"Okay, I'm in. Get to writing." You noticed that he had brought his dry erase board with him and pointed to it.
Mark silently sighed and did as he was told. First things first, I want to apologize for how I acted this morning. You were one-hundred percent correct when you said that I was acting like an immature brat and that I should just accept my punishment and move on. That's what I'm going to do. I mean, it's only a month so maybe it won't even be that bad. But anyway, can you forgive me for how I acted?
You nodded. "Yeah, I can forgive you."
Thank you. Mark's features filled with relief as he wrote. He then pulled you into a hug. You didn't object his actions. Instead, you hugged him back.
"Okay, now that you've apologized for your ridiculous behavior this morning, could you perhaps tell me why you have your car? You're breaking the rule that your mom set about you having it."
I know, I know. Mark's features went from being filled with relief to being filled with slight annoyance. She isn't home from work yet so she doesn't even know that I have it right now.
"But why do you even have your car in the first place? If I were you, I wouldn't want to get on your mom's bad side after the shit that you pulled last night."
I had to come and pick you up from the hospital so you didn't have such a long walk back to my house. Plus, I needed to apologize to you for my behavior this morning because I couldn't stop feeling like shit all during school today. I could hardly focus in class because I literally felt like I was such a terrible person.
"You didn't need to beat yourself up like that." You looked over at him as he drove through the five o'clock Cincinnati traffic. "As long as you recognize that you made a mistake and make sure that you don't make that mistake again, then there's really no reason to beat yourself up over something as insignificant as what happened this morning."
You think that what happened this morning was insignificant? A puzzled look fell on Mark's face.
"Of course I do." You shrugged. "It's not like anyone was hurt in that situation. You were just a little moody, that's all." You looked over at him. "Do you think that what happened this morning was significant?"
Mark nodded and began writing as he stopped for a red light. Of course I think what happened this morning was significant. I hate making people angry.
You sighed. "Mark, it's okay. I said I forgive you and I genuinely do. It's in the past and you should just forget about it. It's not like what happened is going to affect our friendship in any way."
It wasn't until Mark had to stop for another red light that he actually responded to your statement. I know and I'm sorry for freaking out so much about it. It's just... I'm scared of losing you. You're my best friend and you're always there for me when I need a shoulder to cry on. I don't want me being a complete and utter dumbass to ruin our friendship forever.
"Mark, trust me when I say that it's going to be damn near impossible to get me to stop being friends with you." You looked over at the pink-haired boy, who adjusted his flower crown as you spoke and as the red light turned into a green light. "You're my best friend too. It's kinda shocking to hear those words to leave my mouth because I've only known you for almost two months, but it's true. I've ever bonded with someone like I've bonded with you. I'm really glad that we met because I don't even want to think about what my life would be like if I hadn't met you."
Mark looked over at you and smiled once you were done speaking. You smiled back at him, as you unable to resist the urge to smile as well because of just how contagious his smile was.

*****

There, now it's as if I never took my car back to come and pick you up. Mark smiled as he wrote after placing his car keys on the table. Remember, it's our little secret.
You didn't respond to him. Everything Julian had told you while you were visiting him kept repeating over and over again in your mind. As these things kept repeating, you looked all around you, expecting to see some sort of listening device or someone watching through the windows to make sure that you weren't going to share what he said to you with anyone.
But you didn't.
You sighed, realizing that you were being way too paranoid.
But why did you still get the feeling that there was someone or something nearby that was making sure that you were keeping what Julian said to you to yourself?
Mark tapped you on your shoulder, making you gasp and place your hand on your chest.
Hey, are you okay? You seem worried.
You let out a sigh of relief and nodded as you removed your hand from your chest. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Are you sure? You really don't seem all that fine to me.
"Trust me Mark, if something was wrong, I would tell you." Thankfully, you were much better at lying than Mark was so you were able to pull off lying to him way easier than he would be able to pull off lying to him.
Okay. He seemed to be convinced that you were telling the truth as he gave you a slight nod. Well, I gotta go and get my homework done before my brother gets back. I have to go with him and do some things and we won't be back until way later.
"Oh, what are you two doing?" You asked out of curiosity.
Oh... Just some... Well, you know... Personal things... Tears seemed to form in his eyes as he struggled to explain just what he was going to be doing with his brother. I, um, would rather not go into it. Let's just say that I'll be going every other day with him since I've been slacking off recently and I've been feeling like shit because of it.
"Oh, okay." You didn't really know what else to say so those two words were the best you could do.
What do you plan on doing tonight?
You shrugged. "I'm thinking about calling Troy and seeing what he's up to. It's been a couple of days since I've last seen him."
I don't think you should do that.
"Why not?"
You only want to go there because he has weed.
"No, I don't." You crossed your arms, feeling slightly angry because you couldn't believe that he would even think that.
Mark rubbed his forehead. (Y/N), I really don't think that you should go over there. I don't want you to do anything that you'll regret.
"I'll be fine." You scoffed. "Besides, it's not like I'm addicted to weed or anything. I just like it maybe once or twice a week."
Yeah, once or twice a week will soon turn into a few times a week. And then that'll turn into you smoking it every single day.
"You're acting ridiculous." You scoffed again. "That's not even going to happen. I'm not doing anything beyond weed and if I get offered anything other than that, I'm going to say no." You sighed. "I swear Mark Fischbach, you worry too much."
Sorry for caring about my only friend, I guess. A sad look fell on Mark's face as he wrote slowly, something he usually did when he was sad or upset.
Without waiting for a response, he turned away from you and began to head upstairs.
"Mark..." Your whisper was barely audible and you trailed off because you had no idea what to say. You sighed as you went upstairs and into your room.

*****

"He worries way too much." You sighed as you sat down next to Troy on his couch. "He thinks I'm going to get addicted. He's crazy."
"Who the hell are you talking about?"
"Mark. Who else would I be talking about?"
"True." Troy shrugged as he pulled out a small bag from his pocket. You looked over, expecting to see that weed was inside.
But it wasn't.
"What the hell is that?" You asked Troy, pointing to the small bag that he was holding in his hand. Inside the bag was a white powdery substance.
"You know what it is. Don't act like you don't know what's in this bag." Troy smiled a bit as he shook the bag slightly.
"When did you get-?"
"I know a lot of people (Y/N)." Troy opened the bag and began dumping the contents onto his hand. "You know, I've been saving this until you came over because I was hoping that we could try it together."
"Troy, there's no way in hell that I'm going to do cocaine with you. You're out of your goddamn mind if you think that there's any chance that I'm going to do that."
"Oh, come on, (Y/N). Aren't you bored of weed? Don't you want something that's a little more... exciting?"
"Exciting? You dare call even the thought of snorting cocaine exciting? What the fuck is wrong with you? Do you know what could happen if you start doing that?"
Troy shrugged like it was no big deal. "Of course I know what could happen. I don't really care all that much. In case you haven't figured this out about me by now, I really don't give a fuck about most things. I do whatever the fuck I want whenever I want."
You sighed and ran a hand through your hair. "Fine, I guess I won't stop you. But I'm not going to snort cocaine with you and you can't force me to do anything that I don't want to do, just like I can't force you to do something that I don't want to do."
Troy shrugged. "I guess you've got me there. Just know that it's your loss."
You shrugged as well. "Fine, I don't care." You stood up and went into the kitchen. "Hey, where do you keep your weed supply?"
"Oh, yeah, about that..."
"Troy, what the fuck did you do?" You placed your hands on your hips.
"I may or may not have almost got busted with it while I was getting some from my friend." Troy gave you a sheepish smile. It faded away almost as soon as you saw it on his face. "That dumbass didn't check to make sure that the cops weren't around. There was literally one walking out to his cruiser as my friend was about to hand me what I paid for. Even worse, my friend ran off with my money and I've been trying to call him to see if he could just bring it to my house because of the close call that we had, but he won't even return any of my calls."
You sighed out of both annoyance and frustration. "Why didn't you tell me that you didn't have any weed?"
"I thought that that was the only reason you came over to my house anymore." Troy was staring at the cocaine that was in his right hand, the look in his eyes showing just how much he wanted to try it.
"What? Why on earth would you think that?"
"Well, at first, the only reason you came over was because of Derek. But now that he's no longer your friend, I kinda assumed that the only reason you stuck around was because I had weed."
"No, of course not." You ran a hand through your hair as you exited the kitchen and sat back down next to him. "The weed was just an added bonus. You're a really great guy Troy. You're really funny and you're a really great listener too."
Troy looked up from his hand and smiled at you. "Thanks (Y/N). That's really nice of you to say." He then stood up and went into the kitchen.
"What are you doing?"
It wasn't until a few moments had passed and when he had sat back down on the couch that he finally responded to you. "You were right."
"Huh?"
"You were right." He repeated.
"Right about what?"
"About what you said earlier."
"I said a few things earlier so you're going to have to enlighten me as to what exactly you're referring to."
"You were right about pointing out what could happen to me if I start doing cocaine and trying to knock some sense into me." You looked down and saw that the cocaine was no longer in his hand. "My uncle actually died of a cocaine overdose and if you weren't here to say that I was making the wrong choice... Well, I'd probably end up like him one day. So thanks for looking out for me."
You shrugged a bit. "Hey, it's what friends are for."
Troy smiled as he pulled you into a hug. "I see why Derek had a thing for you."
"Troy, this better not be going where I think this is going." You said nervously as you hugged him back.
"It's not." He reassured you. "I only like you as a friend. Nothing more and certainly nothing less."
"The same goes for me." You broke the hug and pulled the bag of weed he had given you when you had first arrived at his house out of your pocket. You then grabbed the pipe that was sitting next to Troy. "Hey, so, there's something that I've been meaning to ask you."
"Let me hear it." He pulled his pipe out of his pocket and placed it between his lips.
"Well, I planned on hanging out with Mark tonight but he said that he was going to go with Tom so that they could do some things." You explained. "Now, I would be totally fine with this, but the problem is that he didn't go into what him and Tom were going to do. When I tried to get him to tell me, he just said that they were personal things and I decided to not push the matter any further. Do you know what's going on with those two by chance?"
"Nope." Troy replied as he pulled out his lighter after loading up his pipe. "I was actually hoping that you would know because Tom's been pulling this business for a few months now and I'm literally just about to make him sit his ass down and talk about what the hell he's been doing." He sighed. "Back then, he only went once a week but then he started slowly going more and more and I fear that he's going to do this every day at the rate he's going."
"I sure hope not." You sighed as well as you blew smoke from your pipe. "I'm scared for them. Something's clearly going on with one of them."
"It could also be both of them but that's worst case scenario." Troy blew smoke as well and the entire room immediately began smelling like weed. "And I don't want to think about that. Tom's a good friend of mine and I don't want anything to be wrong with him or Mark."
"Me too." You rubbed your forehead as you blew smoke again. "I hope that whatever's going on isn't too serious."

*****

It wasn't until it was just past midnight that you arrived back at Mark's house. You tiptoed up to your bedroom and slowly opened the door.
You nearly let out a scream when you turned on the light only to find that Mark was sitting on your bed.
"What the fuck are you doing?" You whispered to him. "You nearly scared me half to death."
I was waiting here until I knew that you were home.
"You could've just texted me."
I did.
"You did?" You asked him, feeling confused as you pulled your phone out of your pocket and saw that there were dozens of texts from "Pretty Boy." "I don't remember hearing my phone go off and I wasn't even like I got that high."
(Y/N)...
"Relax. The high wore off after a few hours. That's why it took me so long to get back home."
Mark stood up and shook his head. I thought you were better than this (Y/N). I didn't realize that you were one of those people.
"What do you mean "one of those people?""
I mean that you're one of those people that thinks you're fine when you're actually not. The next thing you know, you're going to be depending on weed to be happy.
You sighed and ran a hand through your hair. "You honestly worry way too much. I'm not going to end up like that."
Mark stared down at his dry erase board, making it obvious that he was trying really hard to figure out what he wanted to say. It wasn't until a few moments had passed before he actually started writing something, though he raised the board close to his face so that you couldn't see what he was writing. He then shook his head and began erasing what he had been writing before. You decided that you weren't going to ask him why he had erased what he had written because you knew that it would just make him angry.
Whatever you say. It felt like an eternity before Mark turned the board back around so that you could see what he had decided to change whatever it was he had originally written to. Before you could respond, he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
"It's not good for you to worry so much, Pretty Boy." You whispered sadly as you laid down in bed, not feeling the energy or motivation to change into your pajamas.