CHAPTER FOUR
Here in Wells, they hold an annual carnival at the end of summer that lasts for two weeks. People at school talked about it a lot. It must have been a big deal. There's supposed to be rides, games and raffles. Typical carnival activities. Jen planned to meet her boyfriend there, which meant that she wouldn't be babysitting Emma, her cousin.
It was the day before the carnival. Jen and I were spending time together. We went to the movies and afterward she bought herself and I some ice cream at a small shack called "Big Daddy's". I could sense that she was going to ask me something. She was acting extra sweet to me, much like anyone would do when trying to get someone to do what they want.
I was right. She and I sat down at a picnic table and enjoyed our creamy desserts. She stuck her plastic spoon in the ice cream and looked up at me. "Could you do me a favor?" She asked, innocently twirling her curly brown hair.
"Oh boy, here it comes." I sighed, teasing her.
"Would you, my wonderful bestie, mind babysitting Emma for a few hours tomorrow?" She smiled, and I tilted my head, smirking. "Please!" She stuck out her lower lip and batted her eyelashes.
I laughed at her. "Do you really think that's going to work on me?" I asked, taking another bite of my ice cream. She continued to stare at me, not moving her face at all, but I just stared right back until I finally gave in. "Ah, what the heck. Fine! I'll do it. But you owe me!" I said.
"Owe you? I bought you ice cream!" Jen exclaimed, pointing at my cup. "Thanks, though. Nicole will be so happy." Nicole was Jen's aunt, who I'd only met one or two times. We laughed at each other for a while, finishing the last few spoonfuls in the styrofoam bowls.
"So tell me. How is Alex?" I asked as we walked home from the ice cream shack.
"Well, actually... I think it might be over between us." She said, shrugging which caused her many bracelets to jingle.
I stopped walking. "What? Why?" I was extremely surprised.
"I don't really want to talk about him right now." She sighed. "Come on. I have to be home before it gets dark."
"Alright fine, but at least tell me why you're going on a date with him tomorrow if you're not going to be seeing him anymore." I said, obviously confused.
"It's not a date. I just need to tell him how I feel." Her tone of voice let me know she was stressed about the topic, so I changed it.
"Okay, so um. Tell me what I'll be in for when I babysit." I said.
That made her smile. "Oh, not much. Emma's an angel! You'll love her."
"I'm not exactly good with kids." I said, shrugging.
"Oh, please. You'll do fine. It's only for a couple hours."
"How am I supposed to take care of a kid by myself?"
"Easily..." Jen's face lit up. "But if you need help I can get someone to go with you." She insisted.
"That would be nice." I rolled up the sleeves of my sweatshirt. "But who else would do it?" I asked.
"I know somebody." She declared.
"Who?" I wondered.
"Um, just somebody. You'll work good together." She gave me a smug smile.
"No really, who is it?" I was getting impatient.
"Trust me on this, you'll be thanking me later." With that, Jen turned to walk up the driveway to her house. I waved goodbye, still wondering what she was up to.
My mother was almost done cooking by the time I'd gotten home and my father was setting the table.
After some time, I had eaten everything on my plate except for a burnt pile of... Something.
"Mom... What is this?" I asked her, not able to remove my fork from the center of what I thought was some kind of meat.
"I think it's meatloaf." My father guessed, examining the object with a puzzled look.
My mother playfully hit his shoulder. "It took me a long time to make that!" She said, glaring at the two of us.
"Perhaps a little too long." My father joked, making us all laugh.
As I reached for my glass of milk, the front door flung open and my brother stormed in. He went straight for the stairs, pulling his cap down over the right side of his face.
"Mark." My father called. "A hello would be nice."
"Never mind hello, where have you been? I made all this food and you didn't even get to eat it." My mother jumped in.
"Lucky for you." My father joked once more and mom nudged his arm again which gave Mark enough time to sneak upstairs. Something was definitely wrong.
"Do I have to eat this? I've got... Some homework to do." I asked, trying to find a way to leave without being rude.
My mother sighed. "No, you don't have to."
I rinsed my plate in the sink after throwing away the object that slightly resembled meatloaf, and went upstairs to see Mark.
I got to his bedroom and noticed that the door was shut. I stood there for a moment, contemplating whether or not I should knock. I decided to just open the door. When I walked in, I saw Mark looking at himself in the mirror. He turned to me, and I stared at the black and blue covering his eye. He quickly grabbed his cap and put it back on.
"Don't bother trying to hide it, I just saw it. Are you okay?" I asked. "What happened?"
"It's no big deal." He said.
"It is a big deal, Mark. Take the hat off." I ordered, shutting the door behind me, so my parents wouldn't hear us. Hesitantly, he did and I examined the bruise. I grimaced when I saw how bad it really was.
"If you think this is bad, you should see Zach's face." Mark said, trying to ease the tension.
I paused. "Who's Zach?"
"The guy who gave me this shiner... We were just fooling around, kiddo. Don't worry about it." He tried to avoid the subject.
"But you got a..." I stopped. The air had a strange smell that I recognized. Beer. "Mark... Have you been drinking?" I asked.
He closed his mouth, obviously aware of the scent and turned away. "No." He said.
"Don't lie to me, I can smell it."
"Alright fine. I just went to my friend Andy's house and his older brother caught us drinking his beer." He began. My jaw dropped. "He started to push Andy around so I tried to stop him and he got pissed off and he punched me."
"Where were Andy's parents during all of this?" I asked.
"They went away for the weekend." He replied quickly.
"So then how did Zach get hurt?"
"I punched him a few times but..."
I stopped him. "Maybe you should have just walked away."
"He deserved it."
"You shouldn't have touched his beer in the first place." I was almost yelling but I tried to keep my voice down.
"I know. It was stupid." He admitted. I began to twist the door knob as Mark walked closer to me. "You're not going to tell mom and dad, are you?"
I hesitated to answer, my hand still clutching the doorknob. "If you promise to never do anything like this again, I won't tell them." I said.
"Okay. Okay, I promise." He wouldn't look at me, but something in his voice made me believe him. I silently left the room with a twisted feeling in my stomach and I knew that Mark was different now. The next step was to find out why.
