Not Like the Rest

Chapter Thirteen

Mark stood next to his mother by the door of the McLoughlin residence. He was still unsure of why he had to come with her, but knowing his mom, there was no alternative. Voices echoed from beyond the door, as footsteps gently shook the house. The door opened, as a woman with reddish-blonde hair and brown eyes stood at the door. She was wearing a pair of nice jeans and a flannel buttoned down, reminding him of one of those Texan moms that call everyone "hon" or "sugar". The woman smiled. "Hello there! You must be Mrs. Fischbach!"

Mark's mom smiled, shaking hands with Mrs. McLoughlin. "It's a pleasure to meet you face to face."

Mrs. McLoughlin chuckled. "Save the formalities. Call me Amber."

Mrs. Fischbach nodded, as Amber stepped aside, willing Mark and his mother to come in. Mark looked around, taking in the look of the house, as Amber smiled. "Go ahead and kick off your shoes and take a seat in the living room."

Mrs. Fischbach nodded a thank you, as she glanced at Mark to take his shoes off. Mark did so, as he and his mother sat down in the living room. Just as he sat down, Amber looked around, her gaze landing on Mark. "Don't worry, kid. You won't have to put up with our adult talk," she said with a smile. "My son is excited to spend this meeting with ya."

Mark politely smiled. "Thank you."

Amber nodded, as a new but familiar voice spoke up. "Amber?"

Mark's eyes widened, as he saw the boy who walked down the staircase.

Jack?

Mark fought hard to hide his shock that this was Jack's house. Jack seemed equally shocked that it was Mark that was the client's son. However, that confusion soon faded, as Jack smiled warmly. "Mark! Pleasure to see you!"

Amber smiled. "Aww, do you boys know each other?"

Mark was about to answer, but Jack beat him to the words. "Yes we do! I believe we have science together, right Mark?"

Mark nodded. "Y-Yeah."

Amber nodded. "Well then, I don't have to worry about that." Amber chuckled. "Jack, you and Mark can head up to your room. Mrs. Fischbach and I have our meeting to address."

Jack nodded, slightly dipping his head. "Of course."

Jack started towards his bedroom, waving for Mark to follow him. Mark did so, watching Jack's stride. He had to admit for a male, he was a little curvy. The fact that his clothes weren't as baggy as maybe Mark's supplemented that fact. However, Mark could safely say that Jack was a well-built young man. Though slightly scrawny, still lean. Mark mentally smacked himself. I've been hanging out with Mom too much... he chided himself. She's always noticed these kinds of things... Mark watched Jack open the door to a normal looking bedroom. A large bed was in the middle, with simple black and green bedding. A small computer setup rested in the corner, an idle animation of multi-colored swirls dancing across. Mark smiled. "Cool room."

Jack smiled. "I appreciate the compliment." Jack powered on a nearby XBox One and held out a controller. The Irishman smiled. "Anything, in particular, you'd like to play?"

Mark shrugged. "What do you have?"

Jack looked through his shelf, listing off various games. "Portal 2, Lego Movie, Lego Marvel, Rocket League, Minecraft..." Jack blushed. "I... sadly, don't have much."

Mark smiled, noticing Jack's embarrassed blush as he mentioned the Lego games. "I'm down for Rocket League of you are."

Jack nodded. "Of course. One of my favorites." Mark gently took the controller from Jack's hand, as Jack loaded the disk. He went to sign in to his XBox, selecting his name.

As Jack was about to put in the password, he turned to Mark. "Apologies, Mark, but do you mind refraining from watching the screen? I get anxious when people watch me put in my passwords."

Mark nodded. "All good, dude." Mark turned around as he heard the clicks of the XBox keyboard. Jack then notified that he was done. Mark turned around, seeing Jack's car. His body was the Aftershock, with white paint, and the decals blue and red as per whatever team he would be assigned.

Mark smiled. "Do you think I could put in my own account? I have a car set that I'd like to used."

Jack nodded. "Of course." He turned around as Mark added himself to the device. Once finished, Jack and Mark began their rounds of play. As they maneuvered their cars across the field, Mark couldn't notice Jack's skill. Like he'd heard Abi talk about in details about her favorite movie, how the main character memorized the patterns of classic arcade games. It was like Jack had memorized techniques for playing well. Although, when push came to shove for executing those strategies, Jack was mostly either a split second too early, or had no one to follow up on his plans. That's where Mark would come in. He knew he had skills, but when it came to planning, he would fail epically. Mark watched Jack's car snake across the wall, gently tapping the ball towards the goal. Mark knew it wouldn't get it in, but it would get it in front of the virtual goal. And with a quick glance to his boost meter, Mark figured he could make it. Mark pressed down the boost watching the ball bounce. Mark quickly jumped and launched the ball into the goal, and with a satisfying ball explosion, Mark, Jack, and anyone else near the goal were blasted away, as Mark and Jack let out a victorious stream of shouts.

"THAT WAS EPIC!!!!!!!" Jack shouted, laughing.

Mark did the same, pumping his fist in the air. "HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!"

Jack smiled, as the game ensued, and Mark's mind temporarily slipped its grip of any suspicions about anything.

A/N: OH MY FUCKING GOD I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK A YEAR TO UPDATE!!!!!!! I've been so busy with life and school, and everything else I throw myself into. Like recently, as of when this is being typed, I was cast as a lead in my school musical (We did the Prince Street Players version of Cinderella, and I was the Fairy God Mother. Look the show up on YouTube, it actually is really hilarious), and if anyone's a theater kid, you know Tech Week spares no one. NO ONE IS SAFE. Not only that, but I've been trying to catch up on homework, along with I don't have easy access to Wattpad anymore...

I just want to take this time since Thanksgiving had just passed, to appreciate you all more than I already do. Everyone here is so patient and understanding and it's a joy to be a art of this messed up little family. After all, ohana means family, and family means no one sits alone at the mental institute (I could never be funny enough to come up with that... ;-;)

ANYWAY, thank you all so much for reading and sticking with me. I may have mentioned before that I have a lot of new ideas involving new characters, new  that I think will be cliche but still fun to read. I'm so sorry this took a year to get back to, but I hope it was decently worth the wait.

As always, thank you all so much for reading, I hope no one is too mad this took a year, and I hope to see you all soon!

~JACL

(Edit: YALL ARE SO FUCKING SWEET AAAAAAAAAAAA)