32: Mistake

"KYAAAAH!!!'

Mark couldn't help but let out a girly scream as the cold railing hit against his sore butt, jolting some of the memories from the night before.

As Mark jumped and squirmed, trying to get out, Luke approached from behind carefully lifting the window before pulling him into a tight embrace.

"Mia, are you hurt?" Luke asked with concern, combing her ruffled hair.

Mark wanted to quickly retort back.

'It's all because of you! If not for you, it would've been the perfect night with Courtney.' Mark thought, furious.

"I don't want your h-" Pushing away Luke's hand, Mark started to raise his voice only to stop midway, realizing how close they stood together.

His body almost hard pressed against Luke's made him unintentionally think about the night before. While it wasn't exactly the way he pictured having sex, he couldn't deny how sexually pleasing it felt.

Just thinking about it made him weak at the knees. 'Nooo!!! It's wrong. That's just because of the a!lcohol!' Mark convinced himself, tightly closing his legs together.

Determined to lash out, Mark raised his head to face the taller man. But seeing Luke's serious yet worried expression made his resolve falter once more.

"I...I..um," Mark stuttered, his face now painted a similar rosy shade as his butt.

Unable to look at Luke's face, Mark continued softly almost inaudibly, whilst thumping against Luke's chest in protest. "Last night... you... mistake... but..."

Luke quickly mistook the soft physical **** and verbal complaint as nothing but a cute reaction from the hungover girl for leaving her all alone in bed, prompting him to hug and kiss her temper away.

"Mmm... Luke...no... not that..," Mark squirmed trying to avoid him.

As the kiss started to get more and more rough, a knock on the door resounded in the room followed by a sharp voice, interrupting the amorous couple.

"Is she alright?"

Looking behind Luke, Mark quickly identified the voice belonging to none other than the dean of the university, Rose Lakewood.

'Why is the she here?'

Mark hurriedly broke the kiss and pushed Luke away, not wanting the dean to be a witness to their relationship.

Before he could make any sense of it, another very familiar figure appeared from behind her.

"Mom...?" Mark called out to her out of habit.

"Mia, why haven't you been picking up my calls?" Agatha asked, walking towards him, worried.

Mark quickly hid behind Luke, not wanting her to see the current state of his appearance. "What are you doing here...?"

"I came to pick you up. Your friend, Sarah said you might be here."

"Why did you come now...?!" Mark cried, upset about the turn of events.

"..."

As Agatha approached closer to her new daughter, Mark hid further behind Luke, covering himself with Luke's stretched shirt.

*SIGH* "Son, why don't you help her get freshened up? Also, get her some clothes to change into while you are at it." The dean ordered Luke. "Agatha, do you want to have some tea while your daughter gets ready?"

====

Agatha Walker sat opposite Rose, silently sipping tea, as she waited for Mia and Luke to join them.

'Why did you come now...?!' Agatha thought back to Mark, no, Mia's outcry.

Her children meant the world to her, but not always was she able to show it. As a career-driven woman, it was difficult for her to leave work and lead a domestic life to take care of the kids.

Hoping housekeepers and tutors were enough to help the children grow up, she left them to the experts, thinking that she had already become the best mom a child could possibly have. After all, it was a world of comfort and luxury she herself didn't have when she was growing up.

Initially, her plan seemed to work. But cracks slowly started to appear.

Her eldest child, Alice, smart in business just like her father, quickly grew up to become even financially independent from them by starting a very successful business in fashion. But only recently did she realize that her daughter's want for success seemed to stem from the desire to leave the family altogether.

Her youngest, Evan, was about to graduate as the topper of his class and probably the state, according to his tutors. His actions also seemed to follow his sister's path.

The bigger of the problem was her second child, Mark. Everything he did was a landmine waiting to explode. He always acted on impulse without thinking about the consequences of his actions.

Agatha was well aware of what her secretary did to cover up each incident. While hard-pressed to admit, she herself was also a little wild during her youth, but never did she cross the line like her son.

Every time she thought he would grow up, Mark found a new way to disappoint her further.

As she was almost ready to cut him out of the family for good, she got an inexplicable call from her secretary. Initially, she thought Kate must've somehow mistaken it for one of his new pranks. It was only later when she spoke with one of his professors out of curiosity did she get to know how real it was.

From then she started to question herself: 'How well do I know my kids?'

It was only then she realised how broken her family really was. The entire family now barely spoke to each other. Worse, her kids actually hated each other.

The cracks already seemed too large to be fixed.

When Mark called nervously confessing to wanting to be a girl, Agatha felt her heart getting wrecked.

Hearing her rebellious son trembling as he confessed made her realize how much her daughter was hurting.

Trying to comfort her child over the phone, Agatha hurriedly called back only to get a busy tone in response.

'Work can wait, I have to go to my child now.' Agatha resolved, hoping to heal the cracks in her family one by one.

Cancelling her meetings for the rest of the week, Agatha immediately started driving towards Lakewood University.

She didn't want to make the same mistake she did before. 'This time I'll take better care of you.'