Confused and Alone

Part 10

--January 11th, Sunday, Mark's Mom's Car, 9:19AM--   

"If you don't mind me asking," said Sean, "where are we going?"

After a delicious meal, Sean, Mark, and Mark's mom got in the car and had been driving in the opposite direction of the house.

"Well, Sean," said Mark's mom, "we're going to be going shopping so we don't starve."

"Mom," said Mark, "I bought tons of fruit and vegetables yesterday, we won't starve."

"I will, I need sugary food! And I'm not becoming a rabbit like you want me to, I want goddamn pepperoni bagels; excuse my French, Sean."

"It's alright, Mrs. Fischbach, I've lived in Ireland all my life, I've heard more swearing than most people," said Sean.

"Oh hoity-toity, the luck o' the Irish! Me potatoes n' sheep, deary!" jeered Mark, in a terrible Irish accent. 

"How dare you, just because potatoes are the reason for my existence doesn't mean I'm extremely Irish!" yelled Sean in a joking voice.

Mark's mom giggled a little at those two mocking each other and horsing around. It's not a bad thing if they are together. I really like how Sean makes Mark happy. Much happier than his past relationships, anyway.

"Boys, settle down, or both of you have to come to Dillard's with me and watch me try on shoes," said Mark's mom, glaring at them both from the rear view mirror.

"Okay mom," said Mark, sticking his tongue out at Sean when his mom looked away.

"Oh Mark, I forgot to tell you; you left your science notebook in the car and I forgot to give it to you, it's in the back somewhere."

Mark started to look around it the dispensary the floor of the back seat had become, lifting a couple of shirts and some of his old sheet music, sifting through all the junk that were essential to all his extra curriculars.

"I think I found it," said Sean, lifting a blue notebook covered all around with stickers, drawings, and maps of the solar system out from under a football helmet.

"Yeah, that's it," said Mark.

Examining the book before resting it into Mark's hands, Sean said, "Wow. You must really like space."

"Oh dear, Sean, I think you may have started Mark on another rampage again..." cautioned Mrs. Fischbach, starting to smile.

"What do you mean - ?"

As if a flame had been ignited inside the  man's eyes, Mark said, "It's so COOL! It goes on forever and it's a huge expanse that could reach far beyond anything we could imagine, far past any expectations the human mind can put on it, I mean it's SPACE. The entirety of forever could only ever be measured by the dead vacuum of space, it contains everything that is or could ever be, isn't it incredible!?"

Chuckling, Sean tried to answer quickly with, "Yeah, it really is - "

"I mean could you imagine?! If I could, even if it was a mission of certain death, even if it served almost no purpose and I wouldn't be able to come back, I would offer to be one of the few humans to be on Mars, to live and colonize Mars, even if it didn't work, because space is so cool!" choking slightly on his own excitement, Mark continued, "Oh it's just SO COOL!"

Mark's mom and Sean were now almost in tears of laughter from Mark and his rant.

"Mark," said Sean, "maybe calm down a bit? It's adorable how much you like space - "

"I LOVE SPACE," interrupted Mark.

" - but you need to chill, man."

"But...but I can't help it! I LOVE - "