Three friends, chilling in the gym after class

Avery hurried up the red and black themed bleachers, taking the smaller steps two-sometimes three at a time with his long and lanky legs. His knees looked almost like they would buckle under the strain, two small knobs of muscle and bone that somehow held up his lanky frame as he quickly moved towards the upper portion of the bleachers.

The squeal of sneakers on the court below mixed with grunts and yells of exertion, bouncing off the walls as a smattering of athletes ran back and forth, a basketball bouncing with them as they tried to score in their respective hoops.

“Josie! Don’t say that about Avery, you know how sensitive he is! Why, I bet if you said that directly to him he’d just run home crying to his mommy!”

Avery rolled his eyes as he neared the pair of friends.

The two of them sat in the customary spot, a small corner up at the top of the bleachers, secluded from the rest of the few people here that were not participating in the impromptu scrimmage down below.

At this time of day the gym was open to whoever wanted to use it, so most who showed up were either here to practice or to participate in games like the one happening right now.

Very few cared to use it as the three did, as a place to study/hang out.

The two girls sprawled out with their books and bags scattered about them, watching as he finally reached them.

“Yeah, Josie, I’m soOoo sensitive.” Avery said, putting emphasis on the word as he seriously doubted that this was little more than Rose trying to get under her friend’s skin.

Josie, dark purple hair and burning cheeks, responded in kind.

“If anything, Rose is the one who should be watching her tongue, with how many boys she’s scared away with her crass sense of humor.”

It was Rose’s turn to turn a shade of flame as she sat upright.

“Hey!” she said, too flustered by the normally quiet Josie coming at her with such a blindside.

The other two, the tall Avery and the purple-goth Josie, glanced at one another, small hints of a smile showing on both of their faces before bursting out in uproarious and reverberative laughter.

Rose looked at her friends with a helpless glare, her golden hair swaying behind her slumped shoulders.

“You two are hopeless.” she grumbled.

—

The trio had gotten settled, each with books and homework out, passing jabs at one another and asking questions about what they were working on (which often produced less-than helpful responses for the respective work) when Avery suddenly remembered something.

“Oh! I forgot, but I brought presents today.” Avery said as he reached inside his bag, searching around in its depths with some difficulty from where he lay sprawled across the bleachers.

“Look, dude, we don’t want any of your kinky toys.” Rose said, with a knowing smile.

Josie stifled a laugh with a hand on her mouth.

“No-er-it’s…its not like that!” he grunted as he struggled with the contents of his bag, now glaring at Rose who had an expression far too innocent.

Finally he sighed as he produced a dark and ornate box.

“The lady who gave me said that these are magic.” he said as he lifted the lid, which swung open silently, revealing a pair of rings nestled within a softly velvet interior. Avery’s expression of indifference couldn’t hide the gleam of excitement within his gaze as he looked at his friends.

“Oh my god. I-I think he’s proposing!” Rose said, turning towards Josie beside her, reaching out for her friend's hands to clasp them.

“Wait-no…” Avery said, blinking rapidly at this turn of events.

But his words were ground out beneath Rose’s exuberant response.

“Isn’t this just so amazing Josie! He wants BOTH OF US to be his ONE AND ONLY partner!” she said as she bounced in place, sitting with her hands clasped to Josie’s, causing the blonde girl’s chest to bounce distractingly with her.

Josie seemed to catch onto her friend’s goading, glancing at Avery with her dark purple gaze, she winced before announcing. “Y-yeah, it’s pretty amazing, partner-wife Rose.” she said in her typically un-interested tone.

Grumbling, Avery placed the extravagantly adorned box in nearly a toss onto the bleacher between his two “friends”.

“Ungrateful friends, that’s what I have.” he grumbled as he returned to his work. “I get some magic rings and don't even put them on to test it, instead I give them to my two best friends and they immediately make fun of me!” he continued, making sure he looked as diminutive and helpless as he could, hunching his shoulders inward and drooping his head.

Rose cackled in place, causing glorious wobbliness in her chest while her purple-haired counterpart directed a slightly ashamed smile at Avery’s sorry state.

Eventually, however, their friend’s state had its desired effect and Rose sighed, rolling her eyes and looked down at the box between her and her female friend.

“So… magic?” she said as she picked up the golden one of the two, twisting it between her fingers, causing it to gleam as it caught the little light that reached this high up on the bleachers.

“Mmhmm…” Avery grumbled, still looking as hurt as he had looked a minute earlier.

Rose sighed once more, aware of just how susceptible she was to Avery’s currently pitiful display, no matter how fake it was.

“I’m sorry I said I was happy that you proposed and I would never want to be your wife ever within a million years no matter how many times you asked me.” she said.

“Y-you really mean it?” he asked, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye, raising his head to look at his blonde and beautiful friend.

“Promise!” she smiled, crossing her heart with a thin digit.

Avery produced a sniffle as he finished sitting upright, no longer looking so pitiful as a warm smile crept onto his face.

“I don’t exactly know how they’re supposed to be magic… the lady I got them from said that they can change things.” he said in response to her earlier question.

“Hmm… Okay…” Rose said, putting the golden band on her right index finger, grasping with the hand as she watched it now gleaming against her creamy skin.

“You guys are fucking weird.” Josie said, smirking as she reached for the other of the two “magic” rings, placing the silver band on her own right hand.

Josie had just watched on as the other two bantered. The constant sarcasm and underlying tension, none of it was new to their conversations up on the top of the bleachers.

"so... about how to use them..." Avery said.