[this is so short also I'm so sorry for this but I'm also not????? I'm having hella trouble writing. I don't wanna put this on a long break but I might have to >:(]

The weather was nice. It was still winter, but it was almost eighty degrees outside, and I had homework to do. It wasn't very much, and I thought it was pretty easy, but I'd acted like I'd hated it so Dallon would think I was working hard, when I really wasn't. I was probably going to ask him for help later.

The only problem was that my phone was dead. I'd left it inside to charge because it was dead dead. Zero percent dead. Seriously dead. All because I couldn't put it down after I discovered the Instagram comment section on Rihanna's recent post was getting intense, and then the battery died just I read to the juicy part of a long message. So I was outside with no phone, and strange enough, it was nice. I'd do it again if I had no other choice available.

My mom and dad hated camping, or anything related to the outdoors. We never got to sleep in a tent, or roast marshmallows over a fire because they both had a fear of bugs and whatever lurked in the trees. I'd always told them it was irrational, and that nobody was hiding with an axe and poison gas. They also loved horror movies, and that had only amplified the paranoia by at least two hundred percent.

And some other time, we traveled to Colorado to visit family, and the area we'd visited was packed with just trees. We drove for hours through mountains with single lane roads, and stopped in so many tiny rest stops, I quit counting at twelve. It was awful. That only made them want to do it less, and made them hate me a little more because I kept doing stupid shit. I almost fell into a waterfall, nearly broke a bridge, came way too close to falling down a whole fucking cliff, and when they let me drive a bit, I almost ran the car into a flimsy guard rail caked with years worth of rust. After that, we basically turned around and went to a hotel on flat, boring land.

In brief conclusion, I never got to spend time in the wilderness very much.

A part of me wished I had at least once or twice, though. It was so quiet and serene, and I almost wanted to try to convince Dallon to pitch a tent with me for a night, but then a pigeon flew by and took a shit on my papers.

So no more outside for me after I finished working.

"Whatcha doin'?" Dallon pulled out the chair next to me and sat down. A couple birds flew by and perched on the metal fence a few feet away.

"Math. Nothing exciting. It's really boring and lame, actually."

"Hey, I like math—"

"You're a nerd, so you're supposed to like math. It's obligatory to the title." I said. He smiled, but only for a few seconds. Something must've been bothering him. "But like, don't worry though. Because you're a cute nerd." I'd added the last part hastily. It sounded like a lie, but it wasn't. I hoped he knew that.

"Thanks, Brendon." He paused, and frowned. "I think."

It was quiet for minute or two. Maybe three. The only sound was this pair of birds in the sky going at it like their lives depended on it. Other than that, there was nothing.

"Who am I? To you, I mean."

He was staring at me. Concerned, worried, whatever. Maybe I was just shit at reading people. He was suspiciously good at it. "Why? Y-you're, like, my best friend. I can't even begin to imagine what I'd be doing without you. I've never had so much fun since Pete and I went to Disneyland on the middle school field trip."

He nodded. I couldn't tell if he liked that answer or not, because he didn't say anything. Not even a glimpse of a smile. "Really?"

"Yeah? I kinda, like, love you, dude. Just a little, if you couldn't tell."

"A little?"

"Fine, fine, lots and lots. To the moon and back, probably. Maybe Mars, I'm still trying to decide which flows off the tongue better."

The neighbors dog started howling next door. I hated that dog. I liked dogs a lot, but that one in particular I couldn't stand. She ate my homework once, and nobody believed me but Dallon, and even with his eye witness account, the teachers wouldn't allow me to make it up. "Are we an item, then? Officially?"

I didn't know why he was asking. It couldn't have waited until dinner, I guess. It had to be done while I was being productive for once. "I guess. If you want to make it official?"

He wasn't smiling like I was when he stood up. The chair scraped against the ground, the birds on the fence took off as fast as their wings could carry them when Dallon dropped my phone on the table.

It was unlocked.

And my conversation with Pete was still open.

"Is your bet complete, then?"

If only I could pause time. Then I'd drown my phone in a river and crush it under a bulldozer or something. Bury it in quick drying cement. Stick it in a bottle and throw it out to sea. Give it to a hungry fish and set it loose halfway across the world. I'd watched a sketchy horror movie where some girl was forced to swallow her phone by a murderer; I don't think I'd go that far, but if it meant he'd never read those messages, I'd do it. "I-I really don't know what you're talking about—"

"Don't lie to me," he stabbed his finger at the screen, "you can't lie to me. There is nothing you can hide anymore. I read it all. I hate that you're still trying to lie right to my face!"

"Then you know I actually like you, and it's not a bet anymore—"

"But I was a bet in the first place. That was your goal, that's why you stuck around, that's why you put up with everything. Not because you genuinely liked me, but because you believed that you could manipulate me. Not only was that never ever going to happen, because I never would fall for something as low as that, but you thought I would. And I just... I can't believe you. I was falling in love with you, and all you could think about was using me."

Smoke was metaphorically blasting from his ears. He didn't say anything again until he was halfway through the back door. "I knew you were too good to be true."

And I think that hurt more than knowing that he'd found out.

🖍🖍🖍

To: Pete
Hey

From: Pete
What's crack a lackin

To: Pete
Not right now dude

To: Pete
I'm honestly really not in the mood right now

To: Pete
Where are you?

From: Pete
I'm at My House I just made brownies with the guy I kinda like (a lot) (and he likes me) (can you believe it because I can't)

From: Pete
They're not drug brownies either

From: Pete
I never knew they could taste so good I think I like normal brownies better

From: Pete
Wait why do you want to know where I am

To: Pete
We kinda got in a fight? Not sure. I lost immediately though.

From: Pete
About what?

To: Pete
I'll tell you later

From: Pete
Whenever you want to talk I'll listen we haven't been friends for so long for me to lock u out

To: Pete
Thanks

From: Pete
Yeah I'll find some good spare blankets and you can use one of my pillows or the ones on the couch

From: Pete
When r u coming

To: Pete
Well actually 

To: Pete
I'm kinda outside

From: Pete
It was that bad huh

To: Pete
I don't think I can fix it

To: Pete
You were right