It's Too Late (Septiplier)

9.

~Jack~

"Jack, I don't know what's been going on with me the last week. I was just so frustrated with trying to help you that when you kept yelling at me to leave you alone," Mark sighed and took a pause, "I just got angry. There was no reason for me to act like that, and I'm sorry. I eventually realized that being angry wasn't going to help you and I needed to tell you that."

"Mark, how did you even find me?" I questioned.

"I knew you had work on the weekends, so I knew that you would be around here sometime in the evening," he sighed and looked at me with a weak smile. I didn't say anything because I honestly couldn't process this correctly. I knew what I wanted to say but I don't know if he'd react well to it.

"Jack, I can tell you want to say something." I gave Mark a look.

"How did you know that?" I mumbled.

"I can tell by your facial expression. Your eyebrows are furrowed a bit and yet the rest of your face is blank."

"Mark, I realized that over the course of the week when you weren't interacting with me, that I felt more alone than ever. I didn't know that you were making even the slightest difference in my life until you stopped. I don't know if you understand what I'm saying but, I guess, well..." I was then cut off by Mark.

"I understand." I look over to him and he gives me a little smile. I give a half-hearted smile back to him.

"I may not understand what you're going through but I understand what you were trying to say to me. You were trying to tell me that I truly did make a little bit of a difference in your life at the time and when I got angry and stopped, you needed a friend to talk to. Am I correct?" He asks. I nod my head as he continues.

"So this never happens again, I want you to have my number so you can text or call me whenever you need to. When you do, I will try my very best to answer." I nod as he starts to reach over to me. I wasn't sure what he was going to do and I freeze up.

He holds out his hand and asks, "Can I see your phone?" I nod and reach to my pocket and pull out my phone. I unlocked it and then place it lightly into his hand. He then pulled back his hand and went to type his number into it.

As he did so, I got up and walked closer to him and stole his phone out of his pocket. He turned his head around and looked at me with a strange face, I only giggled and went to type my number into his phone only to see it was locked. Mark then snatched it out of my hand and unlocked it for me.

As I typed my number in, I heard Mark grumble something.

"What is it Mark?" I asked.

"Who is this?" He asked. I peered over his shoulder and saw an old picture of my mother. My heart dropped when I saw it. When I gave no reply he turned around and saw my empty expression.

"I'm sorry, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to. I don't know who it is but it brought up bad memories," he said as his face filled up with guilt.

"It's okay, you deserve to know," I mumbled, "it's my mother." I sighed as all the memories of her swept through my mind. Mark didn't say anything for a minute, when he did say something it wasn't about my mother. I think he knew that it wasn't something I wanted to talk about.

"It's getting quite dark, maybe we should start to head home," Mark said; I nodded in agreement.

"Is it okay if I walk you home?" He asked.

"I'm not sure if you want to see my house, or the other person who lives there." I said the last part much quieter because he might ask about it.

"I don't care what your house looks like, I'm walking with you to your house," he stated without my consent. I sighed and picked up my work uniform and started to walk, Mark walking alongside me.