Chapter 10

“Hey, happy Friday,” Ryan said, popping his head into Marc’s office.

Marc still just couldn’t get over that it was only Friday. It felt like too much had happened over the week for it to have only been the course of a few days. Marc nodded in greeting, already knowing what was coming.

“Did you want to come out with us tonight?” Ryan still offered, even knowing that Marc might say yes now.

“Sure,” Marc agreed again, intent on bringing Brendan along again. He’d already set everything up with Terri as well.

“Cool. Drunken Monkey again,” Ryan informed before ducking out and going back to work.

Marc still wasn’t sure the logic behind the name of the bar, but whatever. He finished doing his work for the day and left in time to pick Ariel and Terri up from school. He dropped them off at home, this time already stocked with things for dinner.

He went to pick Brendan up from him house, this time going inside while he waited. Blueberry gave him a curious stare from the living room couch and smiled at him. He still couldn’t remember what her name was other than Blueberry, and he wasn’t sure if that was okay. He smiled back at her to be polite but really just wanted Brendan to hurry up.

Brendan finally came downstairs and put his shoes on at the bottom. “Sorry, I found out I had paint on my face,” he said. “Who knows how long I had it, and of course it takes for me to get home for anyone to tell me.” He pointedly briefly towards Blueberry on the couch, and she smiled proudly.

Marc drove them to the bar, and the group was happy to see both him and Brendan. Marc dressed a little more relaxed than he had before, changing out of his business suit and into some slacks and a shirt. Brendan was wearing short sleeves as well for once, showing off his tattoos. It was a thin white shirt so the one on his back was just barely showing through the fabric as well, only distinguishable by a little bit of black showing through.

Brendan settled in easily with Marc’s co-workers like he’d known them for years. He was too good with socializing, where Marc wasn’t. Marc was more entertained in watching everyone else get smashed, and wondering how they functioned in day to day life when they were drunk or hung over so often.

One of the girls whispered something in Brendan’s ear, making him laugh and say something back that Marc couldn’t hear. Brendan didn’t drink as much as everyone else, and was able to appear mostly sober through it all. Eventually Ryan declared that they were going to move bars—something about hopping—and invited Marc and Brendan along as well.

“We’re going to Illegal Pete’s,” Ryan informed. At least it wasn’t named after an animal, but it was still a weird name.

Marc and Brendan both shared a quick look on the negative. “No thanks,” Marc said. “I think we’re going to call it soon. Let me know how it goes, though.”

Ryan shrugged and followed everyone else out as they went to walk to the next place, since it wasn’t too far away. Brendan started ordering some glasses of water then as he was trying to sober up.

“I think Ryan likes you,” Brendan stated out of the blue.

“What?” Marc hissed in surprise.

“You know,” Brendan paused for emphasis. “Likes you.” He wiggled his fingers for dramatic affect.

“How would you know that?” Marc protested. Or maybe he was just really bad at being able to tell who was gay—apparently a number of his co-workers. Maybe everyone that he knew.

“Because he mentioned an ex-boyfriend last time, and he’s only been inviting you out every week for forever, and spends most of his time trying to talk you.” Brendan ticked off the list using his fingers.

Marc grunted and hid behind his glass of soda. “Well that’s good for him.” He paused, glancing towards Brendan. Now was an appropriate time for something like this, wasn’t it? “Have you ever had a boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” Brendan answered. Marc had to admit that was an obvious one.

“What’s it like?” he questioned next.

Brendan shrugged and took another huge gulp of water. “Not sure how to explain it any different than just dating. Only the nitty gritty is really any different, if you catch my drift.”

“Why did you break up with him?” Maybe Marc was trying to figure out what kind of guy Brendan was into.

“He was too… out. Like you know one of those super flamboyant types who wears rainbow something all the time and who’s biggest hero is Lady Gaga and—“ Brendan rolled his eyes. “He just laid it on really thick. It was really grating.”

Marc chuckled slightly. He’d never met anyone like that be he could see how it could be overdone.

“Have you been considering anyone recently?” Brendan asked.

It was a fair question now but Marc could only shrug. “Not really.” He didn’t know where to meet people for that, and he wasn’t sure what he wanted to get into. He was sure Jones was interested, but other than that, he didn’t know enough people. Apparently Ryan, but… no.

“I guess I’m just happy with the way things are,” Marc said. He couldn’t complain too much if his dad was out of his life now, and his first priority was going to be Ariel before anything else.

“People are nice to have around though,” Brendan tipped his glass towards Marc. “And maybe people aren’t exactly your thing, but… it’s nice to have friends around every once and a while, I imagine.” Brendan grinned at him. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m mostly introverted too.”

“You seem to fit in pretty well.” Marc had to disagree. Brendan might as well be working at the company for as well as he got along with everyone.

“Only because I treat it like jumping into a cold pool,” Brendan explained. “Like rather than kind of teasing the edge and slowly working my way into social outings, I basically say fuck it and go for it. And if I end up really not liking it, then I leave. But otherwise at the end of tonight I promise you I go home and sit in my room to ignore the world for a few hours.”

“That is my ideal night,” Marc declared. “But I figure it couldn’t hurt to go out every once and a while.” Mostly after thinking about if Brendan would have talked him into doing something like that.

“Well that’s good,” Brendan said, taking one last drink of water. “Think we should head out?”

Marc paid for it all, against Brendan’s protests of paying for his own drinks. He dropped Brendan off at home again and then went to relieve Terri of babysitting Ariel.

He paid Terri and drove her home with Ariel in the backseat.