AN: Finally. Another chapter posted. It's nothing special. Just thought I'd put this in here before I lost all of the people who were interested in the story. lol.
Also, wanted to plug this site: It's like myspace for wrestling fans. It's wonderful. JOIN!
Thanks,
FortheLoveofWrestling
After about two and a half hours, after Mark had woken up Matt, Adam and a couple of other guys looking for Jeff, Jeff strolled into the room. Trying to keep the noise down, he figured that Mark had fallen asleep already. He was surprised when he heard two sighs coming from the bedroom and saw that Mark and Matt were getting up from their seats.
"Fuck, Mark. You had to get Matt involved?" Jeff said, deciding that playing the victim would be his best bet in the situation.
Matt pulled Jeff into a hug, glad to see his brother was okay before he let his anger and disappointment settle in, "You had us worried, Mark was right to call me looking for you."
"Are you alright, Jeff?" Mark asked, knowing he shouldn't feel guilty for 'ratting' Jeff out to his brother, but still trying to keep the base in his voice and not let his concern show.
"I'm fine," Jeff said, "I just needed to clear my head."
"Jeff, I don't care what you had to do, you're drunk, you don't have your cell phone and didn't let anyone know where you were going." Matt said, letting his true concern show in his voice and facial expressions.
Jeff picked up on Matt's concern as well as the concern and guilt that Mark was desperately trying to hide. "I know, Matty, I'm sorry." Jeff wrapped his arm around his brother's shoulder, "I'm fine though, I promise. Go and get some sleep now, I'm sorry for worrying you."
Matt took a moment to read Jeff's face, once he decided that Jeff was okay for the moment, he nodded his head in agreement. "Get some sleep, out flight is at 11 a.m., okay?" Jeff nodded, Matt turned to Mark who was now sitting on the bed, head in his hands. "Mark, you good?"
"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks Matt." Mark said, sitting up and walking Matt the short distance to the door.
Once Matt left, Jeff simply looked at Mark and said "sorry."
"You sure you're okay?" Mark asked, silently asking for Jeff to talk to him.
"Fine." Jeff said, not ready to give into Mark's pleading eyes.
Mark took a deep breathe, "okay, get some rest then."
After a quick change in the bathroom, Jeff emerged and found Mark sitting in the large sofa seat at the far end of the room.
"'Night." Jeff said, suddenly feeling a little awkward with Mark's eyes following his every move.
Mark picked up the book in his lap and started reading.
After a few minutes of staring at the ceiling and the occasional glance towards Mark, Jeff spoke "aren't you going to sleep?"
"No, I'm a little wound up after tonight. Is the light bothering you?" Mark asked, letting his book drop into his lap to look at Jeff.
"No, you're fine. I was just," Jeff fumbled with his words, "wondering."
Mark nodded his head, "goodnight."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At nine in the morning, Jeff woke up to the alarm going off. He unburied himself from the mountain of blankets and looked at the time and groaned.
"Better get up before Matt comes in to wake you up." Jeff heard Mark say from his bed.
Jeff looked up at him, "Have you slept?"
"No," Mark said turning his head back to the television.
"Shit, you sure are laying the guilt on thick these days." Jeff said, sitting up.
"This isn't a guilt trip, Jeff." Mark said, opening his mouth to say more, but was cut off.
"Yeah, whatever, man." He heard Jeff mumble as he walked past him and into the bathroom.
Mark sighed as he heard the shower running. The whole night he couldn't help but think about the argument they had had before Jeff ran out. He couldn't figure out why Jeff would make a point to point out his family. The whole night he spent going over all their arguments that he could remember. After thinking about them, Jeff always had something to say about his family. Jeff always made a point to say something about how he could have left to be with his family or that Mark would never understand him and why he did the things he did because Jeff wasn't his family. Mark had never thought about how important all that could have meant. To him, Jeff was his family. He knew he cared about Jeff and he thought that Jeff knew that. Mark wondered why his family was so important to Jeff. Why would Jeff care so much about them? He obviously cared enough to bring it up whenever he was emotional, most of that time was when they would argue and fight. It had crossed Mark's mind that maybe Jeff still felt something for him, but like everything else that told him that, he brushed it aside and came up with something else to explain it.
Just as Mark had turned off the television, Jeff came out from the bathroom. The whole morning, Jeff had barely spoken to Mark, although he wasn't completely sure why. Jeff knew that he wasn't all that angry anymore. The argument they'd had the night before was no different that the argument that they've had in the past. He had yelled, he had stormed off, Mark and Matt were left to worry about him, he came back after venting and all was forgiven the next morning. Inwardly, Jeff smiled at the thought that Mark was at least trying to work things back into what they call 'normal.' Mark was always quick to forgive him for all the stupid things he did. Jeff wasn't mad or upset over anything that happened anymore, now he was just being a brat for the sake of being a brat. If he was being honest, Jeff was glad that Mark still felt so much concern for him, but from the way Mark was acting, he could tell that something was bothering him still and it wasn't about their fight. He knew Mark better than anyone else and could tell every emotion and feeling that Mark had, whether he showed it or not- Jeff always knew. This time, he knew something was bothering him, but he couldn't figure out what. Jeff wondered what else could be bothering him, but he still wasn't ready to let his own guard down, part of him still wanted to play the part just so that Mark would catch on and they could return to their normal, albeit, strange and awkward relationship.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff had his suitcase all packed and his backpack on while he waited for Matt to come over so that they could head to the airport.
"Hey, Jeff?" Mark asked, breaking Jeff's concentration on the music playing in his ears.
"Yeah?" Jeff answered, still hoping Mark would snap out of the funk he'd been in.
Mark walked over to Jeff's bed and motioned for him to stand up, "come here."
Jeff took his headphones off and stepped in front of Mark who pulled him into a very familiar embrace. Jeff sighed to himself and reciprocated the gesture. He was thankful that Mark seemed to be more relaxed and was getting back to normal.
"Look Jeff, whatever it was that I said to set you off, I'm sorry," Mark said as he pulled away from Jeff, "I know that you're trying hard to beat all of this. I'm only protected of you and your every move because I care about you. We're all like this because we care about you."
"Mark, don't worry about it. I know why you guys do it, it's just that it gets to be a little more pressure than I can take sometimes." Jeff told him, not looking at him, but holding his hand in his.
"There's still something I wanted to talk to you about, but it can wait." Mark said. "We've got a busy week when we get back, you need to be here 100%, but after, alright?"
"Yeah, you got it, Mark. And I'm really sorry about last night. I didn't mean to make you worry so much."
Mark chuckled to himself, still, after all of his trying, the kid could still see right through his facade. "I wasn't worried. Just couldn't sleep is all."
With a smile, Jeff nodded his head, "yeah, whatever you say old man."
So is any of this sound familar? Yeah, it did to me too. My Muses (Musi?) are stuck on rerun. I promise something a little more orignal in the next part.
Sorry for the horrible work. Review?