Vietnam

CHAPTER 2: Friends

"Come on Mark! It'll be fun!" Roger tries to convince his roommate. Mark looks at Roger. "I already told you Roger! It's dangerous!" Mark complains. Two days into school, and Roger was already trying to turn Mark into a bad boy. "No it's not! Trust me! People do it all the time!" Roger explains.

"Someone died from it just last year!" Mark tries to reason. "Oh please, they probably did it wrong." Roger rolls his eyes. "I'll probably do it wrong!" Mark whines. Roger's eyes soften slightly.

"Look Mark, if you don't want to come you don't have to. But your my best friend so...it would be really fun if you did." Mark takes this to heart. He couldn't tell if Roger meant it or not, but he felt like he did.

What had happened was Roger's friend Timmy had invited Roger to go jump off the old bridge behind the campus with him, and Roger asked if Mark could come too. Timmy replied with a simple 'the more the merrier' and Roger returned back to the dorm room beaming.

Mark of course was not in love with the idea, but then again...he felt that he needed to man up, and this would help him.

"Fine, I'll do it." Mark says. Roger smiles like a goof and hugs Mark. "Yes!" He says, before going through his bag, looking for something to wear. He pulls out a pair of blue swim trunks. "Oh crap! I didn't think to bring any swimming gear." Mark says. Roger laughs at this.

"Here, I have two pairs." He says before throwing Mark the pair of blue ones and picking up another pair of red ones. "Oh thanks Rog." Mark says politely.

"I'll change in the bathroom." Roger says, walking into the white marble room. "Ok." Mark says, taking off his clothes and putting on Roger's shorts. They were a little big, but looked fine. Mark examined himself in the mirror. He realized how skinny he looked. He could slightly see his abs poking out from beneath his skin, but he certainly wasn't the hulk. Two seconds later, Roger walks out of the bathroom. He sees Mark looking in the mirror. "You look great Cohen. Put on a shirt and lets go." He says. Mark smiles and looks over at Roger and his toned body. "Ok."

...

Mark and Roger quietly make there way outside. There was no walking around the halls after 9:00, let alone leaving the premesis, but the boys managed to escape. Mark was obviously on edge, and Roger could sense it. "Hey it'll be fun. Just relax." He says, patting Mark on the shoulder. Mark nods and smiles, but continues to focus on getting to the bridge.

They walk through a small grove of trees and eventually end up at the crickety old bridge. It was seemingly made of iron, and was visibly rusting. It was about 20 feet up, with what looked like shallow water beneath it. "See? It's not that far up!" Roger says. But Mark thought otherwise. They see Timmy and two other boys already standing on the bridge. "Hey guys!" Roger calls, walking towards them. "Hey Roger!" Timmy calls back. Mark already hated him.

"This is Mark." Roger says, gesturing to the short blond boy. "Sup." Timmy says. Mark smiles politely. "Not much." He says, trying to sound cool. The two other boys who's names they didn't know, decided on a method to decide who goes first.

"We decided that the only fair way to settle this was with a bottle." One of them says, pulling out an old beer bottle. He motions for everyone to sit down, and they form a little circle on the bridge. "Now, whoever it lands on first has to jump first, and then so on." Timmy says. Roger and Mark nod, and Mark almost wants to get on his knees and pray that it doesn't land on him.

Timmy uses his strong, slender fingers to spin the bottle. It spins around almost three times before landing right in between Mark and Roger. "I'll go." Roger says, not wanting Mark to be the first sacrificed. "You sure?" Timmy says. Roger nods. Mark wants to, but doesn't protest. Roger gets up on the edge of the bridge, and climbs over the side. He keeps one hand on the side of the bridge and his other hand free.

"Here I go." He says. And before Mark could so much as blink, Roger is jumping off into the dark, sparkling waters below. Suddenly Mark hears a splash. He looks down over the bridge and sees Roger with his normal goofy smile plastered on his face. "MARK!" He yells, laughing. "Yeah?" Mark yells down. "YOU SHOULD COME DOWN HERE!" He says, still laughing. Mark nods, but isn't sure Roger can see him. He turns around to Timmy and Co.

"You gonna jump next Marky?" Timmy asks, almost mockingly. Mark cringes at this nickname, but nods. "Yeah." He says while taking off his shirt. He hops over the rail, so he's standing like Roger was, with one hand on the rail.

But he can't bring himself to do it. From here, it looks like such a big jump. "Maybe I shouldn't-"

"Come on Marky! Just do it!" One of the boys shouts. Mark still hesitates. It's not until a hand from behind pushes him, that he loses his balance and goes flying off the edge of the bridge. He can feel his hand stinging, and realized he must have cut it on the side of the bridge that he was gripping so tightly to. Those idiots. Mark thinks to himself.

Suddenly, he is overwhelmed by cold water, and he sees black, before rising to the surface and taking in a deep breath. "Wasn't that fun?!" Roger asks enthusiastically?! Mark realized that Roger didn't know that his friends pushed him off. Mark puts on an enthusiastic smile."Yeah!" He says, beaming. Not too long after, Timmy and the other boys join them in the murky water. "Whoa that was awesome." One of them says. "Yeah."

Soon, they are all getting out of the water, and Marks hand is stinging like hell. He's pretty sure it's infected. He quickly jumps out and grabs his shirt, keeping it in his hand so no one will the blood gushing out of his palm. "Thanks for inviting us guys! That rocked!" Roger says. Mark nods and thanks them too.

"See you guys tomorrow!" Roger says, before taking off with Mark at his side. "That wasn't so bad now was it Marky?" He asks jokingly. Mark was ok when Roger called him by that name. He smiles brightly. "Yeah."

They continue walking and reach the dormitories. "Don't you want to put your shirt on? It's pretty cold." Roger points out. Mark shrugs, and tries to cover the fact that he's shivering. "Let's just go inside." He says, and Roger doesn't hesitate.

They reach their rooms, and Mark instantly grabs his pajamas. "I'll change in the bathroom." He says. He goes into the small room and examines his hand. There is a long cut running diagonally across it. Its pretty deep. "Shit." He says under his breath. He looks at how much blood his white shirt had soaked up, and almost passes out. He didn't have a first aid kit with him, which means he would have to go to the nurse.

He manages to wrap his hand in toilet paper and put on his pajamas without getting blood everywhere. Suddenly there is a knock on the door. "You ok Mark?" He hears Roger's voice. "Yeah I think I'm just gonna take a shower real quick." He says. "Ok." Roger replies, and Mark hears his footsteps retreating.

Mark turns on the shower, with no intent of actually getting in it. His hair was already wet, so Roger wouldn't know the difference. Mark quickly searches through the tiny cupboard that was underneath the sink. He feels a huge wave of relief wash over him when he finds a first aid kit.

He looks through the contents. He finds a cleaner which he puts on his hand to prevent any infection. He then dabs his entire hand completely dry so he can get a look at the cut. He may or may not need stitches. It had been 20 minutes and it still hadn't stopped bleeding. He continues to look through the kit until he finds a needle and thread.

His heart drops. He knows what he has to do. His father had taught him how to stitch up cuts if they were too deep, and it was certainly coming in handy now. Mark manages to stitch up his hand, it looks messy, but at least it would heal. It hurt like hell though, and Mark almost started crying. He turns off the shower with tears in his eyes. Why doesn't he just tell Roger?

Because Roger had a great time and he though that Mark did too. No need to rain on his parade.

Although he did just have to stitch up his hand in under five minutes in his dorm room without his roommate knowing. But that didn't matter, he just wanted to keep Roger happy.

Mark takes his bloody t-shirt and stuffs it in the garbage, before covering it with tissues and toilet paper. He then carefully puts back the first aid kit and walks out of the bathroom. He sees Roger lying on his side, facing away from him. But the light is still on.

Mark puts his and Roger's wet swimsuits in the bathroom to dry, and goes to lie down. He reaches to turn off the light on the little nightstand in between them. "Night Mark." Roger says, right as the light turns off. "Night Rog." Mark says.

Oh the things he would do for his friends.