I met Clark on the corner, near the park bench slung up after Rex Barns went missing a couple summers ago. The thing had a bronze plaque and everything, his face scribbled in the far left corner. It made Tommo uncomfortable, Barns a good friend of his, so we typically avoided the spot.

Flemming tended to be a heavy sleeper but I sent my alarm for three in the morning so I had enough time to get home before light out. Part of me expected Clark's brother car to be idling on the road but he stood on his own, poorly equipped for the weather.

The moment I was within touching distance he buried his hands into the pockets of my jacket, teeth chattering.

"Fuck me sideways, the weathers a bitch tonight." Clark stammered through a shudder, gritting his teeth when a blast of wind rolled past us.

"Nobody made you come out," I smiled, holding back my own shudder when he moved in closer. He had shaved since I last saw him, a nick close to his neck bright red. I steadfastly avoided looking at the fading hickey on his jawline.

"Shut up, you know you missed me." He murmured and I fervently ignored how my face heated up at his knowing smirk. He shuffled in close enough that our chests brushed with every breath we took and I knew he was baiting me on, daring me to say it.

To say anything other than-

"What've you got planned now then? I know you didn't text me to stand in the cold all night."

"Or did I? Heating's broke at home. Fucking Mitchell is a spazz and broke the radiator," Clark said.

"Don't call your brother a spazz," I scolded and Clark rolled his eyes.

"Not my fault he's ret-"

"Jeremy!" I cut in, embarrassed when my voice echoed down the street. "What's happening?"

"I was thinking we could head to Dovers. Tommo's running late-night drills with some of the track boys – you know Julius and Romeo – so, we could chill on the bleachers, Julius brought pot and a couple beers?"

"You know I don't smoke."

Clark snorted. "Then watch me smoke. We need some quality time. The house arrest you're under has really been a bummer."

"It's been barely a two weeks man," I laughed and Clark slipped away, edging towards the bridge heading downtown.

"Shut up, we're wasting time," he said over his shoulder. "Princess has to be back before sunrise."

"Fuck you, man." I jogged to catch up with him, slinging an arm around his shoulders, the same way he had done to me that night at Koby's convenience.

"Tommo's trying to break his record," Clark said after a while of silence as we idled at a red light. The streets were clear, we could've cut and run at any time, but for some reason we waited like good civilians. "Something about getting complacent."

"The guy's always trying to be the best, what does he know about complacency." I scoffed, kicking against the curb.

Clark nodded, laughing.

"Exactly what I said, Beau," he agreed and we started walking the second the light tipped green.

As the little electronic man mimicked us Clark spun around, jogging backward. "I think the thought of college is starting to freak him out, suddenly the future's a little bit more real."

Shit.

College.

I had completely spaced.

A bunch of application forms had begun piling up on my desk but with service and school work, I'd been neglecting them. I would have to ask Mom to help me sort through my options, what was left at least given this little scandal. My grades hadn't crashed, yet, so I probably still had a chance at a good school.

Or at least I had hoped.

I glanced at Clark as he narrowly avoided ramming into a streetlight. The guy never mentioned college, at least not in regard to himself. I knew a bunch of scouts were eyeing him out for baseball programs but he never talked about it, not even if he wanted to study out of town. I got a little worried at that, wondering if this might be my last year with Clark at my side if he decided to study across the country or something.

"I heard from a little birdy cough April cough that you were planning to be in the town play?" Clark asked, turning the corner and slipping back to my side, walking right way around.

"Yeah."

"Since when were you a drama nerd? I distinctly remember the last time you stepped foot on stage, and not for an award, was in like the fifth grade. You played a pencil in the study smart awareness program."

"Shut up," I said, shoving his arm. "I signed up because the girl running the play promised it would help cut down the service hours somebody got me roped into."

Clark rolled his eyes, murmuring an apology and butting his head against my arm. We listed to the side a little, righting ourselves fast enough to avoid the trashcan cemented to the sidewalk.

As Dovers' entry came into view I shrugged in response, letting him know it was okay.

"Who's the girl?" Clark asked suddenly, ducking under the chain-linked between the parks front posts.

"What girl?"

"The girl who convinced you to sign up for the lame-ass play," He scoffed, crossing his arms. "She must've been hot for you to agree, hours or not."

I smirked, slipping under the chain and matching Clark's averting gaze. "You jealous, Clark?"

"Fuck off," he said, punching my arm, hard.

"Someone called Bella Danvers. Dyed red hair. Never seen her around school so she's probably older."

Clark's face ripped into something akin to recognition, smile suddenly cocky.

"Oh, I know who you're talking about. No worries, she's a little queer-voyant."

"Queer-voyant?"

"Yeah, she went to Heights a couple years before us. Started the GSA group, had a huge queer-boner, Mitchell told me all about her," he explained and I spared a thought for Clark's brother. Mitchell had stayed in town after graduating, like Thomas, but dropped out a semester into college to work at the auto shop close to the town border.

"Doesn't mean she's gay herself," I reasoned, cutting down the path towards the main field where Tommo and the others most likely were.

"Doesn't mean she's straight either, so why waste the pursuit?"

"Who said I was pursuing her?" I said, throwing Clark a sassy grin.

He rolled his eyes, clipping the back of my head before pressing in close, linking his arms around my waist and resting his lips by my neck.

"Keep it in your pants lover boy," he whispered before running off. "Move your ass Bow-Bow, I plan on getting stoned sooner rather than later."

I stayed glued to the spot for a minute, trying to calm down my heart rate and the sweat dripping down my palms. When I thought I was somewhat decent, I followed after Clark, jog a little pained.

As predicted Tommo was running laps, fast as ever, around the beaten track. While Dovers wasn't the nicest park, too close to downtown to get any decent funding like the parks upstate, we'd been going there since forever and were unlikely to find some place new.

By the track stood Julius, by far the shortest out of the four of us, with close-cut dark hair and a mustache in dire need of being naired off. Romeo was camped on the bleachers, hood pulled far over his head so that only a puff of smoke ever so often belied to a human under the thing.

Clark immediately climbed the steps towards him, offering a quick nod in lieu of greeting before lighting his own joint. I stayed back, nodding at Romeo as he and Clark continued to shoot shit.

"Jessica not gonna ride your ass for this later?" Romeo asked and Clark chuckled around a slow pull.

I watched his cheeks cave in a little as he held the smoke, releasing it out of the corner of his mouth as if it wasn't the sexiest maneuver ever done.

"Nah, man. It's not like that, she doesn't get to say shit about what I do when we ain't together."

"Ah, so that rumor about you and Maya Roberts wasn't just a rumor then?" Romeo wagged his brows crudely. Clark slapped his knee.

"That, my friend, was a rumor. I would never go for Roberts, too high maintenance. Though I heard her mouth does wonders."

"It does, maybe Beau should test her out. God knows the guy doesn't take nearly as many chances as he should," Romeo said, leaning back on the bleacher to eye me out.

I didn't like the look I saw reflected there. I felt further awkward when Clark cut in for me, slugging an arm around the backs of my legs, yanking me to sit down.

"Beau's busy burying his head in books. Unlike you guys he has a brain to fall back on and doesn't need Maya sucking it out of him," he chided, cuffing my chin.

Romeo laughed, but the look on his face remained.

Without thinking I reached over and plucked the nearly entirely ash joint from his fingers, taking a short pull and luckily not hacking up a lung on the exhale. Clark looked at me in surprise but by the time he worked up the nerve to speak, I was up and walking towards Julius.

At his side Tommo laid prone on the ground, catching his breath.

"Time?" I asked, when he struggled to get the words out himself.

Julius clicked his tongue, staring down at Tommo. "Four minutes thirty-eight. You're burnt out man, I think we should stop."

Tommo shook his head, reclining on his forearms as his chest widely rose and fell with each breath. The front of his green shirt was drenched in sweat, clinging to every curve on his. I winced in sympathy as he greedily drank from the bottle Julius handed over.

"He's right dude, take a couple minutes to cool down. If you don't break the record next run, take it as a sign to call it a night," I said.

Tommo internally battled the idea before deflating back against the grass with a brisk nod. Closing his eyes, Julius and I watched as Tommo's breaths slowly grew leveled.

I swiped the bottle off the ground, taking a hard swing then wincing when the bitter taste of black coffee hit me.

"Jesus."

"Oh, yeah, should've warned you. He switched to coffee like a half-hour ago," Julius said, sympathetic.

I spat on the grass, wiping my tongue of the foul taste of cold coffee.

"You guys are fucking crazy."

Julius shrugged, yelling at Romeo to bring down Tommo's spare clothes when the guy attempted to strip off his shirt. Julius and I helped him unglue it from his form and wrestled a worn sweatshirt over his head before the cold could get to him.

"Keep an eye on Remi, he's been edgy all week," Julius muttered to me as he and Romeo guided Tommo to the water fountain near the basketball courts.

I raised an eyebrow at their shrinking forms, slowly making my way to where Clark sat texting with a beer bottle pressed to his lower lip.

He looked up from his phone, finished off his bottle before relighting the joint idling at his side, sliding the phone into his back pocket as I sat down.

"Hey."

"Hey, you texting Jessica?"

"What? No, she's crashed for the night. Has a biology quiz tomorrow. Super boring."

"You guys still going good?"

At that his brow pinched.

"You know Romeo was kidding about Roberts? I haven't been cheating. Shocking, I know, but true."

I raised my hands. "Hey, man, I never said you were. Just checking everything's cool on your end. Like you said, we haven't had quality time."

He slammed his shoulder into mine, laughing.

"Fuck off. Everything's fine. Romeo's just being an ass since I snapped at Coach last training session."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"What's there to tell?" Clark took a drag, paused, then pulled again.

"You can talk to me about everything, Jeremy."

Clark coughed out a laugh, smoke hitting my nose in sticky tendrils.

"Right, because you tell me everything."

"Clark-"

"Come closer," he said, as if suddenly making up his mind about something.

There wasn't much of a closer so I shuffled until he said stop. Our thighs were pressed together, his knee digging into the side of mine as he turned to face me fully.

"Close your eyes, Beau," he said, tone serious.

I chuckled weakly. "That's pretty ominous, Clark."

He ignored me, waiting for me to follow the order.

And I did.

I could hear him take a long, low drag, blowing it out across my cheeks.

I almost went to open my eyes to ask what he was up to when I felt him draw closer, saying to me lowly to open my mouth.

And like the follower I was, I did as he said.

I jumped a little when I felt a light pressure against my lips before gusts of smoke slid down my tongue and into my mouth.

I choked a little and Clark chuckled.

"Breath in you moron," he whispered, and I did. Then he pressed in harder and I was sure that it was his mouth on mine, moving slowly, a little sloppy even, against my lips.

Before I could kiss back, do anything back really, Clark was on his feet.

"Come on, I want to see if Tommo has one more good race in him. See if I can beat him when he's not in his prime," he smirked, darting down the bleachers as I sat there, stunned.

Jeremy Clark, my best friend, had just kissed me.