Marcus' Sixteenth Birthday

Something You Need To Know

"Why is that?" she asked, truly being a bit worried. I stared at the ground, shrugging slightly, pretending that I didn't want her to see my tears.

"My father threw me out," I confessed. After that I broke down in tears and she immediately fell for it. She pulled me inside saying: "Oh, come here, poor boy." Women, I thought to myself. She led me to the couch and told me to sit down. I just kept crying. "He said that I'm a disappointment to him. He said he doesn't need me anymore. What am I supposed to do?" My voice sounded like I was absolutely panicking and I'm pretty sure I also looked like that. Right at that moment, Chase and Bree entered the room. I looked up to them and then I quickly looked away, as if I didn't want them to notice me.

"Marcus?" Chase wondered, his voice didn't sound as hateful as I expected, so that was a good thing.

"What are you doing here?" Bree demanded, that did sound hateful. Well, it didn't matter. I'll convince them, one by one if I have to.

"His father threw him out," Tasha whispered to them.

"And why is that?" Bree asked, her question directed at me. I could see at her whole attitude that she wasn't ready to trust me anytime soon but Chase looked like he was.

"Bree don't be so mean, we've got to find out if he's talking the truth before you judge him." Bree raised an eyebrow at him.

"Excuse me? That is Marcus over there, what more proof do you want?"

"Yes," Chase said, "and Douglas is his father. We're talking about mister 'I let my family down all the time'!" Perfect! I thought to myself. They're starting to fight each other already! That could come in handy. If I get Chase to come to my house the others will certainly follow to 'save' him.

"Look," I said, getting their attention again, "if you want me to go then I'll leave."

"Great, the door is over there," Bree responded, pointing at the door.

"Bree! Where is he supposed to go?" Chase protested.

"I don't know, what about his grandma," Bree suggested sarcastically. "If she even exists of course."

"Of course she does!" Chase insisted, then he frowned and turned to me, "she does, right?" I nodded.

"She does but I can't go to her."

"Oh I get it, it's her bingo day!" Bree mocked. "You know what, have fun together. I'm leaving and I'm informing Leo. He's not going to be happy." With that Bree left. Tasha laughed, while she knew there wasn't anything to laugh about.

"Well I guess I'll go... ehm... do something." She quickly ran upstairs before someone could say anything else. I remained at my spot on the couch, I stared to the ground, trying to look uncomfortable. Chase coughed and walked over to me, he sat down on the couch. He left a lot of space between us, probably because he was a bit unsure whether he should trust me or not.

"So ehm... what happened?" Chase's voice sounded kind. Why was he being so kind? Did he really try to be friends? Why would he do that, after all I've done... and what I'm still doing...

"He sent me to steal some important USB from a man but when I had it he wanted me to kill the man... I couldn't. I just couldn't, the man hadn't done anything wrong... how could dad ask that from me?" I started crying again and Chase bought it. Hah, sometimes it was just too easy.

"Hey, it's okay Marcus, you've done the right thing." I shook my head.

"Dad didn't think so, I came home and he ignored me for a full day and then he... he screamed at me... saying that I was a failure and then he just threw me out." I threw my head down, I stopped crying 'cause otherwise I might overdo it. Suddenly Chase's hand was on my back. I was surprised that he actually tried to comfort me. It made me feel... kind of guilty. Wait. What? It's not like I've never tricked anyone before, some days it was all I did.