14/7/1 Contest Entry - Life BitterSweet

CHAPTER ONE - FIRST SIGHT

When Mark had first met Alice, he was seven and she was FIVE. It was her birthday party and his mother had been invited, so he was dragged along. Mark was extremely sullen and he made sure everyone knew by sitting on the picnic bench positioned between two weeping willows with his chin cradled in his hands. All by himself he sat with his lower lip protruding and eyes rolling every time someone laughed or screamed. His mother scolded him for not participating every chance she got. His defense to her nagging was staring back with a vacancy in his eyes that said he could be listening, but probably not. Mark would have rather been out in the woods fishing or skipping rocks in the CREEK than where he was, hanging out with a bunch of girls.

Mark had never met Alice before and his first image of her from that day would be imprinted on his soul for the rest of his life. She was wearing a blue and white polka-dot dress with matching white sandals. Her hair, a dark mass of curls swept up in a ponytail, bobbed as she danced around the yard. Her lopsided smile was so ridiculously charming and contagious, that he was grinning without being aware. His mother coming from the backdoor of the house paused, noticing the strange expression on her son's face. She followed the direction of his eyes and the corners of her mouth twitched upwards.

Alice was completely oblivious of Mark's stare. She continued swirling and dipping, keeping time to the music playing over the small radio propped on a chair next to the barbecue. The smell of hot dogs sizzling on the grill filled the air. The sprinkler was spinning rapidly around and around. Shrieking little girls ran in and out of the rushing water, eyes wide with excitement and happiness.

Shivering, Mark felt fragile and weak. He honestly thought that if he so much as blinked an eyelash the magic of this moment would vanish forever. He appeared frozen in the hot July sun.

Nothing would have come of it, his notice of Alice, if he had been allowed a few more minutes for this feeling to pass. He would have put his head back down and returned to his gloomy state, waiting out the time until his mother decided it was time to go home.

Fate decided otherwise.

His mother was secretly amused that her little boy was finally growing up. Alice was such a nice girl and her mother, Lucy, was on the PTA, it seemed perfect and she didn't think it would hurt to introduce the two children.

As his mom and Alice approached, Mark's whole being vibrated as if magnetic force was suddenly going to lift him from his sitting position and drag him forward to the girl in the polka-dot dress. When her pale blue eyes turned their attention to him, he drowned within their depths. He was devoured, heart and soul, and that was the end of him.

"Hello, my name's Alice. I'm five!" She thrust her hand out, lopsided smile returning.

Awkwardly, Mark took her hand and squeezed. Her touch felt electrical to him. "Hi."

Letting go of his hand, smiling wider and more mischievously, she ran off into the center of the yard again and continued dancing with a group of other invited children. Mark had never felt more out of place in his life, or stupid, for that matter.

When Alice motioned for him to join, he hesitated for a total of six seconds. Out of place and feeling stupid suddenly faded away with Alice by his side.




From that day forward, things would never be the same. Looking back through the hazy eyes of memory, Mark would suffer greatly each time he thought of him and Alice. They were once so innocent... So... IN LOVE!

What the fuck went wrong?



WORD COUNT - 656
Prompts: Five; something you can see in nature; and one genre as romance/love




CHAPTER TWO - LOVER

Alice could have told Mark exactly what had gone wrong. Simple and to the point, they had grown apart. They were two different people with two different ideas of 'happily ever after'. That was it. Case closed.

Not only that, but she had found someone else. That's where she was heading to now, to her lover's apartment. She pushed her sunglasses further up on her nose and smiled. She had a lover! Ha! Sweet Alice, of all people, all grown up, having an affair! Her mother would've died from a heart attack if she were still alive, God rest her soul.

Parking her green and white '77 Ford XLT Ranger at the curb, Alice sat for a moment and studied her reflection in the rear-view mirror.

She was twenty-seven, her once beautiful black hair had faded over time, there were crows feet etched along the corners of her mouth and forehead, but her eyes had never changed. They were still that odd shade of pale blue, still mysterious, and men had always found them alluring.

Outside on the sidewalk, she paused. Every time she entered this brick apartment building, her conscience attacked. Now was no different.

Slut!
Cheater!

"Yeah, yeah. Tell me something I don't know..." she murmured and rang the buzzer to apartment 3G.




"She's cheating on you."

"I think I'd know if that were the case..."

"I'm telling you, she's cheating. She's getting her jollies somewhere else."

"Jollies? Isn't that a bit outdated?"

"It's better to say that than the alternative. For example, she's getting fucked by someone else."

Pins 'N' Cues Pool Hall, which was more of a BOX than a hall, was the place to unwind for the boys on weekends. There was Mark and his friend Buzz. Ron, who was the bartender and another good friend, leaned forward and watched the two other men playing pool. The bar was to the back of the room, pool tables to the front by the entrance. Two special green felt tables were reserved for regulars back by the bar. Mark and Buzz played on one of those as Ron leaned back on a bar stool and drank a pint of beer. The pool hall was closed but Ron owned the place, so they played for free.

Mark had just turned thirty. He felt old. Emotionally, physically, mentally. He was ancient as far as he was concerned. His problems weren't only to do with his sudden age change, but mainly Alice. He had turned thirty and she wasn't there. Flat tire, she said, couldn't make it. Now that he was aware that she could be cheating, everything in his life was suddenly gained a new perspective he didn't necessarily want to know.

"I think you should fuck someone else." Buzz commented, sinking the glossy and ROUND six into the corner pocket.

"I don't think you should do anything until you know for sure. And," Ron turned to Mark and motioned to Buzz, "this guy is hardly the one you want to be taking advice from."

"Fuck you." Buzz said with a grin, firing the seven into the same corner pocket. He straightened and leaned against the table. "You're thirty and you've only been with Alice. Don't you think it's time to get your dick wet, just a tad? Just go out, fuck someone, and never think about it again. A man needs variety."

Ron rolled his eyes so violently that Mark thought he looked like a man having a spasm. "Fine, go with Dr. Phil over there. Fuck someone else. Brilliant advice."

"Actually," Mark paused, then added, "that's a great idea."

Buzz's stick hit the felt and the cue ball went flying across the room. It was the first shot he had missed all night.




"I'm glad you came."

Alice sat on the edge of the bed with an OVULAR glass of wine in her hand. She drank it all in one long gulp and held out the glass for more. Luke obliged and filled it to the top this time.

"Aren't you going to take your jacket off?" He asked, leaning against the bedroom's door frame.

She did as he asked. Smiling and drunk already, Luke stepped toward her and knelt at her legs. His hand ran up underneath her skirt and caressed her inner-thigh.

"Luke..."

"Yes?"

Alice shook her head. Fuck it, she thought and spread her legs wider.

Later, when Luke was ramming into her, she stared up at the TRIANGULAR mirror above his bed. Looking back was her reflection and hating what she saw, she screamed. Luke thought he was getting her off and came shortly after.




WORD COUNT: 775
Use something round, something square, something in triangle shape, and something oval. You are free to use these prompt words or have items that have that shape.
Total Word Count: 1431




CHAPTER 3 - ONE-NIGHT STAND

Mark had spent the next week trying to reach Alice but as his phone calls became too many, he gave up. On his lunch break, he even made the time to drive over to her office where she worked as a secretary for an oil and gas company and they said she had called in sick. So he drove over to her place. No one was home and if she was there, she didn't answer the door. She was avoiding him and he didn't know why.

When Saturday rolled around and after six days of no answers, Mark found himself at a club where the air was hot and heavy and stank of dry ice, the strobe lights pierced his eyes, and the Long Islands were going down easier and easier. He felt like a dinosaur for the first hour but when no one else seemed to care, he stopped caring all together.

It was time to get this show on the road.




Alice stopped by Pins 'N' Cues and was shocked that Mark wasn't there. For almost ten years, every Saturday, he could be found at the back of the building with Buzz playing pool. To not find him here tonight had her worried.

"Where's Mark?"

Ron glanced over his shoulder from where he was reaching into the cooler and quickly looked away. He returned a moment later and smiled. "Oh, Alice, so good to see you. What was that?"

"Where's Mark?"

Ron looked around. "Oh, I didn't even realize he wasn't here."

"Don't lie, Ron," Alice snapped. "You're a horrible liar and you always will be."

A hand clamped down on her shoulder and squeezed. "We know about you."

Turning around, heart suddenly triple beating, Alice looked up into the face of a very drunk Buzz. "Know what?"

Buzz smirked and rolled his eyes. "About your fucking around. I saw you with that weasel numerous times. You think you're so clever, fucking slut. Leave Mark ---"

"Excuse me?" Alice's eyes flashed dangerously.

Ron took Buzz's hand from her shoulder and pleaded with her from the other side of the bar. "Buzz didn't mean any of that ---"

"Yes I fucking did!"

"---and Mark isn't here. I honestly don't know where he is. He didn't tell us."

Alice's stomach turned inside out. They knew! Cheating on Mark had been so exhilarating at the time, but now that everyone knew... She had spent the week with Luke and now she felt guilty.

You're only feeling guilty because you got caught.

She pushed that thought away. "He's not answering his phone."

Ron reached behind the bar and pulled out Mark's phone. "He left it here with us. He did stop by yesterday to have me hold on to it. He said something about not wanting to break down..." He avoided Alice's eyes as he handed her the phone.

"Buzz?" Alice asked, turning to him for an explanation.

"Don't look at me. He's my best friend. As far as I'm concerned, he started being a free agent when you started spreading your legs for someone else." Buzz leaned in so close she could smell the beer and stale peanuts on his breath. "What's wrong, princess? The truth hurt?"

She slapped him. Hard.

Alice left the bar, jumped in her truck, and decided to wait for Mark to get home. She would park further down the street and wait for however long it took.




The one-night stand had gone horribly from the moment he left the club with the very drunk brunette until the moment he jumped in the cab and told the driver to make a run for it.

The brunette had seemed perfectly normal until he got back to her place. Her name was Lily or something like that, he had already forgotten. As soon as Lily burst through the door of her condo, he was greeted by Mr. Muffins, her ORANGE AND WHITE TABBY. If this cat were a person, he believed this cat would've kicked his ass out on the lawn and slammed the door shut.

Mr. Muffins had made the night hell. Things were fine at first, until Mark and Lily started to make out and were slowly moving toward her bedroom. Mr. Muffins shuffled under Mark's feet and he tripped and banged his knee hard on the edge of Lily's end-table. Still trying to get in the mood, like the pro he was trying to be, they moved to Lily's bedroom, where she decided to close her bedroom door and deny the fur ball access. Mark tried to keep his mind on the task at hand, but the cat howled and howled outside the door in between pawing to be let in. Lily finally gave in, opened the door a crack, and Mr. Muffins burst through in all his glory where he decided to lay across the headboard and stare down at Mark, unblinking, as he was trying to do his business. He was limp in a matter of seconds.

"What's wrong?"

Mark stared at Lily, too drunk to realize that to her this cat was normal. Mr. Muffins was quite the contrary, he was the devil. "I can't. I'm sorry."

Lily smiled and nodded. "It's okay, no biggie," she smirked as she looked down at his shrunken penis.

"I think I'm just going to leave."

He gathered his clothes, put them on, and as he stepped into his shoes, they made a wet squishy sound. Mr. Muffins had pissed in not just one, but both shoes.

After a few minutes into the ride home, all the windows in the cab were down.


WORD COUNT: 938
Prompt - Give me some comedy relief by having a scene that describes a funny accident involving a cat. The emphasis here is on comedy relief. Do not badly hurt the cat or the character.
If you can't use a cat for whatever reason, you may substitute another humorous situation, but that is only a last ditch recourse.
Total Word Count: 2369




CHAPTER FOUR - APARTMENT 3G

Sunlight lit upon Alice's face, waking her up. Her back hurt, her left foot was numb, and her neck was throbbing in time with her heartbeat. Sluggishly, she wiped hair from her face and sat still blinking, and for a moment forgot where she was.

Her truck. She must have fallen asleep while waiting for Mark to come home. So much for being vigilant. Sitting up straighter and squinting her eyes, she noticed a blinking red light flashing on her cell. There was a message waiting for her.

"Hi," Buzz's slurred voice echoed in her ear. Instantly, Alice knew this wouldn't be good. "I called Mark, told him about your boyfriend and where he could find him. He's on his way over there right now."

Alice snapped the phone shut, turned the key in the ignition, and sped away from Mark's house. She kept glancing at her wristwatch, HOPING TO BEAT MARK THERE. She couldn't recall the time the message had been left and she cursed herself for not having paid enough attention.

When she arrived at Luke's apartment, she parked half-way up on the sidewalk, flung open her door leaving the Ford idling, and ran to the entrance. Mark's vehicle wasn't parked out front, so she figured she had beat him there.

When Luke answered his door, he appeared startled. "You didn't call..." His hand raised to grip the frame.

Her eyes quickly scanned his apartment. No sign of Mark, that was good. "Just thought I'd drop by and say hello. Want to go for a coffee?"

"It's eight in the morning." Luke answered, still not opening the door, his arm firmly keeping her out.

"Is something wrong?" Alice asked, quickly ducking under his arm and inviting herself in.

She took in the the wine glasses and the couch cushions on the floor that looked an awful lot like a make-shift bed. His bedroom door was closed and as she crossed the living room to open the door, Luke cut in front of her. "I wouldn't go in there."

"You wouldn't? Or I shouldn't?"

"You shouldn't."

She pushed him to the side and flung the door open.




Buzz had drove Mark to the apartment. His black Mustang was parked at the corner, and since Alice had only been looking for Mark's Honda, she had blown past Buzz without even noticing. He smiled as she ran. Buzz called Mark, who had already gone up to Luke's apartment.




When he had at first knocked and Luke answered the door, he noticed the disheveled appearance of the man and his apartment and knew that Luke was at least fucking someone. As Mark pushed the sleepy man to the side, he noticed that it wasn't Alice, but some redhead who had a bad case of snoring.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" The punk had the audacity to yell at him.

"Where's Alice?"

"Who?" His eyes crinkled and his mouth twitched that Mark knew he was feigning ignorance.

Mark towered threateningly over Luke, grabbing the collar of his shirt. "Where the fuck is Alice?"

Luke shoved his hands away. "Not here, obviously." He strolled over to where the redhead slept and kicked the couch cushion she was sleeping on. "Get up. Time to go."

As the redhead grumbled, throwing looks of disdain toward Luke, Mark said, "I see what's going on here."

"Do you?" Luke asked, running a hand through his hair when Mark didn't respond. "I suppose you do. She came to me, man. Hit on me, came on to me. It was all her choice. I didn't make her do anything. I didn't even know she had a boyfriend!"

As each word tumbled from this punk's mouth, Mark felt his hands curl into fists, and he was just about to take a swing at this guy, when the door slamming brought him out of it. The redhead had left.

"If you want, go into my bedroom and check out the shoebox I got in the top dresser drawer." The buzzer suddenly sounded. "Go ahead, I trust you. It's just Lisa again. Probably forgot something."

Eat shit and live, Mark thought as he entered the bedroom.

His phone started vibrating. "Yeah?"

"She's coming up."

Mark sat down on Casanova's bed and waited.


WORD COUNT: 716
Prompt: Write about a race between your main character and somebody else.
Ideally, this would happen in the ongoing plot.
Total Word Count: 3085




CHAPTER FIVE - FAREWELLS

Mark was sitting, dozens of Polaroid photographs littered the floor around him. A few of the pictures clung inside the hem of his pant-leg. As his eyes turned up to look at Alice, she could hear the echo of his heart breaking in her ears. Tears rolled down his cheeks and his mouth was twisted into a look she never ever wanted to see on him again.

"Mark..."

He shook his head and stood up. Shuffling past her, head down past Luke, he quietly opened the apartment door and left. She didn't know what she expected, but it certainly wasn't this.

Alice turned on Luke. "What the fuck! Why did you let him in here?"

Luke walked over to the kitchen counter and grabbed a bottle of leftover wine. He sat down on the couch with a loud whoosh. "For one thing, I didn't even know he existed. You weren't exactly forthcoming with me."

"So you let a stranger into your apartment?"

"Yeah," he took a swig from the bottle, "I guess so."

"You let him see the pictures of me..." Alice started, but knew this argument would get her nowhere. "So what now?"

Luke sighed. "I'm going to drink my wine," he raised his bottle, "and go to sleep."

"That's it? You aren't going to do anything?" Alice was shaking in rage.

"What more do you want from me?" Luke snapped. "You didn't tell me you had a boyfriend. Then he comes here looking for you, barges into my place no less, and you are asking me what I'm going to do?"

"You fucking hypocrite! Do you think I'm blind as to what you were doing up here?" Alice thrust her hand out to point at the two wine glasses. "You were fucking cheating on me!"

"And so what? You explained the rules to me very clearly when we first started seeing each other that this was an open relationship. Don't cry to me now that you've been caught by your boyfriend, who, by the looks of things, was absolutely in love with you up until this moment. It was your choice, fucking deal with it." Luke stood up and walked to his bedroom. He turned around and sneered. "Welcome to the life of a player. If you can't play the game, stay on the bench." He slammed his door and Alice was left to stand alone.




Mark leaned down to talk to Buzz through the driver's window. "I think I'm going to walk home. Clear my head."

"That's over twenty miles! Just get in the car, I'll drive you over to Ron's, we'll have a few drinks and a few laughs. Right now, you need your friends."

"I don't think I need anything right now other than time to myself..."

"Well, if you need anything, give me a ring."

Mark nodded and took a step away from the car. As Buzz drove away, Mark headed in the opposite direction. A few blocks from apartment 3G there was a park. Benches were scattered throughout surrounding a large man-made lake and the wind shuffled the leaves of the giant oak tree that Mark sat underneath. He sat there for a long time in a state of shock. As Alice came to sit next to him, he turned his head to pretend like he was studying the ducks on the water but just as it was when he was a boy, his body felt the electrical charge every time Alice came near him.

They sat in silence for a while and when Mark made no move to change it, Alice spoke up. "I know this sounds pathetic, but I REALLY AM SORRY." Mark still said nothing. "Luke means nothing to me. It was just..." Alice's voice trailed away.

"Sex?" Mark offered, cringing inwardly. Alice may be a lot of things but he still loved her. "I don't want to discuss this right now."

"When?"

He shrugged and whispered, "I don't know. Not now."

"Do you even want to see me anymore?" He could hear the desperation in her voice.

It was then that he brought his eyes to hers. Her eyes had never changed, it was those same eyes that sealed the deal for him years and years ago. All he felt was hollow now, as if a giant hole was in his chest and the wind was blowing through, chilling his soul. "Maybe we aren't meant to be together. Perhaps all this time we've been chasing dreams."

Alice's breath caught in her throat. "You don't mean that!"

"But I do." He reached out and cupped her face in his hands. "I think what you did was what you wanted to do. We've never been with other people, relationship wise, and maybe that's what we did wrong. We didn't experience enough of life without each other and we started taking what we had for granted."

Alice began shaking, tears pooling in the depths of her blue eyes, mouth sagging. "I'm sorry! Please, just let me explain... Let me do something... Tell me what to do!"

Mark removed his hands and her face suddenly changed, as if he had reached out and slapped her instead of letting her go. "Apologies aren't going to fix this." Returning his gaze out to the lake, he stated, "I think it's time we said goodbye to each other."

He heard a shuffling to the left of him --- it was Alice standing up --- and didn't bother to look. If he saw her now, he would change his mind. He would sweep her up in his arms and pretend nothing ever happened and it wouldn't be fair. To him. To her. It just wouldn't be right.

"Goodbye, Mark."

He nodded. "Goodbye, Alice."


WORD COUNT: 957
Prompt: I am late! Sorry sorry sorry! So, because I'm sorry, make your main character sorry about something. They can be sorry for something that happens now or happened in the past.
Total Word Count: 4042




CHAPTER SIX - DEATH

"What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Mark."

"Your place or mine?"

It was late, too late. Over the last several weeks, it hadn't occurred to Mark that perhaps it didn't matter anymore. 'It' being Alice cheating. Perhaps being with her was a colossal mistake on his part. In any case, he was pushing himself into places he didn't care to be, with people he could really care less about. The futility of it all came crashing down on him in the span of a seconds.

"Yours," Mark answered, finishing off his drink and grabbing his coat. "Most definitely yours." The last thing he wanted to do was go home and be alone with his thoughts of ineptitude.

The woman's name was Sugar, not her real name. Her hair was bleached blond, dyed to the point of feeling like dry straw. Her eyes were brown but she covered them with blue contacts and he kept comparing the disingenuous blue to Alice's eyes. The fact that she was fake seemed to coincide with how Mark felt. Fake and unreal.

He didn't love this woman and he could barely stand to be near her, but again, it was a matter of trying to find something to fill that aching hole in his chest. Drinking only worked to a certain extent. He needed the company of a stranger, someone who had no idea who he was and didn't care.

They didn't bother to slip under the SHEET. They both collapsed on top of the quilted BLANKET that had strange diamond patterns strewn across its front.

Sugar laughed, a high-pitched trill that hurt Mark's head but he persisted in fucking someone who wasn't Alice. He wouldn't classify it as 'making love'. It was simply just fucking.

At that moment, with Sugar laughing and him thinking of Alice, his face changed. As Sugar looked up, her laughter died in her throat. Mark was sweating on top of her, in all sense going through the motions and wasn't that bad at it, but it was his facial expression that startled her into silence. His mouth was twisted into something like a smile, but more like a grimace, and it was frozen there. His eyes were wide open, unblinking, and most of all, dead.

"Get off!" She screamed and pushed at his chest.

Mark rolled away and lay there unmoving. He was staring at the ceiling wondering just how much farther rock bottom really was. Everywhere he looked, he sensed the abyss that was waiting to swallow him whole if he so much as allowed that to happen.

Sugar stood and looked down at Mark, hand on her hip. "I've seen people like you before. Fucking me but fucking someone else at the same time. My ex had that look all the time."

He sighed and turned his tired eyes toward her. "I'm sorry."

Shaking her head, Sugar sat down on the edge of the bed and took his hand in hers. "It's okay. We all go through this at some point. Love of your life, right?"

"I guess. Not sure anymore."

"Oh, that means yes. What happened?" As he explained the story, the years of being together, the electrical feeling between him and Alice, the lies and betrayal, and his new quest of finding something or someone else, Sugar nodded. "I haven't felt like that since I was a teen, kissing my first boyfriend. The butterfly feeling. You're lucky."

"Pardon me?"

"People aren't perfect, Mark. You placed her on a pedestal and she came crashing down. If you really love her, then forgive her. At least listen to what she has to say. Don't go out having sex with strangers thinking that's going to make things better. It doesn't. What do you think I'm doing here with you?" She turned her head away for a moment, swallowed hard, and turned her attention back to Mark. Her eyes were filled with tears and he could see the effort she made to hold them back. "You still have a chance. What are you doing here?"

Mark couldn't answer. The question hung in the air.




"He's not here." Buzz said without turning around.

"I'm not looking for Mark."

"Oh?"

Alice took a deep breath. "Why did you feel the need to tell him? What were you hoping to accomplish?"

"I don't think you understand the concept of friendship. Or even of loyalty."

The pool hall was filling with laughing couples. Buzz was alone at the back of the building and Ron was busy filling orders, which was perfect to Alice. She could corner this asshole without Ron interfering. She liked Ron because he was always polite and courteous to everyone and getting him involved wasn't something Alice wanted to do.

She sat at one of the small round tables set up against the wall and watched Buzz play pool. After ten minutes of silence, he put his stick on the table, shook his head and sat down across from her. "What?"

"I think I know why you did it. It's the same reason why you follow him around, why you tell him to break up with me continuously. Something not even Ron or Mark know."

Buzz's eyes narrowed. "Really? Well, fuck, guess I'm busted."

"And I'm pregnant." She waited to see his reaction. His face was stone. He stood from the table and went back to his solitary game. Alice stood and placed her hand across the pool table. "The baby isn't Mark's."

Buzz straightened slowly and said quietly, "Why come here? Why come and fucking lay this at my feet?"

"I have to tell you." She said simply. "I could tell Mark, but he's not answering my calls."

"Then fucking go to his house!" A couple sitting at the bar suddenly quieted and stared at Alice and Buzz. Buzz walked to Alice and towered over her. "What do you expect me to do? It's not mine."

Alice was dead quiet. As realization dawned on Buzz's blunt features, he walked over to the bar, spoke with Ron and came back to sit at the table with a tray of shots. He downed three in a matter of seconds and sat back, hands on his thighs. She went to him and sat with her hands clasped tightly in a ball on top of the table.

"It's mine?" He asked, eyes still diverted away from hers.

She nodded. "I'm four months pregnant."

It all began when her and Mark had begun to have problems. On his thirtieth birthday, Alice wasn't there. Neither was Buzz. No one had put two and two together. It was on Mark's birthday that they had had sex. The one and only time. Buzz had told Alice they could never be together again. It was a betrayal to Mark that ran too deep. He didn't want to be the man responsible for ruining his best friend's life.

"We're going to have to tell Mark."

"I could have an abortion..."

"The fuck you will!" She made motions to quiet him down. Too many people were growing curious, especially Ron who was now throwing them both looks of puzzlement. "We'll take responsibility for what we've done. Give the baby to me if you don't want it. I'll COVER for you with Mark if you don't want him knowing. Just don't do... that."

Alice was surprised. Buzz was a lot of things. A notorious player, cutthroat, blunt, and hard. As she stared at the man sitting across from her, it became blatantly obvious that it was all a facade. "Okay. We'll tell Mark."




Mark answered the front door. He smiled when he saw Buzz, felt his breath rip from his lungs when he saw Alice. "Alice..." He grabbed hold of her and started crying. "I've been an idiot. I shouldn't have said goodbye to you. I love you so much."

Alice looked over his shoulder, stared at Buzz, and shook her head. Buzz nodded and stepped back. "I have something to tell you," Alice whispered into Mark's ear and slowly withdrew herself from his arms. "It's about Buzz and I."

As Buzz watched Alice pour her heart out to Mark and Mark as his presence slowly shriveled away, he felt himself beginning to sink and drown. What he was witnessing here wasn't the confession of two people who had done something wrong and were repentant. What he was witnessing was something far more horrible and life altering.

Buzz was witnessing the death of true love.




WORD COUNT: 1415
Prompt: In this chapter use the words: blanket, sheet, cover.
Total Word Count: 5457




CHAPTER SEVEN - REBIRTH


Alice left Mark unsure of how to proceed. Buzz took her hand and led her away from the closed door. "There's nothing more to say. We have to wait now."

"It just doesn't feel right to leave him alone."

"Do you honestly think he wants to see anyone right now?" Alice didn't answer. "Let's go."

Driving through suburbia, Buzz suddenly pulled the Mustang over. He took the keys from the ignition and got out of the car with a slamming of his door. Alice followed his lead as he sat down on the curb. He twirled the keys in his hands and didn't speak.

"What are we doing?" Alice asked.

"I'm thinking."

"Thinking? About what?"

Buzz suddenly turned to her, gripped her face between his hands and kissed her hard. She pushed back on his chest. "Stop!" She hissed.

"Why?" He demanded, eyes boring into Alice.

"Because of Mark." She answered quickly and quietly.

"Do you honestly think he's going to want anything to do with either of us after what we just told him?"

She couldn't hold it in any longer. Tears streamed down her cheeks so she put her head down on her lap. "It's all fucked up. I know that. The worst part is, I'm still in love with him and took all of this happening for me to realize."

Buzz was silent for a few minutes, then he placed his hand on Alice's back. "Story of my life, what you just said."

"What are you talking about? 'Story of your life'? I've never seen you with a girl longer than a night! You make the choice to leave."

"I talk a big game." He cleared his throat and looked away. "Truth is, I've only ever left you. I haven't been with anyone since. I told Mark about the other guy because I was jealous. I love you, Alice. I always have and I always will."

Alice couldn't hear anymore. "Let's get back in the car and go. All of us need time to ourselves."




Five months later...

Mark was curled on his bed, searching his mind for reasons to go on. There weren't any. He came to the silent conclusion that he would clear out his medicine cabinet and take every single pill available. He wouldn't write a note. He wouldn't call anyone.

He crossed the threshold into his kitchen, grabbing an empty waste basket and placed it on the counter. As he dumped all the bottles into it, he moved on to taking down the champagne he had been saving for a special occasion. There was no use to keeping it anymore. Today would be the most special day of his life.

Knees up, champagne bottle in hand, he put the first pill into his mouth.

The telephone began ringing but he chose to ignore it. Eventually it stopped and he continued with the fifth and sixth pills. Again, the telephone began ringing.

"Fuck," Mark muttered as he rose to his feet and grabbed the telephone from off its charger. Odds are it was some kind of AGENT or another asking for something. "Hello?"

"It's Ron."

"And?" Annoyed to the point of throwing the phone across the room, his hand grew whiter and whiter as the blood was cut off from his death-grip on the phone.

"Alice is in labor. She's asking for you." Mark couldn't reply, he felt like he had been punched in the stomach. "Hello? Are you still there?" Ron asked urgently into the phone.

Mark hung up.




"Did you talk to Mark?" Alice asked. The morphine the nurses had given her seemed to be working. She was between contractions now which made conversation with her much easier.

Ron shrugged. "He hung up on me."

"I'll go to his house and get him," Buzz offered.

Alice never got the chance to reply. Another contraction came and she was screaming.




"Hello?" Buzz called. No one answered. He took a hesitant step inside the house and quietly closed the front door behind himself. "Hello? Mark?"

Walking around the living room, Buzz found an ashtray full of cigarettes. Mark had never smoked, in fact, he detested smoking. Empty beer cans littered the carpet around his couch. The coffee-table was covered in all sorts of garbage and rotten food. A few flies flew around, solidifying the reality of what Buzz was seeing.

Something akin to fear was born in his stomach, grew tendrils, and reached out to stab into his heart. "Mark? Where the fuck are you?"

Buzz cleared the living room, bedroom, and bathroom. The last place to look was the kitchen. As he turned the corner to enter, Buzz stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the pale hand on the linoleum. "Mark?"

No movement. No answer. Nothing.

"Come on, this isn't fucking funny. Alice is waiting for you at the hospital." Not wanting to move, a force greater than himself pushed him forward step after step. He counted them. Four steps in total.

Buzz slowly knelt down and felt for a pulse. Mark was dead.




"Stop! Wait!" Alice screamed, then doubled over in pain.

"What's happening? Why is she screaming like that?" Ron asked, holding onto Alice's hand, trying to keep calm.

The baby's cries could suddenly be heard and shortly after that Alice grew quiet and her hand was limp in Ron's.

Alice turned her head to Ron, her eyes barely open, face remarkably white. "Something... doesn't... feel right..."

As Alice was rushed away into OR, Ron stared helplessly at the newborn wondering how things could turn so wrong.




Buzz was drove back to the hospital by an officer to ID the body. Several floors up, Alice was in the OR. Down in the basement, Mark was in the morgue.

After making a statement and struggling to remain calm, he had to fight to hold back the scream that wanted to erupt and tear loose from his throat. As the elevator reached the fourth floor, Ron was waiting for him, tears streaming down his face.

He rushed to Ron and gripped his arms. "What is it? The baby?" He demanded, his grip increasingly tightening around his friend's arms.

Ron shook his head and gasped for air. "It's Alice. She was in the OR..."

Buzz shoved Ron out of the way and ran to Alice's room. "Where is she?"

A nurse approached him, eyes wary and face solemn. "The doctor should be coming soon."

"I don't want to speak to a fucking doctor!" He bellowed and the nurse recoiled in terror. "Where's Alice?"

"Sir, I don't know how to tell you this..." the nurse fumbled in her words. "She passed away while in the OR. She suffered internal bleeding which the doctors couldn't stop. She bled out."

"The baby?"

"Third floor."

Turning swiftly, he jogged past Ron who was still crying and slumped against the wall, entering the elevator. As the doors slid shut, Buzz began to cry.




Two years later...

Buzz stared at the test results. "Sir, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he heard himself say. "Thank you."

Turning from the counter, Buzz went back to the waiting area and spotted Ron kneeling down beside Mark Jr. putting on his tiny shoe. When Ron spotted Buzz, he stood and smiled. "So? Did you pass?"

He shook his head. "Mark's the father."

Ron grew quiet and busied himself with Mark Jr. Mark was the spitting image of Alice, the similarities between the two were amazing. As little Mark continued to age, he began to look more and more like someone else. Buzz noticed instantly that this child looked nothing like him.

"He's still my son," Buzz said, wiping his tearing eyes with the back of a trembling hand. He picked up the little boy who instantly snuggled against Buzz's neck.

Ron stared seriously at Buzz and nodded. "Love is stronger than blood and I think Mark Jr. already knows that. You're his dad and always will be his dad."

As they left the clinic and climbed into their green Malibu, Buzz checked his rear-view mirror and studied the sleeping two-year-old in his car seat. "Do you think I should ever tell him about Mark?"

"Being a wise bartender, I can tell you that I think that lies have done enough damage in the past. There's no INSURANCE that Mark will listen and not retaliate, but if you're honest, he'll at least know where he comes from and he'll forgive you."




Buzz couldn't help but feel lucky. After everything that happened, losing the love of his life and his best friend, he still had a reason to go on. At first, he wasn't sure how to proceed in being a father. As the past grew increasingly distant, he found himself looking forward to the future and falling into the role of father as if he had known nothing different all his life.

When Mark Jr. graduated it was the happiest day of Buzz's life. Ron had shown up, he had sold Pins 'N' Cues eight years before to start his early retirement. He lived in the Florida Keys with a nice lady named Samantha. Buzz had never moved on from loving Alice.

After his son moved away, Buzz eventually moved to British Columbia to live in the mountains. It was in the reclusive cabin that he now called home that Mark Jr. visited one night. Enough years had passed that Buzz finally felt comfortable enough to tell his son the story of his parents. The whole story, beginning with one hot July day that began with a little girl and a little boy who fell in love.

Mark Jr. stood from the couch and crossed the room to stand in front of the fireplace. "I never would have known," he mused with his back still turned to Buzz.

"I know."

He suddenly turned around, a wide grin splattered across his face. It was the same lopsided grin of his mother. "You could have given me up and put me in foster care. Instead, you raised me and I can honestly say I had the happiest childhood thus far out of all my friends in University. It's pretty hard to compete with a perfect childhood."

"You're not mad?"

Mark Jr. dismissed the question with a waving of his hands. "I swear, Old Man, as you get older, the more senile you get. I love you, Dad. It doesn't matter what a paternity test says. A chain of DNA and a piece of paper aren't going to decide for me who my father is."

"I love you."

Both men smiled at each other in the flickering light of the fire.

Later on that night, Buzz couldn't help thinking of the strange ways in which life turned and twisted. To be the old man he was now, and have a family, have a home, have a purpose, was enough to bring tears of happiness to his eyes.

He fell asleep with a strange half-smile and never woke up. The last dream Buzz would ever have had been of Alice and him on Mark's birthday, making love for the first and last time. The dream was bittersweet.




WORD COUNT: 1863
Prompt: In this final prompt, you MUST wrap up the plot. Do not leave me with unsolved mysteries, couples that don't get each other, or other loose ends.
To add some spicy fun, I want you to find a way to include the words insurance and agent. They do not have to be used as "insurance agent", but both words have to appear.
Total Word Count: 7320