After about twenty minutes of wandering the halls and chatting with William, Alex and Marcus skid around a corner, shoving and falling over each other in a race. You laughed, stopping them as they approached so they didn't bump into anyone.
"Marcus-! You're here, how'd you get here-?"
"I ran." Marcus grinned and you laughed, although you had no clue if he was joking or not. A grin seemed to be the usual expression for the kid. Which was good, Alex needed someone so smiley and optimistic in his life. But still... you were weary of Marcus.
"Alrighty then- fair enough. Have fun, you two, make sure you don't break anything-" you smiled, causing Marcus to laugh and take off again, Alex trailing behind. You looked at William and you both shared a glance before sneaking off after them to spy on them. You might as well- jim hadn't given either of you any jobs for today, so it's not like you had somewhere else to be.
The boys slid down the hall, laughing as they tripped over each other and ended up on the floor in fits of laughter.
"I totally beat you!!!"
"Yeah right! We didn't even finish! We both failed!" They laughed, you smiled as you peaked around the corner silently with William. Marcus took off his hat, before shoving it on Alex and practically drowning him in it. Alex laughed, tilting the cap up so he could see properly. Marcus grinned, poking Alex's nose happily, causing them both to laugh once more.
"You're weird."
"Says you! Oh, by the way, your friend y/n is hot-" Marcus snort-laughed. Alex immediately flushed red and shoved his friend away.
"Ewww gross!!"
"She is!!!" Marcus teased, laughing at the new-found embarrassment for Alex. You felt your cheeks tint pink and you laughed slightly to yourself- Marcus seemed pretty nice, all in all. ... until you noticed him pull out his phone to show Alex something.
"See?? She's so pretty!!!"
"What-?? Where'd you get a picture of y/n?" Alex asked, tilting his head quizzically at his friend. Marcus shrugged and smiled.
"I'm secretly a stalker~"
"Oh yeah right, Marcus."
"Well hey, not a complete lie!!! It's blackmail. I figured since your family is so whacked out, I gotta have some form of self defence." Marcus grinned teasingly. Alex stared at him a moment, seemingly processing what had just been said. You glanced at William to see his expression. And there it was. Marcus had pictures and who knows what else on his phone to blackmail people. .... you didn't know what his intentions were, whether honest or not, but you knew for certain that if that got into the wrong hands it would be very, very bad.
You could see the slightest bit of disturbance linger in Alex's eyes, leading you to conclude that he had come to the same presumption. Hm...
"Oh chill out, Alex. Everyone has their quirks-" Marcus grinned, Alex smiled and nodded again.
"... right. Yeah, I suppose. ..I'd rather you have some form of protecting yourself, so that's good. Just... ... you can't hurt anyone with this, okay...? I don't know what I'd do if I lost y/n or William.."
"Naaah don't worry about it kiddo. I'd never use it unless my life was seriously in danger." Marcus grinned, attacking Alex's head with a noogie. You watched, oddly comforted by Marcus's choice of words. You agreed with Alex, you were glad Marcus had some sort of defence mechanism- although it was an extremely risky one.
.... you should pull him aside later and question him on all of it. You seriously had no clue if you should trust whether he honestly wouldn't use it- but... either way it was still dangerous. .... and yet another thing you had to keep from Jim. At all costs. If jim found out about this, regardless of how much you've helped him the past while... he would kill the boy on the spot. No mercy.
.... it was an extremely disturbing thought.