After The Fact Ch 04

SOOOOO much has been going on. I did NOT forget this story. I am finishing up a TON of work and still crazy with school.

But here is the next chapter for Marcus! Enjoy!

*****

Marcus had tossed and turned all night. His dreams were filled with Lila and what a future would have looked like together. They were the kind of dreams that felt a little too real. His body started waking up before his brain had and for a split second he believed Lila was sleeping next to him. It wasn't until his arm reached out and felt the empty space that his mind caught up to reality.

Marcus lifted his head to where his hand had reached and groaned.

He had pushed himself to the brink of confusion.

It was obvious he was never getting her back, so his only option now was to find peace with that fact.

He needed closure. But how could he find it?

He had two choices with two possible outcomes; he could either go through the box as her mother had instructed him to do or her could toss it in his garage and forget about the whole thing, one of the decisions would help him accept Lila's death and move on and one could leave him with a constant reminder of what he'd lost and ruin him forever.

But which was which?

How did he decide?

Last night he had decided to try to tackle her phone today but that was before he'd really considered what all of this meant. Now he didn't know what to do.

These crossroads were killing him.

Marcus closed his eyes in frustration and lay his head back against the pillow.

He had almost dozed back off to sleep when he heard a melodic whistle in the other room.

He panicked for a moment.

Was someone in the house with him?

He slid out of the sheets and pulled a Louisville slugger from underneath the bed.

Trying not to make the floor creak he made his way out of the bedroom and down the hall holding the bat over his shoulder, ready to swing at this first sign of trouble. As he reached the kitchen the whistling came again.

Her phone.

Marcus almost laughed at himself as he leaned the baseball bat against a wall

Walking over to the phone he found himself wondering who was texting her?

Then his stomach dropped.

What if it was someone who didn't know Lila was dead? Could he really be the one to break that news to somebody?

Or maybe it was someone just who missed her and thought sending a text to her phone might help.

Or

...he thought to himself as her pressed the button...

her brother?

Well he definitely knew Lila was dead.

Darren: 7922

7922?

The password!

This message wasn't for Lila, it was for him.

Darren must have known her phone was locked and he wouldn't be able to get in.

But why give it to him? Especially after he had been so against him taking her things to begin with.

Marcus hadn't a clue why he'd given him the code, but he was grateful for it.

I guess that makes the decision for me then. I'm gonna get to know Lila and see where she takes me.

Marcus pushed the home button on the phone and it prompted for the passcode.

7. 9. 2. 2.

The unlocking sound echoed, and Marcus' heart jumped.

He was in.

First things first.

Marcus went into her messages and pulled up Darren.

Lila (Marcus): Thank you

He waited a moment before the bubble icon popped up telling him Darren was about to respond. It disappeared and reappeared a couple of time before a message came through.

Darren: Don't text from this phone.

Marcus hadn't thought of it, but he immediately felt bad. Of course Darren wouldn't want to see his little sister's name pop up on his phone.

Not when it wasn't really her.

He'd apologize later.

He thought of reading back through some of the conversations she had with him, but he knew he wasn't ready for that.

Right now, he wanted to browse a bit.

She a had ton of apps; social media, games, teaching resources. Her whole life was on this thing.

He went to her photos first.

Marcus smiled at the number of selfies she had. Posing in her car, her home, with her mom and brother, other people he didn't recognize.

He kept scrolling until he froze on one group of pictures.

It was the two of them.

He'd completely forgotten about these pictures. They were in the back of his truck and judging from her messy hair they had just been fooling around. Marcus smirked.

Immediately he sent the photos to his phone, they were definitely something he'd like to keep.

He kept browsing photos, occasionally sending another he liked to his phone.

Two hours went by before he'd run out of pictures. His eyes hurt a bit as he blinked and looked the time.

10:30 AM

Yea he'd stop for now. As much stuff as there was to go through he also wanted to make it last.

So a little at a time was a good plan.

Besides, he had told his Mom he'd come by sometime this week to help her with some stuff around the house.

That'll be a good distraction

, Marcus thought as he plugged the phone back into the charger..

Marcus walked and fed Stormy before getting dressed and heading out the door.

Arriving at his mother's house 10 minutes later he put his key in door before letting himself in.

Walking in he saw his mom peep around the corner of the hallway with a look of pleasant surprise.

"Marcus!" She exclaimed, "I didn't know you were coming today! I would have had something ready to eat!"

Marcus put an arm around his mother and gave her a squeeze.

"Don't worry about that, I'm not hungry. I just came to cross off a few things on your list."

"Oh good!" she spoke as she made her way to her bedroom. "Really the biggest thing I need done is getting the freezer fixed. I had to cook everything in there to keep it from going bad! So, you really would be helping me by taking some food back home with you."

"That's fine momma." He called over his shoulder as he made his way into the garage.

Rummaging around a bit he finally found his dad's old toolset.

With tools in hand, Marcus went back to the kitchen to get to work.

About 45 minutes passed before his mom shuffled into the kitchen behind him.

"Marcus honey, have you been eating? You look so thin!"

"Yea, I've been eating." He lied.

Part of him wanted to talk to his mother about what he'd been going through, but he wasn't sure how to go about it.

He and his mom has always been close, but this particular subject might be too heavy for them.

"Well?" His mom asked. She had made herself a cup of coffee and was now sitting at the table.

He peeked from behind the fridge at her, "well what?"

Raising an eyebrow at him she spoke, "I see you over there muttering to yourself. Just like your father used to do. You both only did that when something was on your mind. So spill it."

Marcus sighed aloud before speaking, "It's nothing."

"Hm. Alright, I guess you'll tell me when you're ready."

She pushed herself up from the table and was about to leave the room when her son spoke again.

"I did something. Something bad, but I didn't know it was bad at the time. Now I'm kicking myself."

"Well what did you do."

Marcus hesitated. He'd gone this far.

"There was a girl."

"A girl huh? Did you break her heart?"

"No. I mean I don't think I did anyway. A little too late to find out."

"It's never too late sweetie."

He let out a small laugh before continuing.

"It is though. She died. About two months ago."

"Oh honey, I'm so sorry. Why didn't you tell me about this? What happened?"

"She was in a car accident. Back in November."

"November? My goodness, was it that teacher? At that school up the road? I saw it in the newspaper. Was it her?"

"Yea it was her."

"Oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry. I had no idea you even were seeing someone."

"Well that's the thing. We weren't really seeing each other. It was more...casual."

"Casual?" She looked at her son for a moment, "As in friends with benefits."

"Yea."

"Huh."

They were both quiet for a moment.

"You said you did something bad?"

"Well I mean not really bad but...I guess now that she's not here, I am realizing how much I actually cared for her. When we started

seeing

each other, neither of us were looking for a relationship. And it just kind of continued like that."

"Gotcha, so you both got comfortable. Didn't feel the need to ask for more. And now that it's too late..."

"Exactly."

"Honey I am so sorry." She stood up from her chair and walked over to put her arms around him.

He wanted to cry but still felt constricted from it. As close as he had felt to Lila this morning as he went through old pictures he still didn't truly know her as a person. And that meant he still wasn't allowed to mourn her yet.

Not until he knew and understood what he'd lost.

Marcus drove back to his house to drop off the mountains of food filled Tupperware his mother had given him.

He stepped into his kitchen, both hands carrying brown grocery bags and placing them on the kitchen table.

Stormy shuffled around the kitchen, whining for her owner's attention before curling up in a corner and falling asleep.

Marcus was just about done putting items away when he heard a now familiar whistle followed quickly by another.

He leaned over to get a peek at the screen and saw a text from a name he didn't recognize.

Jack M.- I'm so sorry about that night. I wish I could have convinced you. I hate that you're not here and I miss you.

Jack M.- I love you. I'm a coward for not telling you when I had the chance.

Marcus' face scrunched up in confusion.

Who the heck is this?

Marcus instantly felt a little defensive of Lila.

Apparently some guy he didn't know was in love with her.

And what exactly was he supposed to have convinced her of?

Marcus thought to reply for a moment but then remembered that whoever Jack was he probably wasn't expecting a reply to his text.

But he wanted to know who this guy was.

Marcus closed out of messages and pulled up Lila's Facebook.

Going under her friends list, he did a quick search for the name "jack".

Three popped up, but there was only one that had a last name beginning with "M".

Jack Marcelle.

Marcus clicked on the profile.

Jack was a bit on the nerdy looking side. His profile picture showed him in a full suit and tie, grinning from ear to ear. He looked tall and skinny and he had curly red hair that just draped over the sides of black, thick framed glasses.

He hated to admit it, but this was the kind of guy he would have teased back in high school.

But the guy had to have some game in order to pull a girl like Lila, if that was in fact what happened.

But Lila had always made it clear to him that if either of them found themselves wanting to date someone else that she'd prefer to be upfront about it. She wasn't interested in cheating.

So, Marcus's best guess was poor Jack was the victim of an unreturned crush.

He scrolled down a bit to find Jack's "about" page and clicked.

Work

Teacher at Little Lake Elementary

2010-Present

Same school Lila worked. So, they were coworkers.

Even knowing Lila more than likely didn't return any feelings poor Jack had, he did feel a little jealous he got to see her every day.

Marcus pulled his own phone out of his pocket and pulled up Facebook. He navigated through Lila's page and friends to find Jack again and sent him a request.

What better way to learn more about a girl than to talk to the guy in love with her.

He looked at his watch and realized he had about half an hour before he had to be at work.

Should I take her phone?

Thinking for a second he decided not to, but instead he grabbed a journal out of the box.

A little light reading between calls?

Marcus laughed at the word "light", nothing light about reading a dead woman's journal.

He grabbed his things and head out the door.

Marcus had officially decided he was taking this Lila thing head on. There was already more to her than he'd imagine, and he had barely scratched the surface.

Little did he know, Lila was about to get a lot more complicated.