Regrets

Chapter 3 - Stairway To Heaven

Song: Stairway To Heaven - LED Zeppelin

"Hey, Lou! Throw me the spreader!", Marcus shouted to his co-worker, Louis Cabera who was a floor below him on the high scaffolding. Meanwhile, Marcus himself was standing on a bucket on the third floor of the framework, being dangerously close to the edge as he was cleaning up a crack in the wall as preparation for filling it.

"Here it comes!", Louis yelled back before he threw the spreader over the railing upwards, with it landing directly in Marcus' hand.

The two of them had been a well attuned team for a little over half a decade and trusted each other blindly by now, even when the two of them couldn't possibly be any more different from each other.

Louis was a typical womanizer, all gentleman like with a dazzling smile, while Marcus bet on his bad boy vibes and drugs to coax in the ladies.

Still, they trusted each other with their life, and so, work was more of a game to the both of them.

As Marcus was busy filling in the crack, his mind drifted from the routine work and moved on to more interesting matters, namely the reason why he kept thinking of that boy on the tram. It wasn't the first time he had been shoved, and certainly not the first time he would give a kid a good punch to the gut as a reminder. But somehow, he felt responsible. With James gone, his moral compass had left him and suddenly Marcus found himself contemplating every action he took, especially those that James would usually have punched him for. It was as if James was breathing down his neck even more now than ever before and the thought alone made him uncomfortable.

And with that came a way more concerning thought to mind: would he have punched the brat if James had still been alive?

Either way, he was unable to shake the thought of the small boy. Of course, it was unusual to see anyone but drunkards and people that had to go to work early on the tram at such an hour, and certainly, those kids that pushed him belonged to the first category. But the boy was without doubt part of neither of those groups.
But maybe it was just a coincidence, a play on fate's part to tell Marcus that James had more if an effect on him than he could ever imagine? Or not.

In any case, it was none of Marcus' business, and so, he decided to not waste another thought on the topic.

And although Marcus had convinced himself that he didn't act like James would have in the slightest, the thought of the boy remained, even though he couldn't even remember his name.

"Hey Marc! Are you gonna day dream or finish that crack up?"

The sudden appearance of Louis surprised Marcus so much so that he almost fell off the bucket he was using to make himself taller.

"Fuck, do you have to scare me like that, jackass?", Marcus simply growled in response as he continued the work he had - unbeknownst to himself - stopped previously.

"I only came to tell you that we can take our break now, but you can continue staring angrily at that crack if you'd like, fuckwit", Louis replied tauntingly as he patted Marcus' shoulder playfully.

"No, I'm coming, no need to get butt hurt about it, you baby"

"I'm just hungry!", Marcus' workmate laughed, but the sound of it was shallow and in reality both of them knew they didn't want to continue the conversation which kept them from their break.

"Then what are we waiting for?", Marcus grinned at his friend as he stepped down from the bucket, still standing a good seven inches taller than Louis. The both of them were clad in white shirts and white overalls, both pretty dirty from previous work, and yet they couldn't have looked any more different in their outfits. While Marcus' suspenders were hanging off his hips as if they were a nuisance to him and his pockets were stuffed with tools, Louis wore the overall like one was supposed to and his tools were all stored in a bucket, keeping his pockets free of hindering clanking metal.

"So, what about James? How was the funeral? You never really talked much about him", Louis interrupted the silence that had formed while they had been eating for the last few minutes.

"What's there to tell? We were just friends. I went to the funeral. Funeral stuff happened"

"Funeral stuff? Dude, you're cold!", Louis stated while munching on a bite of his sandwich.

"Well, what did you expect me to say? James got revived by Jesus and walked right out of his coffin and up the stairway to heaven?", Marcus countered before taking a sip of the coke he had bought after getting out of the tram.

"Of course not, idiot. I was expecting you to tell me how much you miss him! You two lived together, right? He must have meant at least something to you!", Louis sighed. He knew there was no reasoning with Marcus and yet he never stopped trying in useless efforts.

"Yeah, we lived together. I got really used to him. Today, I forgot to set up coffee cause it used to be James' job. Now I'm not caffeinated. Can you believe this mess?", Marcus explained, the disbelief in his voice being evidence that he actually was serious about this.

"That's all you can think about?! You really are a hopeless case, Marc"