DEMONS AREN'T MADE, THEY'RE BORN

Grace

TW: murder

I convinced Liv not to tell Marcus about the incident but I couldn't hide the black eye from him. 

he stepped inside, grinning until he saw my new addition. 

"What the fuck happened?!" he rushed to my side, examining the wound. I brushed his hand away and faked another grin. 

"I kinda fell down the stairs." 

Liv snorted behind me, folding her arms. I whirled around to glare at her and mimed zipping my lips. 

she heaved a sigh and left to devour the remaining cookies I made. freaking Jason stole my others. 

Marcus wasn't finished. "that was not a fall." 

I nodded because I couldn't form words at the moment. "yes it was, I slipped." 

"y'know, Ben Platt said that. he lied too." 

I opened my mouth to answer but shut it. how does he know EVERY DAMN THING THAT HAPPENS?! 

"tell me the truth." he folded his arms and plopped onto the couch as Liv returned with a dozen cookies in her arms. 

Marcus cast her a weird stare as she shrugged her shoulder. "what?  gal's gotta eat." 

I sighed. this could go two ways: keep up with lying or tell him the truth. 

"fine." I whispered. "it was Jason." 

Marcus paled and stood up in rage. "you've GOT to be kidding me!" he began to pace the room, smoothing his hair back, muttering to himself. 

"first me, then you then every other damn girl in the-" 

I touched his arm, concerned. "what do you mean, you?"

Liv stopped eating and stared at him, waiting for an answer. 

Marcus sighed and slumped back down, tears streaming down his face. 

"it's nothing." 

I sat beside him, Liv taking his other side. "so, you can lie but I can't?" 

he chuckled sadly and took our hands in his. "you don't want to know." 

Liv placed her hands on her hips. "fess up man! if I live next door to some jailbird, I'm gonna freak." 

Marcus sighed as I handed him a cookie. "you don't have to tell us." I spoke gently. 

he shook his head sadly. "you deserve to know." 

Liv sat back down and patted his arm. "okay, tell us." 

he heaved a sigh and began his tale. "Jason and I met back in middle school and became fast friends. we did everything together and as time went on, the friendship morphed to something else..." 

Liv coughed obnoxiously. "bi panic!" 

we both glared at her as she threw her hands up innocently. "just sayin'!" 

Mark continued. "yeah, what she said. anyway, we were going for a bit then I found out that Jason was with other people and abused them in extreme ways. I confronted him about it and told him it was over if he didn't stop. he...snapped. wasn't the guy I knew. this...was scarier." 

tears began to stream down his face as we tried to comfort him. he inhaled and continued, his expression stormy. 

"Jason changed for the worse. I continued to try to end his crimes but he wouldn't listen. I got him into therapy where I thought he changed. he seemed better but to my horror, did it in secret. I only knew when the police escorted him home. he was then sent to juvie for a couple months then was released. I thought he was reformed. I was wrong. his abuse got worse but I made sure it targeted me rather then others."