After 7 years

Chapter 2

The light shined through the orange curtains. The smell of sausage and eggs reached the living room and it awoke Marcus. He was sleeping on the couch, a thin blanket was laid on top of him. He looked around trying to adjust his sleepy eyes to the bright room. He stared at  a reclining chair and he noticed a dark figure sitting in it. After his vision cleared up, he noticed it was Ray. He was still sleeping, arms and legs crossed. All the events of the previous night came back to him. His face flushed with a deep colored red, it felt like it was on fire. He still couldn't  believe that he had confessed to his best friend just a few hours ago, and that said friend still felt comfortable enough to sleep over.
Marcus fanned his face to cool it down before he got up. He made sure to leave the living room without making any noise so his sleeping friend wouldn't wake up. He crept into the kitchen where he found his mother cooking breakfast. She had her back facing him.

"Good morning ma" Marcus said

She didn't bother to turn around." Don't good morning me, why didn't you tell me Ray was gonna sleep over? I came downstairs in just a robe before I noticed he was here, I had to walk straight back upstairs and get changed."

"I'm sorry ma, I didn't really know either, it just happened."

"Yeah yeah" She turned off the stove and grabbed the glass plates placed directly next to her. She served him and turned around to give the plate to him, but she hesitated when she saw his face.

"Oh my god, what happened to you" she put the plate back down on the counter and ran over to her son.Her warm hands touched his face. She traced her thumb under his eye, gently.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Marcus said worried.

"Haven't you seen yourself this morning? Your eyes are red and swollen"

Marcus remembered, that just yesterday he was bawling his eyes out. He had completely forgotten about it. When he first went outside to see Ray in the middle of the night, Ray didn't comment on his appearance because it was too dark out.

"Oooh that's why my eyes felt irritated." He pulled his face away from his mom grip, He was attempting to play it cool.

"It's probably just my allergies acting up. Once I wash my face it'll disappear, so don't worry, ok?"

He walked away from her and headed into the guest bathroom. He locked the door, so that no one would interrupt him. He looked into the mirror and his first thoughts were eww.. His bags were a dark red, it gave him the appearance of a sick person. He turned on the bathroom sink and splashed cold water on his face. He massaged the bags under his eyes to try and get rid of the redness. When he looked back up, they were no longer red but a light pink. It was still noticeable but it was better than before. Before he left the bathroom he took a deep sigh.

"Just act natural..." He said opening the door.

"See ma, it went away, i told you it would"

His mother now relieved answered. "Thank God, I thought  would have to take you to the hospital or something"

"It wasn't that bad, was it?"

"Oh it was" she chuckled before she went back to serving her son.

"Do me a favor and go wake up Ray, Breakfast is ready and he should eat before it gets cold."

Marcus clutched his hand, he could feel it getting sweaty, the heat he felt before started to come back.

"Yeah....ok...I'll go do that right now."

Ray was still sleeping in the living room only a few steps away, but for Marcus getting there felt like an eternity. Every step he took felt like he was dragging lead and when he finally got there he was faced with another dilemma. How was he gonna wake Ray up. The obvious answer was to just shake him awake but this was Marcus, after the events of the previous night he was paranoid about everything that had to do with Ray.