Mako's Message: *sigh* Things were going pretty well for awhile, then... I dunno. I guess I just hit a bad patch.
Either way, the fact that I got this done, finally, should be a sign that things are improving and I hope to have a few chapters up in the next week.
And an encouraging message on the Makokam Productions Facebook page helps a lot.
The only thing worse than fighting with your best friend is everybody knowing you're fighting with your best friend even though you never told them.
Marcus figured it out pretty fucking quick too. I didn't realize that I was so predictable that being at home when he leaves for AND comes back from work was a sign that something was wrong.
Alice figured it out too, but I don't know how long she took. I just know how long it took for her to call me about it. I thought John told her at first, but then she said that the only reason we'd both miss a meeting was if something was wrong, and that it had to be personal or we'd have called them for help.
I told her about what happened, and she just whistled and said I was going to need to apologize and show him that I accepted and supported his choice. I asked her how I was supposed to do that and she said I was going to have to figure that out myself.
Fortunately, Marcus felt like taking a more active role in things.
After the third day of me "moping around the house" Marcus sat down to talk with me about whatever was bothering me.
I didn't want to, but it suddenly occurred to me that since Marcus wants me to live a normal life, he's probably been planning the answers to my questions since he took me in. So I said, "Dave is going to college in the fall and I don't know why."
He seemed surprised to hear that. Then he asked, "Is he going out of state?" When I said he was going to community college in this city, he actually laughed and said, "So what's the problem?"
I start in on this long rant about how school costs money, and the only reason to go to college was to get some boring generic job, and that we got more than enough money to live on from busting up drug deals, and that I thought once we were both out of school we'd be able to really devote ourselves entirely to our work and take ourselves up to the next level.
When I finished he asked, "Do you know why Dave wants to go to school?"
So I told him what Dave said about not wanting to do this for the rest of his life, and that he wanted to have options after he quit.
Marcus said, "Sound like a smart move." When I glared at him, he asked, "Did he say when he was planning on quitting?"
I said, "No. Just that he planned to do it sooner or later."
And he asked, "What did you want to do after you quit?"
I told him I didn't plan on quitting.
He said, "Even Batman hung it up eventually." I didn't say anything so he added, "And he had a job"
I said, "Batman was the CEO of his company and it's where his money and equipment came from."
"Yes, and it kept people from wondering what he did all day."
I asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"
He told me, "You'll always need a cover. Something to keep people from wondering what you do with your life. Unless you were planning to hole up in a safehouse and cut yourself off from everything like your dad did."
It took me too long to answer that, so he asked, "Let me ask you, are you happier now than you were then?"
I said, "Right now?"
"In general."
And I already knew he had a point, but I hate having to give him points on this, so it took me awhile to say, "Now."
And he asked, "Why?"
I said, "Are you really gonna make me say it?"
He said, "Yes."
I said, "Because I have friends."
"And if you want to keep having friends you'll have to go out and meet people, do things with them, and be able to talk to them about things. Like work. Bitching about work is a common bonding activity. And sooner or later they'll ask, especially with the weird hours you plan on keeping"
And I asked, "Okay, so, what am I supposed to do about Dave?"
H said "Do I have to tell you to apologize?"
And I glared at him and said, "No. But telling me HOW to apologize might be a help."
Marcus thought about it for a second and said, "Well, telling him you accept and respect his decision would be a good start."
"And how am I supposed to do that without him thinking I'm just talking out of my ass?"
Marcus just shrugged and said, "Beats me. That's a check you wrote for yourself and you're going to have to figure out how to cash it."
Then he said, "C'mon. We should go do some back to school shopping now that I'm thinking about it."
I really didn't want to. I mean, it's only the first week of august. I was sick of being in the house though, and I decided that going out, even shopping for school, would be better than stewing in my own fuck up, so I just got in the car and went.
The place was fucking nuts. It was like the mall on Black Friday.
We both kinda stood there for a minute, looking at this madness, and Marcus said, "Maybe we should have come earlier."
We didn't have a list like a lot of other people, so we just looked around for things I might need. Notebooks and pens and pencils were obvious, and I got a new flash drive which was nice, since my old one was pretty banged up.
I found some dildo shaped markers. I bought a green one and I'm calling it "little Dave". Should be better than anything else I've used so far. I think Marcus was thinking the same thing I did when I first saw them going by his expression. He didn't say anything though and that's perfectly fine with me.
I also found those notebooks Dave told me about. There were more Kick-Ass ones than any of the others for some reason. I didn't like that it looked like no one was buying them though, so I bought one. I probably won't use it, but if nothing else I can put it on the shelf next to the Hit Girl notebook he got me.
Most importantly I had an idea for how to fix things with Dave.
The problem is, I'm gonna need Riley's help.
