I make no promises. This is a rare update on this inspired mainly by the heavy use of spanish in the book Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. Really just the fact that it had spanish in it made me think of this unfinished chapter sitting in my hard drive.
Thank you for your reviews.
"It's a yes or no question, Gringo!"
"Uh! Uh! Shit, I don't know! No, I guess not."
"Then you don't?"
"N-no, I don't." Zee promptly left after this, seemingly in neither a good or bad mood.
Marcus let out a rather large sigh. He had been interrogated before, by many rather scary looking individuals, but Zee was the only one who could get him scared and confessing. Something about the woman frightened the hell out of him, and he didn't care to figure out what it was.
Marcus went about his day normally. He attempted to, anyway. Zee's question was still on his mind. Love was never something that had ever come up in any of his relationships. Most of his relationships involved emotionless one night stands with strangers. Love wasn't a part of the equation there, and now it was. But if love was something that was important here, could he continue on without loving Charlie? Could he continue with his normal life if he did turn out to love Charlie? This was an inconvenience to Marcus, but it wasn't a turn off from the relationship the two now had. Marcus didn't truthfully know whether or not he loved this boy he had just met, but this feeling wasn't one he knew. Maybe this was it. He couldn't be sure yet, but he had to do something to figure it out. He had to do the one thing he had always forbid himself from doing when it came to relationships. Marcus was going to have to spend time with Charlie, with little-to-no sexual advances or activity. If he was going to love Charlie, he was going to love everything about him, and that involved becoming attached to the boy in a more than physical way.
Charlie had come to the opposite conclusion.
"Señor Cox!" Charlie called from down the well decorated hallway of the condominiums.
"What did I say about that?" Marcus called back exasperated, his hands on his hips in a way similar to Zee when she meant business.
Charlie muttered a quick apology before catching up to the other teenager, wrapping him in a hug that Marcus was too shocked to return.
"Are you busy today?" Marcus asked rather awkwardly, staring at his shifting feet and avoiding eye contact. This was uncharted territory.
"No. Want to hang out somewhere? I know a great spot."
The two sat at the spot, watching the waves crash against the rocky face of the cliff so many feet below them. It was quiet, peaceful, oddly romantic even. It seemed like the perfect place for the two of them to enact their individual plans, both unaware of the other's.
"Tell me about yourself."
It wasn't really a question about who he was but more of a command; one that Charlie felt compelled to follow.
Charlie gave Marcus the full rundown, how Keeton was like a father to him, how the clinic was practically his home, etcetera. Charlie talked for what felt like hours to him, surprised by Marcus' attentiveness and focus on every word he said.
As Charlie ran out of things to say, they sat there in silence for a bit, Charlie's knees clenched toward his chest and Marcus' meeting at the soles of his feet with a diamond shaped space in between.
Charlie was now torn between his two options. Use this rare chance to ask Marcus about himself, or enact his original plan.
Before the boy could come to a conclusion, Marcus kissed him by surprise. Charlie spared no time in wrapping his arms around the smaller boy's waist, guiding his tongue into Marcus' mouth, and flipping over to lay him on the ground. It seemed that learning more about Marcus would have to wait.
It, in fact, did have to wait. As did Marcus and all of the things Charlie had been planning for the two of them.
Charlie sulked in a corner of the clinic, disappointed at the loss of his opportunity. Marcus shouldn't have gotten that call, but he did, and Charlie had been left all alone on the beautiful overlook just as he thought things might have been progressing to that point Marcus had reached many times before; the same point that each member of the clinic had reached in their teenage or young adult lives, but he had never quite reached. Charlie was sure that he would be trapped in a never ending vortex of virginity due to the fact that he seemed to be the only one exempt from Marcus' drunken, whorish ways.
"What's wrong little buddy?" Tommy rounded the corner to find the sullen teenager.
"Nothing," he mumbled, supporting his chin with his hand.
"Well that's a load of shi-" he cut off. "that's just not true."
"Nothing!" Charlie pushed up from his seat, going for the door. Fuller grabbed him by the arm, spinning him back towards his seat.
"Tell me, Charlie," he said with determination.
The boy sat there, running out of options and dying for someone he could talk to. "Tell anyone anything and I'll kill you." Fuller nodded and Charlie continued, "I'm sort of involved with someone."
"Good for you, man. Why you so sad then? What's her name?" Charlie glared at Tommy for a second and the man silenced himself. Charlie was definitely learning too much from Mina.
"Their name isn't important right now. The point is that I don't understand what's going on with hi-her-them. I thought that we would've y'know…" The silence was awkward now.
Fuller filled the silence, "Well maybe they're nervous about it, man. It's probably her first time, Charlie."
"It's not, trust me."
"Charlie, you aren't like dating a hooker or something, are you?" Charlie simply gave him the finger before walking off, tired of talking to the clueless man.
"No," he called back as he left.
"No, dad, I don't plan on coming back soon. I'm happy here."
"You were complaining about the place a week ago, what made you change your mind? You haven't met another one of those heathens have you?"
Marcus ground his teeth loud enough to be heard over the phone.
"When do you plan to quit living in sin with those… beasts and find a nice wife? You can't keep shaming our family with your choices. "
"Bye dad."
Marcus had been replaying the conversation over and over in his head. It had been one of the many he'd had with his father that made him like everything about his family less and less. He took another swig as he sat in his beach chair. Paradise and Charlie. This had become his mantra. These things kept him happy and he could stay here for as long as they were in this little village. He finished off the bottle as his thoughts drifted to what kept him in D.C with his family. Nothing but a trust fund that was already hanging by a string.
"Paradise and Charlie, paradise and Charlie, paradise and Charlie."
"Yes?"
Marcus was startled by the sudden appearance of the boy and slightly embarrassed at the thought of Charlie hearing him.
To eliminate any questions that Charlie may have had about what he had been saying, Marcus quickly leapt up from his chair, making sure that the other boy's lips were too occupied to ask questions. Charlie assumed the regular position, his arms snaked around Marcus' small waist, asserting his unspoken dominance over the petite male.
The only thing different about this was that Charlie broke away far sooner than was necessary. Frustrated by the thought of Charlie's willpower overpowering him and the possibility that questions would soon be asked, Marcus pouted at the other teenager.
"I love you." Time stopped as Charlie wrapped his arms around the other in a sensual, warm hug.
"I love you, too."
What would they do now? It was now true that they loved each other, something that Marcus was unsure of. Now that Marcus had entered that uncharted territory, this one was even more unknown. Confused and worried that he would somehow lose Charlie if he didn't know what to do now, Marcus returned to his old ways.
He grabbed the other's wrist, leading him towards the room. This should seal the deal. This would make sure that Charlie wouldn't leave him. He was the most important thing in Marcus' life, and this had been how he got what he wanted from other guys, so this had to be the way to get Charlie to stay, and to keep loving him.
When they reached the door, Marcus unlocked it. Before stepping in to the condo, he looked at who he assumed was now his boyfriend of some sort.
He gazed into the chocolate eyes, "I love you."