Beautiful Deception

N I N E T E E N

word count: 4, 530
warnings: pay attention to the location changes and time skips, otherwise the pacing of this chapter will make zero sense. also contains a mild description of past tense violence, cursing, and mentions of blood; nothing too heavy though.
pages (paging mode): 29

**
9:16 AM
January 24th
location: mark's room, underground.
mae

"What are we?" Mark repeated when we broke apart for air. He was still staring at me, his eyes dark and shining, and my hands still clutched at his pajama shirt.

He pulled the elastic out of my hair, letting it fall down past my shoulders.

I knew my hair was tangled and messy, maybe even borderline atrocious given the night's events; but with the way he was looking at me, I could've had bright pink pigtails sprouting from my head, and he wouldn't have cared a bit.

I unknowingly held my breath as I waited for him to keep talking.

"We're people." He eventually began, and I had to restrain myself from rolling my eyes. "No really, hear me out. We're just Mae and Mark- two somewhat normal people who happen to be in a gang, fighting for what we believe is good and right.

"And people, well, they're a lot of things. They say a lot, they do a lot, and they think a lot, but they also feel a lot. People feel a lot of things, more than we probably even know. We feel sad, we feel hurt, we feel happy or excited or scared. There's a lot of feelings out there that people can feel."

I felt a smile pulling at the corner of my lips at this, finding his little philosophy speech much more amusing than I'd expected to under the circumstances.

"And I don't know about you, but ever since September, I've started having some feelings that I don't even know the names of. You can laugh at me all you want for sounding like an idiot, but ever since we met, I've felt something for you, about you, that I've never felt before."

God, this sounds like something straight out of a movie.

Mark's arms slid down to wrap around my waist, and he didn't seem to have any reservations on moving me to sit in his lap, holding me at just the right place for our eyes to meet while he bared his heart. My hands let go of his shirt in favor of his shoulders, using them to keep my balance.

"Mae..." His voice became quieter, and I had to lean forward a little to hear him. "I've never done this before."

I allowed my smile to grow. Me neither, Ace.

"I've never had anyone like you in my life." He admitted in a whisper. "But as dumb as I can be at times, I'm not stupid. I know what love looks like. I know the signs, I know the side effects, I know the consequences; but I think, right now, I'm kind of... I don't know, I'm learning how it feels."

For the first time since he'd woken up, Mark broke the stare and instead took a sudden interest in our hands, which had begun latching on to each other like a lifeline. I didn't miss the light dusting of red on his cheeks.

His next words were hurried, almost like he was scared he wouldn't be able to get all of them out.

"And I want you to know that you don't have to say anything about it, you don't have to feel it too. I don't wanna pressure you into saying anything or acting in a way that you don't want too. I just... I had to let you know, I guess. Yeah, that's it; I had to let you know how special you are to me."

He's rambling.

"If you just wanna ignore everything I just said then that's totally fine too-"