Well, this was a little faster update than the last one…Yes, I know, shame on me for not updating!!! bows head/pouts I hope that you are paying attention to the fine details because those will add up in the end! Well, hope you enjoy this next, kinda sad, chapter!
Chapter 6:
Tears of Pure Lament
Cody's POV:
I watched Marc try to avoid eating his asparagus. I didn't blame him; I hated asparagus. It was one of the only veggies I didn't like. With all those strands getting caught in your teeth, you might as well eat grass and dirt.
"You don't have to eat it," I said, watching his disgusted face, "Your parents aren't here, so don't worry about having to eat all your vegetables."
"Thanks," he replied, finishing his coke with a slurp, "I wish you were my dad. He makes me eat everything!"
"Yeah," Zack finally piped in after not saying a word this whole dinner. He seemed pissed, "Well your dad is just-"
"Hey Marc," I interrupted, reaching into my pocket and pulling out some change, "I've got a lot of extra quarters. Wanna go down to the game room and play some video games?"
"Sure!" Marc exclaimed, jumping down from the table and grabbing the coins from my hand. He was gone in a blink of an eye.
I turned on Zack, "Jesus Zack, why? Why did you have to start with his dad?!?" I was starting to get pissed myself, "He thinks his father is the coolest person on earth and if you paid one speck of attention, you'd realize this! He's only eleven and he thinks his dad is only questioning Mom. Let's keep it that way."
"Yeah?!?" Zack practically shouted back in a sarcastic tone, "Well what if this starts to happen regularly, huh?!? Do you want Dad to be replaced?"
"That's not the point," I shot back, "Dad and Mom are not getting back together. That's that. End of story. Will you just get over that?!?"
"Me get over it?!?" He was yelling now, "You've wanted them to get back together ever since they split up! I'm just worried we'll never see Dad again. Sam isn't even bothering to work on his kidnapping case. All that counts are the murders; like they actually matter…"
"Zack," I was starting to get a little sympathetic, "that's not true and you know it. Sam has other people working on Dad's case. He just can't do more than one case at once."
"Yeah," I could see tears in Zack's eyes, "but Dad could be dying right now and Sam wouldn't even care because that would give him a better fucking chance with Mom. Don't you get it Cody?!? All he's doing these cases for is to be able to stay in The Tipton with Mom. If he's supposed to be the best detective in the state, why aren't any of these cases solved? Just put two and two together…"
"Well," I could tell there was no win for me in this argument, "I guess you have a point. But Sam just isn't the kind of person in my opinion. Whatever you think is fine, but you're not going to convince me otherwise."
I was done with him. I left the suite and headed for the game room to maybe help Marc win some tickets. Zack just couldn't handle anything right now. He was depressed about Dad and Maddie, although he denied that he needed help. Mom wasn't really sure what to do. If she put him in therapy, he would hate her for eternity, but if she just let him be, he'd go completely insane. I was dealing with everything the best I could, but even so, if some miracle didn't happen soon, my world will probably fall to pieces.
I found Marc concentrating hard at a shooting game. His tongue was sticking out slightly and he was scowling at the screen intensely. For a few moments, I just watched him playing, thinking how left out he must feel. I had heard him talking to his Dad before Sam had left, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that his dad never took him to work. It pained me to think how much he loved his dad, but how much Sam disappointed him. After the game ended, he turned around, saw me, and ran over excitedly.
"Hey Cody," he said eagerly, "Look how many tickets I've got!!" He showed me a fistful of tickets.
"Wow!" I said, really impressed, "Let's go get the best prize you can buy with all those tickets!"
After playing a few more two-player games, we both ran to the counter. It turned out that he had 117 tickets and actually could get a lot of pretty neat prizes. He chose two tickets for free ice creams at The Tipton restaurant without hesitation.
"Why two?" I asked with an answer floating in my mind, but I didn't want to assume.
"One for me and one for you," he said happily, smiling at me.
Once we got our ice creams, we went outside and sat on the front steps to eat our cones. "You know Cody," Marc said, unaware of the ice cream dripping down his hand, "that was the most fun I've had in a long time. You actually listen to what games I want to play and let me get ice cream and want to play with me and act like you really want me in your life," He smiled at me, but I could see the pain behind his eyes, "My dad just doesn't get it sometimes. I love him so much, but he never takes me anywhere and shuts me out of his life every now and then. Sometimes, I think he completely forgets I exist."
I saw tears form in Marc's eyes and he tried to hold them back. I patted him on the shoulder as he really started to cry. Sobs of pure anger and confusion poured from his eyes and he didn't care if people were staring. I just let him cry. I knew there was nothing I could do to make him feel better. His sobs turned into waterfalls of passionate lament and he put his head on my shoulder. I cautiously put my arm around his frail, shaking body. He just needed to let out his uncertainty. He needed to clear his mind by letting out all of his anger, and crying was the only thing he could do right now to calm himself.
How's that for sad? Do you guys like Marc? Please tell me if I need to develop him more because he's going to come in shortly in the next chapter, but he might not be in a lot of the later chapters…So tell me what I should do. Can I leave him like he is now? Or should I tell you more about him? I could work with either way, so please answer those questions! Thanx!!! And, as always, REVIEW PLZ!!!
