Regrets

Chapter 7 - Make A Memory

Song: (You Want To) Make A Memory - Bon Jovi

Marcus couldn't shake the thought of the dream he woke up from that morning. He couldn't usually remember dreams at all, yet this one, it was stuck in his head like cocaine was stuck in the nose of a drug addict.
Just as he entered the tram, another memory pushed its way to his inner eye.

Two boys were walking next to each other on the dirty road.
One of them had nice, tidy clothes, a pale face, dirty blond hair accompanied by dark eyebrows and brown eyes that were rivalling the dirt on the ground with their dullness. Despite that, he seemed pretty happy with the current situation.
The other was clad in what could only be defined as a dirty mix match of clothes, some of them too big, some too short, none of them really seeming to fit him at all. He was wearing old cargo pants that revealed half of his calves because they weren't his size, accompanied by a blue hoody in which he seemingly drowned. His feet were bare and he wore a black, thick beanie that had certainly seen better days. His face was pretty much the opposite of the other boy's. His skin was dark, his eyebrows seemed almost non-existent and his short trimmed hair was pitch black and frizzy, unlike the soft looking hair of the blond. The only thing they shared was their dark brown eyes that seemed as deep as the ocean and as flat as a puddle at the same time. Unlike the other boy, he seemed pretty grumpy.

Neither of their looks were unusual in this part of town. People like them shared these streets.
Rich people's boys wearing rich people's clothes and had a sad look on their face as if their life was the worst ever.
Poor people's boys wearing rags and stolen clothes, running around like they had something to live for, something to celebrate, as if their life was the best ever.
However, the two people like that together on these streets, the sad boy having stolen the happy boy's expression and the other way around, now that was a view.
It was like the two of them were an attraction at a circus, never to be seen before now, worth staring at. Something, people would probably pay to see, judging by the way they kept gawking at the teenagers.

Or maybe, it was because both of them looked like they had been in a fatal car crash mere minutes ago.

"Holy shit, you look like you ran over a kitten and that kitten then got up, threw you out of your car, bloodied your seat and then ran you over as revenge", was the only greeting he got from Louis when he arrived at work with his head hanging low as if it was too much effort to hold it up.

"Thanks for the visual, Lou", Marcus groaned, his stuffed nose dulling the sound of his voice as he spoke.

"No problem, Marcerooni", Louis laughed back. He seemed so carefree at all times.

"I hate you", Marcus coughed. There was no way he could possibly survive the upcoming wigging from his boss. That woman had the shortest temper he knew, and if that wasn't already troublesome on its own, she had really taken a disliking to Marcus since the last year because he had broken one of her shabby trucks. That really wasn't his most glorious moment.

"I know, Marcoolio. Ready to go inside and meet our dearest boss?", Louis grinned back at the thoroughly annoyed mason, who was clad in once-before-white-but-not-really-anymore clothes.

"Why is now the time you come up with stupid nicknames?", Marcus sighed in anger. He really wasn't up for Louis's stupid behaviour in the state he currently was in.

"Hey, you honestly look like you're about to keel over, Marcus", Louis's expression changed into one of overdramatized worry as he realized his co-worker was looking worse and worse with each minute that passed.

"And you look high, but at least I'm decent enough not to point it out"

"That's paron-... para-... uhmm", Louis was having a hard time figuring out his words. Maybe because he didn't know what he wanted to say, or maybe because he really was drugged. Either way Marcus couldn't care less if Louis showed up high or drunk, as long as he stayed reliable.

"Paradoxical", he simply sighed in reply to Lou's struggle to find the correct word.

"Yeah that!"

"What's with you today?", Marcus growled at his friend. Although he could usually handle Louis's "weird phases", today, it was out of question. Maybe that was due to his sickness, or maybe it was due to the reoccurring memories that made him feel way more sentimental than he ever had before. In any case, Lou's behaviour made him feel like someone tipped over a domino on a build he had worked on for days and he now had to watch his half finished work crumble before him. Not that he had ever built something like that, but he was sure this was how it felt like to get such work destroyed in mere seconds.

"Mhmmm nothing, just messing with you", Louis grinned back as he poked his tongue out, trying his hardest to provoke Marcus, as it seemed.

"Fucking dimwit"