Follow My Lead (Septiplier Fan-Fiction)

13| Painful Peace

Mark's POV:

The teams were all getting ready before the tournament started. They had been training intensely for months. Each group chose their best team to represent them in the event. The winner of each grade would advance to the regional tournament taking place at the end of the school year.

Mark's team was geared up and ready to go. They were up first of the tenth graders, facing group 10-2. As they're making sure everything was safely put away in their bags, Mark's phone buzzed with a text message.

Tom:
[I'm so sorry about grandma.]

Several other messages from him came after that one but Mark didn't read them. As soon as he saw the first one, he shut his phone's sound off and threw it into his locker.

No...

Tears started forming on his eyelids. His chest quivered, as did his lip when he took a deep breath.

She can't be gone...

He blinked away the tears before they could spill. No one could see him like this. Certainly not his teammates who needed to be focused on their match. He got a drink at the fountain and wet his face so it didn't look like he was about to cry. He tried pushing that message to the very back of his mind. At least until the tournament was done for the day. Once that was over with, he could break down and cry and scream until he felt numb. For now, all he had to do was get through the next few hours.

Easier said than done. Staff was taking forever to set up and him constantly staring at the ceiling made some of his teammates worry.

"Hey, Mark? You alright?" Bob asked him.

"Hmm? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just trying to clear my head." He said, not making eye contact.

Bob didn't buy it for a second. Sure, this was the first time they were in a big tournament but still. Last year they were one member short and could not compete.

Bob didn't want to pry though, he knew Mark would come around eventually. Amy however, wanted to get to the bottom of this.

"Come on man, something's wrong. What is it?" She grabbed his shoulder.

He shook his head, insisting. "Nothing."

"Bullshit. I know you, dude. You can't hide anything from me."

"Amy, now's not the time." He shrugged off her hand from his shoulder.

She was beginning to worry even more now. "Why not?"

"Because it isn't, okay?!" He snapped at her, anger very visible in his eyes. A small spark went off in his mouth, barely noticeable. Of course, she did notice it since she was so close.

Her eyes went wide as she took a step back. Even through all their years together, he had never yelled at her like that. She knew this was not normal.

Shit.

"I'm sorry... Just... Not now. I'll tell you once our match is done." He said, feeling awful about speaking to her like that. But he was trying his best not to break down in front of them. He walked off, into the bathroom, leaving his teammates in the locker room to speculate.

"Any idea what that was about?" Mandy asked Wade who was still lacing up his boots.

"Umm... Pre-match jitters? It's not like we've ever competed in something like this before. We always have matches in class but this would actually be worth something if we won. Maybe he's worried about losing in front of a big crowd?" Wade theorized.