The Broken People [Book 2]

Chapter Five: Opening Up

"It's Mark..." Matias told Dean, leaning over to look at his ringing phone.

"Don't answer," Dean snapped at him, not turning to look.

"Dean..."

There came no reply from him and eventually, the phone went silent. Matias felt bad for not answering Mark's calls –this must have been the third time he had called Dean that morning. But they couldn't. They couldn't talk to him at that moment.

Matias' phone went off a few moments later. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID. Mark.

"I can't do this to him," he whined at Dean and answered the call before Dean could protest. "Hey!"

"Hey, where are you at?" Mark replied.

"Oh, you know... home," Matias said slowly, hoping the sound of someone vomiting wouldn't worry Mark.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Matias dragged, looking over at Dean. "Why wouldn't everything be okay?"

"Is Dean by any chance there? Or is he at the store?"

Matias' eyes bugged and he looked over at Dean while running his long red fingernails through his curls. "Dean is..."

At that, Dean looked over at his fiancé and started signaling at him to say that he wasn't there. The loud vomiting and groan that echoed from behind Dean made both snap their eyes closed.

"Matias? Is everything okay?"

"Yes, Dean's just a little bit sick. He's stuck to the toilet so I don't know if he can come to talk to you..."

"Oh, I hope he gets well soon," Mark replied.

"Dean, I think I'm okay now," a hoarse voice echoed and Matias quickly stepped back, hoping Mark didn't hear.

"Was that Thomas?" Mark asked.

"I have to go," Matias quickly replied and hung up.

"Why did you pick up?" Dean asked him and shaking his head he looked over at Thomas. "Fuck".

***

"Hey, Matias told me you wanted something?" Dean said as he let himself in Mark's apartment. Mark was sitting on the sofa, a bottle of red wine in his hand, half-empty. Dean sighed and cursed under his breath. "Not you too..." he whined.

"He broke up with her..." Reese called as he came out of the kitchen, holding a glass of water.

"What?" Dean asked, looking over at him.

"We were out for drinks last night. Talked about your friend. Called me this morning and he told me he broke up with Sarah," Reese explained and stood behind Mark.

"You broke up with Sarah..." Dean muttered, unable to take in everything Reese just told him. "Why?"

"Take a wild guess," Reese growled.

A sick laugh escaped Mark and he raised the bottle to his lips. A single tear ran down his face and he finished the wine with a few gulps. He set the empty bottle on the table and didn't care when it fell on its side and rolled down to the carpet.

"I think I'm going to need alcohol for this," Dean said and went to the kitchen to grab a beer from the fridge. "Mark, what is going on with you?" Dean started as he sat down next to Mark. Damn, Mark was drunk already. And it was barely noon. "I mean, it's clear that you still have feelings for Thomas, but are you going to do anything about it? Do you want to start dating him again?"