The Swings [SEPTIPLIER Fanfiction]

Strange Numbers

mark's pov

Reaching my house back from the innocent hell, I dropped my shoes off at the foyer, placing my clothed feet on the hard wood floor, walking to the stairway that I will hopefully not trip and fall on.

I grab the phone that was vibrating in my pocket.

Ethan Blue Boii

I read the name of the number that called. I answer it hesitantly, pausing for a double seconds after the phone rings repeatedly before I did so. Making sure I am muted by the walls in case this is my online therapist, I whispered a quiet greeting followed by a sigh to Ethan. "Hey."
"Suh dude!" Ethan responds with a cringe joke. He follows it up with a giggle that runs into a nervous one.

"I know you didn't call me just to embarrass yourself-" I pause for a scoff. "What's wrong?" I assume, needing the same answer to myself than he does.

"Oh well, Wade and Bob were talking in the lunch room and we needed to tell you that we are gonna have to get another friend in this play of ours, or else we couldn't get this play-"

"no." I cut him off, wanting nothing more but an apology and another topic. He should already know that I always get panic attacks when I am in the middle of attention. It's not as bad if I do a class presentation but in front of the whole school: i'd rather die.

"Look, I can't do it... You should know why."
"But Markimoo!" Ethan tries to convince me by being a child.
I end the call, signaling him a sign that i'm not up to his immaturity that none of the population of humanity has.

...

I suddenly felt an urge at the moment when we were both silent. An urge to step on stage so that Jack could notice meh An urge to get attention but why should I get his attention when we barely know each other.
   Love does make you crazy at times. A silly crush can get you somewhere but comes with some consequences.

"sure." I spoke as Ethan almost gave up. Him being a blue boy, he almost wheezed from how excited he was.
"great! meet me behind the theatre in our school tomorrow, after school asap!" With that he ends the call, leaving me standing in the middle on my bedroom regretting everything I have decided in my life. Not thinking it could actually happen and that my engineer career wishes could have a sentence that mentions about this embarrassing and painful performance that I, myself got into. But what really matters is that I won't get to see the sentence on the most rewarding paper that I would have gotten through out my uselesss, pathetic life that I somehow received from just a being that I no longer believe in.

I lay back down on my bed, rubbing my face with my hands by the rushing thoughts or negative emotions come to my head. Each one having one specific topic to talk about, like how school might go this year, how the field trips would be, and how some of my relationships will be - if I could manage to get one.

...

The hours of quietness in mark's house. A ticking clock that he ignores, the empty room except his, occupied by him, keeping his house aesthetic and emotionless like Mark's emotions for others at the moment. A blade sliding against his skin and the water coming out of the ink from the overflow. Pills dropping to the floor and sweat going off the forehead of someone who is hurt - mentally and emotionally.

Ring. Ring

...

I get up and slide my sleeves down my visible arm, leaving stains under the sleeves of the college hoodie. I pick up the pills off of the rug covered tiled floor, placing them back into the bottle before answering the call.

"h-hello?" I greet the caller.
"hey..."

A voice I thought I would never hear out of a cheap phone, bought from a mother that can't handle the simple basics of treating their children as adults and indifferent people from herself - but I can't talk about her parenting.. She had lost her parents at a young age.

"I found this phone number at the Charleston Park.." The caller - also assumed to be Jack states.

"um. yeah. thank you."
I breathe in the blood scented air, making it sound like I am sighing through the phone.

"is it just me or do you sound... familiar?"
"I thought so too.."
"oh, what's your name?"
"Mark."

A short moment was given to us as we realize that we must be in the same class - Jack realizing that there's a Mark in his class and he just thought it was someone else, but instead it could be this Mark. But he never thought of it at the moment when they were at school, maybe because Jack cared less for me..

A chuckle

"what are you laughing at?"
"Is this Mr. Mcloughlin?"

A laugh... combined with a grin.

"Yeah, I am Mr. Mcloughlin"
He remembers now, he assumes I am Mark. Mark Fischbach. The very person that I despise, someone that is a mess - a big one.

"Didn't know you go to Blackwell."
"Well you rushed off when I asked what school you go to."
"I had to go somewhere..."

I smile but it is soon to be disturbed and destroyed by the door slammed closed downstairs - presumably my dad again - the one person in the family that I don't want to be around, someone who hit me and left me when I was a child. Someone that wouldn't think twice if I got lost in a subway station. A drug addict.

"Jack, I have to go. I'll see you in school."

"bye Mark"

Call ended