On Mute

Chapter 20: The Portrait

"You don't have to stand there like an idiot you know?" I watched as Marc sat there in the window. I grumbled and looked the opposite way.

"I know I can sit where ever I want, I just like standing is all." I snuck a glance his way; he pulled his knee to his chin as he stared absently out the open window. We were silent for a very long... two minutes.

"I'm sorry about my dad." Marc finally mumbled, I walked up and studied him clearly. In this better lighting it was obvious he looked paler than usual. Maybe he was sick?

"Is he the reason why you are so out of it today?" Marc rubbed his reddening eyes and turned my way, the black in them standing out even more so, now that they were surrounded by blood shot vessels.

"Dad gave me hell after the concert since I took my present for a joy ride." I leaned against the wall, studying the painful expression in his solemn face.

"But that was three days ago?"He nodded his head, pinching the bulge forming between his brows and nose.

"You wouldn't understand; this is something that only my dad and I really get." I stared at him dead in the face.

"Try me." I dared. Marc gazed upward and slowly he turned his body my way; prepping to tell the tale.

"I guess it started with Anthony." He said as he rubbed his eye.

"Who's Anthony?" He looked up, and I realised he was on the verge of crying. "M-Marc?"

"Anthony was my brother..." He turned away. "He died when I was four, of leukemia." I felt my legs weaken and slowly I slid down the wall in weakness. I opened my mouth a million times but every time I did I just closed it again. There was nothing that I could say to make Marc feel better.

Looking into those glowing black eyes every day I never would have guessed how intense and sorrowful his life was. It was obvious he did not exactly like his situation, having parents that were always gone on business trips, moving to a new school... away from your old friends and ties. But this... this was on a completely different level?

"How old was he... w-when he died I mean?" The face he shielded with his hand slowly peaked through the fingers, a saddened smile meeting my surprised expression.

"Four." Twins. His hand lowered, patting the spot beside him. I sat without hesitation, my body sinking into the mattress. I looked from the hands in his lap up to his dipped head, peeling back the dark hair in my mind to reveal his face underneath. That face was very emotional; scrunched into a look of sadness, his eyes a crater of hollow expression. Without warning he sat upright, his hands pulling his hair back to reveal a more put together individual. "I guess what..." He snuffled. "I-I guess what I am trying to say is that dad was scared another one of us would of got hurt." He stood, hovering almost like a ghost over to his desk to examine a portrait. "Mom has had her producing job to occupy her mind but since Dad's business is on its last legs he no longer has that distraction. He tried to be a grounds keeper at this creek... but it still wasn't enough to get Anthony out of his head."

"What are you saying?" I said without thinking. Marc turned my way and I repeated myself regretfully, his body revealing the portrait to be of him, his parents and another little boy who looked eerily similar to himself. I froze; the child's smiling face sending chills throughout my body.

"I'm saying they already lost one, they really don't want to lose another." I nodded. I realized why it was his father was so defensive and saddened when he saw his son. Anthony was so similar in structure and stature to Marc... he must feel he is staring at a ghost?

The murky opaqueness to his irises made his expression seem empty as he looked to me from the desk, his thumbs rubbing the edge as he leaned up against it. Suddenly that feeling stirred within me, the turmoil in his eyes bringing that hesitant-less voice alive to curl my tongue.

"Marc, I know what you're thinking and..." I clung to his blanket as those dark eyes bore into me. "It's not your fault, it's none of yours, you can't help you look like him." He threw his head to the sky, a smile surfacing his face as the tears rolled, his shoulders shook and he sobbed under his breath.

"T-thank you..." He sputtered out, "Thank you..."

Then came the knock on the door...