I can't Hurt You - Marcus Lopez Arguello

61

It'd been a couple hours since the monks had let Marcus and I go from that torture cell in the basement. Right after they did I rushed over to my dorm and isolated myself from everyone since lockdown was over by then. I wanted nothing to do with anyone.

By right about now it was around 8:00 pm and everyone was in their dorms getting ready for bed, including me. Well not exactly getting ready for bed, more like staring at the ceiling having a fucking mental breakdown on the inside. I looked numb from anyone's point of view, but I was experiencing more emotions right now than I had in years.

On a normal day I wouldn't have been though. On a normal day at this time I'd be in the roof with my friends distracting myself from reality, but today wasn't a normal day. Today was the absolute shittiest birthday I'd ever had. From being put on lockdown to finding out Lin had killed my own parents. All I wanted to do was go to sleep and not wake up until a week later.

A knock at the door snapped me out of my own imagination as I laid there on my bed.

"Come in." I groaned.

I heard the door open but didn't bother to look up and check who it was.

"Hey." I heard Marcus's voice.

I lifted my head to look at him.

"Hey. It's almost curfew." I told him as I sat up to look at him more comfortably.

"When do we ever actually follow curfew?" Marcus teased as he closed the door behind him and sat on my bed in front of me.

"Well I am today." I said looking down at my hands and fiddling with my fingers.

Marcus let out a sigh.

"Shitty birthday?" He asked.

"The shittiest. You wonder why I hate this day so much." I said after looking back up at him.

"I know it wasn't the best but it could've been worse. We didn't commit another murder." He tried to look on the bright side for me.

"Yeah, instead I got put on lockdown, tied up and tortured by the only person I thought was a father figure, and, oh yeah, found out how my parents really died. Not to mention the pictures I saw as evidence." I said sarcastically.

Marcus looked at me with a sad expression.

"I'm sorry. I know today's been shitty for you too." I said.

"It's not that, Em. I just had a bunch of shit planned out for today. You've never gotten to enjoy a birthday and I wanted to be able to give that to you." He said sadly.

My expression turned into a sympathetic one.

Yeah, my birthday was shitty, big deal. At least I had him. I had someone who cared enough to at least plan things for me. That's more than I'd ever had before.

"Marcus, it's okay." I said as I took a hold of his hand.

"You spent your birthday in this hell-hole. It's not okay." He said in a gloomy way.

"No, I mean it's okay because I have you. Yeah, it sucked, but tonight I get to go to sleep next to my favorite person in the world, and thats enough for me." I assured him.

He let a smile slowly creep onto his face.

"Never took you for such a sappy romantic person, Em." He teased.

"Oh shut the fuck up." I laughed as I let go of his hand playfully.

We laughed about it for a second before he spoke up again.

"Right, well, everyone is on the roof. We're all hanging out and it doesn't feel the same without you." Marcus said.

"I'm not up for it today, baby." I told him.

"I know but there's also something else we have to take care of." He reminded me.

We had to come clean.

"Oh, that." I said coming to the realization.

"Yeah, that." He repeated.

I let out a tired sigh and stepped out of bed, putting on my shoes.

"Let's get this over with then, yeah?" I said, letting myself make an impulsive decision because I know if I let myself think about it for too long I'd pussy out.

"Yeah, okay." He said getting up and leading us out of the door.

We made our way to the roof and arrived a bit later, not making conversation on the way up. If we did we'd probably find a way to avoid this. We couldn't though, not again, our friends deserved to know what they got themselves into. Besides, there's no way we'd be able to take care of this Chester problem by ourselves.

We opened the door and walked into all of our friends sitting there quietly, only making a bit of conversation. None of them acknowledged our presence, all too wrapped up in their own shit. Willie and Billy were talking about who knows what. Lex and Petra were sharing a cigarette quietly. They seemed a bit awkward but that's just Lex and Petra. Saya and Maria stood far as fuck away from each other giving each other the stink eye. I'm assuming they hated each other now. It was only a matter of time before Saya found out she was a no good psychotic bitch though, serves her right. God, I thought I was a shit-show. You should see them.

Marcus and I walked towards an empty bench, preparing ourselves for this inevitable conversation.

"You ready?" I asked.

"Now or never." He replied.

"You're sure?" I asked.

"Emma if you give me too much time to think about this I won't do it." He said.

"Right, yeah, you got it." I assured him.

With that he stood up on the bench making himself much more noticeable.

"I gotta talk to everyone about something. It's important." Marcus spoke getting everyone's attention.

He looked down at me and I took that as a hint that he didn't want to do this alone. Hell, I wouldn't want to do this alone.

I stretched out my hand to him and he grabbed it, pulling me up so I could stand on the bench next to him.

"Secrets got us into this. Holding onto bad feelings, not being honest, not trusting each other. All this back-biting and shit-talking and drama." I explained before looking at him to continue.

"You guys are the only family I've had since my- my folks died. I'm sure Emma could say the same. And we can't lose you." He said.

"Come on, man." Willie teased trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, well, in the spirit of full disclosure, I want to tell you all the truth about me." Marcus said.

He looked at me for a second hesitantly before looking back at our group of friends.

"I didn't kill all those kids at the boys' home, but when I escaped, I let loose the guy who did. I had this roommate a psycho named Chester. He followed us to Vegas and he found Chico's body." Marcus let it all out, squeezing my hand in between when things were hard to speak about.

"What?" Maria asked in shock.

"That's not the worst of it." I shut her up.

"He- he has this deadline... and we're running out of time." Marcus finished.

There it was, the truth was out. We were all in deep shit, and now we all knew it.