11:11 // Crankiplier

27.

Ethan's POV

Sunday

Mark and Delilah both woke up before me and suggested we get pancakes. I, of course, agreed.

While we were getting ready to go, Delilah pulled me aside.

"Mark knows. About me. Well, part of it anyways." She told me. I only nodded and gave her a sad smile.

"I'm glad you trust him."

Our breakfast was pretty uneventful, but Mark had to go home afterwards.

Leaving Delilah and I alone to talk.

"Ethan, I'm going to tell you something that I'm not supposed to tell you and you can't tell anyone you know or that I told you." She said firmly.

"Kristen abuses Mark."

I almost spit out my drink when the phrase left her lips.

Why? Why would anyone want to harm him?

"Apparently she's just another homophobic shit head." Delilah grumbled.

"How do you know?" I asked quietly. She paused.

"I woke up in the middle of the night last night and noticed bruises on Mark's stomach were his shirt had ridden up." She replied, ending her thought there. But I knew what she was saying.

"Is that when you told him about your dad?" She flinched when I asked her this.

"I-i didn't tell him about my dad...I just said that something happened when I was younger and that it fucked me up." She whispered. I nodded, pulling her into a hug.

"Thank you for telling me about Mark. And I promise I won't tell anyone about him."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday

Tyler came back from Colorado in a good mood, and Mark seemed to be in a good mood as well.

Tyler showed us pictures of the mountains and museums he went to with his dad and talked about all the cool stuff they did while we ate lunch. I held Mark's hand under the table again.

I thought about what Delilah had said. I glanced at his shirt and imagined the colors hidden beneath it.

"Ethan? You okay?" Mark asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah." I nodded, looking up to meet his eyes. "I'm fine."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mark's POV

Tuesday

"Hey Mark." A voice said beside me. I was at my locker, getting what I needed for first period. I looked up, half expecting to see Ethan.

It wasn't him.

"Sean?" I gasped. I didn't think he'd want to talk to me after we broke up, but here he stood.

"Mark, I'm sorry if I hurt you when we broke up...but I was wondering if you wanted to meet up after school to talk?" His blue eyes shined innocently at me and I couldn't resist.

"Sure."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So what did you want to talk about?" I asked after we had sat down.

We were back at our old favorite spot, a vintage diner with red vinyl booths and a jukebox in the corner. We had each ordered a milkshake.

When we were still together we would've shared one milkshake...

"I wanted to apologize." Sean said suddenly. "I was wrong to brake up with you just because I started to like someone else." He chuckled dryly and shook his head, playing with his straw. "It wasn't right...and I'm sorry."

I stared at my plain chocolate milkshake.

"I accept your apology." I looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back.

It's a ploy. He's not really sorry.

Dark.

"Well, I hope now that maybe we can be friends again?" Sean asked. I nodded.

"We can."

Who lies more, you, or your so called "friends?"

Shut up Dark.

When I got home, Dark started hanging around and bothering me constantly. Unfortunately, because he's a part of me, he knows all my pressure points and knew exactly where to push down.

"Ethan doesn't really care for you, how many times do I have to say it?" He shook his head. I clenched my fist.

"Stop."

"Why? I'm only telling you the truth. Him holding your hand at lunch is only because he feels bad for you." He paused. "He'd probably be happier if you just went away." He grinned evilly.

I slammed my fist down on my desk, causing even Dark to jump slightly.

"NO!"