Nobody Likes You When You're 23

The Last Night

EMBERLY

Mark and I's kiss made me feel so great but at the same time tension filled my thoughts. They found my sister, and I was so happy they did. But what I wasn't too happy that Mark would have to finally go back to Cincinnati.

We arrived back at the house and I got my computer out, and I watched as he searched for this game. I read the screen and it said Table Tug. "This game looks a little-" "childish, I know but like its awesome Em, you gotta try it with me pleeeeeeeeeeease." He held the 'e' sound and I couldn't say no to this pouty lip he had going on. "Anything for Marki-Mark." I said in defeat. I read the controls and we started.

"THIS GAME IS ENRAGING. I TOTALLY WON THAT ONE. AND, HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE FOR A HUMAN BODY TO TURN LIKE THAT? THAT DEFIES PHYSICS." I said, realizing this games controls were so fragile and stuff. Mark laughed as he beat me for a 2nd time.

"Alright, I'll place a bet on this next match." I said pausing the game before it continued into the 3rd round.

"I'm willing to put a bet on this, what do you have in mind Ms. Cherish?" He asked lifting his eyebrow and looking over at me.

"If I win, you gotta go with me tonight to the park and swing with me at midnight and we can come back and watch my favorite movie. But if you win we can spend the night doing whatever you want." I said sounding like a little toddler mentioning the idea of swinging.

He smiled, "you're on." And with that I unpaused and we went at it for a good 15 minutes, back and forth and there were a few close calls before the actual fate happened.

"I won!" I yelled excitedly.

"Psssh, because I LET you."

"Mark, no one likes a sore loser." I picked on him with a thick layer of sarcasm.

He pouted resting his chin on my shoulder. "But what do we do until Midnight?" He asked in a girly voice.

"Well, I'm pretty hungry. We woke straight up and went over to my mom's so, wanna go get a bite to eat? It's on me." I said, I thought about what I said and thought about where to go. I'm a waitress, and I thought about going to the restaurant I work at. But, I told them I needed the whole weekend off because of my sister wanting to go to this convention and I may or may not have stretched the truth a tiny bit just to not work the weekend. So, I couldnt show my face around there without being bitched at.

"Okay, I'll eat anything at this point. I need the food in meh." He said still keeping his head rested against my shoulder. I chuckled looking over at him.

"Hey, we never finished our conversation in the car." I said. His eyebrow raised a tiny bit.

"Oh, about Serena." He said with a deep sigh. I just nodded a tiny bit.

"Well, she's my ex. After my dad died, uh, she got with me. And, really I think it was a bad time to get into a relationship like that. I depended on her for a lot and we didn't have much in common but she still grew on me. It's like, she was taking the place of someone important since I had just lost someone important. And, it wasn't real love. It was just, replacement. It was subconscious of course. That wasn't my intention. But, we were together for two years and like, she got so fed up. Because well, like I said there wasn't a real connection to begin with. I caught her cheating on me with my best friend at that point in time and I went off the deep end, and it was a dark place in my life because the grieving I didn't do for my dad. Was happening now. With that extra pain added because of her leaving in that way. I faced my fears though, it wasnt pretty. But I'm happy I did."

Through the talk Mark had moved his head from my shoulder and we just sat side by side. I placed my hand on his thigh and looked at him.

"Mark, I'm sorry you had to lose your dad. And, I hate even hearing about this stuff. Because, so far the Mark I know is happy. And, I want you happy like it makes me unbelievably upset hearing this. And, I'm glad you've moved on from all those events and just made the best of your situation." I said, his brown eyes lit up, and his lips perked up a bit. I was being honest with him and since I met Mark, I never felt the need to hold myself back like who I am and stuff. So I spoke freely without even thinking up what to say next.