The Broken People [Book 2]

Chapter Six: Hot Shoe

Mark was so happy for his friends. It was so hard to find someone who complimented you as much as Dean and Matias complemented each other. There was something to watching them be together that just made you believe in soulmates.

They had met each other at Mark's birthday party almost three years ago, even though Mark had been wanting to get them to meet each other for far longer. He, himself, had met Matias while he was doing an internship at his parents' publishing house, five years ago. That was back when Matias was publishing his first-ever book. Now he was at his third of the series and already engaged at the age of twenty-nine.

He was so happy for them. For the fact that they had found each other. For the fact that they wanted to spend all their lives together. He was repeating that same mantra over and over for hours at this point. He had to remind himself that he was doing this for them. It's their engagement party.

He parked his car and walked up to the venue they had rented out for the party. It was a large open field with a few tables on one side, a small dance floor in the middle and a lit barbeque. With his camera around his neck, he walked up to Dean and Matias, who were standing by the barbeque.

"Mark!" Matias yelled out and nudged a younger man that stood by him. "This is meu maninho, Fernando," he said and put his arm over Fernando's shoulders.

Fernando looked a lot like his older brother, with the same curls and soft brown eyes. But he had sharper edges around his face and most of his exposed skin was covered in intricate tattoos.

"So, you're the famous Mark..." Fernando started with half-lidded eyes. A smile split his face and he shook his head. "You're taller than I imagined".

"I get that a lot," Mark replied with a chuckle and took the beer Dean offered him. His eyes moved around the field and stopped by an almost empty table.

The only one sitting was Thomas. There was a half-buzzed smile ghosting over his lips and his eyes were solemnly focused on Mark. A shiver traveled down Mark's spine and he drank a big gulp of his beer. He had seen Thomas a few hours ago at practice, but there hadn't been any interaction between them. Last time they spoke had actually been that day at his apartment six days ago.

"Should I keep them coming?" Dean asked, following Mark's line of sight. Mark turned to him with a sigh.

"I have to speak to him..." he muttered and smiled when Dean patted him on the back.

Without another word he made a beeline for him. He felt bad for doing this at Dean and Matias' party, but he had to do it. He needed to talk to Thomas. And this would probably be the only chance he got.

Thomas was tapping his legs impatiently. He couldn't take his eyes off of Mark as he walked up to him, even though it burned him to look. Forcing himself to watch those wonderfully gray eyes was burning him alive. He was blinking rapidly as to not tear up, since he knew what Mark was going to say to him. Mark was about to break his heart just like he had done to Mark all those years ago.

"Mark!" A loud screech made Mark stop short, just a few feet away from Thomas. As Mark looked around for its source, Thomas let out a heavy breath and rubbed his eyes. He had to control himself.

Rachel jumped into Mark's arms, having drawn his attention by calling out his name. Her hair had changed since the last time Mark had seen her. Now it was a much lighter brown hew with a few blonde streaks. It actually suited her more.

"It's been far too long!" she said, not letting go of him. From behind them, Bryan cleared his throat and at once Mark pushed the girl off of himself. Mark looked a bit apologetically at Bryan, who wore a protective glare. "There's no need for you to be jealous, babe," she told him and went to grab ahold of his hand. "He's in a relationship now".

"So, you being in a relationship doesn't stop you?" Bryan asked with a fake-angry tone. Rachel innocently batted her eyes at him and with a sweet smile she reached up and kissed him on the tip of his nose.

"Of course, it does," she said. "Where is she?" she went on, ungluing herself from her boyfriend and enthusiastically tapping Mark on the chest.

"Yeah, man, we've been hearing so much about this girl from Dean..." Bryan added, sharing his girlfriend's enthusiasm for Mark's love life.

Awkwardly, Mark lowered his gaze and scratched the back of his neck. Sniffling his nose, he looked up to look at them, but his eyes moved away and back to Thomas, who was still shamelessly staring at him.

"We kind of broke up," he said and watched as Thomas' gaze got more pointed.

"What?! No!" Rachel yelled out and Bryan joined her with a distressed "Why?"

Mark glanced at them, surprised that neither had noticed that he wasn't actually paying any attention at them, and then his whole body turned to Thomas.

"We both wanted different things," he said, not breaking the eye contact, basically telling it to Thomas.

At last, Bryan noticed what Mark was actually focusing on and he let out a knowing "oh" as Rachel started whining about not having met that charming girl who made the eligible bachelor settle down after all those years. Hearing his friend, Thomas couldn't help but smile to himself. This had been Mark's first relationship since...

He sat up and walked away, daring Mark to follow him with a few over-the-shoulder glances. Mark wasn't going to follow him. Instead, he stayed with Rachel and Bryan and talked with them for a bit. Seeing as they had moved away together, talking to them and keeping up with their lives had become harder by each day that passed.

"So, we're going to be staying here for a while. Maybe a year. We'll see!" Rachel said. "How about you? What's new?"

Mark snapped at her, having zoned out about ten minutes ago, blinking fast and trying to come up with a quick answer to her question. His attention had been focusing and fading away all throughout her storytelling. He couldn't help but notice that Thomas hadn't returned yet. It's been about half an hour by now. Where is he?

"Sorry. I need to go to the bathroom real quick. Can you look over my camera for a bit?" he said, curiosity getting the best of him.

He spent around five long minutes looking around for him –the venue wasn't that big to begin with but it did have an indoor area- and eventually gave up right after he had searched the bathrooms. Maybe he left. He was about to walk up to Dean and ask him about Thomas when he stopped as he felt someone behind him. Slowly he turned around and he looked Thomas in the eyes.

"Looking for me?" Thomas asked with a triumphant tone. Something overtook Mark and he scowled at him.

"Why would I be looking for you?" Mark said hastily, not convincing Thomas in the slightest. Thomas' face was split by a shit-eating grin and he licked his lips.

"Because you broke up with your girlfriend..." Thomas said in a low tone.

From afar, Matias nudged Dean and nodded at Mark and Thomas. He didn't have to say a word, at once, Dean was speed-walking toward them, ready for anything and everything. This was a party. Not a fight-to-be.

"I didn't break up with her because of you," Mark lied and inched closer to Thomas.

Thomas' eyes traveled down to Mark's lips and stayed there. As images filled his mind, he dared to look back up at those gray eyes, but he couldn't hold Mark's gaze as tears welled up in his eyes again.

Two beer bottles were put between them and surprised by it, both turned to Dean who looked at them with a crazed expression. He wore a forced smile and seemed out of breath.

"How are you two doing?" he asked them sweetly and chuckled heavily. "Please don't cause a scene," he quickly added, not losing his smile for second.

"Not today," Mark said, took the beer Dean handed him and walked away from Thomas.