Mark got home at one, and since he wasn't tired, and neither was I, he camped in my room for a bit and I showed him the letters. He knew about the two guys that seemed to still want me in their lives, but yet, failed to SHOW me. He and I had been confiding in each other ….actually the whole house seemed to know about each other's lives, and we had become this great family.
"So, you and Isac are pretty much through?" I nodded non-emotionally.
"He has always been this womanizer. I was just his catch of the moment, and it hurts, but luckily I have numbed him out ever since I got here. Herb, though, is the childhood buddy that I was so close too. We've changed and yet.... we haven't really. I still look up to him, but he has turned into my parents, and I don't want to relive that," he kept eye contact with me and held my hand as I kept talking. It hit me then that he had become that buddy that I had longed for since Herb's departure to school. "You've taken his spot Mark." He nodded like he had known all along and hugged me then. His embrace was so powerful, friendly, and yet filled with sexual intensity. I think he was thinking the same thought because he backed off just as I did.
"I should go to sleep," he said shakily but didn't move.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," I walked to grab my toothbrush," How is the Mary situation?"
"I haven't talked to her since that fight. I saw her on campus today, and she was talking with an architecture student that I know. He has a reputation for doing women, drugs, sheep..." I smiled at his attempt at being funny. I started to walk to the bathroom, but he said my name.
"Yes?" He sighed and then came closer to me.
"Will you hug me again?"
"Of course." He wrapped his arms around me, and I held him. I was rubbing his back and whispering encouraging thoughts when the
phone rang.