“Why do you look like that?”
Mason jumped in surprise when he heard Joe’s sudden words. They had been sitting in silence on one of the very many benches by the river. Mason had been staring right in front of him, lost in his own thoughts, while, Joe, he… Mason hadn’t really paid any attention to what Joe had been up to. He had just been busy with himself, busy with… not existing. To be nothing for a little while. Until, well, until Joe brought him back to earth.
“What?” Mason mumbled.
“You look so fucking blue”, Joe said. “I don’t like it.”
“Gosh, just shut up”, Mason snorted, threatened to hit his friend, but decided to be nice this time. “I’m not a god damn machine. And give me a smoke.”
“Weren’t you the one that was going to quit smoking?” Joe asked, let his fingers slowly bring out the red packet from his pocket, but hesitated whether to give it to Mason or not. “No.”
“Just give me. And I believe that was Austin. For his granny. But you shouldn’t smoke either.”
“But Austin… wasn’t it his mom–” Joe started, but Mason was quick with interrupting.
“Shut up. For his granny.”
“But why, though? His mom’s dead anyway, so–”, Joe started, but Mason decided to not be nice anymore and hit his friend on the shoulder.
He quickly took away the pack from Joe’s hands and placed one of the cigarettes between his lips, lighted it.
“Yes, but do you know why she died?” he asked and took a drag. “Because smoking kills.”
“You’re a walking double moral”, Joe said and Mason slowly nodded.
“I know, right.”
It became silent for a while. The smoke from Mason’s cigarette tickled them in their nostrils. Joe found a thread in his t-shirt and his first thought was to pull it, but then remembered why the Titanic sank and decided to leave it be.
“Coffe, anyone?”
Both Joe and Mason jumped in surprise when they suddenly heard a deep voice. They turned around, but were soon smiling when they saw two well known friends standing behind their backs; Oliver and Austin.
Mason didn’t really know why, but his heart couldn’t help but to melt a little everytime he saw these two friends standing right next to each other; he didn’t want to feel shallow, but he always found Oliver’s innocence and height that barely made it to 170 centimetres so adorable. Especially when placed right next to Austin who was over 190 and was not even the least innocent. But they complemented each other well. And they looked good together, anyway.
“Coffee?” Austin repeated himself and pulled forward a take away coffee cup he was holding in his left hand.
Joe’s eyes grew big and he stretched out his hands to take the cup, but Austin quickly hit his hands.
“It’s not for you, god dammit.”
“Not for me? Not for me?! Then, why would you do something mean like that?! Then why are you lying–”
“Fucking hell Joe, can’t you just shut up?!” Mason interrupted him and rolled his eyes. “And if it’s not for him, I guess you guys bought it for me, then? I know you don’t really play stupid, useless pranks like… ehum.”
Austin gave Mason the coffee cup as he quickly scanned Joe’s body.
“Yeah.”
Joe looked devastated for a second, but then glared at his friends and made everyone laugh. He wasn’t planning on laughing himself, but couldn’t resist it.
“You fucking little–” he started, but got interrupted once again.
“Don’t drink it, though”, Austin warned. “It’s not drinkable.”
Mason suddenly felt like question mark.
“What fucking kind of coffee isn’t drinkable?”
“Take off the lid and you’ll see”, Oliver said quietly, reminded everyone that he was still there and Austin met his eyes, smiled.
Mason wasn’t too sure how to feel about this, but slowly took off the lid as Oliver had told him to do. And to Mason’s surprise it wasn’t any coffee in the cup, not any liquid, not really anything in the cup. Just a text written on the bottom of the cup, saying “Happy Birthday!”
Mason looked up on his friends and Joe suddenly seemed so calm, they were all smiling. They had remembered his birthday. Was Joe a part of this too?
Mason thought about it a little, but then couldn’t help to smile, too. He smiled because of the fact that they remembered his birthday, but also because of the fact that his birthday gift was a… coffee cup. A fucking empty take away cup.
