I give you my credit

I could help you, Mark

"C'mon Mark think!! How can you get this grade..." Mark sat at his desk, tapping his pencil rapidly against the hardwood surface. Stressing mostly over his seemingly decreasing grade rather than the trig. homework sitting in front of him. "This is pointless! What am—" Mark was interrupted by a faint ringing in the background. Noticing it was his phone, he quickly retrieved it from his nightstand and answering it. "H-Hello?"  Mark stuttered, trying to calm his rising nerves. "Y-Yeah hello i-is this Marcus?"
"Im sorry, no. This is Mark, Mark Fischbach." There was a sudden silence on the other end, but it's seemed to still be a presence too. "Hello?" Mark asked, contemplating on hanging up when a reassuring cough was heard. " Y-Yeah I'm still— look hey, can I meet up with you somewhere?" Mark thought for a moment, running his hand through his hair a few times before speaking. " Uh why do you want to meet me exactly, weren't you looking for someone named Marcus?"  Noise could be heard on the other end, probably indicating that the person had moved. "No n-no actually I was  looking for someone to help my friend out with some homework, He was to stubborn to pick up the phone so I did it for him." They laughed before continuing, "he says you guys were classmates and you were the highest average in the class he so happened to be failing. He also—" the caller was cut off by what seemed to be someone talking in the background. Mark tried to distinguish the voice but it seemed like the more he tried the more distant it became, and soon there was more talking

" Okay so, yeah, he's the one who'd like to meet you. Not me of course, he just needs a little bit of help in his....umm what was it—". More mutters were coming through the phone, Mark waiting for the conversation to reach some peak at some point.
"Okay so now he's asking how you feel about it?"
"Finally..." Mark thought.
"Actually I think I might be a little too occupied at the moment for tu—"
" W-wait....we'll pay you." Mark raised a brow at that idea. He was, as he's been told, the smartest kid in the top majority of his classes. He exceeded with all A's and never missed a day of school. And being PAID to tutor someone on a subject he probably already knew, that'd basically be free money in his terms. Suddenly noticing he wasn't saying anything, he quickly returned his awaiting answer to the money offer.
"Y-yes I'll tutor him, but only on-" Mark quickly glanced at his calendar on his desk before speaking again, " Thursday and Saturday afternoons. How does that sound?" A muffled, yet still audible, " yay" was squealed in Mark's ears, making him pull the phone away slightly and smile. He didn't know who he was tutoring but if helping them passed their class made them happy then it made him happy too. " He's happy if you couldn't tell, where can we meet up?" Mark thought for a moment, "if this guy was in my class I could just take him to my place after school....but what if this guy is actually crazy.....or crazily obsessed with me or something" The other end of the line stuttered before Mark could come up with anything. "S-study hall on senior hall at 3:45"
"Well shit, man. That sounds specific enough. Study hall on senior hall at 3:45 it is"  Mark beamed. Yet just audible enough on the other end, there was a laugh. A laugh of relief maybe. Mark didn't know.
The phone called ended with the person giving Mark multiple "Thank you's". Mark sighed as he dropped his phone onto his desk. "Two days until Thursday.......what will I do then?"

The night came fast. Mark dried his wet hair as he casually strolled into his room after his long, awaited shower. He hummed a little tone and absentmindedly threw his towel in his hamper. Quite tired, he pushed his duvet back, before crawling into bed under it. He laid in bed; it was dark, but his eyes adjusted. He stared at the ceiling. He was thinking.
Thinking about the phone call. "Who was that? How do they know me?.......Why did I just—agree?"
Mark turned onto his side, looking over at his desk. Silently audible in the quiet darkness of the room, he heard his phone vibrate against the marbled wood of his desk. He quickly threw the duvet from off him and rushed to pick it up.

They were calling again......

Mark glanced at the time. 11:13.
He hit the accept button and hesitantly rose it to his ear. "D-did he answer?......" The other end erupted with loud whispers. Mark said nothing. "Hold on will ya, lemme check.....H-Hello? Mark?" The caller questioned if Mark was there. There was a silence. "Maybe he picked up on accident, he might have—"
"N-no no, I'm here. I was just.....um never mind." Mark interrupted.

Silence. Until, " Mark!.....Hi, um sorry it's late, but we decided to move the tutoring to....your house?"
Mark inhaled silently. He glanced over to his desk again and noticed the mechanical pencil he'd found after his fight with Jack. He picked it up and twirled it back and forth between his index and thumb. He exhaled. "Okay......how did you come to this conclusion?" Mark asked. He was tired. He wanted sleep. Why did he even pick up the phone. He rubbed his hands over his face and looked up. The other end murmured inaudibly. "Uh we decided to because.......he wanted to apologize."

"Excuse me?" Mark furrowed his eyebrows. What does that even mean. Mark's never really had an altercation with anyone except for Jack. And Jack didn't seem like the kinda guy to apologize to anyone. "Who's apologizing here? I haven't really been a bother to anyone." Mark questioned. He was confused as of who. Mark stretched his arms up and leaned back to loosen himself up a bit. He was always so tense, his mother began to notice that too. She always asked if he was doing okay, if he was eating right, and if he was sleeping enough. Mark would always reply, "yes". He cleared his throat. The other end was muffled and staticky. "Hello?"

It was a new voice. They sounded familiar. Too familiar. "Hello, who may I be speaking with?"

"This is Malcolm"

"Malcolm?" Mark remembers him from two-three years ago. They were lab partners in 10th grade chemistry. He would always crack jokes about mucus membrane and ectoplasm. They were good friends. "Malcolm?....Since when did you start needing tutoring? You're pretty smart." Mark was even more confused than before. Malcolm and he had the highest averages in all their previous classes. He even was accepted into the PreAP classes last fall, so why did he call about tutoring?
"Well it isn't for me, bud." Malcolm seemed tired. Like he'd been fighting about something with someone. His voice was hoarse and raspy. Mark wasn't sure if he was alright with this anymore.
"Well if it isn't you, which I'm sure it's not, then who."  Mark's eyes were heavy with tiredness. He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

"For my little brother." Mark never knew he had a brother. Mostly because he'd never been to his house or asked about his family at all. He guessed they weren't that close after all. "Little brother? Like 12-14 years old?"

"No he's 17, he needs help." Muffled screams were heard in the background of the other end. Mark ignored it. "Oh, that means he goes to school with us, right? I might know him, who is he."  Malcolm sighed deeply as the yelling, seemed like viscous swearing, in the background continued. Mark wondered who it could be. They seemed to be angry.

"Jack." 

Oh no........