I'm Not Giving Up On You

CH: 3 I See His Pain

{Jack's POV}

"Oh no." Was all Jack could say as he ran around his house, cleaning it up a bit before he headed to the airport to pick up Mark, where he was late all ready. He went through a mental checklist,

Room clean, check.
Living room clean, check.
Kitchen stocked, check.
Games at the ready, check.
Bathroom clean, check.
Razor clean and hidden, check.
Sleeves down, check.

It was a long list, and to most people it would have sounded silly or unessisary, but to Jack, it was the only thing keeping Mark from hating him, from telling on him, for making him feel worse than he already was, from him making fun of him, from him finding out what Jack so despratly prayed to keep secret.

{Mark's POV}

He had been on that stupid plane too long, there was so many Irish people, not that Mark hated Irish people or joined into Felix's jokes about them being shit, Mark was just starting to pick up a small bit of the accent and it had only been about 12 hours. (I don't know how long it would take to get from L.A. to Ireland so just go with it.)

Mark had been walking around the terminal for at least ten minutes and he hadn't seen Jack's bright green hair, so he took drastic measures. "Jack!" He shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth. He heard shuffling behind him and a small voice was heard. "Hey Merk." Mark's expression lightened as he turned to see his beast friend. Jack was pale, paper pale, his ocean blue eyes that Mark envied so much were dull and didn't have an ounce of excitement in them, his once highlighter green hair was now pale green, showing much of the bleached hair beneath. It didn't seem that Jack had been worried about self higein the last couple of days, his once clean shaven beard was messy, his sloppy but handsom hairstyle a mop on his head. Mark's expression fell a bit at the sight of his friend. "Hey Jack! What took you so long?" Mark ment it as a joke, he said it in a joking manner, but Jack seemed to take him seriously. "I'm so sorry, I was cleaning up a bit for you and then I had to call this Uber cuz I haven't been able ta get me licence back yet," Jack said the next part quieter, and where most would have said it in embarrasment or shame, Jack said it in defeat, or maybe, fear? "I couldn't pass the test." Mark's happy face dropped. "Jack, I was only Joking, that's ok, where helping someone get some extra money, lets go. Jack smiled a bit, though when Mark looked in his eyes they were dead, the smile never reached his eyes, as if they had a wall just to keep the smile out.

They walked outside, Jack stood on his tiptoes and looked around the crowd, Mark just stuck close, he didn't know what they were looking for. "There he is." Jack said again in his uncharectoristicly quiet voice. Mark noticed a tall, hippie looking guy standing next to an older looking van. Jack stuck up his hand and waved to the man, the man waved back and got in the van. Jack gestuered for Mark to get into the back, but Mark stood stock still, not daring to go near the van. "Mark," Jack said in his new quiet voice. "He's the Uber I called." Mark relaxed a bit. He felt really bad, Jack had to call an Uber to pick them up, and Mark had asked him to pick him up, if he had just asked Jack for his address he could have called a cab, but he had rudly asked Jack to do something he legilly couldn't do, but Jack had not protested, he had simply called an Uber and inconvenienced himself just because Mark asked him too. Mark slowly climbed in the van, after putting his suitcase in the back. Jack soon followed, staying in this awkward silence Jack had unknowingly created. The ride home was awkward, both Mark and the Hippie tried at conversation but the hippie had never heard of YouTube and Mark didn't feel like explaining it and Jack had, more than once, gotten lost in his thoughts looking out the window at the rainy Irish skies.

Mark began to worry when they got to Jack's apartment, it looked so different than it had a year ago during a house tour Jack had given him over Skype. Sure the white walls and dark carpets looked the same. But it was unnaturally clean and there were no microwavable packets in the cabinets, this shocked Mark because he knew how much Jack loved his easy cheese. Mark assumed Jack had gone on a shopping spree before Mark got there, but the only things in the house were things Mark liked, and he was fairly certain Jack liked a lot of different foods than Mark did, so what was Jack going to eat?