(I've Known You) A Life and A Day

Moving Too Fast

  The quick patter of Mark's shoes hitting the tile floor could be heard all down the hallway along with the sound of his heavy breathing, and quite honestly he wouldn't be surprised if his own thoughts racing around his mind could be heard too. He wasn't certain as to where he was running. He just knew he needed to get out. Go somewhere. Anywhere that wasn't here. This isn't happening.

When he finally reached an exit he took it, running out to the cold autumn air and jumping into the privacy of his own car before finally letting his mind reminisce on what had just happened.

"But everyone calls me Whizzer." The mention of the name made Mark freeze up, his blood running cold and all the air seeming to leave his lungs. Michael looked at him with a perplexed countenance when he failed to utter anything in reply. "You alright? You kinda look like you're having a seizur-" Mark didn't wait for him to finish his sentence before turning and running out of the auditorium, thousands of thoughts and images of he and Whizzer in their darkest moments racing through his mind so quickly that he didn't stop to grab his things or listen to Michael when he called out for him to come back.

Mark attempted to take deep breaths to avoid the feeling of approaching a mental breakdown. After what seemed like hours of trying to collect his thoughts, he pulled out his phone and scrolled furiously through his contacts with one particular person in mind. Upon finally finding it, he hit the call button and waited patiently for the ringing to stop and somebody to pick up.

"Hello?"

Mark sighed in relief and cleared his throat to speak without giving away too much emotion. "Hey, can you meet me somewhere? Like right now?" he asked, his voice growing from it's original neutral tone to something more frantic than he'd like.

"Um...sure? The counselor's office is empty right now. I'm in there sorting papers. Is something wron-"

There was no time wasted to answer the question, mostly because Mark needed to get to the counselor's office as soon as he possibly could, but also because didn't know the answer to the question himself. Was he okay? He just potentially met his long lost lover, now held captive in a new body but with the same beautiful brown eyes. How could he possibly be okay?

Passing random students in the hallway, Mark hoped and prayed he wouldn't run in Michael. He couldn't be around him. Not now. He finally rounded a corner and made a sharp turn into the counselor's office, being greeted by the sound of papers falling to the floor and a loud groan of frustration. "Whoa, calm yourself, man. Wait. You're supposed to be the one to say that, not me," Mark joked shakily, walking up to a boy with curly black hair and helping him retrieve the papers that had fallen less than gracefully to the floor.

The boy looked up at him and opened his mouth like he was about to pop off with some witty comment to get Mark to get off his case, but immediately stopped when he got a good look at his face. "What's going on? You never usually call me during the day."

"Yeah, well, this isn't a typical day, Mendel."

His name wasn't actually Mendel. His name was Menachem, but Mark noticed how shockingly close he resembled Mendel from the first day he met him that he just knew somewhere deep down that it was him. Black, curly hair. Interested in psychology. A total dork. Kind of a hippie vibe. Yep, to Mark, that was definitely Mendel.

The real Mendel had been hit by a car in the early nineties on his way to the hospital to visit Trina, who had been slowly losing her mental health since Whizzer's death, and most likely way before that with all the awful bullshit that Marvin put her through. Needless to say, Mendel didn't survive the crash, and that pulled Trina to her breaking point, leaving Jason parentless at the age of 24.