Middle of the Week Motivation

Opposites Attract

"I can't keep saving you like this." Tom said, looking down at his younger brother.

"It's not my fault." The brown eyed freshman whined, wiping away tears and sniffling as he did so.

"I know," Tom frowned, placing his hand on Mark's shoulder and giving it a small squeeze. "I know."

It really wasn't Mark's fault, It was one of the 'prissy' girls at school. She had her heart dead set on getting a kiss from Mark, even though he had told her many times that he wasn't interested. It was a wide known fact that Mark was gay, but this girl simply wouldn't accept "No" as an answer. So she had pulled him to the side of the hall on his way to lunch, away from the protection of his brother. She asked him one more time to kiss her, and upon denying her request once again, she slammed her lips against his.

It was when her boyfriend came around the corner that trouble ensued. He demanded to know what was going on, and she insisted that the poor freshman boy was the one who forced it upon her, even though it was blatantly obvious that it was him who was pressed against the wall. It was around that time that Tom realized his little brother was no longer with him, so he began to retrace his steps in attempts to find him. He found his brother all tied up in this mess and rescued him just in time, right before the girl's jealous boyfriend was going to beat him up.

That lead them to their current situation. Tom sitting on the bathroom floor, next to his crying little brother instead of heading off to lunch like they were planning to. Tom was always curious why people picked on his brother; you'd think that you wouldn't mess with the little brother of the coolest kid in school, but it might be the fact that no one knew they were related. While Tom was a cool, confident, bad boy, his brother was practically the opposite. Mark was a shy, really smart and always slightly nervous freshman who's bits of social anxiety made it hard to believe they came from the same family.

"Look, I need to go man, I was supposed to meet up with the group during the first part of lunch." Tom says, giving a small smile and withdrawing his hand from his sibling's shoulder. Mark tensed at those words, but nodded, letting out the tiniest bit of acknowledgment.

"Ok." Unlike his brother, who was the leader of the cool kids here and would do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, Mark didn't want to be a burden to anyone. Tom sighed, knowing that was Mark's nonverbal way of saying "Please don't leave me alone."

"Ok, ok, how about this," Tom began, finally getting Mark's gaze to wander up from the floor. "You can chill with me while we talk and stuff. They don't seem to mind having you around occasionally." Mark nodded, a trace of a smile lighting up his face. So with that, They grabbed their stuff, heading out behind the school to meet up with Tom's friends.

It was only when they got closer that Mark started to think this was a bad idea. He knew all of the members fairly well, seeing as his brother hung out with them so much, and had developed a crush on one of the members. A certain electric blue eyed junior with flawless green hair, who was an exchange student from Ireland that came here a year or two ago.

"Tom..." Mark trailed off, walking a bit slower as they grew closer to the group. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.."

Tom chuckled. "Is it because McLoughlin is here?" He teased. Tom knew about his brother's crush, and if anything, shipped them together.

Mark avoided eye contact and mumbled a quiet "Maybe."

Tom let out another laugh and grabbed his brother's arm, gently dragging him towards the group.

"Hey guys!" He called, gaining the attention of the group.

Mark slightly cowers behind his brother, being at least 3 inches shorter than the shortest person in the group. The only thing that would make anyone think that he might be part of this group in anyway was the fact that his raven colored hair was dyed cherry red. When he was first introduced to the group, they somehow convinced him, and his parents, to dye his hair. It was first a bright bubblegum pink, then a deep blue before this cherry red. The only reason that he decided to stick with this color was because Jack commented on how much he liked it.