Enis sat at the head of the table. Jack was sitting across from Mark. In front of them was a perfectly set table with beautiful sets of plates and silverware. Jack sneezed a few times from the amount of dust on the tablecloth. In contrast to the formal tableset was a very large bowl of baked beans with a soup ladle in it, alongside some parmesan cheese.
Jack inhaled about three plates of beans before you could say "linguine." Feeling a little sick from the sudden amount of food after not eating for over a week, he stopped himself.
"So Mark…" Jack said. Mark looked up and made eye contact with him. "How was your day?" Jack asked awkwardly.
"How do you think?" Mark said, scowling back at him. Jack tried to melt in his chair. Mark had a very deep, hoarse voice, but spoke in a threateningly serious tone.
Jack looked down at his plate as the trio spent the rest of the meal in silence.
Jack sat on the couch and Mark returned to the window after dinner. Enis washed dishes in the kitchen. Jack had offered to help but Enis refused.
"Um...how do you turn the TV on?" Jack called into the kitchen.
"It doesn't work. It's just there for the look! Use your imagination!" Enis called back.
Jack leaned back on the couch. He noticed his bag leaning against the coffee table. He grabbed it and quickly checked to make sure none of his things were missing. To his surprise, everything looked to be exactly how he left it.
He decided to put his free time to use. He grabbed a twisted knife sharpener and sawed his blade back and forth on it like he was playing a violin. He felt Mark's powerful gaze on the back of his neck.
"What?" Jack asked, a little annoyed.
Mark shrugged and looked back out the window. The rain had turned into a full-on thunderstorm, a rare sight in California.
After two more booms of thunder, all the lights in the house suddenly turned off. Jack jumped and almost dropped the large knife in his hand directly onto his foot.
"Don't worry, the power's just out. It should be back up by tomorrow." Enis reassured from the kitchen. Jack felt around in the pitch black for his bag and carefully swapped out the knife for a flashlight. As soon as he switched on the light he heard a grumble from Mark.
"I wouldn't waste your batteries on this." he said, not taking his eyes off of the glass window. Jack turned off the light and placed his flashlight on the table.
Jack went back on the couch and looked down at his thumbs. Of course, he couldn't see them but he could feel them twiddling with each other. He was thankful that he still had both of his arms attached and working.
Jack panicked a little bit. He had always been terrified of the dark, even before everything went to hell. He decided that maybe he could pass the time by trying to talk to Mark.
Jack attempted to stumble over to the window, only to bang his shin on the table.
"Fuck!" Jack involuntarily yelped out.
For the first time since he had met him, Mark laughed. It was more of a long snort than a laugh, but Jack could feel the smile from across the room, even if he couldn't see it.
Jack moved over to the window next to Mark. As he attempted to sit in the large windowsill, Mark gently pushed him away.
"Too close." he said in his typical tone of voice.
Instead, Jack sat on the floor and leaned against the wall. Occasional flashes of lightning illuminated the room for split seconds. He took out his green blanket and wrapped it around himself.
"So...Mark," Jack started.
"Yeah?"
"How did you end up here?"
"Who asked?"
"Me…"
Mark shifted his position a bit so he was facing even further away from Jack. After a few seconds of silence interrupted only by flashes of lightning followed by loud thunder.
"So what are you, like Scottish or something?" Mark asked. Enis hadn't commented on his very obvious Irish accent, but both Enis and Mark had clearly noticed it. He tried to hide it as best he could. Being a human with pierced ears and green hair, the last thing Jack needed was to stand out even more. He normally did this by speaking very slowly and quietly, or better yet, not at all.
"Um...no," Jack said, staring down at the floor.
Some more silence made the dark room feel much larger than it actually was. Mark would trace the path of the raindrops with his finger.
"So...are you Chinese?"
The long silence indicated that Mark was either offended or annoyed.
"Sorry." Jack quickly said.
"What?" Mark asked, sitting up.
"Sorry that I asked that," Jack said, a little less confidently than normal, which isn't saying much.
More silence.
...
"Irish...I'm Irish." Jack said, curling into a ball in the blanket, thankful that he wasn't stuck outside that night.
Mark responded with a stretch and a yawn.
"Well, goodnight leprechaun."
"Night Mark."
Mark and Jack drifted to sleep as Enis cleaned the kitchen until dawn.