Your Slightest Look

"A date."

Mark nodded without even looking away from the computer screen where he was editing his lastest video. He knew Wade's eyebrows were incredibly high up, almost to his hairline for sure, while Bob was merely smirking to himself. He tended to do that a lot.

"Mark, you went on a date?"

"Yeeeeees," he rolled his eyes as he prolongated the word. "It's not that weird, is it?"

"Mark," Wade began to laugh as Bob just snickered in the background. "Bob and I thought about doing an intervention because we thought you were gay."

"What?!" the demi-German snapped his head to them as they began to furiously wipe off tears of laughter, Wade doubling over on the couch, crushing the water bottle he'd been holding. "I'm not gay!"

"Bi, then?" Bob shook his head with mirth shinning in his eyes. "Who's the girl?"

"Or, you know, the lucky boy?" Wade grinned.

"Ha ha, very funny," Mark saved the video before snatching a cold, open beer on the desk and taking a long sip. "Her name is Ángela Ruiz."

"Ruiz?" Wade's eyes widened. "Like, Allen Ruiz?"

"Yup," Mark looked away, not sure if Ángela was okay with telling Ade or Bob. "Mandy wanted to go to this acoustic set at the park, and it turns out that Felix Alden is the guitarrist of the band."

"Small word, uh?" Wade let his head rest back, eyes on the ceiling. "Man, Allen Ruiz. That poor guy."

"I know you two are probably too busy reminiscing your High School days filled with embarrassment and regret, but could you fill me in?" Bob stole a sip from Mark and sat back on the couch, ready for a story or two.

"Allen Ruiz was, like, Mark's protegee," Wade laughed.

"No, he wasn't," Mark scoffed. "He was my friend."

"The first fist fight you ever had was for him," Wade laughed. "He adored you, man, had the biggest crush on you."

"Ah, so he's gay?" Bob guessed.

"We're talking - raging homosexual," Wade spread his fingers for effect. "Mark taught him trumpet stuff on band and helped him out with math homework and everything. He was like a sempai or something."

"You felt bad for the kid," Bob concluded, looking at Mark.

"Not necessarily," Mark ignored the fact that calling Ángela Allen was wrong and gave out a sigh. "I... I saw his work on art class, it was all over the walls. He had this beaten up Polaroid that no one could touch but him and he took the greatest pictures. Then everyone made fun of him because he wore nail polish and make up, and nobody likes bullies, you know?"

"Now that I think about it," Wade frowned. "What happened for you two to stop talking after we finished High School?"

"Nothing," Mark glanced away with guilt shinning in his eyes. "We just... drifted apart. Lost contact. That's all."

He was met with silence, and Wade's 'kinda bummed' face. Like an 'oh, man, that sucks' that Wade often expressed to give him support but not suffocate him. Bob was staring at him.

"What happened to this Allen?" he asked curiously. "I mean, there's this Ángela girl and she's obviously his sister o cousin or whatever, so where is he?"

"Gone," Mark shrugged. "Far away. I didn't ask much about him, it seemed a delicate subject for Ángela."

It wasn't a lie. It was just cryptic. So Bob nodded and shrugged a little and Wade opened his laptop with a grin.

"You said she's in a band, right?" he wiggled his eyebrows. "Let's internet stalk her a bit, I wanna know how she looks."

"A lot like Allen, actually," Mark stood. "She has a YouTube channel. Fans have been asking for a collab ever since word got out that we met each other."

"Ángela Ruiz..." Bob and Mark sad beside him as her channel opened, full of tumblr and indie decorations. "Does she do make up tutorials? Because if she does, dude, get out already. Shopping with these girls is not fun."

"Well..." Bob leaned in. "No make up tutorials. A lot of vlogs, covers... and fan sketches."

"There's a lot of Harry Potter," Wade laughed. "Okay, which one do we c - she's got purple hair?!"

"Yes," Mark laughed.

"This one," he clicked on a vlog titled 'Stealth Games'. 

It started with the somewhat sexy crawl of Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, slithering up a ship. There was a montage of it with Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye in the background and Mark chuckled. As soon as Ángela came to view, Mark felt his phone vibrate. Ignoring Wade's protests about the way of life of a stalker, he looked at the message and was pleasantly surprised to find it was Ángela's.

From Angy:
i could ask y wade hs startd followin me on ytb bt i could also just blame u, right?

To Angy:
You could, no, you should. I don't date, so... they were curious.

From Angy:
what did he say bout me? wasnt he kinda surprisd?

To Angy:
Didn't tell them what wasn't mine to tell. Do I tell them?

From Angy:
ill tell em myself. thnks, mark.

To Angy:
:*

"Are you flirting?" Wade gasped from beside him.

"What?" Mark turned to him, frowning.

"You sent a kissy emoji," he pointed out.

"So?" he scoffed.

"That's flirting," Bob nodded.

"That's not flirting at all!" Mark felt warmth surrounding his face, much to his embarrassment. He was goddamn blushing? 

"You're terrible at this," Wade laughed behind his hand. "She's pretty, she seems nice and she's got a great taste in videogames and a terrible taste in men."

"Fuck you!" he shoved Wade, and look at the screen only to see Ángela throwing her head back, laughing.

He hadn't seen her do that since High School, and back then she rarely laughed. He smiled, despite the situation, and when he looked back to his phone he saw another kissy emoji.

"At least," Bob chuckled. "She's flirting back."

"I'm going back to my editing," Mark stood.

Bob and Wade didn't stop laughing.