Chapter 9

Jack's POV

After I got my hair to finally stop sticking up, I was ready for us and Mark to head out.

I couldn't help but continue thinking of what happened today. I almost had a full blown anxiety attack right in front of someone. I couldn't stop giving myself negative feedback. I was so weak. So fucking weak.

No Jack, you are weak.

I clenched my eyes shut, and shook my head.

"You okay Jack?" Mark's voice broke my train of thought, and I looked at him, smiling.

"Yup! Just awesome. Thought I was gonna sneeze for a second!" Excuses. He chuckled at me a little.

He can read through you.
The voice in my head wouldn't stop.

"Come on, let's leave," Mark said, and I nodded. No matter what I did, the thoughts wouldn't stop, "Jack. "

"Huh?"

"You're staring off into space, are you sure you're okay?" He asked, and I could tell he was worried and because of that I felt so guilty. I'm making him worry.

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine," I said, a bit quicker then I wanted. He sighed softly, and I looked down at my feet.

Come on Jack. Stop it. He knows who you are. He knows how weak you are. What, are you not even-

It stopped when I felt a pressure in my hand, it took me a moment to realize that Mark was indeed holding my hand.

Mark is holding my hand.

"Mark, what are you doing?" I asked, looking at our hands.

"It's comforting. Plus It'll distract you," he said and chuckled once again, before pulling me out of his room heading to the front door, "It did take you out of your thoughts though, right?" He asks, looking back at me before smiling.

I couldn't help but smile softly in return, his smile could light up a whole room, "Yeah. You're right. "

"Wanna talk about what's on your-" He cut himself off when he opened the door. "Shit, shit shit," He repeated that word a few times before slamming the door, "Okay Jack. You follow me and do exactly as I say, okay?" He spoke quickly, it almost seemed like he was kind of terrified. I nodded, and without any word he was pulling me away from the front door. Taking me to another door, which I presumed was the back, he opened it and basically pulled me out without pulling himself out, "Jump the fence. I'll be there soon, and act like you're just a random citizen then closed the door quickly.

I stared at the door, wondering if I should. I did say I would do whatever he said.. I decided to take his word. I ran to his fence, my hand on top of it and I threw my legs over. Landing it. I looked at his house. What was going on? I was so confused as to what was going on.

I started walking up towards the front, being careful of who would see me. I peeked over from the side of the house and saw a car in the driveway.

Oh.

His mom must be home. I was quick to run from their yard and get on the sidewalk to at least look like a regular citizen. I walked slowly on the road in front of Mark's home. I started getting really worried. What if something bad is happening? What if he's just playing you a trick? I could feel myself getting anxious again.

No Jack. Stay calm, I'm sure he's fine.

I had a feeling that that thought was wrong, and I was proved correct when the door slammed. I stopped in my spot. I was glad that Mark noticed me almost immediately and ran over to me.

"Are you okay??" I asked, stared at his face, my eyes traveled his body to see if there were any sort of harm done on his body. I didn't find any that were noticeable, but when I looked back at his face I was wrong. There was a read mark forming on his cheek.

"I'm okay," he said, and by looking in his eyes I could tell he was lying. His eyes showed so much pain, I don't think I could ever forget what those eyes looked like. I placed my hand on his cheek, my thumb rubbing over the redness where I presumed he must've been slapped. I hummed softly, before pulling my hand back. He stared at me, clearly surprised.

"Let's go. I can show you around here," I said, and we started walking. Occasionally I would look over at Mark and every time was either looking down at his feet or staring forward into space. I thought for a second, only to hold my hand out for him. At first, Mark didn't notice, but I snapped my fingers and immediately he looked at me then down. I saw a smile form on his lips before he took my hand in his. It felt weird. Nice. But weird. Like there was all kinds of flippy feelings in my stomach. I'm not sure if I wanted to hate it, or enjoy it, "So where do you want to see first?" I asked, swinging our arms back and forth slightly. I heard Mark hum quietly.

"Is there any small cafés or something? It's still morning so we can stop in get a coffee and maybe a donut or something. I don't know," I looked over at him for a few seconds before snickering and looking away.

"Yeah, we have a small café here, it's a bit of a walk though. "

"Oh well, we have all day. "

"Eh, I wouldn't say that. If I'm not home by the time my dad gets home, yikes. " I said shrugging, "But..Ill deal with it. You need to see where you live at. "

"Jack..if it'll get you in trouble we can wait another day on the weekend or something," Mark has a serious expression on his face.

I just smiled at him, "It's fine, Mark. I want to take you places. " he had stopped swinging our arms it I made it continue, "I'm sorry that sounded really weird?" Laughing a bit awkwardly.

Why am I acting so weirdly?

I took my hand away, "Sorry," I said, getting the pack of cigarettes from my pocket, "Want one?"

Mark nodded, and I handed one to him. I took one in my mouth, put the box in my pocket and grabbed my lighter. Lighting it, and handed it over to Mark. When he got his lit, I put my lighter back in my pocket. It was quiet for a second, but I had to break it, "Want to.. Uh. Hold hands again?" I asked a bit shyly. I looked over at him, and saw the small smile on his face. He switched the cigarette to his other hand and grabbed my hand. I smiled widely. I took a hit on my cigarette, blew the smoke from my nose and looked at Mark. He was smiling softly, and looking forward. I stared at him, and my stomach flipped. Why did I feel like this? What in the hell is wrong with me?

"Jack?"

"Huh?" I said, snapping out of my thoughts, "What?"

"You're staring at me," Mark said, bumping into me slightly.

"Just staring into space. "

"Huh, didn't think you thought like that."

I took another hit from my cigarette and looked at him with confusion, exhaling when I said, "Huh?"

"Space is beautiful, you were staring into space, but you were staring at me,"  Mark laughed a little, and it took me a second to put all of it together. I bumped into him and laughed a little. I could just feel the tiniest bit of heat in my cheeks.

"Sometime soon we should play video games together," I said, changing the subject.

"Yes! We should. That's something I'm gonna look forward to," Mark went on about games, and honestly he sounded such like a little kid. He sounded so precious.

~Time Skip~

The rest of their time together we had a lot of fun. We went to the café, bought us some coffee drinks, and a muffin. I also showed him some restaurants and told him we should go to one of them sometime. Of course, he agreed.

Now we were at the park again, it was a few hours past when school got out, and we were having the time of our lives. It's so weird. Around Mark, I feel happy. I feel like a child of the sort.

"What do you want to do now?" I asked, panting slightly from running.

"I don't know, what do you want to do?" 

"I asked you first!"

"Well, I asked you second." He stuck his tongue out at me, and of course I did it back in return. We were really children.

"Hm," Unlike Mark, I actually took the time to think about it, "Wanna play truth or dare?" 

Mark looked at me, raising an eyebrow, "You want to play truth or dare?"

"Yeah, unless you have any other suggestions," I shrugged. 

It went silent, I'm pretty sure Mark was thinking of something other than truth or dare, "Truth or dare it is." We looked at each other, looking around. 

"Uh, truth or dare?" I started off, already thinking of a dare. 

"Truth." 

Dammit. 

"Uh,  do you like it better here than where you were originally?" I asked an easy question. It was the only thing that really came to mind that wasn't really weird. 

"Yeah, it's a lot better here."

"Really?"

He hummed, "Yup, alright. My turn, truth or dare?"

"Dare," Though I kept this to myself, I was always someone to do dares. When I was little and played this game it was rare when I chose truth.

"Go out that way," He pointed to a grassed area with nothing there, no playground equipment or anything, but it was close to people's homes, "And yell something at the top of your lungs that a parent wouldn't want their child to hear."

"Wow, Mark," I chuckled lightly. This was easy. I jogged to he grassy area towards the homes. I cleared my throat before yelling, "GO FUCK YOURSELF!!" I almost regretted it when someone yelled out "Watch your language! There's children over here!" I yelled back, "Sorry!" I couldn't help but laugh and jogged back to Mark, who was covering his mouth from laughing I'm guessing. "You did that on purpose! You know there were kids !"

"Yep!" He uncovered his mouth, smiling widely "I didn't expect you to yell that loud, jesus christ."

"I can probably get even louder if I wanted to, I just need to do warm ups. That'll be for another time," Mark opened his mouth to say something but I interrupted him, "Truth or dare?"

"Hm, I'll go dare this time."

"Go ask the kids over there," I pointed to them, y'know, the ones whose parents yelled at me, "To play a friendly game of tag."

"Dude. That parent is going to kick my ass."

"Mhm." I smirked lightly. 

"Ugh, fine," He walked over to them, and doing better than I suspected. Not only did the parent not go after him, but before I knew it, Mark was being chased by four kids. The look on his face was priceless, oh my god. They actually had a continuous game of tag for a good 15 minutes before they all stopped, and Mark ran back over to me. To no surprise he was panting.

"That turned out better than I suspected!" I said, laughing a little.

"That was cruel torture," He said, looking back at the kids, "I'm scared they're going to start chasing me again."

"I'll protect you." I said in a exaggerated tone.

"Thanks Romeo," Mark rolled his eyes, "Truth or Dare?"

"Hm-" As I was about to say something, my eyes were on the kids and their mother. I saw another female come up, putting her arm around the other and kissing her, "Awe, " It made me happy to see people of the same sex together in public, not scared of anything.

"Hm?" Mark looked at what I was looking at, of course I didn't want to be caught staring, so I looked back at Mark.

 "It's nice when people aren't scared to show who they are," I said, shrugging. 

"What are you?" He asked out of nowhere. 

"What?"

"Sexuality wise."

"I don't know, honestly, " I chewed on my tongue, I was being honest. I didn't know what my sexuality was. I don't think I was straight, but I don't know. I never really worried about it, "What about you?" I asked, now curious.

Mark just shrugged, but by his expression I felt like he knew what he was, and that he was just afraid to tell me, I opened my mouth to speak again, but he interfered, "Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

I could read the hesitation, he sighed through his nose before. Taking a few seconds before saying, "Kiss me."