WIANP Chapter 2
Here's another one. And I also did a masterpost on tumblr, maybe I'll do one here but it's just there right now
Masterpost
And now ficTION!
The room was just a mess, Mark sighed as he tried not to step on anything important he could have left on the floor. The bed squeaked when he sat on it, but at the moment he liked to call it ‘The Island in the middle of junk around the smelly room’.
Mark just rested there in his clothes; he hadn’t even bothered to take his pants off. After a few minutes staring blankly and expressionless at the ceiling, he propped himself in one elbow to reach the nightstand, he took the phone off the hook and pressed some numbers, just waiting for the other person to pick up.
“Hello?” The cheerful voice on the other side of the phone answered.
“Pete, it’s me, Mark,” He sighed.
“Hey!” The guy answered at the other end “I was just going out for a joint, Chapin is really boring without you, did you know that?” He sighed “There’s nothing to do when you’re not around”
Mark laughed “Chapin is boring by nature; don’t blame me for it, man,”
“Hey, it was a compliment,” Pete chuckled back and Mark shifted uncomfortably in the bed, smiling sadly again.
“Thank you. I called to know how things are going” Mark said.
“Everything’s fine actually. Nothing out of the ordinary,” Mark could hear him taking a drag “How's your mission you won’t tell me about going?”
“Not so good,” He sighed, still staring at the ceiling.
“Oh baby boy, talk to me,”
“I won’t tell you what this is about,” Mark snapped with a chuckle “And grow up and be a man, okay?”
“Okay, I won’t ask again” He laughed, probably stoned out of his mind already “But I have to go”
“Okay” Mark said “I miss your fat ass,”
“But of course you do!” Pete said like it was something obvious “Bye”
He said goodbye back to Pete and wandered to the little fridge looking for a beer, though it was all empty and he reminded himself to go to the supermarket, since he was doing nothing, he decided to go at that exact moment. He put on his jacket and went walking to the nearest Wal-Mart, the receptionist said it wasn’t too far away, but it felt like an eternity by the time he got there.
Getting there he immediately went for the beer he was looking for, taking in the opportunity to get some milk, some microwave noodles and a pack of Doritos. After that he just wandered around the store, passing by the DVD aisle just to see if he could pull up something to watch by himself.
He still had to decide if he was going back to Chapin.
Maybe he would.
He was shuffling through some new releases, but he didn't feel like watching any of them, they all look stupid or overrated. Mark was shuffling as he rolled his eyes at each cover that passed by his hand. He could see some children running behind him at one point, but he tried to ignore them and moved on.
“April, i'm going togged you!” He heard a childish voice shouting and his eyes snapped up from the cases to look at the end of the aisle. Two girls ran by, a blonde one and a red head. Mark recognized April with just a glimpse of her blonde hair.
He sighed and tried to look back at the DVD’s, he didn’t need any more trouble. Although he stopped everything he was doing when he heard a bang against the floor, a scream and a cry.
Mark left the DVD’s and looked for the girl, who wasn’t too far away from his aisle. She was sitting on the ground, crying as she held her left arm with her right hand; the other girl was nowhere to be seen.
“April?” He asked a bit hurriedly as he kneeled in front of her “Is everything okay?”
“Mark?” She asked with her voice breaking. She was just a child, it would have been normal for her to cry, but she wasn’t sobbing and she wasn’t desperate.
She was strong enough.
“Yeah, it’s me, Mark. What happened?”
“Um,” She looked a little skeptical and she sniffed, looking down at her arm and back at Mark again, “My arm hurts,”
“Let me look at it” He asked, but like he was expecting, she shook her head and pulled her arm away from him.
“Dad said I shouldn’t trust you,”
“What?” Mark said half-amused by Tom’s bitterness and half-hurt he'd say that.
She was refusing him and so was Tom, It felt like stabs to his chest.
“If I don’t take care of you now,” he said looking around and her blue eyes followed his gaze, her blonde hair following her light movements. Her eyes stopping to make eye contact when he looked at her once again “No one will,” He said in a quiet voice, almost whispering.
She sighed, her breathing breaking by the sobs that were on the way now “Okay,” She finally whispered “I want dad”
“Okay, we’ll find him” He said and got up, helping her to get up too.
“Do you want a ride?” April raised an eyebrow at him “On my back, I mean, kids think that’s fun, don’t they?”
“I can’t ride your back.”
“Oh yeah” He took in the fact that she could have had a broken arm, “Do you want me to carry you?”
For some reason, deep down, he wanted her to feel at home, he wanted to protect her even if he barely knew her. April gave him a warm smile and dried a few tears away from her child pink cheeks.
“Okay,” Mark grabbed her by the waist and put his arms around her, carrying her by his chest and hip.
“Do you have any idea of where he might be?” Mark asked and she shook her head.
Mark had found Tom a few aisles away, looking at different types of underwear and throwing a couple of packages casually in his kart. Mark started to march towards him with anger in his voice as he shouted “Hey Tom!” He looked at them; Tom’s expression showed a bit of surprise, Mark was there with April in his arms, he sure didn’t see that one coming.
“What are you doing to her?” Tom asked, hissing the words
“She got hurt,” Mark said, his lips in a thin line while hissing “I'm just doing what a decent person should do.”
“What were you doing near her?” Tom said as he walked towards Mark, his voice full of disgust
“Oh yeah, like I’m dangerous,” Mark chuckled angrily “Just do something, she’s hurt.”
Tom sighed and gave in “I’ll take her to the hospital, but your job is done here, alright? I can handle it from here on out.”
“Fine,” Mark said, giving April to Tom as she snuggled against the taller one’s chest “She’s all yours.”
Mark’s eyes lingered on the kid as she looked at him too; she was still crying a bit, her eyes red and sore, but also blue and beautiful. Mark only stopped looking at her to give Tom a look, a lingering look that said something more than what he had verbalized already.
He saw how much the two looked alike, how one reminded him of the other.
“Goodnight, Mark,” Tom said and then started walking towards the end of the aisle, April in his arms as she waved at Mark from behind Tom’s back, a smile on her lips.
Mark smiled back and took Tom’s kart to the DVD aisle, putting his own things in there too. He got chocolate ice cream and paid for everything.
The next day would be a long one.
***
Apparently, Tom was just making some last minute shopping, he wasn’t going to buy much, everything fit in just two bags and Mark was surprised with himself.
The taxi dropped him off in front of the DeLonge house; the sun hit his face as he brought his cheap sunglasses to his eyes, blocking the lights that were coming from the sky.
He walked towards the door and Tom answered it this time, “I told you to stay away,” He said matter-of-factly
“Won’t you let me in?” Mark asked, pointing inside the house.
“No,” Tom ran a hand through his face, shaking his head.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Mark nodded “I’ll just come inside without any invitation,” Mark dodged Tom by passing him and walking into the house, Tom sighed and turned around to see Mark making himself comfortable on the couch as he slowly took his glasses off. Mark noticed that Tom was looking and asked “What?”
“You’re so full of shit” Tom laughed even if he had tried not to.
“Come on, I brought ice cream for April” Mark said and lifted one of the bags “Oh, and you should put it in the fridge,”
Tom didn’t say anything; he just took the bag and left Mark alone in the living room, coming back a couple of seconds after.
“Where is she?” Mark asked as he shifted uncomfortably in his place
“Upstairs” Tom said while sitting on the other couch “Just tell me why you’re here, you know I don’t bite”
Tom didn’t look at Mark, he kept looking at his hands while Mark tried to make an answer, though that just makes him feel a bit insecure “I told you, I don’t know,” He shrugged
“There must be a reason,” Tom said.
“Of course there’s a reason, but that’s maybe a subconscious reason.”
“Where the hell have you been all these years?” Tom looked at him now, puppy dog eyes and expression blank, it hurt to see him like that.
Mark sighed “Chapin. A small town in Washington State, I drove there with my car and tried to go to Canada but I ended up smashing it. This guy, Pete, gave me a place to stay at his house and he helped me get a job so I could raise money to fix it, but I never left.”
“Mark?” They both heard the little voice coming from the entrance of the living room and April was standing under the arch, one of her arms wrapped in a blue fabric as she stared at both of them with a slightly confused face.
“Oh my God, what did the doctor say?” He asked her as he got up and walked towards her.
“The doctor said I just need to rest it that it’ll be good in a couple days,” April answered, “I didn’t break it.”
Tom just stood back, watching them interact.
“That’s good!” Mark said and hugged her, his long arms taking in her small frame as her good arm passed around his neck, her face burying itself into it.
“I brought ice cream,” Mark said as he pulled apart “Do you want some?”
April let go of him, but she didn’t let their bodies get far away from each other’s since she didn’t let go of him quite entirely
She looked him in the eyes and bit her lip, nodding casually.
Mark got up and turned around to look at Tom, “Okay, let’s have some ice cream.”
April dragged Mark to the kitchen and Tom followed them. They started eating and Mark and April were talking eagerly to each other, laughing and beaming. Tom didn’t talk much though, he just stared at them with a smile, but when he looked at Mark and they made eye contact, Tom didn’t look away like a person would normally do, he kept looking at him for a bit longer, taking in Mark’s eyes as he took Tom’s back.
When they finished all the ice cream, April went back upstairs, leaving Tom and Mark all alone again.
“Well,” Tom sighed “I guess this time it was better. It’s just that… Yesterday you caught me off guard. It still feels surreal to me and I guess that the only reason I’m letting you stay here right now is because you still feel like home to me...”
“I think I should go now,” Mark said, getting up “I’m afraid I’m… Late. Yeah, I’m late for something...” He said matter-of-factly and Tom got up to lead him to the door.
They said goodbye casually and Mark put his sunglasses on, walking towards the exit. Tom called him when he was about to step on the sidewalk “What?” He turned back
“Just don’t disappear forever this time, okay?” Tom said quietly, but shouting, like if he was afraid, Mark could sense it in his tone.
“I won’t” Mark said and went back to the end of the street.
Masterpost
And now ficTION!
The room was just a mess, Mark sighed as he tried not to step on anything important he could have left on the floor. The bed squeaked when he sat on it, but at the moment he liked to call it ‘The Island in the middle of junk around the smelly room’.
Mark just rested there in his clothes; he hadn’t even bothered to take his pants off. After a few minutes staring blankly and expressionless at the ceiling, he propped himself in one elbow to reach the nightstand, he took the phone off the hook and pressed some numbers, just waiting for the other person to pick up.
“Hello?” The cheerful voice on the other side of the phone answered.
“Pete, it’s me, Mark,” He sighed.
“Hey!” The guy answered at the other end “I was just going out for a joint, Chapin is really boring without you, did you know that?” He sighed “There’s nothing to do when you’re not around”
Mark laughed “Chapin is boring by nature; don’t blame me for it, man,”
“Hey, it was a compliment,” Pete chuckled back and Mark shifted uncomfortably in the bed, smiling sadly again.
“Thank you. I called to know how things are going” Mark said.
“Everything’s fine actually. Nothing out of the ordinary,” Mark could hear him taking a drag “How's your mission you won’t tell me about going?”
“Not so good,” He sighed, still staring at the ceiling.
“Oh baby boy, talk to me,”
“I won’t tell you what this is about,” Mark snapped with a chuckle “And grow up and be a man, okay?”
“Okay, I won’t ask again” He laughed, probably stoned out of his mind already “But I have to go”
“Okay” Mark said “I miss your fat ass,”
“But of course you do!” Pete said like it was something obvious “Bye”
He said goodbye back to Pete and wandered to the little fridge looking for a beer, though it was all empty and he reminded himself to go to the supermarket, since he was doing nothing, he decided to go at that exact moment. He put on his jacket and went walking to the nearest Wal-Mart, the receptionist said it wasn’t too far away, but it felt like an eternity by the time he got there.
Getting there he immediately went for the beer he was looking for, taking in the opportunity to get some milk, some microwave noodles and a pack of Doritos. After that he just wandered around the store, passing by the DVD aisle just to see if he could pull up something to watch by himself.
He still had to decide if he was going back to Chapin.
Maybe he would.
He was shuffling through some new releases, but he didn't feel like watching any of them, they all look stupid or overrated. Mark was shuffling as he rolled his eyes at each cover that passed by his hand. He could see some children running behind him at one point, but he tried to ignore them and moved on.
“April, i'm going togged you!” He heard a childish voice shouting and his eyes snapped up from the cases to look at the end of the aisle. Two girls ran by, a blonde one and a red head. Mark recognized April with just a glimpse of her blonde hair.
He sighed and tried to look back at the DVD’s, he didn’t need any more trouble. Although he stopped everything he was doing when he heard a bang against the floor, a scream and a cry.
Mark left the DVD’s and looked for the girl, who wasn’t too far away from his aisle. She was sitting on the ground, crying as she held her left arm with her right hand; the other girl was nowhere to be seen.
“April?” He asked a bit hurriedly as he kneeled in front of her “Is everything okay?”
“Mark?” She asked with her voice breaking. She was just a child, it would have been normal for her to cry, but she wasn’t sobbing and she wasn’t desperate.
She was strong enough.
“Yeah, it’s me, Mark. What happened?”
“Um,” She looked a little skeptical and she sniffed, looking down at her arm and back at Mark again, “My arm hurts,”
“Let me look at it” He asked, but like he was expecting, she shook her head and pulled her arm away from him.
“Dad said I shouldn’t trust you,”
“What?” Mark said half-amused by Tom’s bitterness and half-hurt he'd say that.
She was refusing him and so was Tom, It felt like stabs to his chest.
“If I don’t take care of you now,” he said looking around and her blue eyes followed his gaze, her blonde hair following her light movements. Her eyes stopping to make eye contact when he looked at her once again “No one will,” He said in a quiet voice, almost whispering.
She sighed, her breathing breaking by the sobs that were on the way now “Okay,” She finally whispered “I want dad”
“Okay, we’ll find him” He said and got up, helping her to get up too.
“Do you want a ride?” April raised an eyebrow at him “On my back, I mean, kids think that’s fun, don’t they?”
“I can’t ride your back.”
“Oh yeah” He took in the fact that she could have had a broken arm, “Do you want me to carry you?”
For some reason, deep down, he wanted her to feel at home, he wanted to protect her even if he barely knew her. April gave him a warm smile and dried a few tears away from her child pink cheeks.
“Okay,” Mark grabbed her by the waist and put his arms around her, carrying her by his chest and hip.
“Do you have any idea of where he might be?” Mark asked and she shook her head.
Mark had found Tom a few aisles away, looking at different types of underwear and throwing a couple of packages casually in his kart. Mark started to march towards him with anger in his voice as he shouted “Hey Tom!” He looked at them; Tom’s expression showed a bit of surprise, Mark was there with April in his arms, he sure didn’t see that one coming.
“What are you doing to her?” Tom asked, hissing the words
“She got hurt,” Mark said, his lips in a thin line while hissing “I'm just doing what a decent person should do.”
“What were you doing near her?” Tom said as he walked towards Mark, his voice full of disgust
“Oh yeah, like I’m dangerous,” Mark chuckled angrily “Just do something, she’s hurt.”
Tom sighed and gave in “I’ll take her to the hospital, but your job is done here, alright? I can handle it from here on out.”
“Fine,” Mark said, giving April to Tom as she snuggled against the taller one’s chest “She’s all yours.”
Mark’s eyes lingered on the kid as she looked at him too; she was still crying a bit, her eyes red and sore, but also blue and beautiful. Mark only stopped looking at her to give Tom a look, a lingering look that said something more than what he had verbalized already.
He saw how much the two looked alike, how one reminded him of the other.
“Goodnight, Mark,” Tom said and then started walking towards the end of the aisle, April in his arms as she waved at Mark from behind Tom’s back, a smile on her lips.
Mark smiled back and took Tom’s kart to the DVD aisle, putting his own things in there too. He got chocolate ice cream and paid for everything.
The next day would be a long one.
***
Apparently, Tom was just making some last minute shopping, he wasn’t going to buy much, everything fit in just two bags and Mark was surprised with himself.
The taxi dropped him off in front of the DeLonge house; the sun hit his face as he brought his cheap sunglasses to his eyes, blocking the lights that were coming from the sky.
He walked towards the door and Tom answered it this time, “I told you to stay away,” He said matter-of-factly
“Won’t you let me in?” Mark asked, pointing inside the house.
“No,” Tom ran a hand through his face, shaking his head.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Mark nodded “I’ll just come inside without any invitation,” Mark dodged Tom by passing him and walking into the house, Tom sighed and turned around to see Mark making himself comfortable on the couch as he slowly took his glasses off. Mark noticed that Tom was looking and asked “What?”
“You’re so full of shit” Tom laughed even if he had tried not to.
“Come on, I brought ice cream for April” Mark said and lifted one of the bags “Oh, and you should put it in the fridge,”
Tom didn’t say anything; he just took the bag and left Mark alone in the living room, coming back a couple of seconds after.
“Where is she?” Mark asked as he shifted uncomfortably in his place
“Upstairs” Tom said while sitting on the other couch “Just tell me why you’re here, you know I don’t bite”
Tom didn’t look at Mark, he kept looking at his hands while Mark tried to make an answer, though that just makes him feel a bit insecure “I told you, I don’t know,” He shrugged
“There must be a reason,” Tom said.
“Of course there’s a reason, but that’s maybe a subconscious reason.”
“Where the hell have you been all these years?” Tom looked at him now, puppy dog eyes and expression blank, it hurt to see him like that.
Mark sighed “Chapin. A small town in Washington State, I drove there with my car and tried to go to Canada but I ended up smashing it. This guy, Pete, gave me a place to stay at his house and he helped me get a job so I could raise money to fix it, but I never left.”
“Mark?” They both heard the little voice coming from the entrance of the living room and April was standing under the arch, one of her arms wrapped in a blue fabric as she stared at both of them with a slightly confused face.
“Oh my God, what did the doctor say?” He asked her as he got up and walked towards her.
“The doctor said I just need to rest it that it’ll be good in a couple days,” April answered, “I didn’t break it.”
Tom just stood back, watching them interact.
“That’s good!” Mark said and hugged her, his long arms taking in her small frame as her good arm passed around his neck, her face burying itself into it.
“I brought ice cream,” Mark said as he pulled apart “Do you want some?”
April let go of him, but she didn’t let their bodies get far away from each other’s since she didn’t let go of him quite entirely
She looked him in the eyes and bit her lip, nodding casually.
Mark got up and turned around to look at Tom, “Okay, let’s have some ice cream.”
April dragged Mark to the kitchen and Tom followed them. They started eating and Mark and April were talking eagerly to each other, laughing and beaming. Tom didn’t talk much though, he just stared at them with a smile, but when he looked at Mark and they made eye contact, Tom didn’t look away like a person would normally do, he kept looking at him for a bit longer, taking in Mark’s eyes as he took Tom’s back.
When they finished all the ice cream, April went back upstairs, leaving Tom and Mark all alone again.
“Well,” Tom sighed “I guess this time it was better. It’s just that… Yesterday you caught me off guard. It still feels surreal to me and I guess that the only reason I’m letting you stay here right now is because you still feel like home to me...”
“I think I should go now,” Mark said, getting up “I’m afraid I’m… Late. Yeah, I’m late for something...” He said matter-of-factly and Tom got up to lead him to the door.
They said goodbye casually and Mark put his sunglasses on, walking towards the exit. Tom called him when he was about to step on the sidewalk “What?” He turned back
“Just don’t disappear forever this time, okay?” Tom said quietly, but shouting, like if he was afraid, Mark could sense it in his tone.
“I won’t” Mark said and went back to the end of the street.