Not Important

Arguments and Toilets

I stare out of the car window for the whole ride home with Mark. It takes me a while to realise that the car has stopped and I'm home. Well, I'm at my house. The place where me and dad used to live together in.

"Dev, are you okay?", Mark asks me in a quiet voice.
"Absolutely perfect. Why do you ask?", I ask him, not bothering to change the tone of my voice.
"Because you haven't talked to me the whole ride home", Mark answers, and I just let out an 'oh' sound.
"Maybe I should come in for a bit?", Mark suggests and I just shrug my shoulders, not bothered if a tornado came and blew me away to Antarctica and I got eaten by a polar bear or an arctic fox or something.

Mark gets out of the car and opens my door for me. I get out and we walk inside my house.
I'll never hear the uneven steps my dad will take to try to get to his room after he's been out for some pints. I'll never hear that Umph as he falls to the floor, having not made it to his room. I'll never have to carry him or drag him onto the couch and cover him with his quilt from his bed. I'll never be able to hide our stash of cash from him and watch him try to find it. Because he won't be here to do all of that. He won't be here to annoy the hell out of me. He won't be here at all. It's just me from now on.

Mark pulls me down onto the settee.
"So what's up, Dev? You're scaring me. You've been like this since we got to James' house. Is it that girl from your class that's put you down like this?", he questions.
"I wish", I mumble.
"Please Dev. Maybe I can help?".
I love how he's being all concerned and everything, but he can't do anything. He can't make my dad come back.

Mark's face is right in front of mine as we sit on the settee. I push him closer to me and kiss him with all of my might. He slowly kisses back after he gets over the shock.

We make out for a while and it's really nice.
.................

I wake up to an empty house with dad's quilt wrapped around me. I'm in his room. I can still smell him on the pillow and I notice that sounds quite strange, but I've just lost my dad so give me a break. No one stays around long, so it's probably only a while before my friends walk out on me.

I get up, and find that the room is different. The walls don't look dirty anymore. They look clean and white. But, maybe I'm just being stupid and the effects of sleep are still wearing on me.
I wake up to see that I slept through my alarm. I hurry up and get dressed. I get ready for school. I take an apple from the almost empty fruit bowl and take a small look at the bills. I still owe quite a lot, and it's due tomorrow. I'm going to have to talk to Kerry. That's the only way to keep up this charade of me living with my dad still. I can fake his signature, and have done plenty of times before now.

I hear a knock on the door and open it to see Mark standing there.
"Morning, babe", Mark says, smiling before giving me a quick kiss.
"Morning", I say, as I grab my bag and we head towards Mark's car. He opens the door for me again. How sweet.

He starts the car and we are off.
"Have you done the English homework for Mr Dobson?", I ask him.
"Oh crap! No, I haven't. He's gonna kill me", Mark moans.
"Where's your English book?", I ask him, wanting to do something nice for him.
"In the back in my bag", he replies, and I reach behind me and grab it.

Opening his bag up, I search for his English book. I get it out, and open my English book to the page that I answered. I start writing the answers into Mark's book, after observing his handwriting to make sure it looks like he's written this. It's close enough. His 'f's are very strange-looking, but I attempt it.

"You don't have to do my homework for me", Mark explains, sighing.
"Well, I am. I'm just wording it differently, so Mr Dobson doesn't suspect that one of us copied the other", I explain, only on the third one out of ten. The car jolting every time Mark stops at a stoplight is kind of annoying me and I almost screwed up his work. But, I didn't.