21. Noise
"What was that?"
"Oh, nothing. It's just the sound of my heart stopping."
__________

Mark and Jack were sitting in Mark's house, just lazing around on his bed. It was 10p.m. but they were still watching a thriller, Jack jumping when someone was close to the murderer, or tensing when there was a particularly tense part.

They were teenagers and Mark's parents were out of town for four days, so Mark invited his friend and secret crush over to spend the night and watch spooky movies in the spirit of Halloween.

It was a semi-calm part in the movie and the two weren't really paying attention, talking about things and complaining about school work. Of course Mark had invited him over with the intention of telling him his feelings for Jack, but hasn't exactly mustered up the courage yet. Mark liked how Jack looked with nothing but the illumination of the TV lighting him.

Mark convinced Jack to dye his hair with him, Mark constantly changing the colour while Jack stuck with green. It was currently red and he thought it looked cool, Jack always saying he could spot Mark from anywhere in the hallway and lunch room at school.

Jack was talking about something, most likely about this long-ass essay he had to write for his elective, but Mark wasn't listening. More of just looking at his face, since it always looked so expressionistvive and he absolutely adored it. Mark found himself subconsciously leaning in, his head a scramble of 'doitdoitdoitdoitdoit' and 'nows you chance don't blow it'.

Jack noticed this and stopped talking, staring up at Mark like he didn't know what to do. Just as their lips were about to touch, there was a loud bang coming from the kitchen. Mark immediately pulled away.

"What was that?" He asked, looking towards the doorway, which was on Jack's side. Jack have him a quirky look and said "Oh, nothing. It's just the sound of my heart stopping." with a grin on his face.

"No, seriously, what was that noise?"

"What noise?"

"You didn't hear it?" Mark asked, getting up off the bed to put his ear to the door, which he had closed earlier because Jack said 'it's fucking creepy to be able to see in the hall'. Jack frowned and paused the movie, flinching a little when he looked up and saw the murders mask covered in blood behind the girl in the movie.

"No, I didn't. And if you didn't want to kiss me you could've just ignored me, y'know." Jack said as he crossed his arms, looking away from Mark. Mark stared at him. "Jack, that's not at all it. I seriously heard a fucking noise, I swear." Mark replied as he opened his bedroom door, looking down both ways to see his parents standing in the kitchen.

"Ah, Mark, we're home! Sorry if we scared you! Dad got his business done early and we wanted to get here as soon as possible, so we didn't have to leave you alone longer than one night!" His mom called from the kitchen and both him and Jack immediately froze, looked at each other, and Jack was climbing into Mark's closet. Mark blocked the doorway while Jack got in, smiling at him mom.

"It's fine! We, uh, I was watching a horror movie and I thought someone was here to kill me or something." Mark stalled, rubbing the back of his neck and looking over his shoulder to see Jack no where in sight. His mom raised an eyebrow and interrogated him on what he was watching, if it had sex, yadayada. As soon as she kissed him on the cheek and left, Mark shut his door.

"Mark I'm stuck!"