The Oddities of Grand Marquis - Book 3: Elegant Armageddon 🪼✔️

Third

"Of course you don't understand." Kole said, laughing humorlessly. "Why would you? The poor little victim... Let's all feel sorry for Max."

I turned my head. "What are you talking about?"

"Stop acting like you're the victim all the god damned time!" he screamed, looking at me with an anger I had never seen from him. "That's all you ever did! Every time we hung out, all you did was try to make everyone feel sorry for you. 'Whoa is me, my family is smothering me with their love' 'Everybody look at my new scar. This is because my parents didn't let me do what I wanted' 'My dad acts like he hates me, boo hoo.' Literally all the fucking time."

"It's called depression-"

"It's called being a fucking fake." He growled. He motioned to me. "You have all those little scars because you're just a cop out. At least I know what I am but you're nothing but a fake. A fake emo kid, a fake person and a fake friend."

"I am not a fake person or a fake friend! I didn't hurt myself because I was trying to get attention or trying to be emo, I did it because it was the closest thing I could get to death without dying. I already tried that and Mars made me promise to never do it again."

"But why? You had the perfect life. You had parents who loved you, a family that cared about you, friends, everything. It's like you weren't satisfied with what you had and then all you did was just rub it in my face all the time. Your perfect life... God, I fucking hated hanging out with you."

"Answer my question, Kole. Stop deflecting everything back to me."

"You want the truth?" he finally said, turning to me.

"Yes."

"Alright." He turned to me, putting his hands in front of him like he was about to make a presentation. "Here is the complete and utter truth: I never liked you. I hated hanging out with you and I hated being your friend. I wanted to be Mars' friend, but for some reason Mars didn't like me, so the only way I could get close to him was to be friends with you. The more I hung out with you, the more I didn't understand why in the world someone like Mars would hang out with you, a wannabe emo and an emotionally manipulative little shit."

"Stop trying to gaslight me you asshole!" I snarled, pushing him in the shoulders. "I may have been stuck in that tank for two years but I've gotten enough mindfucks to know when I'm getting mindfucked. Answer. My fucking. QUESTION!!!" I screamed, pushing him with each word until I had him up against the wall. I grabbed his shirt and slammed him against it. "ANSWER MY QUESTION!!!"

"Stop." I turned, finding Mars standing there with a tired but angry look on his face. "Move."

I moved out of his way, not sure what was about to happen. Mars has always been my friend but I still could never understand him. Most of the time he was friendly, sometimes annoyingly talkative, and always there for me. But occasionally, he had this dark side to him... a side of him that he swore he'd never show in front of me after that one time. I waited for him to do something, but all the did was stand there for a moment.

"Kole." He looked at him. "I will give you one free chance to answer Max's question. After that, every time you deny answering him, I will punch you. If we reach ten times, then I will smash your head into the wall. When we reach five, most likely your nose will be shattered and your teeth will have all been knocked out. If I have to go beyond that, you will not see Earth. As of right now, I don't know if that's going to be because I will have punched your eyes in or because you will be in a coma. So. You get one free chance to answer the question: why?"

I looked at Kole as he stared at Mars in horror, fear in his eyes and in his demeanor. Mars wasn't looking at me, but I know he had a pretty intimidating stare. Kole didn't say anything and Mars sighed.