Chapter 44 - Match 44

At the mall 

It was an Oscar worthy performance, mark thought while Mikael had him in his arms. Alex had left a few minutes ago and as far as he knew he was probably running away to find out how much of a jerk his boyfriend knew. 

Mikael was looking at him with his dark blue eyes, his face distorted by concern. He felt guilty. Why did he look like that? It was just a stomachache but the wolf had taken him in his arms and tried desperately to find a place to let him lie down. 

He spotted a bench where two girls were sitting and chatting while holding two cone ice creams in their hands. One had chocolate and the other strawberry and while the red head was grunting in fake pain he suddenly wanted to eat something sweet. 

Mikael approached them and for a second they seemed blinded by how handsome he was. Tall with broad shoulders, blond hair and those dark blue eyes that were like you were looking at the midnight sky. He could definitely be a model if he wanted to in comparison to him who when he looked himself in the mirror he could clearly see the main guy from the Disney rat movie, even though he didn't look at him at all in other's people eyes. 

"Excuse me. I'm really sorry but is it okay with you if my friend lies here? He seems to be unwell." He told them and Mark let out a loud ouch to emphasize the whole situation. 

As Mikael looked at them with those pleading eyes of his, the two girls immediately got up and ran away, flustered by his beauty or the fact that someone like him talked to them. 

He let him down gently in the plastic bench that had been painted in a mint color and had a very peculiar bean shape. Being for so long in his embrace he had gotten used to it. Of how he held him gently and his strong arms took the shape of his body, or the warmth of the physical contact. So when he felt the hard bench underneath him he frowned. 

"What? Is there something wrong?" Mikael asked him.

Don't think about it, he thought. It's for your best friend. You are doing a good thing. He repeated again and again while wrapping his arms around his belly and getting into a fetus position. Mikael sat at one edge of the bench and helped him rest his head on his thighs. He was too nice.

"Mark? Can you hear me? Are you okay?" he asked him again his voice echoing in Mark's head, obvious worry. How can I answer that? Mark wondered. Stop being so nice to me!

Thankfully he didn't have to because Luke appeared in front of them with his phone on his hands trying to reach someone. He looked very impatient as his black sneaker hit the floor in a very rhythmic tapping motion, an attempt to contain his nerves. 

"Where the hell is Alex? He should be here by now. How are you feeling?" Luke told him and mark felt his eyes landing on him, inspecting him from head to toe and it was almost like someone had placed a knife on his throat. That was enough with lying for today, he didn't feel good taking advantage of Mikael and definitely Luke's look and mood was not the best today so adding up a prolonged lie was like accepting his death sentence. He hoped that Alex had managed to get far enough away from here because his little play was over. 

"Um, yeah I'm feeling a lot better, suddenly" he said and sat up "Thank you" he thanked Mikael who looked at him confused by his speedy recovery. 

Luke wasn't like that though. He was already on their little operation and Mark's brown eyes expressing guilt like he had just committed a crime where enough to make him understand. 

"What did you two do?" he asked him coldly.

"Nothing. I'm just feeling better." 

"Stop lying and tell me Mark because I swear to god if I find out by myself I will be even more angry. Where is Alex? What have you been up to?" he asked him again and Mark unconsciously looked at Mikael. 

The older boy already had his eyes on him, but there would be no help from him. He was staring at him with a mix of emotions that he couldn't simply pinpoint. It was shock mixed with hurt? Had Mikael been hurt because he lied to him? He surely didn't want that and his face saddened while they were exchanging gazes. 

"I am talking to you." Luke tried to grab his attention. 

"He went to find his parents. Someone told him about what you did to them. It's too late to try and stop him anyways." 

"What? Who told him? Where is he? Did you have this planned all along?" Luke asked questions like a storm but Mark did not intend to answer to any of them. 

"I'm going to get the car." Mikael said and got up from the bench they shared. 

"No. Don't go because I don't know what I will do to this idiot if you leave." Luke warned him and Mikael looked at Mark, his eyes this time were cold and the ginger boy felt a sudden shiver. Like the sky had lost all its stars and the moon had disappeared. 

"Do whatever you want. I don't associate with liars" he said and grabbed his keys from his jean's pocket, leaving them behind. 

That had hurt, a lot. From the first moment they had met he had this feeling that if something had happened he could rely on Mikael. He was the only one who looked for him when he had been hanged upside down like livestock and took care of him, so now him turning his back and leaving hurt him. He knew he had made a mistake, lying was never good but he had to, for his friend. Alex did not deserve to be treated like that and he didn't give a dime how Luke would take all this but with Mikael it was different, somehow.

"So, now that we are the two of us. Answer me" he said and took a few steps closer. 

Mark swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and stood up, making sure to create a safe distance between them. 

It was fruitless though because that gap, which was his only hope had been covered in mere milliseconds by the supernatural dog who was now grabbing him by the collar of his shirt angrily. 

"Let's talk about this. Like two civilized people" he said and raised his arms in surrender. 

"Oh, no you got something wrong. I am definitely not civilized when people lie to me."

"What about your lies?" Mark asked him and Luke actually growled at him. It took all the strength Mark had not to laugh. All the times he had called him a dirty mutt in his mind suddenly paid off.

"You don't know anything"

"I know enough to understand that Alex will never fall in love with you like that. He likes you, yes. He has strong feelings for you, yes but it's definitely not love and he knows something is wrong. He senses it" 

"Shut it and tell me where he is" he said again and Mark laughed. He was very strong, strong enough to lift him off the ground by just holding a piece of fabric and once his feet didn't feel the floor anymore he started to lose his courage? Didn't this place have security or anything? He was being threatened right now! Someone do something!

No one really even flinched though. Everyone was minding their own business and Mark cursed people's apathy nowadays. 

"I don't know where he is."

"What do you mean you don't know?" 

"I didn't ask in case a brute like you asked me. I will not betray my best friend" he told him and Luke sighed loudly.

"You're useless." He said and threw him violently on the ground, creating a very unpleasant collision that resulted in him hitting his eyebrow on one of the edges of the bench. 

He felt the pain as he landed and soon red blood had stained his palm from the cut. It didn't hurt so much, more like the sight of so much blood made him dizzy. He could see where he really got hurt and even though he knew that the head always bled more he was worried. He wasn't going to show that to the meat head in front of him. Wobbling he stood up, Luke not even saying anything about the wound he inflicted. 

"Get to the car" he commanded him. 

He really wanted to retaliate. Scream a few bad words at him, flip him off and eave right then and there but he knew he was going to find Alex no matter what and probably that was what he was doing while waiting for someone on the other line of the phone. 

"Get to the car." He told him again and Mark started walking by himself till he reached the garage. He had been applying pressure to his cut with his palm, his sleeve pressed on him but he stopped moving when he saw Mikael sitting at the driver's seat. 

Their eyes met and he noticed how his widened when he realized he was wounded but he didn't move or attempted to say anything when he opened the back door and entered the car. I guess he is really mad, Mark thought and he felt like he had just walked into a fridge. The atmosphere was below zero degrees. 

Luke soon followed and entered the car very loudly by banging the door. He had to be dramatic every inch of the way, he couldn't just act like a normal human being, he thought. 

"Don't get blood on my car" Luke told him before telling his friend the address he had somehow managed to obtain. It was that easy for him to take control of people's lives. Just a phone call away and he was sure he could find Alex even at the other side of the world and that was scary. He wasn't even going to mention his comment about the car. If he could spill his intestines out right here and there just to make him furious without dying he would do it definitely and suddenly he had a very strong urge to just spit everywhere. But he didn't as he remembered that his head was still bleeding and Mikael would definitely not back him up anytime soon, so he just shut up and wished that Alex had gotten the answers he needed before everything simply went to hell.