I can't Hurt You - Marcus Lopez Arguello

55

Saya had told us about how she thought Fuckface killed one of her crew an hour or so ago. We were playing monopoly again. Though Billy, Saya, and Lex just watched from afar as per usual, smoking cigarettes or riding their skateboards.

"I win!" Willie threw his hands up in the air in excitement.

"For the third time." Petra said in an unamused way.

"I love this game." Willie smiled.

"I bet." I mirrored Petra's mannerisms.

"Let's play again." Willie said as he picked up all the mini houses he'd put down in different properties on the board.

"No!" Marcus exclaimed.

Willie looked up from the board, his happy expression turning into a confused one.

"I can't take another round of this." Marcus said.

"Yeah, that's enough monopoly to last a lifetime." Maria agreed.

"Sore losers." Willie muttered under his breath in disappointment as he picked up our mess of monopoly and started shoving it in the box.

Marcus let out a sigh before getting up and heading to the edge of the roof, outlooking the city. It was far away from our little group of people, which I'm guessing he did on purpose so he could drown out their voices and just think for a second.

Since Saya had told us about Fuckface we weren't exactly thrilled. Both of us had gone from content for the first time in a long time, to our usual numb expressions.

I went over to Marcus who was now smoking a cigarette.

"Hey." I greeted.

"Hey." He replied while staring out onto the city.

"How you feeling?" I asked.

"Well my ex-roommate is wreaking havoc on the only people I care about, so how okay could I really be?" He asked before taking a puff of his cigarette.

"It's just Saya so far. We can stop him before he gets to anyone else." I suggested.

"It's only gonna get worse, Em." He said as he turned his head to look at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"He's getting information from somewhere. I don't know where, but he knows who my friends are. He knows who I care about. One by one he's gonna hurt everyone I have until I'm left with nothing again. He's gonna hurt you." He explained.

"He's not gonna hurt anyone Marcus, it's him against a group of teenage assassins. He's outnumbered." I encouraged.

"What about his crew?" He asked a rhetorical question.

"We can fix this-" I said before he cut me off.

"There's no fixing this, Em. I need to do this on my own. He'll hurt you if you keep trying to help me." He tried to urge me out of helping him, taking a puff of his cigarette.

"I'm not gonna let you face a psychopath who wants to kill you alone. He ruined my life too, you know." I reminded him.

"Emma if he kills one of our friends I'm gonna have to deal with that guilt. If he kills you that's different. You're the only reason I wanna even be here anymore. If I lose you I'll lose myself. I can't do that. I can't let you get yourself killed." He explained.

"Well I can't let you get yourself killed either. You're the first person I've loved since I was a kid." I justified.

"Well someone has to stop him." He said frustratedly as he let his cigarette fall off the roof.