His hand freezes on the middle of your back. "Like.. my best friend Mark?" He asks.
"Yes." You cry, you're sobbing even harder than before.
"Okay, okay, shhh. It's gonna be okay." He whispers. You can feel the rage flowing through his body. "What happened? What did he do to you?"
"He's… fuck, I don't even know where to start." You sniffle.
"You guys have been… together?"
"Not dating just…you know. He says it's because he knew it was so wrong and he was betraying you. He said he loves me but he knows he's not allowed to." You sniffle.
"Why don't you go and lay down for a bit." He says. "Just go rest. I'll deal with this."
"What are you gonna do?" You ask, picking up your bag.
"Don't worry about that. Just go on." He half smiles.
As you go upstairs to your room, Jake sits back on the couch, resuming his show. You can only imagine how much anger and disappointment is running through him right now.
You put your stuff down and instead of unpacking you lay down in your bed. You needed to shower but fuck you were exhausted. You must have fallen asleep for a bit, because you woke up to the front door slamming.
You knew it was Mark.
You get up from your bed, rushing to the top of the stairs. You watch as Jake stands up, glaring at his best friend.
"Jake." Mark sighs. "I need to talk to you."
"Yeah? That's funny, cause I need to fucking talk to you." Jake snaps. Mark drops his bag and books, walking closer to Jake.
"You talked to Y/N?" Mark asks.
"Well yeah. When my little sister comes home sobbing, I tend to talk to her." Jake says.
"She was crying?" Mark asks in a whisper.
His heart sinks. He hated himself so much.
"Yep." Jake says before making a fist and swinging. He hits Mark in the face, knocking him back.
"Fuck man." Mark yells, holding his face. "I deserved that."
"You deserve a lot fucking worse!" Jake yells, walking over to Mark. He grabs the collar of his shirt, pulling him close. "The only fucking reason I'm not killing you right now is because she loves you and she told me that you love her too. Is that true?" He asks.
Mark nods his head. "I fucking do! How could I not?" He yells.
"Then make it fucking right." Jake yells, pushing Mark back.
"How? After everything, how can I make it right with her? She'll never forgive me." He says, as you walk down the stairs.
"In the words of Olivia Pope." You begin. "If you want me, earn me." You say. Mark looks at you with pleading eyes. He can see your face is puffy and eyes are red from crying.
You start walking back up the stairs, turning to look back at him one last time, glaring directly into his eyes. You say one last thing to him before turning the corner.
"Asshole." If he really loves you like he says he does, he'll do whatever it takes to prove it to you.
Mark sat in his room, the silence was deafening. He tried anything and everything to distract himself, but there was only one thing his mind kept wandering to, and it was the conversation he had with Jake after you had gone upstairs,yesterday. His stomach twisted with anxiety as his mind raced, he knew he needed to make a decision that was best for him, but he knew, whatever decision he made was going to hurt someone he loved. He gets up, walking downstairs into the kitchen, where he sees you and Jake, and his heart hurts instantly.
"Are you going out tonight?" Jake asks you.
"I'm not sure. I don't have any plans yet, but I might see what Hayden is doing." You say, glancing over to Mark. He completely avoids eye contact with you, making your heart sink. He hadn't said a word to you since the whole confrontation yesterday, and to be completely honest, you had thought that he would have been groveling and begging on his knees for you right now.
But he wasn't. He looked stressed and sad. It made you want to hug him and tell him it was going to be okay, but you couldn't. You needed to remain strong and if he wanted you then he would show you.
At least you hoped he would.
Day after day after day you waited for Mark to say something to you, to acknowledge you but day after day he left a room if you walked in, with his head down. If you called out for him, he'd give you a sympathetic half smile before walking away from you. It left you feeling confused and hurt, wondering what the fuck was actually happening.
"I don't get it." You sigh at Jake. "He said he loved me."
Jake looks at you, trying to be sympathetic but you could tell he wasn't sincere and it made you wonder if he had done something. But you didn't ask, you left it alone. You wanted to talk to Mark, but Jake didn't seem to think that was such a good idea.
"If he's avoiding you, it might just be for the best, yeah?" He says. "Obviously he doesn't want to talk to you, I don't think he's going to do what you expected him to do, Y/N."
"It just doesn't make sense. Why say all those things if he knew he wasn't gonna try? Why would he get my hopes up? I really think I should talk to him." You decide, standing up from the couch.
"No, Y/N. I'm telling you right now, leave it alone." Jake snaps.
You're taken aback, why was he snapping at you?
"I'm sorry. I just don't want you to get hurt more than you already have." He says, pulling out his wallet. "Here, take this, go out with Hayden, or better yet, go out with Chris, on me." He smiles.
You hesitantly take the money, where was your actual brother, cause this guy was not it.
"Okay.." you murmur, grabbing your phone.
"That's good. Chris is the better option, I think." He smiles, turning back towards the TV continuing to watch his show.
You walk up the stairs replaying what Jake said to you. He wouldn't do anything to keep you apart, right?
That night, you're sitting with Chris, laughing and smiling at his stories, trying to be fully invested but you cannot stop thinking about Mark. You felt like he owed you at least a little bit of an explanation. If he didn't want to be with you, then tell you so you could move on but it felt like he had played nothing but games with you for months. And there was a partial love confession, until you finally told Jake, and then there was a full on love confession. But since then it's been radio silence.
"You okay?" Chris asks. You look at him, slightly embarrassed.
"Yeah, sorry, I got caught up in my head." You laughed.
"Everything okay?" He asks. You nod your, smiling at him as you finish your drink. Chris slides two shots towards you, wiggling his eyebrows as he glances from the shots to you, back and forth. You laugh, taking them both back to back. "Now get out of your head, and come back to me." He smiles.
"I'm just gonna go to the bathroom quickly." You tell him, grabbing your purse, stumbling away. You can feel the drinks hit you like a ton of bricks. You sit down on the toilet, fully clothed and pull out your phone.
[11:57pm To: Mark] Why are you doing this to me?
[11:59pm From: Mark] I'm not doing anything. Please Y/N, stop.
[12:00am To Mark] Stop what? Stop loving you? I can't. I need closure. Please.
[12:02am From: Mark] Y/N. I can't love you. Leave me alone. Move on. Be happy. Just stay away from me. Don't talk to me, don't text me, don't think about me, and please stop loving me.
You can feel the tears welling in your eyes as you read his text again, over and over. Why was life so fucking cruel? All you ever wanted was to be happy, and it seemed like you weren't even allowed to have that. But fine, if he wanted you to move on then that's what you would do, after you confronted him in person. You had too. You needed to hear him say those words to your face, you needed to watch him tell you to stay away from him, even if it ended up breaking you.
That night, Chris dropped you off and you drunkenly rushed into the house. You stomped up the stairs and stood in front of the door of Mark's room. You stood with your fist raised to bang on the door for a few seconds, trying to catch your breath while also trying to muster up the courage to actually knock. Part of you didn't want to hear him say those words because you really didn't want them to be true, but the other part of you, well you knew that you needed to hear them or you just wouldn't fully believe him.
Knock
Knock
Knock
You press your ear to the door, there's no sound of movement. Maybe he was sleeping? You place your hand on the door, twisting the knob before pushing the door open, only to find an empty room. The drawers in the dresser were open and empty, the closet where his clothes hung was empty. There were no sheets, pillows or blankets on his bed, all of his things were gone.
You rush out of the room, down to Jake's room. You busted in, scared the shit out of him.
"He's gone." You whisper.
"I know." Jake says.
"Why?" You ask.
"I don't know." Jake sighs. "He said it was time. He felt guilty for everything he did to you I guess."
"No, I need to talk to him. He can't just move out without a word." You whimper, fumbling with your phone.
"What did I say about talking to him, Y/N." Jake yells. "Christ, you don't listen. Don't make me tell you what he told me. Just believe me when I say, leave him alone."
"What do you mean what he told you? What did he tell you?" You ask.
"You don't want to know." Jake says, avoiding your eyes.
"Tell me. Or I'll track him the fuck down." You snap.
"He said you were nothing but a game to him. Just another notch on his belt. That you were just my little sister and nothing more." Jake tells you. You swore, in that moment, you could actually feel your heart shattering into a million little pieces.