CHAPTER 65 | Fault

Some months later

I grabbed the dog food and called for Duke to come and eat. I watched him running down the stairs with his tongue hanging out, and when he saw the food he started jumping around and wiggling his tail happily.

I smiled at him and poured the food on his plate. He immediately started eating. I patted his head and put the food back on its place and went to sit on the couch. Duke was a bit bigger now, and also a little fat. Perhaps we should stop giving him too much food.

Mark and I have been taking real care of him since the time he arrived to this home. Almost every day we took him for a walk around the city or the park. He was a very good boy, he loved both of his owners and we loved him too.

I heard a car stopping outside the house and I knew who that was. I looked at the main door opening and my bear stepped in, his backpack hanging from his shoulder and his keys on his hand. He smiled at me as soon as he saw me.

"Hey babe!" He greeted me with a grin.

"Hey. Welcome back." I told him.

He let his backpack fall to the floor and he put the keys on the table. He looked at Duke who was still eating. "Hey Duke!"

Duke turned his head from his plate to look at him and wiggled his tail, as if saying What's up? then he went back to eating.

Mark went to sit on the couch next to me, sighing in relief.

"Are you tired?" I asked the obvious.

"Yeah. It was a long day at University." He told me.

"But your classes ended early today. It's barely 6 pm." I told him.

He chuckled. "I know. But still long." I felt his warm fingers brushing my cheek. "But the good thing is that I'm with you now."

I turned to smile at him and he pulled me into a kiss, which I gladly returned. Mark is now attending one of the best universities of the city to study art. My big boy is finally going to accomplish his dream of becoming the artist he always dreamt of being.

Mark continued kissing me softly, pulling me into his chest and warming me up with his human heat, that was when something big and fluffy got between the both of us, making us break our kiss. We laughed when we saw Duke sitting on the couch between the both of us.

"What's wrong, Duke? Are you jelly?" I asked him, hugging him.

"He wants some love too, right Duke?" Mark asked, hugging him too. We gave Duke some smooches on his fur until he got uncomfortable and he started shaking his body. We laughed again at his adorable face as he decided to lie on the couch between us, curling himself into a ball.

"Hey, Zack..." Mark called me.

"Yeah?"

"I want to take you somewhere." He told me.

I looked at him curiously. "Really? Where?"

"To some place... I have something important to tell you." He said in a low voice, looking into my eyes.

I became very curious about what he wanted to tell me, and where he wanted to take me. So I stood up from the couch. "Okay. So, lead the way."

He stood up too and smiled at me. He went to grab the house keys and I followed him towards the door.

"Do I need to change into anything formal or something?" I asked him before we left, motioning to my hoodie and vagrant clothes.

"No, you're perfectly fine like that. And it's cold outside." He told me, opening the door. As he did this, Duke woke up and looked at us with perked up ears. "We'll be back in a while, Duke. Take care of the house in the meantime, okay?"

Duke simply curled himself back in a ball and went back to sleep.

We exited and Mark closed the door behind us. He started walking forward onto the street.

"Aren't we going in the car?" I asked him.

"I'd rather walk. It's not very far from here. Or do you want to go in the car?"

"No. Walking is okay." I told him, going to walk at his side.

We walked along the sidewalk, getting deeper into the forest of buildings that surrounded the city. Cars and people passed by at every moment. At some point I had to put my hands on the pockets of my hoodie due to how cold it was.

I guess Mark noticed this because then I felt him wrapping his arm around me and pulling me closer than we already were. I smiled up at him as he smiled down at me, his warmness engulfed me and I wasn't feeling cold anymore. We didn't even care if there were people watching us as they passed by.

We walked a few more yards, Mark rounding the corner of a street I had never been at. There were less people around here and less cars. I continued to walk at his side and his arm was still wrapped around me. That's when he came to a stop and I stopped too.

"We're here." He told me.

I looked up and I swear I almost fainted at the sight of a very tall building in front of us. It was made of concrete, with some plants and vines surrounding it. It looked like one of those abandoned buildings you'd find at a horror movie. And indeed, this one did look abandoned.

I looked at Mark questioningly, as to why he had took me to a freaking abandoned building in the middle of nowhere. He was looking up at it too, before looking bad down to me and meeting my confused gaze.

He simply gave a smile. "We're going to go up until the top."

My jaw fell open at that and I shook my head. He chuckled. "Come on, babe. Nothing is going to happen."

"No way in hell, Mark! You know I hate heights."

"It's not that tall. And don't be afraid, I'll be at your side all the time." He reassured me, taking my hand in his. "It will be like that time when we went to that cliff. You literally stood at the edge of it with me, and it was much taller than this."

"But... What are we even going to do there?" I asked him.

"I can't tell you. It's something special. I just want you to come with me."

I bit my lower lip, still uncertain. That time I didn't know he had taken me to a cliff. But now I'd have to go up this freaking monster in front of me. I wasn't very sure. What if it falls? What if I fall? What if I don't even reach the top?

My train of harmful thoughts was cut off by Mark who slammed his lips against mine. It only lasted a few seconds and then he pulled away, keeping his face close to me and feeling his warm breath hitting my lips.

"Trust me. You will be safe with me. Will you do it?" He whispered.

It was as if that kiss had given me some sort of strength and courage, because after he said those words to me, I was nodding my head and he rewarded me with a big smile.

His hand still held mine as he led the way towards the entrance of the concrete building. Once inside, the place looked dark except for the little light that came in through some openings of the building. There were little rocks and dirt all over the floor. I spotted a set of stairs on the corner leading to an upper floor, so we walked towards there and climbed them up.

"Believe me, the view looks amazing from up there." He told me as we were now on the second floor, heading towards a second set of stairs, his voice and our steps made an echo sound throughout the place.

"So you have been there?" I asked him.

"Yes, only once, though. A long time ago. I came to make a drawing of the city that I showed you one day at school. I don't know if you remember."

"Oh, right." I said, remembering when he showed me and Jaida his amazing drawing.

"Yeah, it was up there where I made it. It surprises me that they haven't demolished this building yet. So when I saw that it was still standing, I thought it'd be nice to take you here. Not many people come here. They're too afraid, probably."

I nodded as we continued going up more stairs. Halfway through, the place started to get darker, but I kept my body pressed to his side and followed his steps cautiously.

"What do you think they built this building for? I mean, how they could just build this whole structure and then abandone it?" I asked.

"I don't know, that's what I wonder too. Maybe they did use it for something for some time, and then they just decided to leave it. We would have to ask someone to see if they know its story."

After some more seconds I think we were approaching the final floor, because after another set of stairs we were walking through a straight narrow path where there was a little window on the left wall. I looked through the window as we passed by it, and my eyes caught a glimpse of the grey sky and the city below us. I couldn't help but gulp and feel a bit scared. Mark stopped to look through it too and he smiled a bit, before continuing walking and I followed next to him.

Finally, we got to a dead end with yet another set of stairs and a trapdoor on the ceiling above them. I noticed it was tightly locked with a padlock and some chains. Mark looked up at it questioningly and went up the stairs while I stayed at the bottom of them.

"I think someone did come here to lock this after all." He said.

I watched as he grabbed the chains with one hand, and with a single movement of his strong arm, he pulled them down with great force, snapping them in two and making a loud noise. He dropped the chains and the lock to the floor and pushed open the trapdoor, the afternoon light falling on his face and the wind playing with his short hair.

He went up a bit more, looking around as if to verify that the coast was clear, and after that he looked back down at me, motioning for me to follow him. So I went up the stairs carefully while he was already standing on the rooftop. He looked down at me when I was reaching the top and he stretched out his arms to me.

"Here. Let me help you." He said, giving me his hands, which I took on my own.

A few steps more and I was now standing at the very top of this abandoned building. It felt much colder up here than down below. The harsh wind was hitting my face and messing up my hair, it felt so strong that I had to close my eyes. I didn't want to look neither down nor up. Heights scare me and I think they always will.

Mark left me there for a little while so he could close the trapdoor and he quickly went back with me, wrapping an arm gently around me. He tried to comfort me by rubbing my arm up and down as we walked to stand at the middle of the rooftop. That's when I finally unlocked my gaze from my shoes and dared to look in front of me, to make my eyes go wide at seeing the vast city underneath me, surrounding the building with us at the center of it.

"It looks nice, doesn't it?" He asked me, admiring the view too.

"Yes." I admitted, but I was still scared to death. I was still trembling a bit and I didn't know anymore if it was because of cold, or fear or both. Even so, I couldn't deny that the view from up here did look amazing, I even felt kind of powerful. As if Mark and I were dominating the entire world.

"Let's sit down for a while, okay?" He asked me, and I nodded. We slowly got into a sitting position on the roof. Mark had his arm wrapped around my shoulder and we continued to admire the city before our eyes in a comfortable silence.

There was a cape of fog covering some parts of the city, although it could also be smog from all the pollution. But I could still see some cars and people passing by, looking like ants. As I looked up at the sky, it looked kinda nice even though it was grey and covered in thick clouds. The wind had diminished its intensity to a soft breeze. I just hope it doesn't start raining now.

"Every day after I wake up, and when I turn to my side to see you sleeping next to me, I thank life for having sent me someone like you." Mark spoke. I turned to look at him, his gaze still locked in front of him. "Every time I look at your face, your smile, when I hear your voice, when I feel your touch, when I smell your scent, when I taste your lips, I think about how lucky I am to have you in my life. You're like the best thing that has ever happened to me, when I used to be just a stereotypical and aggressive jock at high school, looking for attention and wanting to stand out amongst everyone. All that time I thought I was doing the right thing, beating people up, getting laid with girls, and hiding my true self from me and the world, but the truth is that I was just damaging myself and everyone who suffered because of me. I thought I would have the perfect life if I continued acting like that, but... Now that I think of it, I don't think I would have had a good future if had kept that attitude. And that's when you came into my life, Zack."

"Since our early days that we started being friends, I felt like you and I had something special that couldn't be considered just a simple friendship. I felt way more. But I never told you because of my insecurities. Every day I am grateful for having met you, even if that very first day that we exchanged looks, I treated you badly. And not only that time, but also when I started having this conflict with myself about what I liked and what not. I recognize every bad thing I did to you, and until now I regret each and every one of it, even if you have forgiven me already... But I don't want to look into that any further. Every day I'm grateful for every good memory and every single action that you have done for me. I'm more than happy over the fact that you came to my life to change me, to make me see that what I was doing was wrong. No one else made me see my mistakes the way you did. You helped me to change to become a better person. When my days were dark and grey, you appeared to make them bright and colorful. When I felt like my life didn't make sense, you appeared to make me know that I wanted to live until my last year of life."

He continued, "Thanks to you I discovered the meaning of love. Thanks to you I found new emotions and feelings that I didn't know they existed, because you showed them all to me. In the past I thought that loving someone was something ridiculous, but now I see that it's possible to love someone so much to the point of willing to do anything to make them happy, and to the point of wanting to spend the rest of my days with that person. It's a magical feeling that I had never felt in my life with anyone but you, and let me tell you, it's a great feeling."

This time he turned to face me, smiling warmly at me. "You made me earn a lot of things, but then you also made me lose some. I lost my girlfriend, my popularity, some of my friends, the relationship between my parents, and I almost lost my life... And it's all your fault."

I was a bit confused about his words, but then he gave a reassuring squeeze to my shoulder.

"But in a good way. You know why?" He asked. I slowly shook my head. "Because none of that matters now. I have a new person who to love, and who is better than anyone in this planet. I only need to be popular and important for you, not for a bunch of students. I have new friends. And a whole new life ahead... I want to spend every moment at your side, Zack. I want to build a future with you, I want to form a family, I want to raise our future children and I want us to remain together until our time to leave this world comes. I want it all with you and only you."

Every word pulled at my heart like a wave of emotion. I felt so happy at hearing him say all that to me, even if it wasn't the first time. But for some reason, this time felt special.

I took a deep breath and started talking. "I also think about how much you mean to me, Mark. These past months that I've spent with you have been wonderful. You don't know how happy and grateful I've felt lately with everything that life rewarded me with. You used to be a simple crush of mine since the first time I saw you. I never really thought that you and me would get to this level. And I know that it wasn't easy to get until this point. We had our ups and downs, but in the end here we are. Everybody makes mistakes and you learned from them. You changed into the sweet and loving Mark that I love till today and I'm more than happy with you being this way."

Mark smiled at me and leaned his forehead on mine, placing a little kiss on the tip of my nose.

"Everything you mentioned that you want to do with me, I want to do it too. Nothing in this world would make me happier than making all my dreams true with you. I want us to make our own family, see our kids grow up, like any other normal family. I want us to be as happy as we are now for the days to come. I know that with you I will always be happy. You're the source of my contentment, my reason to live. I feel like the luckiest boy on earth by having you as my boyfriend. Someone who loves me the way I am and who I love back with the same intensity."

Our faces were so close to the other's, that we didn't think it twice as he slammed our lips together in a series of kisses, not one, or two, or three. I lost count of how many times we kissed as I let him intoxicate me with the delicious taste of his mouth and his lips. His kisses made me travel to other worlds, that I even forgot we were sitting on the top of a tall building. I will never get over how good it feels to kiss him.

Our rib cages screamed for oxygen, but our hearts screamed for more and more kissing. I think our rib cages won the argument because we had to pull away after a while, panting.

Mark opened his eyes slowly to meet my brown ones. He smiled at me and I watched as he rose from his sitting position, standing up. I looked up at him as he offered me his hands to stand up too.

So I did. I took his hands and helped me to lift myself to my feet. He kept me close to his body while I found myself shaking a bit again.

"Are you afraid?" He asked me softly, removing a strand of hair from my forehead.

I shook my head. "No... W-Well... A little."

"Shh, calm down. Nothing is going to happen, don't worry." He reassured me, rubbing his hands up and down my arms. "I'm with you, baby. You're not going to fall. If you fall, I will fall with you. And if you die, I will die with you."

I looked into his eyes at the sudden dark meaning of that sentence. Even though it was cute, it was still dark.

"From now on we're doing everything together. No matter what. The force of our love is unstoppable." He continued.

"Even going to the bathroom together?" I joked.

"Even that." He said with a playful smile.

I laughed. "I was just kidding."

He chuckled, kissing the top of my head as he continued to ease my nervousness by rubbing his hands over my back.

"You helped me to overcome many of my fears. My fear of getting drowned, my fear of dogs, my fear of myself... Yes, the fear of myself, because I used to be afraid with the way I used to be in the past, due to my sexuality, but you helped me to overcome that too. I think it's fair that I help you to overcome some of yours too."

"So that's why we're here?" I asked.

"For that... And for something else."

I looked up from his chest to look at his eyes. "And what is that?"

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His thumbs started to draw figures on the back of my hands that he was still holding.

"Zack... This is the most important decision that I have taken in my life. When I think of my future, I can't see myself living with anyone else. I see you. All this time that we've been together, although some people would consider it short, I have noticed that it's you who I want to live the rest of my days with. That's why today... I think it's the best moment to take our relationship to a new level."

I still stared at him, feeling nervous by the inside and feeling my heart thumping in my ears