Jerk; Septiplier

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Jack

〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜
Monday, October 31st
〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜

I walked in the house with Mark and immediately noticed how odd it smelt. "Mum!?" I called. "Why does it smell like spray paint in here.. Samantha!"

"If you dare call me Samantha I'm going to call you Sean again!" My mother called as she walked out in a pair of jeans covered in paint and a dirty t-shirt. "Hi Mark."

"Hi Ms. McLoughlin." Mark smiled at her.

"You can call me Samantha." She laughed and placed her hands on her waist. "I'm painting in the kitchen, but I can make you guys a snack."

"No. We can get it, but thanks mum." I smiled at her and kissed her cheek before walking into the kitchen and going wide eyed. "You didn't say you were painting the kitchen walls!"

"That's what I meant." My mum laughed as she walked in. She placed a hand on Mark's shoulder. "What do you think of the color?"

"It's nice. Your house is always so nice." Mark smiled. "Did you want help painting?"

Gee, thanks for signing me up for this, Mark.

"No, my brother is coming over to help." My mum said.

"Uncle Simon is coming over?" I asked. My mum nodded. "Cool. Are we going to have dinner with him?"

"I didn't think you would want to because I figured Mark would be here, but I can make something if you want to eat with him." My mother nodded her head.

"Yeah of course, I love Uncle Simon." I nodded my head. "Mark does too."

"Oh ha ha." My mother said but Mark looked genuinely confused. He would figure it out soon enough. "Well I'll let you know when dinner is ready then."

"Okay, thanks." I said. "Come on, Mark." He followed me out of the room and back to my bedroom. I just wanted to lay on my bed and curl up with him. I wanted to be able to feel his arms around me. So I sat down on my bed and held my arms out to Mark.

"You don't want to work on homework?" He asked me and I shook my head. So he laid down with me and I could feel his hands gently combing through my hair and occasionally twirling the ends around his fingers.

I felt a smile creep onto my lips as I held onto Mark a little tighter. I hadn't been this happy in a long time. It felt better than being a sour child most of the time. It felt better than anything I could ever know.

"I love you." I broke the comfortable silence as I turned my head up to Mark, he looked at me cautiously and I spoke again. "More than you could ever know."

"Where's this coming from?" Mark laughed a little bit. "I do love you, but you just look.. So pleased."

"Because I am." I said as I sat up, Mark did too and I moved over so I was straddling his lap. "I'm very glad you moved here."

"Me too, I hated where I lived before." Mark took a deep breath. "I never told you that story, did I?" I shook my head, I didn't want to bring up bad memories for Mark but I was genuinely curious as to why he had come here in the first place. "Well.. There was this girl, who I was best friends with. She was really nice to me but she was really popular."

"Alright." I nodded while listening patiently.

"I wasn't really popular at all, she was one of my only friends. When I was fifteen, I believe, my second year of high school. Uh.. She died in a car crash." Mark sighed, he didn't meet my eyes and he looked extremely pained as he ran a hand through his hair. "He was drunk, she was just coming home with her mom or something. He was on the wrong side of the road and collided head on. Then I didn't really know what to do, kids started picking on me, I was super depressed and.. Well.. I did some things I really know I shouldn't have."