Externalizing [mxm]

Chapter 13

Eventually Marc couldn’t tell what the mushroom was in the mix anymore, and Brendan served it out in some bowls. Ariel was all too excited about it, and happily ate it all up.

“She must be one of the few kids that likes vegetables,” Marc remarked.

“Maybe because you took her out to eat too much, and so now she has an appreciation for real food,” Brendan waved his fork over at him.

“I like the mushrooms,” Ariel chimed in, earning a smug look out of Brendan.

They finished eating and cleaned up, and Ariel went to plant herself in front of the TV for a little while. Marc set up the yearbook on the kitchen and gave Brendan an expectant look. Brendan rolled his eyes and sat down next to Marc.

Brendan’s yearbook was a lot thicker, and filled with a lot of extra stuff that Marc’s had never had. “Why do you only have your senior year? Why not the rest of them?” Marc asked as Brendan flipped through pages.

“Because the rest of them are with my parents,” Brendan answered. “And when I turned eighteen it was just before my senior year, so this was the only one I got and kept with me.”

All of the underclassmen had their pictures lined up in stationary rows, and the seniors had special portraits taken for themselves as a special senior privilege. Brendan finally found the page he was on and pointed himself out.

His hair was just as black but longer, and he had a number of piercings; at least one in his lip and another in the septum of his nose, from at least what Marc could see. “What are these for?” he took another closer look at Brendan, trying to see if he still had any piercings.

“My aunt said I could get some piercings, or one tattoo, after I moved in with her. I think it was her way of letting me have some freedom after my parents,” Brendan explained. “So I got a couple of piercings, because I figured impermanence was better. But now I’ve got more tattoos than piercings,” he snorted. “I mean technically I’ve still got all my piercings—I had them for so long that I doubt they’ll close.”

“That would be interesting to see,” Marc said. “I think they really suit you, actually.”

“Yeah, but the school doesn’t exactly fly with all of that,” Brendan chuckled. “I mean I could probably get away with putting my septum back in since I can hide that easy enough.”

“So you don’t talk to your parent’s anymore?” Marc questioned. He was still waiting for his dad to call at some point.

Brendan shrugged stiffly and flipped aimlessly through the rest of his yearbook. “They try and talk to me. It always goes the same way though; am I dating anyone, no? Well there’s this nice girl that they know… and then it just winds up in a fight about you can guess what.”

Marc ground his teeth together. “How did they even find out about that?”

“Internet history, easy as that,” Brendan answered sourly. “I was too young to figure out how to erase it, and didn’t think they had any reason to go looking.”