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

Fifth

"I vividly remember my arm by pierced by a shard of jagged metal when I 'crashed' the first time. It was bleeding so badly I thought they were going to have to amputate it when I found my way to the hospital... but there was never a scar. I just realized that I never scarred and I never had any problems. Then it occurred to me."

I pulled my arms from him and sat back on my legs. I held my arms up so that he could see them.

"I'm riddled with scars. My parents never knew because I made sure to keep my shirts long sleeved. All these scars... all the times I couldn't take the world and just had to get away for a while..." I put my hands on my stomach. "All the times the aliens cut me open and pulled me apart... trying to find a way to impregnate me... I had none of them... and you never even noticed."

Mars sat up, putting his hand to his head.

"That's not fair, Max."

"How isn't it fair?" I growled.

"I wasn't paying attention to your scars, I was paying attention to you. You were abducted and was gone for so long and then you finally came back. Why the hell would I care about your scars? You were back and healthy and okay."

"I wasn't okay! I was fucking pregnant!"

"And I tried to be there as much as I could for you! I'm the only one who was! Besides your parents, everyone thought you were a disgusting abomination from a children's nightmare! I never thought that about you! I was just so happy that you were alive!"

"Well aren't you a saint!"

"Fuck you, Max!" he said, standing up.

"If you were supposedly my best friend then I would think you'd have paid enough attention to detail to notice that I didn't have almost fifty or sixty scars on my body! If you had been more observant, then I wouldn't have endured all the-"

I was completely surprised to find Mars' hand around my neck. He had never, ever laid a hand on me before. He glared at me, a mix of deep sadness and blazing anger staring back at me at the same time.

"Did you ever think that maybe it was your fault?" he growled. "Observant my ass! This is your body, not mine! Wouldn't you have noticed that you didn't have your own fucking scars?! Why is it my job to take care of you?!" I stared at him with wide eyes as he let go of me. "We're done."

"What do you mean?"

"From pre-school to high school, I have always come to your aid. I have always been there for you, cared for you, made sure that nothing ever happened to you. You were like a brother to me. I went to fucking space for you! No... not even fore you. I went there for your son. You were supposedly dead so I went there because I was scared for your son. I got treated like shit, beaten, electrocuted... I did everything because Kasai was my best friend's son. He was a part of you and so that meant that he was a part of me, because he was your son. My brother... my best friend... or so I thought.

"I think my mom was right but it wasn't because of you, it was because of me. I fooled myself into thinking we were friends. You were happy by yourself, playing alone. I took it upon myself to enter into your life when you didn't even want me there. So, we're done. I finally got the hint. You never needed me or wanted me, you tolerated me, letting me believe I was doing something good... You're just as bad as Kole."

"Hey." I was surprised to find Dawaen had stepped between us. "Max isn't right but neither are you and he could never devise a plan as convoluted as Kole's. Don't say that about him."

"What are you, the friend guru now?" Mars growled.

"No, but the hell if I'm going to sit back and watch you two tear into each other like rabid dogs. Nothing that has happened has been anyone's fault. We just crashed somewhere we don't know, we're all banged up, and tired and hungry. We can't do this right now. So apologize to each other. This was a stupid argument."

"No it isn't." I said, clenching my fists. "Those scars would have gotten me back home sooner. I wouldn't have had to endure all the mindfucks that I had to endure. No one would have gotten abducted into space... or volunteered themselves. My son would be with me and my family would be by my side."

"Your son wouldn't have been born." Dawaen said. "If it was a clone, then that means your kid wouldn't have been your kid, but the clone's. You would have had no attachment to him. In all honesty, if you had found out earlier, you may have killed him because of depression or something. Could you live with that? If what you say is true, and your consciousness was going back and forth between the two of you, then you probably would have killed the kid from depression or neglect and you would have to feel that one way or the other... the death of your son."

"If things had gone quicker then it wouldn't have mattered. I wouldn't have gotten attached... none of us would have."

"What a selfish little shit you are." Mars said from the other side of Dawaen. "I can't believe we were friends."

"You're still friends." Dawaen said angrily, stomping his foot like a child. "Everything that is said here is just all of us being emotional. We just all came from the most traumatic thing we're ever had to endure, Max with the most of it."

"Yes, because Max is so delicate."

"Stop it!" Dawaen yelled. "Stop... please... please..." He suddenly put his hands over his face and squatted, almost looking like he was crying. "I know I should be the tough one and not care about anything but I just want to go home. I'm so scared... I'm scared of what my dad is going to do to me, what I'm going to have to endure... I'm scared no one will help me and I don't know what that golden piece of shit injected me with. You guys have been friends for so long... is this really going to tear you apart? I mean..."

Watching Dawaen break down like a child was kind of heartbreaking and even Mars was looking at him sympathetically. He looked up at me and I sniffled, wiping my nose.

"I still can't forgive you." I said.

Mars sighed. "I know... but... answer me something, yeah?"

"What?"

"Is what Dawaen said true? Since that clone was the one that carried Kasai, do you have no feeling for him now? Is he just some other experiment that the aliens did to you?"

I didn't know what to think. He was my son... but not... and... I just...

"Your silence says everything."

"No it doesn't. I just don't know what to think."

"Exactly. If you loved him, you wouldn't have to... "

"Well what about you? You just went up there because he was my son."

"That's part of it, but I also went up there because he was in danger. I wouldn't care if it was Dawaen's kid, if a child is in danger, I would have done the same."

"Don't lie." Dawaen said from the ground.

"Okay, maybe not to the complete extreme, but I would have done everything I could to protect him. He's a child... a child who was given the short end of the stick."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If I were Kasai, I would hate to have a father like you. I know I hate that I ever was a friend to someone like you."

"I didn't ask you to be my friend, Mars."

"I know... That was my mistake."

Mars started limping away and I just stared after him. Was our friendship... over?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

well... that's what happens when everyone crashes and is thrown out of an alien shuttle. shit gets real. and silly arguments are made into big ones.

and when max was talking about not getting attached, he wasn't being a jerk, he was just stating a fact but mars took it as him trying to argue. but max is right, if nothing happened with kasai because they realized the thing about the clone, then no one would have been attached. also, max does love kasai but it's got to be confusing. he felt like he carried him because his consciousness was in the clone and his mind melded with him in the mind space but he didn't really carry him at the same time. it's like mind: blown 🤯