Only You
Mark was exhausted. Mark felt like he hadn’t slept in weeks. His schedule was crazy hectic and it seemed like the alarm clock rang the moment he put his head down on the pillow to sleep.
Mark was afraid to shut his eyes because he might just fall asleep again. He had to get out of bed and get to the restaurant. Mark turned his head and looked at Linder lying beside him. Mark breathed a small sigh of relief; the alarm hadn’t woken Linder.
Mark crawled out of bed, pulled on pants and scrounged around his room until he found a clean shirt. Glancing at the clock to check the time, Mark realized he only had twenty minutes to get to the restaurant. Mark walked over to the bed, ran a hand over Linder’s hair and gave Linder a kiss on the cheek. Everything in Mark begged to get back into bed beside Linder but Mark knew that the sacrifices he made now would reward him with much better things in the future.
Mark waited until he had softly shut the bedroom door behind him before breaking into a run. He ran out of the house and down the street towards the restaurant.
***
Linder waited until he heard the bedroom door shut quietly behind Mark before he opened his eyes. Rolling onto his back, Linder stared up at the ceiling. The room was still dark in the pre-dawn but Linder knew that Mark would already be busy and that he wouldn’t stop until late that night.
Linder was very proud of Mark for getting the chance to work under Chef Robertson, one of the most prestigious world-renowned chefs. It was going to be three hard months for Mark between school, homework and the job at the restaurant under Chef Robertson. So far it had only been a week and Mark already had dark bags under his eyes. Linder just hoped that Mark would adapt to the schedule and survive the craziness of the next few months.
Linder sighed, and knowing he wouldn’t get more sleep, crawled out of bed. He walked over to Mark’s dresser and pulled out clean clothes for school. Walking over to where he kept his toiletries, Linder tripped over a pair of Mark’s pants. Linder stopped and took a good look around the room. Mark was annoyingly picky about his clothes and hated not having them folded or hanging up properly but now there were clothes scattered around the bedroom. Linder knew that if Mark had a moment to stop and look around, he would be ashamed at the mess.
Deciding to wait on his shower, Linder went around the room and picked up all the clothes. He put away all the clean clothes the way Mark liked them and piled up the dirty clothes. Linder figured he’d get at least one load of laundry done before he had to leave for school. Linder couldn’t help Mark out with school or work so he would help with the laundry and keeping the room clean – especially since Linder had taken to spending every night over at Mark’s place just to get a chance to see Mark.
As Linder started carting the dirty laundry out of the room, he spied a splash of orange out of the corner of his eyes. Linder looked around to see what had caught his eye and noticed Mark’s favourite gloves sitting on the dresser. The sight of the gloves gave Linder a weird feeling, almost a yearning, for Mark. Mark never went a day without his gloves, yet here they were lying forgotten in the rush – similar to the way Linder was feeling. Linder admonished himself for thinking that way and getting a better grip on the pile of clothes he carried, walked out of the room.
***
Linder was already in his seat when David rushed into English.
“Hey Lin,” David greeted Linder, “I didn’t see you before school this morning.”
“Oh, I was a bit late. I was doing a bit of cleaning and lost track of the time.” Linder explained.
“Cleaning?” David scoffed, “Why would you be cleaning when you could’ve been sleeping?”
Linder shrugged, “Mark had already left and I noticed the mess so thought I’d help out.”
David gave Linder a good look and noticing Linder avoiding his gaze, quietly said, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Linder looked at David. “You didn’t. It’s just that Mark’s been working so hard and he’s so tired, you know” Linder stammered.
“Hey, don’t sweat it. I was just bugging you. I saw Mark after first period; he looks exhausted. I’m sure he’ll appreciate you helping out like that.” David said a bit ashamed he had made Linder stammer.
“Sorry. I’m just a bit tired today. I haven’t really been able to sleep after Mark gets up.” Linder explained.
“Have you been over his house every night?” David asked.
“Yeah, it’s the only time I get to see him. He falls asleep right away but at least I get to be near him, you know?” Linder replied.
“Yeah, I know.” David said quietly as the teacher came in and started taking roll call.
***