I Get It

A Temporary Fix

(Author: This chapter may contain content that may trigger those who have lost a loved one to cancer and know the pain. I just wanted you guys to know what your getting into)
Marks was woken from his sleeve by the ringing of his phone. Checking the alarms clock, it was 4am. He reached over to silence the call but got goosebumps as he realized it was his mother. It would be 11pm for them, his mother should be in bed by now. With shaky hands he answered the phone.
"Mom? What's wrong, why are you calling so late."
There was a pause on the other end but his mother responded.
"Mark, it's about your father."
He relaxed, his mother usually called to tell him about his father every once in awhile. Though they were not together anymore, Mark's mother still worried.
"Geez mom give me a heart why don't ya. I thought something was wrong."
"Well that's the thing Mark, something is wrong."
Mark went cold, and he could he quiet sobs on from his mother on the other end.
"Mark, your father has, he passed away. The cancer became too much for him. He was so sick, and the treatment wasn't working."
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. His dad, was dead? It became too much? Why wasn't the treatment working? But the real question was, what was I doing while he rotted away. Where was I? Why didn't I know? How did I miss saying goodbye?
His hand quivered as he spoke into his phone.
"I gotta go mom."
"Wait hone-"
Before his mother could finish, Mark pressed the end call button on the screen.
'What am I doing here?'
He thought, getting up out of bed.
'Why wasn't I there?'
He shuffled into the bathroom his whole body feeling hollow.
'I could have don't something!'
His mind screamed as he looked at the mirror.
'YOU COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING!!!'
He ran his fingers over his own reflection.
"I should have done something..."
His hands turned to a balled into fists.
"YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING!!!"
And in the blink of his own eye, he slammed his fist into the mirror where his reflection had been. Shattering the glass cutting open his own hand.
"WHY WEREN'T YOU THERE!"
He slammed his fist into the mirror again.
"WHY THE HELL WERE YOU IN IRELAND, WHILE YOUR DAD WAS ROTTING AWAY IN A HOSPITAL BED IN CINCINNATI!!!"
He raised his fist to smash the mirror once more, but stopped as he saw his broken reflection. It had missing pieces all over and blood.
'What am I doing..."
His body began to feel limp as he slowly started to slip down to the floor.
'This isn't helping...'
He rested his head again the counter.
'What's done is done..."
He closed his eyes.
'And what has been done, is all my fault.'
He could help it anymore, his tears slipped down his cheeks. He covered his face with both hands, and when he felt the blood and glass on his face. Well that just sent him over the edge. That Sunday night, the morning of the day he was to reopen the cafe. Mark lay motionless on the floor of his bathroom, murmuring words of regret and self hatred.
But, two hours later his alarm clock went off. This signaled that he needed to get up and get ready to greet the workers, and help them stock up.
"Well it's time to get your shit together Mark. You have to look like you want to be here so that the employees will want to be here."
He pulled himself off of the floor and looked through the bathroom cabinets for the first aid kit.
After finding it and stitching things up, metaphorically and literally, he took a bath. He had bought the necessary products for basic bathing a little earlier in the week. Once he was out he wrapped a towel around himself and when looking through the closet and dresser for something suitable to wear. He had decided on black dress pants and a nice light pink button up shirt. He then hung his towel up and made his way to the guess bathroom to brush his hair and teeth. He popped ego waffle in the toaster and put jelly on top of the it when it was done, a great breakfast. He went back into his room only to grab his phone, which had numerous missed calls from his mother. He then strode down the stairs and unlocked the cafe doors. The workers came in all at relatively the same time, though the first was a girl named Jenny, who looked to be around Mark's age. When every one was there Mark told them all to take seats off the tops of the tables and pick one to sit in. He then sat on the front counter and cleared his throat.
"Hi guys, My name is Mark Fischbach. I didn't know much about your previous boss, but I intend to make this place as popular as he did. So to start out, I need someone to volunteer for clean up duty. Don't worry I will be helping you."
The girl, Jenny, raised her hand and said.
"I was usually the one to stay of hours to help."
"Fantastic"
Mark said smiling.
"Okay now I need someone to be working on baking, and again, I will be helping to the best of my ability."
One of the guys raised his hand this time, he was a heavier set man but looked like a hard worker.
"That was always me and,"
The man had an American accent, which it was good to know that Mark wasn't the only one here with an American accent. He turned to the guy next to him and raised his hand for him.
"Wade."
"Good, but what's your name?"
"Bob Muyskens"
"Thank you Bob and Wade. Now by the looks of it you guys already know what your doing, which is good. Since I don't know a think about this."
The group laughed and Mark smiled, he liked this bunch.
"Now I also heard that there's a guy here that normally runs the cash register. Who might that be?"
As soon as Mark finished a hand shot straight up and an excited and Swedish voice said,
"That would be me!"
"And who is me?"
"Oh, Felix Kjellberg"
Mark nodded.
"Okay, seems everything is in order, let me just send a quick text and then we will be officially open."
Everyone got up an pushed their chairs in going to their usual spots, as Bob and Wade made their way to the back room so they could start setting up the pastries and such.
Mark took his phone out of his back pocket and looked through his contacts. As soon as he found 'Jack ( Sean )' he sent him a quick text.
"If you still want to be the first customer, you should head over now."
He clicked send and pocketed his phone. Over the last week Mark had invited Jack over to play video games, and acquired his number after Jack got up to go to the bathroom, and Mark had looked over his shoulder whenever Jack was entering in his code. Rookie mistake Jack, rookie mistake.
Within two minutes Jack was already at the door. Mark strode over to it and peeked his head out.
"Sorry sir we aren't open yet. Your gonna have to wait outside till I decide I want to open the doors."
Jack actually snorted at this.
"Mark ya ass just let me in already."
Mark chuckled and flipped the closed sign on the door to open. He held the door open for Jack making , and bowed when he passed, getting another snort from Jack.
"Your such a dork."
Mark let the door close on its own, lead Jack over to Felix.
"He gets a free drink of his choice, because he helped me get my stuff moved in."
Felix just nods and asks,
"What'll it be?"
"Black with no sugar, please."
"Comin' right up!"
After Jack got his coffee he and Mark made their way upstairs. And for about an hour, they played games like Minecraft and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Zombies. Mark had finally forgotten about his stresses when Jack had to leave. He said something about texting him sometime, and went down the stairs. By now it was 8pm, almost closing time. Mark went down the stairs to check on the workers.
At 9pm, Mark sent everyone home except Jenny. She was happy to help clean up, and a very friendly girl. But then she asked about marks hand. He didn't know what to tell her so he simply said,
"I fell and broke a plate, and the ceramic curt up my hand."
She looked a bit questioningly at Mark, but didn't say anything else about it. Finally, when Mark was alone, only then did the darkness seep in once again. He felt so helpless, he didn't want to feel this way. And he knew only one way to forget all of his pain. He knew that his answers would lie at the bottom of a few shot glasses.