The Mark

6

"Lift up your shirt." Josh says. I'm sitting on the sink counter with my back up against the mirror.

"No it's okay." I shake my head.

"Tyler," Josh sighs in frustration, "okay hold on here for just a minute I'm going to go grab something from my locker."

I nod in response. He turns and leaves the bathroom. God what the hell is going on. This morning he was shoving me into my locker and now he's going to clean up the injuries his friends inflicted on me.

"Alright here we go." Josh enters back into the bathroom holding a red bag with a white plus sign on it in his hands.

"You just randomly have a med bag in your locker?" I laugh and the grab my stomach groaning from the pain that laughing caused me.

"No I stole it from the nurses office." He rolls his eyes. "Yes I keep a medical bag in my locker. Do you have any idea how many cuts and bruises I get during my workout classes? Plus it doesn't help that my mom is like a constant worrier and basically makes me keep a bag with me."

He set the bag down next to me. "Now lift up your shirt." This time obliging, I lift the blood stained shirt over my head and set it down next to me.

"Holy shit dude." he starts. "Damn they did this to you?" He reared his jaw.

I look down to my stomach to see the damage they caused. Damn. My stomach was a deep shade of blues and black and red.

"No it's not too bad, I just bruise really easily." Giving a weak smile.

"Tyler it's... it's all blue black." He says lightly almost like he was saying it to himself.

"I'm sorry." I whisper.

"Why the hell are you apologizing? I'm sorry they did this. I really had no idea." He grabs a couple paper towels and wets them under the water in sink. "I'm going to clean up the blood."

I wince at the pain as the paper towel touches my torn skin. "I know it hurts." He looks at me and gives a sad smile.

"I think one was wearing steel toes or something." I laugh again and the pain radiates.

"Fucking Brandon." Josh scoffs and shakes his head. He finishes wiping all the blood from my stomach and moves to wipe the blood from my face. After getting it all off he pushes my left shoulder to guide me to lay on my back. He unzips the med kit and grabs some gauze and tape. He holds up the two items. "Are these okay?"

Nodding my head, "Yeah I think so, but you really don't have to. I'll be fine I promise." I argue.

"Hush I'm in a med class so this is like practice for me." He states. I laugh again. That's surprising. Why is a guy like that taking a med class? It's not like he actually cares about people. He's only doing this for me because he feels guilty.

After carefully putting the bandages on my skin he pulls me back up so I'm sitting on the counter. He hands me my shirt and I slip it back on. Looking down and tug at the bottom hem and pull it away from myself to examine the shirt. Josh was staring at me so I glance back up to catch his eyes.

"Are you going to be able to go home covered in blood like that?" He questions.

"Not without being asked a million questions."

"Okay hold on a second." He leaves the bathroom again. A few moments later he returns with a shirt in his hand. "Here wear this one." He tosses a black shirt onto my lap. I open the shirt and hold it in front of me to examine it. The shirt had a logo and the words 'House of Heroes' on it.

"What? You steal this from the nurses office too?" I look past the shirt and make eye contact with him. He rolls his eyes again and leans against one of the bathroom stall doors.

"No smartass it's from my locker. It's an old band shirt of mine but it's too small so I kept it in my locker in case of an emergency."

"Oh..." He's giving me his shirt?!?!?!!! "thank you." I take off my blood stained shirt and slip his over my frail body. It's a bit oversized on me but it'll work.

"Great so now that you're taken care of let's get out of here and never talk about... this again okay."

"Right. Never talk about this again." I hop down from the counter not thinking and shutter from the pain. I take a few steps to test if I can walk now and it seems to be okay. I pick up my backpack from the ground that josh must've carried in from outside. I didn't even realized he grabbed it. I stuff my bloody shirt in the bag and gently put the strap over my shoulder.

"We good?" He asks.

"We're good." I start to walk out.

"Oh hey Tyler..?" He starts. I turn back around to face him. "This doesn't change anything between us okay?" He motions between us.

I scoff. "Right." I turn back around.

"I'll take it easy in you for a few weeks while you heal you know but..."

"Okay." I cut harshly "Thanks." and push out the door not looking back at him. Facing the sharp cold air again I make my way to my car and pull the keys out of my pocket. I throw my bag into the back and sit in the drivers seat. The drive home was silent. I needed the silence for processing what all just happened. I'm so confused.

I pull into my drive way and turn off the car before gathering my things and heading to the door. I try my best to be as quiet as possible while opening the door but my mother has super hearing or something.

"Tyler honey is that you? I was starting to get worried." My mom rounds the corner and meets my gaze.

"Hey mom. Sorry I was uh... studying with some friends after class." I lie.

"Okay we've had dinner early but I set a plate aside for you honey."

"Thank you mom."

She looks at me funny. "Where'd you get that shirt?" She says pointing at me.

Fuck I didn't think she'd notice.

"Oh yeah I spilled some sauce on my shirt at lunch today so I found this one in the lost and found." Another lie.

"Ohhhh well I think it's cute." She turns around to go back to the living room. I go to the kitchen and grab the plate she made for me and put it into the microwave to warm it up. Ding. I grab it out and head up to my room to eat in there.

After eating and working on my homework, I pull my shirt out of the bag sitting beside my desk. It was covered in that crimson color. Sad. I really liked this shirt too.

"Ugh." I toss the shirt into the  trashcan over the note that Josh threw at me. Hmm. I grab the note out of the trash beneath the shirt and put it into a drawer in my desk. Is it weird that I want to keep this now? I question myself. Not that weird right? No more weird than what happened today.

I roll my eyes and exhale through my nose. Maybe I should get some sleep. I push myself out from under the desk and make my way over to my messy bed. I grab the blanket and easily shift myself under it to avoid any extra pain. I close my eyes to try to sleep but pain and thoughts keep my brain active. I didn't deserve this right? Am I eternally bleeding? Will I die? Fuck it's starting to sting. I groan quietly and toss my head back a couple times against the pillow. Just two more days. Two more and maybe things will be better.