later," She tried to sound casual. It was not slick at all, because Vincent was trying not to wheeze. Even Techno, who hardly had time for flirting etiquette, looked at the floor with a sigh.
Zak didn't know what to say, so he just blatantly said, "I'm gay."
"Oh." She bit her lip and averted her gaze away. "I'm sorry."
When she left, Darryl and Vincent were looking at Zak with a surprised expression. Techno didn't seem all that phased, but he wasn't expecting it.
"Zak, you are?" Darryl softened.
"I kind of just said that to get her to stop bothering me, but I guess I haven't been too sure about it lately. I had a crisis in the middle of the hall," Zak laughed, trying to brush it off.
"Zak," Vincent started, his tone serious, "You know that doesn't bother any of us, right? I mean," He flickered his gaze to Techno. "I don't know about him, but it's okay with us."
Zak didn't expect to be coming out in the middle of a coffee shop when even he didn't know who he was, but Vincent continued with his 'we support you' lecture.
"Even if you aren't too sure about it yet, we'll be fine with whatever you decide."
Techno shrugged.
"Couldn't have put it better."
"Okay- thanks," He mumbled, trying to change the subject. He was glad to know that none of his friends were homophobic, but he would just rather not talk about it until he was sure. He cleared his throat. "So, um, do you guys want to go to the park or something?"
Darryl sighed.
"I'm sorry, Zak, but my parents told me I had to be home after this."
"Yeah, mine too," Vincent responded, "If I don't return home soon, they'll ground me until I'm 18." He laughed.
Zak pouted for a while, but he knew that wouldn't work on Vincent. Maybe Darryl, but he wouldn't dare disobey his parents.
"Yo, nerd, if it makes you feel any better, my mom will probably let me go. Hell, I don't think I'd have to ask, as long as I told her where I was." Techno chuckled.
Zak brightened up at that.
"Okay!"
Once all of them had said their goodbyes to each other and left, Zak and Techno started to walk to the park.
Of course, Techno still checked with his mom to make sure it was okay, and Zak texted his own to be sure it was fine. Sure, they were teens, probably old enough to go out on their own, but their parents would like to know where they were.
Entering the park, Techno started reciting things Zak would have never even thought about.
"Society thinks that going to the park is not acceptable when your age is-"
"Techno, can you please try to have fun?" Zak cut him off.
"I am having a great time."
Zak rolled his eyes.
"Can you stop retaining knowledge for one second?"
Techno pretended to seriously consider this, before shaking his head.
Zak grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the swings. Techno could have easily pushed him off with a light shove, as Zak was naturally a tiny stick and he was stronger than him, but decided against it.
Zak sat down on one of the swings.
"I bet I can go higher than you!" He grinned in a conpetitive tone.
"Oh, really? If you wish to defeat me, train for another 200 years," Techno responded, a flash of determination in his eyes. It was something simple, like swinging, but even then, he wanted to be better.
Soon, Techno stopped reciting random facts, and Zak was trying to go higher than him.
"Dude, calm down!" Zak laughed.
After a while, Zak decided it would be a great idea if he jumped off the swing. Once he had determined that he was high enough, he jumped off.
Techno immediately stopped his own, clearly taken aback. I mean, it's not every day your friend flings themself off of a swing.
"Zak? Oh my god, what are you, a fool?" He scolded, though you could tell by his tone he was amused.
Zak was on the ground.
"Yes. I am. This was not how I planned it to go." He replied, still managing to have a smile on his face.
His knees were slightly scraped, and one of them was bleeding. Just a little, though.
"Are you okay?" Techno asked once he'd kneeled down to face Zak.
"I'm awesome," He laughed, "Dude, that was fun! I'm going to do that again!"
"No, you are absolutely not," Techno rolled his eyes.
Zak tried to wipe the blood away with his hoodie sleeve, which didn't really work out that well because it was a light blue colored hoodie. Now it looked like he had gotten away with murder.
"Zak, there's no need for that," Techno insisted, pulling out a tissue and a band-aid from his pocket.
Zak pouted. There he was again. Having something for every situation.
Techno reached out with the tissue, seemingly trying to wipe away the blood before realizing what he was doing and stopping.
"Um. Actually, you can do it if you want."
Zak crossed his arms, pretending he was bleeding out.
"You're the doctor," He said dramatically.
Techno rolled his eyes, throwing the tissue at him.
"Wipe away the blood or die."
Zak contemplated on which one to do before eventually picking up the tissue. There was still a light stain, but it wasn't bleeding anymore. He then proceeded to take the band-aid from Techno and put it on his knee.
"Um. About the other scrape, you could put some cold water on it. I dunno, you probably won't die if you leave it alone."
Zak shrugged, agreeing with Techno before making a realization and lightening up.
"Wait, so you care about me?"
"What?"
"You care about me." Zak repeated. Well, let's rephrase that. Techno cares about him enough to give him a tissue for his slightly bloody knee.
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Okay, fine, you win."
Zak glanced back to the swings.
"Can I-"
"No," Techno interrupted, "I am never trusting you on a swing again."
Zak was about to argue with that before deciding that it was fair enough.
"Anyways, it's getting dark. We should go home."
Zak stood up.
"Yeah, we should. Wait- do you want to come to my house?"
To be honest, even though it was a school night, their parents most likely wouldn't care. As long as they didn't stay up past 10:30, it'd be okay with both of them. Besides, there has been occasions where they'd stayed over at each other's house simply because their mothers wanted to.
Zak forced back a laugh as he recalled the time he and Techno argued for 2 hours straight because Zak ate an orange near one of Techno's dictionaries (he had 7). Techno was very concerned juice would fall on it, so he snatched the book away and scolded Zak for a long time. That wasn't the first petty argument they'd had.
Anyways, back to the present, Techno responded.
"Nope."
Zak huffed.
"Why not?" He complained.
"Because I have to study for two tests, and do my homework."
"You can do that at my house." Zak offered.
"Okay, fine," Techno sighed, giving in. "Just let me text my mom where I'll be going first."
"Aight."
"You do know that the proper word is alri-"
"Yeah, yeah, I do."
Zak came to the conclusion that if he was going to be Techno's friend, he was going to have to put up with the most random facts, as well as grammar corrections. Oh boy. He was very excited.

I'd like to be friends//SkepnobladeWhere stories live. Discover now