Septiplier - Just Give Me a Reason

Chapter 2

Sometimes all you can do is lie in bed, and hope to fall asleep before you fall apart.

 ~ William C. Hannan

"How could you ever think I'd feel that way about you Mark?" Jack yelled glaring at him in complete disgust. Mark's throat dried and he was unable to form words as Jack towered over him. "I have a girlfriend and I could never be interested in you."

Mark was numb his entire body shaking from adrenaline. Jack who had anger haunting his normally happy face sneered at him, turning without another word and marched into the distant white abyss, fading into it before completely disappearing. Mark fell to his knees his body shaking violently. His chest ached, the sobs that were escaping his lips echoed around him as tears streaked down his face.

The world around him shuttered twisting violently and then it was gone and Mark was overwhelmed by a sensation of falling into the never ending darkness below him.

--

His eyes shot open and he sat up quickly, panicking at the darkness that surrounded him. He bolted out of bed – his heart pounding in his chest and to the light switch on the other side of the room turning it on. The blinding light caused his eyes to burn and instantly shut, tears building in them as they attempted to adjust. He sunk to the floor covering his eyes – blinking a few times to reduce the pain before he was able to open them and look around his messy bedroom.

Relief flooded his body as he sat on the floor his mind still reeling with the dream he had. Jack's anger, cutting words and harsh tongue had felt so real and it stung. Did Jack really feel that way about him? Not that he was expecting him to be overjoyed at his feeling for him but he was hoping that he wouldn't hate him. He didn't know if he could handle that.

Squinting through the light, his eyes still not fully adjusted and unable to fully see without his glasses, he read the clock that was on the opposite side of the room. 1:24 a.m. He had only been asleep for an hour but there was no way he'd be able to go back to sleep now.

He drummed his fingers nervously on the inside of his thy; his mind racing. What was he going to do? Swallowing, his throat painfully dry, he sighed dejectedly. He rubbed at his face, clearing any stray tears that were threatening to fall and got to his feet, with the aid of the nearby wall. All that he was sure of right now was that he needed a drink of water.

It was hard to see in the living room. His eyes attempted to adjust as he walked from his brightly lit bedroom and into the dark living room. Tripping over a pair of shoes that were haphazardly left in his path he caught himself on the corner of the couch before he fell.

'Should have turned on a light,' Mark chastised himself as he continued on the dark path to the kitchen.

Entering the dark kitchen – his eyes finally adjusting to the darkness he opened a nearby cabinet retrieving the first clean glass that he could find and moving to the sink. He turned the tap on and placed the glass under the water filling it to the brim. Shutting the water off – glass still in hand he sank into the nearby chair taking a deep drink. Satisfying his need for water he placed the half-drunk glass down on the table.

His eyes darted around the apartment it was deathly silent – almost hauntingly. He didn't like it. Picking up his glass again, finishing the water. He rose from his seat returning the glass to the kitchen and marched into his recording studio. Maybe it would be good to work on a quick video. Something short since he hadn't published anything today and the video with Jack, well that was now useless there's no way he'd let anyone see that.

Powering on his computer he bit nervously on his bottom lip. What if Jack was online? He didn't know if he could face him right now.

He didn't have long to dwell on the matter, the silence of his apartment was cut short when his cell phone blared from his bedroom. His head shot up and he looked to his bedroom in confusion. Who would be calling him this late? Jumping up from his desk he ran to his bedroom, tripping over the same shoes again, he stumbled into the bedroom and snatched his phone off his dresser answering it on the last ring before it went to voicemail.

"Hello?" he gasped out completely out of breath as he fell onto his bed.

"Mark it's Tom," his brother replied quickly. There was a sense of panic in his voice and that scared Mark. His brother never called him this late at night and if he did he was either drunk or bored. The panic bubbled in his chest.

"Thomas what's wrong?"

"Mom fell down the steps last night. She was carrying a box of things she wanted to donate or get rid of and Charley followed her down the steps and got in front of her. I thought it was just a simple break at first. Something I'd take her to the hospital for and she'd get a cast but now they're talking surgery and I-"

"What! Wait, slow down what surgery?"

"They said that when she fell she broke her arm in such a way that they need to put a fixation plate in it. It's the only way that they can fix her arm. She wants you here Mark. Is there any way that you can take some time off and come out to be with her? She's scared."

"I'll be on the next flight." Mark answered hanging up the phone and tossing it to the bed.

Mark jolted to his feet pulling his suitcase out from under his bed and began to fill it with any assortment of clothing. He really wasn't sure what he was packing but it didn't matter. His mom needed him.

Getting dressed he grabbed his phone from the bed shoving it into the pocket of his dark jeans and his phone charger throwing it into his suitcase and zipped it up. It banged his leg as he ran down the hallway finding his keys underneath a pile of newspaper and magazines and his wallet sitting on his kitchen table and he ran out the door locking it behind him.

The apartment was dark and completely silent again but that only lasted for a minute as Skype popped up on his computer screen with an incoming call from Jack.

--

Mark sat in the empty airport. He had arrived in almost record time from his house and was able to get the first red-eye flight he could to Ohio. But it was still almost a half an hour before he could board and over a four hour flight. He wished there was a way he could get there faster.

Nervously bouncing his knee he glanced around the airport and sighed pulling out his phone hoping to find a game to distract him. But then his mind returned to YouTube. He hadn't uploaded a video all day his fans were probably getting worried about him. Bringing up his camera app he switched it to the video recorder to make a little blog update for his fans. He didn't want to disappoint them.

Hey guys, as many of you can tell I'm currently not in my apartment I'm actually at the airport. I'm not going to get into a lot of details right now but I'm heading home to Cincinnati for a while. I'll be there for a few days but I don't want anyone to worry about me or anything. I'll keep you guys updated when I can but for now just know it might be a while between videos. As always, I'll see you all in the next video Bhu-Bye.

He turned off the video and uploaded it directly to YouTube. That would do for now but he would have to update with another video when he arrived. He didn't want everyone to start worry and speculating.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are currently boarding for all rows for flight 192: non-stop Los Angeles to Cincinnati. We would like to invite you to start boarding at this time. Again that's flight 192: non-stop Los Angeles to Cincinnati.

Mark got to his feet gathering up all his things and walked toward the gate. Silencing his phone and slipping it into his back pocket he handed the woman at the gate his ticket, which she scanned and handed back to him, and he made his way onto the plane to head home.

--

Alright everyone! Here's chapter 2. Thank you again for everyone's kind words and favorites. I really appreciate them and it's helped me get this chapter out as quick as I did because I had a bit of writers block of where I was going to go next. Anyways more Septiplier in the next chapter.