Faking Us ✔️

two

Cassie
~

"One, two, three, four..."

I say softly to myself as I count my mothers' medicine. Every Monday morning I wake up fifteen minutes early to help with her weekly pill divider. Each day contains five different pills and lately the size of them has been harder for her to take, so I place a small glass of orange juice next to them. With a light smile on her face she swallows them without any hesitation.

"There's some leftover biscuits in the fridge if you become nauseous later."

Her smile stays before tucking a loose strand of curly locks behind her ear. Most people would say I am her twin. We both share the same dark hair and hazel eyes. "What about you honey? Have you eaten breakfast?"

I sip the rest of my milk and shrug. "I'm not that hungry. I just wanted to make sure you got something in your stomach at least."

When it comes to her health I could care less if I ate anything. She started Olanzapine a couple weeks ago and the side effects have been brutal. I could hear her vomiting all night.
Dad enters the kitchen wearing his normal khaki pants and royal blue collared shirt. He is the finance director of a local car lot, so his attire isn't anything out of the ordinary. Some days I will call him Jake from State Farm.

"Ladies," he grins, rubbing his five o'clock shadow. "Good morning."

I step away from the counter after rinsing out my empty glass of milk and press a kiss to his cheek. "Gotta go. Marcus is waiting on me."

He's already annoyed that I haven't stepped outside yet, but he doesn't know anything about my Mother and I don't plan on telling anyone. Her diagnosis has been rough on everyone and I'd rather keep it between the three of us.

The second I said Marcus' name, my Dad cleared his throat. I knew he was going to say something sooner or later. "Is he good to you, Cassie?"

Ah, here we go again.

A fake smile spreads against my lips. Yes, Marcus can be good to me... when he wants to be. I've just learned to put up with it over the years.

"Of course he is. Why would you ask?"

Mom chimes in suddenly after she glances at him. "We heard something from Sydney's parents."

I rub the back of my neck. "Like?"

"That he can be..." Dad pauses. "A little too much."

It's Marcus. A little goes a long way.

I've been with him since middle school. Literally. We have been inseparable since we were kids. Around Junior High is when he made it official and started dating. He's been around my parents since he was twelve, so they look at him as their son, but things have shifted with him. His Dad has changed him.

I take a deep breath before speaking. "That's just how he is, Dad. He doesn't come with a manual."

And if he did I would read it until I had all the words memorized. I wouldn't care if it was eighteen pages... front and back.

Insert Ross Gellar pun.

"Well, if you happen to find a manual, can you make us copies?"

He laughs at his own joke while I roll my eyes. "Sure."

Marcus presses down on his horn twice just as I grab my backpack and cellphone. With a deep sigh, I tell my parents goodbye and shut the front door behind me. I walk down the sidewalk towards his white BMW, letting the wind hit my neck, and step inside the passenger seat.

"Did you really have to honk?" I mentioned before buckling myself in.

He puts his car in reverse to back out my driveway. "Sorry babe, we're going to be late for school."

I glance down to look at the time on my phone. "Marcus, we still have fifteen minutes. It takes almost five minutes to get there."

Once he makes it out of my neighborhood and onto the highway, he places his palm against my thigh. "Maybe I just wanted to spend the extra minutes with you."

He can be so much, yet so confusing. I know I have already annoyed him today just by his text messages that I left on read and now I find myself questioning whether I'm being a little dramatic or not.

Instead of disagreeing with him, I squeezed his hand. "My parents were asking about you this morning."

He glances at me before looking back at the road. "Oh yeah? Was it bad?"

He adjusts his hand against mine as if the question caught him off guard. We don't really talk about my parents and he doesn't speak much about them. The only reason I know something is up with his Dad is because he's never there when I come over. His Mom is another story.

"They asked if you treat me right." I turned my head towards him and noticed him flex his jaw.

"What did you say?"

"I told them yes."

He nods. "I know I can do better."

At least he acknowledges it.

One time for his sixteenth birthday party, he made a huge deal about me wearing this baby blue bikini around his friends. Our friends. I argued with him and mentioned that I wasn't the only one wearing a bathing suit, but yet he noticed how all the guys were looking at me. I highly doubt that, because they were getting high and drunk off their ass in the pool house. After calming down for a few minutes, he apologized and hasn't made another comment about my choice of clothes since.

Just as we pull up into the parking lot beside the cafeteria, his friends are waiting against the building. For one day, that's all I ask, is for us to just be alone. But, that comes with being Marcus Cane's girlfriend.

And the minute we step out of his BMW he forgets about me.

• • •

Don't forget to vote and comment. 💕