Asystole ✷ Mark Sloan

𝟬𝟯𝟬 from the dining table

𝙓𝙓𝙓.
FROM THE DINING TABLE

──────

SEATTLE

CHARLIE WAS A nice guy.

He was truly a well rounded, too pure for his own good, could not hurt a fly, nice guy.

He stood there in the doorway, holding Lexie's apple pie, barely faltering as he realised who it was who he'd just let through the door. He hadn't realised until it was too late; I stared from the far corner, mouth turned down at the edges as I watched the man I'd dragged so selfishly into this mess.

There was a numbness in me as Eli cradled my bleeding finger.

He pressed the towel onto my outstretched hand tightly, the two of us completely distracted by the two surprise guests as they walked across my apartment and towards the other dinner guests.

When I glanced back at Eli, he looked as though he was ready to set this whole building alight. His eyes crackled with energy when he met my gaze.

"Mark." From Derek's tone, I could tell that he was as baffled as we were. "It's a surprise to see you."

My eyes strayed back to Charlie and they stayed glued to him as he closed the apartment door, expertly balancing the pie in his hands.

I could tell he was as miffed as the rest of us. He was in the dark about Mark, it was a topic that I hadn't really touched on since his first night in Seattle— my stomach twisted.

Selfish.

"I thought you had surgery?" Callie, too, seemed hesitant and not at all thrilled by her best friends appearance. She could tell that it spelt trouble.

The only one who was not at all troubled by the whole thing was Lexie- she smiled serenely and looked around at everyone, only coming to an awkward halt as she looked for somewhere to sit.

Meanwhile, Eli had located the plasters (with no help from a mute and terribly angry me) and was in the process of hurriedly bandaging me up.

Mable watched the drama unfold with hungry eyes and Bateman- well, the great Kyle Bateman just looked bored.

"Yeah, the guy died," He shrugged indifferently as if to say 'what can you do about it?' and Charlie looked, for the hundredth time, as though he was second-guessing letting Mark in through the door.

I pressed my lips together and swallowed sourly.

Please kick him out, please kick him out, please kick him out.

Everyone fell silent for an awkward moment, everyone feeling it except Lexie, forever oblivious to what Mark hadn't told her.

If Charlie was in the dark, Lexie was lost in the dark— from what I'd heard from Derek, Lexie didn't even know that Mark and I had been good friends once upon a time. I switched my gaze to the petite brunette literally a few seconds before Charlie seemed to kickstart himself.

He hurried towards us, his face breaking out into a stellar smile that I'm sure his mother had taught him. He excused himself politely but carried their attention with him.

For a second, Mark seemed to pause too, as if he'd momentarily forgot that this was my apartment and my boyfriend- his head followed Charlie's nervous frogmarch and his eyes eventually sought me out.

A seething figure, washing my dried blood off of my finger underneath the faucet. I met his gaze head-on, narrowing my eyes. To my left, I could see Eli grow uncomfortable, the sort of angry uncomfortable that buried under your skin and blotched bright and raging on your face.