Blameless ✔

Chapter 7: ❝I'm guessing he has a stomach ache❞

Chapter 7: ❝I'm guessing he has a stomach ache❞

♡Mark's POV♡

Anthony pulled up in front of the gateway to my school and watched with attentive eyes as I reached for the back seat to grab my schoolbag.

"Mark," he called, making me halt my action of opening the car door. "Can we talk about-"

"There's nothing to talk about," I interrupted, staring at his face in the reflection of the window beside me. He sighed and ran a hand down his face, drowsily massaging his temples before turning to look at the back of my head.

"Fine, we'll discuss it at dinner tonight then."

"I don't-"

"It wasn't a question, Mark."

I stayed silent.

"Do you want me to write you a fake note explaining why you're late?"

I was fifteen minutes late for my first class of the day. If I had had it my way, I wouldn't have come into school altogether but Anthony being the 'persuasive' older brother he is, forced me out of bed so I could get ready and the malevolent words we threw back and forth at each other served as another excuse for why my arrival to school was so overdue.

"I'm good," I told him, opening the car door and stepping out before slamming it behind me.

Before walking into the school building, I turned around finding it weird that I didn't hear the sound of his revving engine but what I saw quickly made me regret my decision.

Still sitting in the driver's seat of his silver car, Anthony had his phone pressed up against his right ear.

And he was smiling.

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

I was sitting at my regular table, waiting patiently for my friends to arrive and fill the empty spaces. What Ms Smith told me in class this morning had been lingering in my head ever since and I couldn't focus in any other classes due to the seclusion in my mind only allowing me to repeat her despairing words.

"Your grades are slipping Mark," she began, scanning the length of her black-leathered journal, which held all of my English test scores. "I thought they would get better as the year progressed but no improvement has been made." She paused for a second to glance at my heedful state."I think I'm going to have to assign you to a tutor."

The painful feeling of a hand slapping my back brought me out of my thoughts.

"I've been calling your name, man," Luke said, slipping into the seat next to me. "What are you thinking about so deeply that you can't answer?"

I opened my mouth to respond but the words I had previously wanted to use got stuck in my throat and were replaced with words of spite. "Well, I should know as well as anyone what it feels like to call and not receive an answer."

The playful smile on his face dropped, confusion washing over his chiselled features. "What do you-"

"Hey, guys."

We both turned in the direction of the voice and saw Cameron and Dillon towering over us; one smiling his usual bright smile and the other sporting his fixed moody facial expression. With their polar opposite personalities, it wasn't hard to know who had greeted us so impulsively on this dreary Monday afternoon.

"Hey," Luke responded, showing off a smile of his own as he watched them take the two seats in front of us.

"Where's Adam?" I asked, glancing behind them in the hopes of spotting a 5'8 male with shaggy brown hair, covering the beginning of his ocean blue eyes.

"He said he's not feeling well and even sent me a picture of his bloated stomach," Dillon answered, grimacing at the memory. "I'm guessing he has a stomach ache."

"That's his own fault." Cameron scoffed. "Who told him to eat Hershey's Kisses until 1 am in the morning?"

We all gave him a weird look, hinting for an elaboration.

He shrugged. "Facetime."

We nodded, my curiosity assuaged as I finally understood why those dark circles were nesting so protuberantly by the ceasing of his hazel eyes.

As the three of them ate their lunch, the sudden silence reminded me of why I was so frustrated at my supposed best friend, making me turn and glare in his direction. "Why didn't you return any of my calls?"

Luke, who was sampling his plate of grapes, stopped for a moment to look at me with furrowed eyebrows. "You called?"

I laughed, disbelieving of his dubiety. "Yes, Luke, I called."

Frowning, he reached into his pocket and I expected him to take out his phone to reveal my truckload of missed calls and texts but instead, he took out his hand again to reveal nothing.

"Oh, that's right!" He exclaimed, facepalming. "My dad took my phone off me as punishment for talking back to him last week."

I gaped at him.

Cameron burst into a fit of laughter. "Wow, if that was the case in my home, all my belonging's would've been taken away from me."

Luke threw him a pointed look. "Oh, haha," he muttered, sarcasm practically dripping from his tone before he looked at me, apologetic and willing to beg for forgiveness. "Sorry, a lot of shit went down last week that I wasn't prepared for so even if I did have my phone on me, it still would've taken me a while to get back to you."

I raised my eyebrows, suddenly intrigued. "What happened?"

Grinning, he turned his attention back to his plate of grapes prior to whispering, "secret."

Rolling my eyes, I nudged his arm to show that I was unhappy at the fact he was keeping secrets from me.

"Why did you call me?" He asked, catching me off guard.

My eyes widened for a split second before they quickly returned to their original shape. "Oh, it was nothing," I responded, feigning uncaringness. "I just wanted to see how you were doing, that's all."

He gave me an eloquent look and allowed a tiny smirk to embellish the corner of his lips. "Sure, Mark sure," he spoke, popping a grape into his mouth as he leaned into my ear, ignoring Cameron's offended yell of, "rude!" before whispering, "when you're ready to talk about whatever's bothering you, you know where to find me."

I pushed him away with a grunt. "Actually, I don't since I still don't know where the hell you live!"

Just as he was about to respond with one of his deflective remarks, the sound of an unnerving slap silenced him as well as everyone else in the cafeteria.

Turning around, I saw myself standing there in the essence of all their stares - in the temporary yet undying pillory of laughter.

-

Ugh, I need to make these longer.

How did you find chapter 7?