MAD LOVE

Chapter 15

After opening the front doors, Mark quickly descended the steps, heading for the parking lot, but never got to the car, because a woman's voice called out to him.

"Why are you acting like a jerk?" Out of breath, Alana caught up with the fugitive who, without saying a word, just fled from the school after the last bell. As he did pretty much every day.

"Are you unhappy about something?"

Wood was just torn apart by how he wanted to send the girl away and stop this stupid bet. However, his pride kept him on a leash, like a lapdog. Mark could not afford to lose to Ken Wilmore. Anyone but him. But was this reason enough to scuttle his relationship with Alana?

"Yes, Mark, pretty much everything! We don't go for walks; we don't go out on dates like normal couples do. You don't even answer my calls and messages! I won't even comment on your behavior in public... It's been a month and a half, and I don't know anything about you! Is this what a normal relationship looks like?"

"How do I know what it's supposed to be like? I've never been in one!" His voice increased in volume, and his tone betraying how much he was enraged by this conversation.

"What about your parents? I think one's parents can be superb role models, or not?!"

A light chuckle escaped from Wood, turning into a scornful laugh. Family was nothing more than an empty word to him, and home was the last place he wanted to go back to...

"No," Mark said, suddenly calming down. "Is that all?"

"Okay." Alana paused and swallowed an unpleasant lump of bitterness. Realizing that he was an unhappy and unloved child, she tried to smooth out the unpleasant dialogue. "At least start calling me by my first name, okay? Don't just say "hey", "you", or "mousy". And stop ordering me around. I'm not your servant."

Without answering, Wood turned away to leave, but Alana did not allow him even a step forward, instead continuing to speak.

"Why on earth did you ask me to be your girlfriend?"

These incessant questions really angered Mark, increasing the friction between them. Mark half turned, barely restraining his rudeness, and fixed his arrogant gaze on this annoying supposed 'soul mate'.

How she had angered him! Her voice, from which he was trying to escape, excited every nerve cell he had, and their rare touches, ever increasingly difficult to refuse, completely knocked him off balance. Wood was constantly looking for reasons to disappear after school, vanishing somewhere for the entire day. Three months seemed to him an endless time, which ruthlessly and slowly wound up his heart's mechanism with the key inserted into it. Mark did not like these new feelings that bloomed for this new acquaintance at all.

"I liked you." Mark had to tell her an unthinkable lie, because she started asking uncomfortable questions.

Moore lowered her eyes to the floor, intuitively feeling he was blatantly lying, but she did not want to believe it.

Mark just doesn't understand how to behave, so if you want a healthy relationship, Alana, you need to show him loving another is not so bad... Love is the most wonderful feeling in the universe! Alana mused, and nervously fiddled with the strap of her backpack.

"Where are you going now?" Alana asked, deciding to start small.

"What's it to you?"

"I wanted to suggest we take a walk... Or watch a movie together at my house. My parents are away for a couple of days."

Mark did not want any of this. He did not plan to get attached to the subject of a mere bet, but for some reason, he returned to it more and more often in his mind... Even 'Good morning' messages were constantly ignored, but as soon as they stopped, the need for them exploded, and a little later his fingers themselves typed the message, sending it to the now-familiar number.