"Did you try turning it off and on again?"

Clark's head snapped up at me, expression pissed off.

"No. I've just been standing here like a jack ass for the past hour staring at the glitching screen - Yes, I tried that already! That's why I'm here to see if this doofus can fix it!"

The tech advisor behind the Donnie's Tech House counter flushed red, cradling Clark's busted phone. He was probably in our year, maybe one below, with flaming purple tips to his light brown hair. The guy barely cleared the counter and trembled hard enough he almost dropped the phone when Clark swore again, running a hand down his face, aggravated.

"Hey, man, chill out," I said, rubbing a hand on Clark's shoulder. "Lay off the guy, he wasn't the one who dropped their phone in the toilet."

"I didn't drop my-! Fuck, today is just... FUCK!"

His outburst drew the attention of a stout woman by the laptop display, who sent us a scandalized look. Clapping a hand over Clark's mouth I told the tech advisor to do what he could and guided us out of the mall's store. It took a couple rides on the escalator and parking ourselves at the food court to get Clark to somewhat calm down.

"We still have time, hopefully, they can figure out a way to fix it by then," I told him as he sucked down the slushy I bought him.

Clark pulled off the straw with a loud pop and pained expression. "This is the last thing I needed. I'm meeting Jessica's parents in a few hours. I'm already stressed, I don't need this looming over me."

"Chill man, we'll get this all sorted. Just focus on being charming... or at least tolerable."

Clark flicked his straw at me in retaliation before sinking further into the plastic chair. "Her dad golf's, how am I supposed to make conversation with someone that boring?"

"I don't know, talk about Tiger Woods or something?"

"I knew I should've brought Tommo with me, he doesn't say stupid shit like you do."

"Hey!" I said, grabbing his arm when he made to get up. "Just calm down, obviously Jessica trusts you if she's having you meet them."

"Yeah that's because she doesn't realize how much of a fuck up I am," he groaned before taking a hard pull of his slushy. Too much comes up and he choked, neon blue liquid spilling from his lips. I had to stop myself from reaching over and wiping it off, instead offering him a damp napkin. "Thanks."

"We should head back, lunch will be over soon and I can't afford to skip any more classes," I told him, getting to my feet.

"It's a ten minute walk dude, we have time. Plus you have study break next period. Chill."

"You studied my timetable," I smirked, still not sitting down.

Clark snorted, kicking my knee. "Gotta know where my number one is at all times. Plus Tommo told me about your date on Monday in the library with Deli Meats."

"That guy is such a nark sometimes."

"Like I said, gotta know where my number one is," he smirked, finally standing up, throwing his drink in the trashcan.

Clark slung his arm around my neck, jerking me close enough to ruffle my hair. I shoved him off, laughing over my rapid heart rate as he guided us towards the exit.

"He said you two are in the play together. Deli Meat didn't strike me as queer."

"Not everyone who does theatre is gay, man, don't be ignorant. Plus he has a girlfriend."

"Whatever. Do you think he'll give me discounts now since I know you?"

"I barely know the guy, I doubt I could get a discount."

"You knew he had a girlfriend, how does that factor into barely knowing the guy." Clark countered with a coy shrug.

"Fuck off,"

"It's alright to have a crush on the dude." He smirked, chuckling to himself when I blustered, punching his shoulder hard.

"I don't have a crush on him. God, you are such an asshole."

"And you're super defensive," he said, stepping closer to whisper the words in my ear.

"Whatever, let's just get back to campus so I can ditch your ass."

"Shut up," he laughed, stepping behind me and tucking his chin over my shoulder as we waited at the lights. "You love me, you just don't want to admit it."

"Sure, that's it. Not like you're currently holding me hostage or anything." I muttered in response, earning a butt to the chin.

"Rude. Come on Boo-Boo, I'll drop you off. I think I'm gonna get Mitchell to pick me up early, see if I can work a couple hours with him under the table to cover the cost to fix my piece of shit phone." Clark scoffed, striding onto the crosswalk even though the light blinked red. No cars were coming so I rushed to meet him, handing him my phone so he could text his brother.

"Speaking of Mitchell, Jenny's car is busted. Cool if I bring it around on, say, Saturday? After I swing by Tommo's race?"

"Look at you, little cheerleader. Really tapping into your feminine side," he chuckled before nodding. "That's fine. I probably won't be there but Mitchell will fix it up on a discount, what's the problem?"

"Side's wrecked. It's gonna be a long job so we're cool leaving it overnight." I told him and Clark nodded, typing, trusting me to navigate him away from rogue streetlights and trashcans.

"Cool, I let him know to expect you."

"Thanks, man."

"Anything for my number one." He said with a cheesy wink as he passed my phone back that I couldn't help but blush at.

Clark swiped his tongue along the seam of his mouth, chewing his lip as he mulled over something. "We should do another boys night, chill at Dovers. Romeo and I were thinking to practice there tonight, after dinner with Jessica's parents, you should come. Bring Deli Meat if he'll bring sandwiches."

"You know with how often you bring him up, one may think you had a crush on him," I said and Clark rolled his eyes.

"I wouldn't do that to you, steal your man."

"Oh my god, I'm gonna kill you," I said, lunging for him. Clark side-stepped away and we spent more time than I cared to admit play fighting before continuing on our way to school. When we reached the front gates, Clark leaned against the side railing and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

"Really dude?" I said, aspirated at both the habit and the fact he was stupid enough to smoke outside campus.

"What? It's been a stressful day." He shrugged, attempting to light it. The lighter jammed a few times before sparking, Clark letting out a triumphant noise.

"Whatever. I'll call the shop to let you know, but I probably won't be able to swing it. Might turn in early since tomorrow's going to be a long day. I start rehearsals."

Clark rolled his eyes, hard, at that. Releasing a ring of smoke he asked, "What's this play even about?"

I flushed bright red and scratched the back of my neck, embarrassed. "It's like a twist on Snow White-"

Before I could finish Clark burst out into laughter that quickly turned into harsh coughs when he choked on smoke.

"Snow White? Oh my god, that is so lame. Frilly outfits and everything? How method you gonna get? Like wearing tights to school and only speaking in old English?" He laughed and I threw him a dark look.

"Fuck you," I said before turning to walk through the gates.

"C'mon man it's funny!" Clark said, still chuckling to himself, as he reached out and grabbed my arm. "Plus your ass would look great in tights don't be offended."

I faltered at that, letting him pull me back to his side. Suddenly I was reminded by the last time we were alone while Clark smoked. About how he kissed me. My entire body shuddered as I reclined against the gate, refusing to meet his eyes as he bore holes into the bus station across the road from us.

"You can't keep saying stuff like that," I said after a lengthy silence.

Clark didn't say anything back, just pulled hard on his cigarettes before blowing smoke to the side.

Crushing the butt beneath his sneakers he gave me an unreadable look before shrugging.

"It's true," he said before breaking into a wide grin and clapping my shoulder. "I'll see you tonight. Tell Tommo to make sure he swings by, Beau, and no backing out!"

Before I could respond he had taken off across the road.

I pushed off of the wall, walking onto school property. At my locker I swapped out my books, glancing down the hallway and nodding to people I knew. I caught sight of Spencer, head down and smiling at his phone before disappearing into the hallway bathroom. Shutting my locker I headed towards the library, sliding into the seat Tommo saved for me, the pair of us falling into a mutual silence. Or at least until another chair pulled itself free and Spencers broad form fell into it, throwing a stained notebook onto the table.

"If I didn't know any better I would honestly think you were stalking Tommo," I greeted him, earning a soft eyeroll.

"I come bearing gifts in the hopes you'll let me sit at the cool table," he said, looking up and sliding a glazed donut my way.

"Police officers son bribing fellow students, should I be worried?" I asked, ignoring Tommo's widened eyes and slapping his hand away when he went for my donut.

"Being around you has warped my sense of right and wrong, what can I say?" he smirked back, this time presenting Tommo with a donut I could only describe as bursting with jelly.

"Okay, enough with the verbal foreplay. You two are making me uncomfortable, which I can't afford since I have a quiz next period. Tone it down." Tommo said around a mouth full of dough.

I cleared my throat, trying to hide the blush that spread at Tommo's words, steadfastly focusing on pretending to read over the textbook I had open before me. I didn't even remember taking it out, nor had I any idea what the notes I had been making in the margin were to do with. Hoping they were of use I opened my notebook, flicking to where I had written down our homework for the week. Spencer didn't seem phased, leisured in his seat as he flicked through a worn copy of Lolita.

"Work or pleasure?" I said, immediately regretting the words by the look both of them cast me. Clarifying I gestured at the book, not trusting myself to speak.

Spencer bent the cover back towards himself, stiffening a chuckle when Ms. Jenning cruised by our table.

"Bit of both," he shrugged, thumbing the books indented spine. "AP English requires us to read at least three classic novels and compose an essay on overarching themes."

"What's your theme?" Tommo piped in, giving up on his extensive mind-mapping for Health class.

"Lust," Spencer smirked before going back to his readings.

At Tommo's indecipherable look I went back to my own work, forcing myself to start the questions based on the assigned textbook chapter I had mindlessly scanned over. It was halfway through mapping out the transduction pathway of triacylglycerols that Spencer reached over. Without glancing from his book he pulled the pen from between my fingers, drawing a fat green line through my diagram before redrawing it. Sliding it back to me I stared at him incredulously.

"Gs." He said simply, turning the page of his book slowly. When I continued to stare at him he folded the page's corner, butting my textbook with the end of my pen. "You were drawing the Gq pathway, which is very wrong. Triacylglycerols convert to fatty acids due to hormone signals, meaning they activate PKA due to cAMP cascades. Or did you not read the textbook before answering?"

"So what was I drawing?"

Spencer turned my notebook back towards him, squinting. "Insulin. Which is understandable since you're not even on the textbook page that correlates with the question you're answering."

Tommo snorted beside me, head propped on his chin as he glanced between us like the most exciting game of tennis.

"Also question three is wrong, there is no such thing as Ligand Tyrosine Kinases, you've mixed up two receptor classes there."

"Looks like someone needs a tutor," Tommo muttered before returning to his work at my hard glare.

"Any other mistakes?" I said, aspirated. As it stood my grade for biology was a solid B-, not aided by the fact Mrs. Holly had thrown in a Biological Chemistry section. My chemistry was also rusty so like always I was doing my best to float along.

And failing.

Miserably.

"I would say tear out the entire page and start again, but that's a little cruel."

"You've already said it," I groaned, reaching to tear to the page loose before Spencer clapped a hand on my wrist.

"Hold on, hold on. I'm sure we can salvage things. Gimme the questions, I'll talk you through them."

I handed Spencer my notebook, ignoring Tommo's amused grin in favor of watching as Spencer's eyes raked over the sheet. He winced every now and again, reading my answers, before ripping the page out and scrunching it into a tight ball.

"Okay, so we may have to start from scratch, but don't worry. I managed to teach Gillian how to use an oven without burning the house down, I can handle this." He smiled at me, rewriting the questions from the handout before slowly guiding me through the questions. When the bell rang for next period I had managed to answer roughly a third of the questions, Spencer refusing to give me the answers. As he got up to stand, swinging his bag onto his shoulders I stood too.

"Thanks, by the way," I said, offering what I hoped was a grateful smile.

Spencer rolled his eyes, waving the gesture off as he tucked the copy of Lolita into the pocket of his beat-up jacket.

"No damage. Just know you're on snacks tomorrow as compensation," he grinned, offering Tommo a nod before breezing out the room.

"Easy boy," Tommo muttered in the midst of packing his stuff.

"Shut up," I grunted, forcefully shoving my books into my bag. Tommo laughed, punching my shoulder as a gesture of good will.

"Don't let him come into contact with Clark, he may try to bite a chunk out of the kid out of jealousy." He mused, ducking out of the way when I made to punch him in the stomach.

"Fuck you."

"Oh, Professor Spencer, tell me more about Ephinephrine signals," Tommo said in what I assumed to be an insanely offending impersonation of me.

"I will not hesitate to punch you in the teeth," I warned and Tommo raised his hands in surrender, still smirking. "Stop making that face."

"I'm not making a face," he grunted through the smile, heading towards the exit. I followed him, remembering at the last second Clark's plans for the evening.

"I probably won't stay longer than a couple of hours, I need to make sure I get some sleep tonight. Flemming has agreed to crash in Thomas' room for the night, so that should help," I told him as we paused at his locker.

"Whatever, hopefully, Clark won't be too strung out from meeting Jessica's folks," Tommo said and I ignored the pointed look he sent my way.

"Whatever," I parroted back, kicking my heel against the linoleum before taking a step back. "I gotta dump my stuff off before class but I'll meet you by the front gates, alright?"

"Sure. And try to find out where your boy got the donuts from, they were incredible."

"Okay," I said before spinning on my heel to give Tommo a hard glare. "He's not my boy."