The Only Exception // (GOT7 Markson)

8

"Mark, hey. What's going on?" I asked. I could tell he was going through something in that moment. Mark looked a little happy to see me, but his joy faded as soon as it came.

"Oh, hey Jackson. Um, not much. I guess I'm just not having the best day." he answered with a fake smile. "It's good seeing you though, you always seem to make me laugh."

"Do you want to talk about it?" I offered with a soft smile.

"I would love to, but I already told my friend I'd meet her to finish up our project for one of my poli-sci courses. I don't wanna fail or let her down." he sighed. "Besides, I don't want you to worry about me. There's nothing going on. I just feel down today, that's all."

"Alright, if you say so. But you know you can talk to me, right?" I asked, putting my hand on his shoulder lightly. "And hey, I was thinking about what you said last week. About how you and I could hang out sometime. Did you mean it?"

"Of course." he said. "I was sort of thinking about it too, and I'd really like to spend more time with you outside of... this place. I feel like our lives revolve around this stupid coffee shop."

"I know! We're always here haha. It would be so nice to hang out somewhere else for a change." I said excitedly. "I have tickets for this new museum exhibit that's opening next week. It's Tuesday. If you don't have anything planned we could check it out?"

Mark raised a brow slightly and chuckled to himself. "You really wanna go to a museum?"

I swallowed and began to get a bit nervous. "Yeah.. I mean, if that's lame then we don't have t-"

"It's perfect." he cut me off.

"Serious?" I whispered.

"Yes. I've always wanted to go to a museum. I've never gotten the chance, but being an anthropology major it's something I'm super interested in." he said.

Score. Thank you Tyler.

"Alright, cool. Well I'll pick you up here after your shift on Tuesday then. That cool?" I said smiling.

"Great. Oh, and here, you'll need this to get a hold of me." he said, offering a piece of paper to me. On it was ten numbers with the word Mark handwritten beautiful above them. My heart fluttered a little, realizing that Mark had just given me his phone number.

"Oh, right. I'll make sure to text you then." I said, reining back my smile so that he didn't think I was a goof.

"See you then." he said back to me, heading out of the store.

*

That night I sat on my sofa alone, staring at my cell phone. I was completely in unchartered territory. I stared at Mark's name in my contact list, wondering when it would be appropriate to text him. I received a lot of boy's numbers, but I'd never, ever texted any of them. Now I had a number I wanted to text, and I was completely scared to. How ironic.

I spun my phone around on the cushion, sighing to myself and coming up with things to tell Mark when I finally had the balls to message him. Before I could think too much about it, I was interrupted by my phone buzzing.

It was Tyler.

Tyler Tuan (text message): "Hey Jackson. Can't make it for work today. Mom very sick. Going to hospital. Ttyl. Sorry."

I sat up, reading the message a few times before realizing that both Mark and Tyler had the same mother. It all made sense to me now. Mark was just putting on a brave face for me. Part of me wanted to call him and offer to pick him up, but I couldn't do that without first coming up with a reason as to just how I knew his mom was sick. The indecision was eating at me as I stared at the message.

My sadness for Mark, mixed with the anxiety of not knowing his mom's condition made my heart race and my brain get fuzzy. I wanted so badly to race to Mark's side and console him, and let him know that I am there for him. This was another new feeling, empathy; I felt my a ball form in my throat and my eyes get a little misty as I remembered how drained and upset Mark looked earlier that day. His face was burned into my mind, and I realized then that his pain was now my own, and I really truly cared about him.

My throat was dry when I swallowed. I took a big breath and dialed Mark's number. There was an empty silence while the phone rang.

A few seconds later, Mark's low voice answered. "Hello?" he asked.

"Mark? It's Jackson. How are you doing?" I said. Mark didn't answer for a while. I paced around my kitchen, expecting the worst as I waited patiently for the boy to respond.

I felt my heart sink a little when finally did speak.

"Jackson... I need someone to talk to.. It's-" his voice broke. I heard him sob a little, and then take a sharp breath through his teeth, sniffling softly. "It's my mom."

"Mark, where are you? I'll be there as soon as I can." I answered quickly.