After leaving Dad’s grave and Christy’s troubles behind, all Mark had to worry about was his fresh start. And though his new home was the exact place where he’d made the mistake of meeting Ava Welch and her druggie group, he planned to show them the New Mark that threw away his stash, his vape pen, and his last girlfriend, who was probably still blowing her coworker even before she’d met Mark.
But now, Mark was no longer the guy that let everyone step all over him, and he needed to show Ava and her friends exactly that.
He had only met with a few of her friends in Cucina Mia, and their conversations involved why Mark came back and what he was doing nowadays, and the same was asked about them, who were in their late twenties working and starting their own families.
But the person that truly deserved to see Mark’s change was Ava, whom he heard was spending her days and nights with her two-month-old baby. It was most likely why he hadn’t seen her at all in the few weeks he’d been there. But he still had a feeling that the day might come when he least expected it. Rehearsed over and over in his head, the scene was simply his right to brag about his transition from the regret that was her role in his life.
But as Paige, who showed off her gorgeous lines, curves, and freckles in the country club swimsuit, invited trouble his crazy-ass sister planned all along, he wasn’t quite sure whether his fresh start guaranteed the Ava conversation to be even groundbreaking.
After all, he had a pretty short list to follow. Move on from his crush on a girl rumored to use and drop a guy a week and who had bad beef with his sister? Unchecked. Stay away from the beef still being cooked? Unchecked. Fix his relationship with his sister? Also unchecked.
Mark didn’t ask for any of this, and yet it was if he were made to attract mistakes, heartbreak, and shame.
Paige tucked a hand under her armpit as she listened to Sadie on the phone. “Are you for real right now?”
He widened his eyes at Selah who was also wide-eyed. Sadie had plenty of messed-up shit up her sleeve, but how far would she go with her cousin?
Selah touched her throat as she cleared it, making a face. Paige’s eyes squinted as she stared at the pool, then she said, “You’re talking food poisoning.”
Mark started pacing, unable to shake off the fact that his female relatives were officially scheming bitches. Hopefully Sadie knew what she was asking from Christy, who could hold a three-year-grudge for no reason.
“Well, it’s not a bad idea,” Paige said. “The problem is that I can’t be there to see her puke.”
There was a pause, until she glanced at Mark. He gulped.
“Yeah, he’s on my side. So you and Mark?”
Now he was an accomplice, totally different from what he had in mind when he joined her side. Any plans that involved reconciling with his sister went out the window and broke into a million pieces on the street.
“So basically put as many germs as you can on the food?” Paige slowly grinned as Mark winced.
Selah let out a loud cough before hiding her nose in her inner elbow to sneeze a couple of times. She was almost as white as a sheet.
Paige stared at her. “You’re not sick, are you?”
“No. It’s just...allergies.” She sneezed a few more times and headed toward the catering area.
Paige pressed her phone against her chest and said to Mark, “I think she’s sick.”
“And allergies, right?”
“Well yeah, that, and she just doesn’t look normal. She’s kinda pale. Look.” They watched Selah come out of the building, blowing into a napkin.
“Honey, I think you’re sick,” Paige said when Selah arrived.
“It’s just allergies!” she exclaimed, but then she seemed to sense a sneeze coming on and turned away. No sneeze came out, though, and her nose was bright pink.
“You’re pale as fuck. Do you have a sore throat?”
Selah nodded slowly as she touched her neck and cleared her throat.
“Maybe James got you sick.” Paige crossed her arms.
“James? No.” Selah blew her nose into a different napkin and cleared her throat again.
Paige shook her head. “That’s what you get for helping an egotistical dick like him.” She widened her eyes and put the phone back to her ear. “Actually, Selah’s sick and sneezing from allergies, so I could get her to sneeze on the food.”
Selah wiped her nose as she rolled her eyes, and Mark’s hands just kept fidgeting. Hopefully there didn’t need to be more people involved in this pointless feud.
Paige finally hung up and turned to the both of them. “So here’s the plan. Mark, you get like, hot dogs or something, and make it as unsanitary as you can. Selah, you sneeze on the food. Then Mark brings it to Mila’s party, and Sadie will meet you there too. Mila should be okay with letting the both of you in, but I have to stay outside ‘cause I...wasn’t invited,” she finished through gritted teeth.
Mark ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “Okay.” He got himself into this mess in the first place, so he might as well put his money where his mouth was.
He rarely went into the kitchen, so he probably looked like a lost toddler as he stood a few feet away from the door. When it was fairly clear, he slipped into the kitchen and searched for the place where the chefs made the daily hot dogs. He felt like he was in a Disney or Nickelodeon sitcom where he was some kid stealing food from a kitchen.
Like so, he went down on his knees and made his way to a platter of hot dogs. With no one else nearby, he reached up for two of them. Then he looked around for the buns, which were in a cardboard box. He took two pairs of them, and sighing with relief, he stood up.
A pair of footsteps stopped behind him. His heart beating a million times a minute, he gulped and turned to see a six-foot-tall chef glaring at him.
“Stealing food, huh?” the chef asked.
Mark gulped. “Yeah, I’m kinda hungry. Can you not tell Mr. Nelson?”
The chef’s glare intensified. “I can’t just let you steal food whenever you want.”
Fuck fuck fuck. “I know, but I swear I won’t do it again--”
But the chef burst out laughing and slapped his shoulder with a large hand. “I’m just messing with you, kid! Go ahead. I won’t tell on you.” He winked and Mark let out a huge sigh.
After putting the hot dogs into a plastic box, Mark still ran out of there like his life depended on it. With no other employees ranking higher than him around, he made his way back to the pool where Selah was sneezing into some napkins while Paige tanned.
He slowed his walking to check out the latter, but much more low-key this time since she was definitely onto him from now on. He already embarrassed himself enough when she yelled at him about flirting with her when he wasn’t even trying anything. Except, of course, the mini-lesson in the tennis court. On one hand, he genuinely wanted to help her, but on the other, he secretly wanted to do more of those lessons with her.
As he reached her, he could smell her perfume mixed with sunscreen. And it was like the sun was making her red hair even brighter and hotter...temperature-wise.
She sat up and lowered her sunglasses. “Good job.” She turned to Selah. “Get your snot on that shit.”
Selah crossed her arms. “You can’t make me,” she said, her nose seeming to be clogged.
Paige snatched the container out of his hands. “You’re on my side, right? Do it.”
She stood up and back away. “I just think giving her food poisoning is too far, okay?”
“It’s not even gonna be that bad. She’ll get sick for like a day. She can get over it fast.”
Selah looked at Mark, who shrugged. Then she inhaled sharply, showing another sneeze coming on. She rushed to Paige as the latter opened the container. A couple sneezes later, Paige closed the box and handed it to Mark.
“We’re coming with you,” Paige said. For a moment Mark thought she meant the dirty kind of “come,” but then he remembered all the times she friendzoned him and mentally cringed at himself. He was reaching for the stars, like always.
After Paige put on overalls and Selah a top and shorts, he led them to his mom’s rental car, which he and Christy could take turns using on weekends. The whole car ride, Paige gave him the directions while also ranting to Selah about how much of a douchebag James Miller was and how Selah was too good for him. In Selah’s defense, Mark thought she was just being nice helping him recover, and James probably didn’t mean any harm since they sounded like longtime friends. The worst thing that could happen was him using and hurting her without her realizing it.
Mark knew all too well what emotional manipulation was like, not just from his exes, but his sister too. She always treated him as if he were several years younger than her when they were just a year apart. Up until the court case with Brandon Moore, she was the perfect child. Even Dad liked her more, and that was unfair with her being a girl; she could express everything she felt and get away with anything except dating bad boys, while Mark would get a beating from Dad if he showed the smallest signs of weakness in every demanding situation.
But now that Christy, with her life already in shreds, was getting a bite in the ass from infested hot dogs, he grinned. What went around, came around.
He parked one house down from Mila’s with Paige and Selah in the car. Taking a deep breath, he made his way down the sidewalk. He rang Mila’s doorbell, and several seconds later, Colette answered with Carter a few feet behind her.
“Hey, Colette,” Mark began. “I know I wasn’t invited, but I got some hot dogs for Christy from work.”
Colette shrugged. “I don’t think Mila will notice. She literally got half of the school here. I think some college kids too.”
“Oh, great, ‘cause Sadie’s coming over later.”
Colette closed the door behind them. “So, working at the club today, huh?”
“Yeah, I’m in charge of some of the sports stuff.”
“I’ll get this to Christy,” Carter said as he winked and took the box from Mark’s hands.
Mark didn’t know what the wink was for, but then Colette shocked him when she pinned him against the front door. “I haven’t seen you play any sports,” she whispered in his ear, with traces of vodka in her breath. “I should watch you sometime.” Her boobs pressed against him, and he squirmed his way out of her reach.
“Are you drunk?” he blurted out as he started sweating.
“Does it matter?” She took a few steps toward him, and he decided to stay where he was.
He decided to change the topic. “Uh, yeah, you can see me play sometime, if you can afford to get in.”
“Or you could play at school. You know, show some skin and muscles. Some girls like me would die to see you like that.” She laid a hand on his arm, but he pushed her hand away.
“I thought you were dating Andrew,” he said.
“I don’t care about him,” she murmured. “He’s just a good fuck.”
He flinched at that. Though Andrew was still a dick in his book, he still didn’t deserve to be on that end of this kind of relationship. No one deserved it.
“Look,” he said, “you’re drunk, okay? Go drink some water.”
“Yeah, I’m thirsty...for you.”
Just then the doorbell rang, and he automatically slipped out of her reach and answered the door. Sadie in a sundress greeted him with her brown eyebrows raised. “Did you do it?”
“Uh, yeah. I think.”
“What do you mean you think?”
“I gave it to Carter who gave it to her.”
She slapped her forehead with her hand. “You have to make sure she got it!”
“Shit.” He ran down the hallway and asked random people for Carter. Then he found him and Christy in the kitchen with Dave and Kylie, all of which were eating pieces of the hot dogs. “No!” Mark yelled as he ran to them and smacked a piece out of Kylie’s hand.
“What the fuck, Mark?” Christy said.
“They’re meant for you, not them.”
“Why can’t they have any?” She planted a fist on her hip.
“Because...they can’t. Did you eat it yet?”
“Um, I was about to.” She glanced down at her piece. “Hang on, suddenly you only want me to eat your food?”
“Yeah, because...you’re the best sister.” He smacked Dave’s piece out of his hands too.
“Hey, what the hell?” Dave said.
Christy stared hard at Mark, until her face showed some kind of calm disgust. “You put something in them, didn’t you?”
“Yes, we did,” Sadie stepped in. Mark gave her a confused look, but she kept her eyes on Christy. “Ever heard of karma?”
Christy walked up to her, the latter still taller. “Karma didn’t work on me, did it?” She gestured to the three victims with panicked expressions.
“What the hell did you do?” Dave demanded.
“Is it poison?” Becca asked, hyperventilating. “How do you feel, Kylie?”
Kylie tried to calm her down while Carter took a step forward. “Seriously, what did y’all do?”
“Just expect food poisoning in an hour or less,” Sadie said smoothly.
Kylie and Dave started swearing while Christy took Mark by the ear and dragged him toward the front door. And though Mark knew he should’ve expected all hell to break loose, his eyes squeezed shut at the feeling of his ear about to be torn off by his sister’s sharp nails.
As soon as they got to the humongous driveway, Christy let go and shoved him toward the sidewalk. “So you’re on her side now?” she screamed. “And then you try to give me fucking food poisoning? And you said I was the crazy one!”
He raised his hands up. “It was Sadie’s idea, okay?”
Christy turned to her walking through the front door. “Of course you’d have the fucking guts. But you?” She turned to Mark and stepped toward him, making him step away. “You’re spineless, pathetic, a fucking loser! She has you wrapped around her finger, huh?” She pushed against his chest. “You’re messed up to even think about doing this to me, your sister. Your older sister.”
“By what, a year?” he fired back. “I’m sick of you starting all this drama! You’re the drama queen and you always have been! Even Sadie thinks so!”
Christy shook her head. “Just get the fuck out of here. This shit’s between me and Paige alright? So both of you stay out of this!”
“Actually, they’re gonna stay in this,” Paige cut in as she approached from behind Mark, with Selah hiding behind her.
Christy scowled. “So you dragged them into this?”
“They wanted to help, but mostly Sadie. Don’t blame Mark.”
He felt relieved that she told the truth, but then Christy let out her fake laugh. “Oh, I see. You’re fucking each other. Okay.” She turned to Mark. “Remind me to call Ava later. I know you’re dying to see her.”
“You wouldn’t,” he growled.
“You’re still not over her. You don’t even have the balls to call her. Just admit it. And Paige is just a rebound.” Christy turned to her. “Everything he’s ever told you? All fucking lies. That is, in case you didn’t know. But that’s the sad thing about you, isn’t it? You’re so gullible and spineless. It really is sad.”
“You know what’s really sad about you?” Paige said with her voice rising. “The fact that your own brother is joining my side against you.”
“I’m with you too Paige!” Gary yelled. Mark turned to see almost half of the party starting to pool into the driveway and whispering among each other. Carter, with a smirk, emerged from the crowd and wound an arm around Christy.
“You asshole,” Paige snarled at him. “After so long, you still can’t get over me. And then you go ahead and call the cops on me for weed? Are you shitting me? Both of you don’t have anything better to do with your lives.”
“Is that jealousy I smell?” Christy said.
“As if. You two are actually perfect for each other. And I’m all for that, as long as you guys stay the fuck away from me.”
“Nah,” Carter said. “You get what you deserve. This is war, Connelly.”
Paige’s expression turned cold, and Christy let out her fake laugh again. “You got nothing, Paige. Just a slutty mom and a stepdad you’re fucking.”
That earned a lot of “ooh”’s from the crowd, but Paige seemed to have it when she charged at Christy. She went right for her brown hair and yanked hard enough for Christy to yelp. Paige kneed her crotch, making Christy let out a louder yelp as the crowd cheered and booed. Mark ran to Paige and pulled her away, with Carter standing between the two girls.
“A pussy fight would be hot, but not now. Okay ladies?” Carter said.
“Kinda low of you, Paige,” Christy muttered. “At least my blows are classy.”
“As if holding an imaginary grudge is classy too,” Paige replied, then ripped her arms out of Mark’s grasp and adjusted her overalls. “You guys want a war? Fine. It’s on.” She backed away and took Selah with her. Mark realized it was his cue to follow, so he did.
A hand grabbed the collar of his work shirt, and he turned to see Christy’s red face.
“You’ve always been a disappointment,” she mumbled.
He smacked her hand away. “You’ve disappointed Mom and Dad way more. Must be hard to live with yourself every day.” And he turned back around, pulling out the key to the rental car as he hid his smile from her.
Maybe this New Mark wasn’t turning out so bad after all.
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