Mark and Ali walk home

“Feel terrible for Tiff, she loves that boy, really does,” Ali said as the two walked home.

“Love him? They’re genuinely in love?” Mark asked, curious to find out just how close they actually were.

Ali confirmed his queries, nodding. “Yep, it’s gonna break her heart if they can’t do this long distance thing.”

“Yeah that’s a shame,” Mark replied, still grinning on the inside. The thought of Tiffany being back on the market would make any guy happy, especially someone who had been keeping their eye on her since the day he walked onto campus.

It was almost as if Ali could read his mind, she studied his face as they walked. “What are you glad if they can’t stay together?” she asked, wincing her eyes as she tried to understand why he looked happy.

“I never said that,” Mark denied.

“But it’s true, isn’t it? You want to have a chance with Tiffany?” she asked him, really grilling him now.

Mark didn’t know what to say, so instead of telling the truth, he just butchered his response, “Well... I uhhh.. you know... I...”

“That’s what I thought,” Ali replied pretty bluntly.

Taking his mind off Tiffany’s availability for a second, he took some time to realise who he was with right now. Ali was a stunner but he seemed to underestimate her sometimes, setting his sights even higher at times like what he was doing now with Tiffany.

They were just outside East Hall when Mark thought about getting Ali in his bed for the night. He leaned into her as they stopped for a moment, going in straight for a kiss on the lips.

What happened next, put Mark completely off guard.

Ali leaned back, dodging the kiss.

“Oh uhhh sorry,” Mark quickly said, turning bright red in the cheeks. “You didn’t want to kiss?”

She didn’t respond at first. Reading her reaction, Ali didn’t exactly seem too pleased.

“What’s wrong? Is everything alright?” Mark asked, worried about what he had done.

“It’s nothing, I’m fine,” she said, starting to walk again.

In obvious girl code, “I’m fine,” did not mean she was fine. It was clear that Ali was upset about something and he had figured that it probably had something to do with himself.

“Seriously, just tell me, I know somethings up,” he said, **** not to let this go. “You can tell me, you can tell me anything.”

She stopped again out in the cold night sky, Mark stopping as soon as she did too.

“I don’t want to be just your backup Mark,” she announced, “Obviously you want to be with Tiffany more than me. I was just a back up.”

“What? What do you mean?” he said, worried about the visual messages he had been giving her.

She rolled her eyes, not enjoying how oblivious he was being right now. It was true, whether Mark would admit that or not, he was choosing to act dumb.

“I’m just a back up to you Mark!” she let out, “I see you go around with plenty of girls here and when do you ever call me? Rarely huh? I know we’re not a couple or anything but when we slept together, I mistakenly thought it might be the start of something.”

Mark now started to feel a little tense in the chest, she was playing on his heart strings, really making him feel bad now. He had never stopped to think what his actions could do to someone else’s emotions.

“I uhh I didn’t know,” he said, unsure what to say.

“Yeah clearly.”

Ali started to walk again once more. Following her lead, Mark walked just a couple of steps behind her, trying to think of what to say.

She was rugged up in a thick black jacket keeping her warm out at night. Mark stared at the back of her hair as he figured out how to reply to her.

“If you wanted to be an item or something, why didn’t you just tell me, I didn’t know,” he said as honestly as he could.

She continued to walk as she talked, “I wanted to but you were already getting with other girls just a day after.” She told him, “Look, it doesn’t matter anymore, I was foolish to think that something more might happen. Anyways, I’m just not going to let you treat me as a back up option because you want someone to fuck.”

It was some brutal honesty from Ali and it had Mark feeling super guilty. This attitude of care free, living life as if there’s no consequences had really started to come back to bite him a bit.

After the whole episode with Matt and Cassidy and now this, Mark was starting to burn bridges with people that he truly cared about.

The minor fight with Ali tonight should have been the wake up call for Mark. It had come from seemingly nowhere but clearly she had been keeping it to herself for a while now.

They remained silent for the rest of the walk home, Mark honestly not sure what to say. He decided just to remain quiet, not wanting to make things any worse than what they were.

Arriving at his cold lonely dorm room, Mark put his hands to his face.

“Fuck!!” he exclaimed, whacking the lamp on the table.

He went to bed praying that he could fix things with Ali. Not just because she was super hot and he wanted to bang her again but because he cared deeply for her.

The fact that she wanted to start a relationship with him made him feel worse about himself. He needed to think about settling down, playing the field had been fun but all it was doing now was getting him trouble.

How much longer could he do this for?