Only You Page 2
Mark sat with Wasso at their usual lunch spot waiting for Linder and David. Wasso had been watching Mark out of the corner of his eye and was debating whether to say something about how Mark looked.
Mark sighed and said, “Out with it Wasso, I know you’re itching to say something. Just say it already.”
Wasso frowned and turned to look fully at Mark. “Did you get any sleep last night?”
Mark shrugged. “A couple hours, maybe.”
“You got to start getting more. You still have two more months of this. What good is trying to learn from some chef if you’re too tired to get through the lessons?” Wasso said.
“I know. It’s just been hard this past month. We haven’t gotten a single day off. It’s been two hours in the morning before school, four hours after and eight hours both Saturday and Sunday.” Mark said, “It’ll be better this month, we don’t have to be there in the mornings and we only have to work either Saturday or Sunday, not both.”
“That’s good to hear. You’ve just barely been keeping your head above the water and we’ve all been worried about you, especially Linder who’s pretty stressed out.” Wasso commented without thought.
“What!” Mark exclaimed, grabbing Wasso’s arm, “Linder’s stressed over this? He hasn’t said anything to me about it. In fact, he keeps reminding me what a great opportunity this is. Why would he be stressed?”
“Um, Mark, take a look at Linder when he shows up. You can tell he’s worried and David said Linder told him that he’s been up everyday about the same time as you.” Wasso said.
“He’s not awake when I get up. He’s always asleep when I leave.” Mark said a bit bewildered.
“Huh. Maybe. I’m just saying what David told me, maybe it was just that day or something. I probably misunderstood.” Wasso said gently prying Mark’s hand off his arm.
Wasso spotted David and Linder heading in their direction. Linder shuffled slowly beside David with drooped shoulders and was obviously tired. David, noticing Wasso watching Linder, looked over and took a look at Linder himself. David caught Wasso’s eyes and shrugged with a sad smile as if to say that he saw the same things Wasso did.
Wasso heard Mark’s sharp in-breath. Wasso glanced over at Mark and saw that was staring at Linder. He watched as Linder walked over and took a seat next to Mark without the usual hugs and sappy greetings.
David grabbed Wasso by the hand and dragged him to another seat. “Linder hasn’t said a single thing this morning. He wouldn’t even answer the teachers. Mark looks pretty upset too. Did anything happen?”
“Not that I know of,” Wasso replied shaking his head, “Although I goofed up and told Mark how tired and stressed and worried Linder is. I didn’t know Mark was completely oblivious to it.”
David slapped Wasso up the side of the head while giving Wasso a dirty glare. Wasso glared back at David but noticed the slight upturn of David’s mouth that told Wasso David was just playing around.
“Bad Wasso,” David said, “Bad Wasso. No treat for you.”
“Oh yeah,” Wasso said leaning into David, “I bet I could get a treat out of you very easily.”
David snorted. “Yeah right. Just wait until after school and you’ll see how difficult it’ll be for you to get anything out of me.”
Wasso grinned. “Whatever kid. We’ll see who’s right tonight.”
David grinned back at Wasso, “I’m counting on it.”
“Let me go.”
Wasso and David looked up, surprised at Linder’s voice. Linder was standing up in front of Mark and trying to get Mark to release his hold on Linder’s arm. David and Wasso shared a shocked look and turned back to see what was going on.
“I said let me go Mark.” Linder said angrily, “I mean it. Let. Me. Go.”
“No.” Mark replied, “You need to listen to me. I didn’t mean it the way it came out.”
“Sure. Whatever. I’m not supposed to be upset that you said I was stupid for worrying about you.” Linder said snatching his arm away from Mark. “Fine, if that’s how you feel, I won’t worry about you. I won’t worry that you don’t get more than four hours of sleep a night. I won’t worry that you haven’t handed in a single assignment in three weeks and that if it wasn’t for David and me doing them you’d be failing right now. I won’t worry that you’ve lost weight and have started to say how much you hate being in a kitchen and cooking. I won’t worry that for the past two weeks you’ve come to school without your gloves and rings and haven’t looked at me long enough to see that I’ve been wearing them.”
Linder held his arms up so Mark could see that he was wearing Mark’s orange gloves and favourite rings. Linder pulled off the gloves and dropped them on the ground then Linder took of the rings, throwing them at Mark.
Mark’s expression went from anger to shock. Letting the rings drop on the ground as he stood up, Mark tried to grab Linder’s arm again as Linder turned and stormed away.
“Linder. Stop. I didn’t mean it that way. Linder!” Mark called out.
Linder just kept walking and threw a lewd gesture over his shoulder at Mark.
Mark dropped down on the bench and stared at Linder’s retreating back. Looking blankly around him, Mark got on the ground and started to pick up the rings and gloves. Mark jolted as David crouched beside him to help. David didn’t say anything, just helped gather up Mark’s stuff and held out a hand to help Mark up off the ground.