Inspirational quote: If people hate you, don't be worried. Why? Because haters hate all people that they can't be.

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Kieran kept on tapping Clyde until he had woken up.

"Wake up!"
Tap.
"Wake up!"
Tap.

"Clyde! If you're not dead, I believe I said, wake up! Let's go home now."

After that, Clyde opened one eye, looking like he had just miraculously resurrected from the dead.

"Huh? What? Oh no. I'm not dead. I was just a bit traumatised by what you said, in a good way of course."

After Clyde insisted that Kieran should get off of him, that was what he did, then as Kieran watched Clyde brush off mud from the bench he realised that Clyde really did kind of drool when he slept.

"You heard everything?" Kieran asked surprisingly.

Clyde nodded in return.

"Dude. I'm like lightest sleeper in the world. Of course I heard everything. I was crying on the inside."

That was when Kieran and Clyde left the park completely, making an exit via the park gates before crossing the road and walking home together.

"I'm sorry about what Leo and Theo said about you," Kieran apologised. "Turns out that they aren't so great after all."

"It's fine," Clyde lied. "I probably would've made fun of myself as well if I could see myself."

Kieran didn't reply. They just kept on walking until Clyde abruptly stopped walking in the middle of the woods to check his phone because it beeped.

He read the text message his mother sent him in frustration.

Kieran, in the meantime, kept on surreptitiously watching Clyde, which Clyde didn't know about, still staring at his phone in frustration.

He walked backwards to meet Clyde waving his hand in front of his face so that Kieran could get his full attention.

"You okay?"

Clyde looked up, still half typing away on his phone.

"Huh? Oh yeah. I'm fine."

Kieran wasn't convinced.
"You don't look okay..."

"It's just... My mother just sent me a really disturbing text."

Kieran came closer to Clyde, almost trying to snatch his phone away from him.

"Why? What did it say?"

Clyde gave Kieran his phone, telling him that he wasn't a hundred percent bothered to read it out and Kieran should just read it for himself.

So he did, and Clyde was right.

Clyde! Clyde, where are you? Have the zombies abducted you? Was there an apocalypse at school and you're in another galaxy? Have you died? Have you been kidnapped? We're worried sick about you! Don't make us have a search party for you!

Kieran literally burst out laughing after he read the message, that Clyde's mother had sent him.

"Your mother seems pretty crazy, Clyde." Kieran told him, handing Clyde back his phone whilst internally laughing to himself.

"Pretty crazy? She is crazy, Kieran!" Clyde corrected him, shaking Kieran like he was an addictive rattling toy.

"She seems kinda worried about you," Kieran continued, as they walked out of the woods into the main road.

"Kinda? She is. Problem is, I promised my sister that I'll be back by five o'clock."

"And what's the time now?" Kieran wanted to know, raising an eyebrow at Clyde.

Clyde briefly checked the time on his phone, before his face went into a half screaming half traumatic expression.

"Half five."

Half five? Kieran wanted to caterwaul at Clyde. How did time go that quickly?

"The last time I checked the time it was about half three. Goodness knows how time went that quickly!" Clyde shouted at Kieran.

Then they were definitely in there longer than they thought they were. Kieran talked to Theo and Leo for a long time, but even then, he didn't think it would have been that long.

Kieran didn't reply as he genuinely thought that there was nothing to say.

They then left the main road and into another park, because for them to go home from the park, they had to go through a second park, which was both stressful and tedious.

"Anyway..." Kieran said after about twenty minutes or so of walking. "Look, Clyde. I'm really sorry about Leo and Theo. As people. I got carried away with them. We honestly should have left earlier."

"Uh yeah, you should be sorry, Kieran. Do you know how annoyed I was? What were you guys talking about anyway? That stupid art competition, and how terrible you are at art? Please, a two year old could draw better than you."

Kieran stopped what he was doing, and then turned to face Clyde, his facial expression horrified.

And once he started staring at Clyde, he wouldn't stop.

"I can't believe you just said that!" Kieran hissed at Clyde, his tears making a blur of Clyde's shocked face. "I mentally and physically can't believe you just said that!"

Clyde who was confused, stared at a half crying Kieran blankly in return. He had completely forgotten everything that had just happened a few seconds ago, and it was only brought back to his memory when he had asked Kieran about it.

"What?" Clyde repeated, confusingly. "What did I say?"

"Don't act like you don't know," Kieran snapped back, shooting Clyde a dirty look and walking faster. "You said that I was terrible at art and that a two year old could draw better than me."

Clyde seemed alarmed, by the looks of things anyway.

"What? I said that? I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. You know I say stupid stuff when I've just woken up from a nap."

Kieran had had enough.

They had stopped in front of a colossal water fountain at the second park they were at and Kieran was a hundred percent eager to push Clyde into the water.

But he didn't, he just shot Clyde another dirty look.
"That's not an excuse, Clyde! And even if it was, it's not a very good one anyway."

Clyde rolled his eyes in disbelief before sighing in frustration.

Second fight in one day, was this sane?

"Look, Kieran. I'm sorry. I'm a stupid person, I don't deserve to be your best friend."

"How long did it take for you to realise that?" Kieran hollered, strangling Clyde.

Soon after, they were facing each other again, both of them more annoyed than last time, at their first argument after the devastating ice hockey tryout at school.

"Clyde, do you know the actual role of a best friend? You're supposed to help me, be there for me, stick up for me," Kieran began. "Look, we met when we were three, we're both fifteen now, and it's like you've done almost none of those things."

Clyde felt hurt, then he suddenly realised something.

"What about the time where Justin and Kendrick beat you up? And the time where I taught you 'Flight of The Bumblebee' on the piano? And the time where-"

"Okay! I get it. But I know what your problem is. You're jealous, Clyde."

There was another precedented silence for a while as Clyde thought of something smart to say.

"Jealous of what?"

"Jealous of me. Face it, every time I'm better than you at something, you become insanely envious."

Clyde didn't say anything.
Kieran was right.

He was jealous of Kieran because he had better handwriting than him.

He was jealous of Kieran because he was better at art than him.

He was jealous of Kieran because Kieran was way smarter than him.

And he was jealous of Kieran because Kieran was better looking than him.

The journey home wasn't that resplendent either. Clyde and Kieran had an argument at the second park, and it was settled that they weren't going to be friends or speak to each other for the time being.

When Kieran had arrived at home for once, his stepfather kept on questioning him asking where he had disappeared to that made him arrive home at eight o'clock in the night.

He didn't go home straight away.

His real father had died a few years back so Kieran was left with his stepfather Anthony. Whilst two of them did get along, most of the times, they didn't, with Kieran thinking that Anthony had disliked him the most out of all of his siblings.

Anthony had slick brown hair, and was very attractive for his age. He had hazel eyes with a fully grown beard, and he meant business. He didn't like it whenever Kieran was unserious, as well as the rest of his siblings.

"Jesus, where've you been?" Kieran's stepfather wanted to know. "I was worried sick about you."

"I'm sorry, dad. I won't do that again, I promise."

"You better not. Anyway, get ready for bed, your siblings are sleeping, don't wake them up."

"Bed? But it's like, eight o'clock. You know I don't sleep until midnight on Fridays."

"Yeah, I'm telling you, go to bed. Tomorrow is a very busy day for all of us."

"But-"

"Go to bed Kieran."

So he grudgingly did.

Kieran locked himself in his room.
Although he didn't actually sleep.

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Moral of chapter: Arguing with your best friend is normal but if you find yourself arguing too much unnecessarily with your best friend then you might have to end friendship.