past mistakes

New Relationships

We both stall for a little while, then decide that we should head over. The excuse, "They probably won't be awake," only works for so long.

I knock on the door before ringing the doorbell. When no one answers, Mark rings the doorbell. Kendall gets the door and says, "Everyone's awake."

We both nod as we walk in. When we get further in, I see Leo and Jack sitting on the couch. Kendall nods towards the couch perpendicular to theirs. We sit down and I finally get a good look at Jack's face. He looks just as bad. He has a black eye and cuts near that eye. He doesn't even try to make eye contact.

Kendall says, "MC, can we talk? Leo, you too." Leo and I both stand up and follow Kendall to the kitchen. I know she said that so that Mark and Jack could apologize, but I'm wondering if she actually needs to talk too.

As Kendall starts talking, I hear Jack say, "I'm sorry, Mark."

Mark says, "Yeah, me too. We took it too far."

I look over and see Jack nod. Then I try and pay attention to Kendall, "MC, this is too much. I know this isn't your fault, but we all know what they were fighting about."

Before I can say anything, Leo says, "She can't really do anything though. Jack just has to get over it."

Kendall nods, "Yeah, you're right. For now, MC, can you just keep your distance from Jack?"

I nod, "Yeah."

Then we walk back over to Jack and Mark. Kendall eyes me, basically telling me to get away from Jack. "Mark, let's go get food."

He nods as he stands up. As I walk past Kendall, I whisper, "We're going to eat somewhere, so maybe you guys should order food." She nods.

Mark and I walk to his house to get to his car. He drives an suv mercedes. We end up going to a brunch place and taking our time eating. We get some weird looks because of his face, but we don't pay attention to them. We probably won't see them again.

This is like our first "real" date. I wouldn't really count going to a party as a date. Once I get used to seeing his face like that, I actually feel comfortable around him. I mean, because of Jack telling him about my weird problem.

We head back about an hour later. I really want to help Kendall clean up the house, but that wouldn't be 'keeping my distance'. Instead, I just hang out at Mark's house all day. We both aren't really up to do anything, so we watch tv.

I know there's been some sort of internal struggle between Jack and Mark, but when I'm with Mark, Jack is out of the question. I think Jack and I just have too much of a bad history. Too much has happened that created distrust between us. Also, I spent like two weeks getting over him when I thought we were back to friends. He just sprung up him still liking me the other day. What did he expect me to say?

"Oh, the thing tonight is at Brady's. Do you wanna go?" Mark asks.

Should we? It's been an interesting few days. "We can make an appearance, but are you okay with that?" I eye the bruise next to his eye.

He smiles, "Yeah, I'll be fine."

We watch tv for the whole day, stopping only to order food. At around 4, I say, "I need to go get ready."

He smiles, "You're already ready."

I can't help but smile, but still say, "You know what I mean. Don't you have to go get drinks anyway?"

He sighs, "Yeah, I guess so."

We both stand up and before we leave to do our own things, he pulls me in for a kiss. I'm still gentle, and as much as I can tell he doesn't want to be, he still is.