Deep Breaths

Dispute

                                                             Mark's POV
"I can't do this anymore!" I heard Alice shout from the living room making me run over to see her getting mad at Miya. "What's going on?" Miya looked on the verge of tears. "I can't deal with these kids anymore." I led her out of the room. "What happened?" I asked calmly "It's all your fault, everything that has happened is because of you!" She had her arms crossed over her chest. "I don't understand?"
"You brought these kids here without asking me and it probably didn't even cross your mind to tell me what had happened and the mental scar it left on them!"
"But I couldn't just..." She turned away from me. "But you could, you could have let the people who are trained in these type of things look after them but you had to go ahead and volunteer to because you were too scare that you or them were going to get killed by a man who is already in prison. You don't actually think before you act do you!" She pushed my chest making me stumble backwards slightly. "Well what would you do in that situation?" I asked her calmly trying to get my point across. "It's irrelevant right now. So I guess if you have nothing better to say then just leave."
"You can't kick me out of my own house."
"Well you never let me decided anything at the moment s you don't get a say in this." She said expecting me to leave. "We can't leave this argument that's so simple just... you need to rest and we'll all feel better." I suggested stepping closer to her but she pushed me out again so I hit the door. "Get out!" I left the door leaving her to slam it behind me.

I watched the door slam in my face before I heard some shouting coming from inside, I put my hand in my suit pocket to find my wallet and keys that could quite easily let me in but instead I started walking away from the house not really sure of the destination. I started to walk towards the dodgy part of town that I knew contained a bar, John tried to take me there a few times when we worked together but I never ended up going. I looked up at the brightly lit sign inviting me towards the dingy building. As soon as I walked in I was bombarded with cigarette smoke and the musky smell of the people wasting away inside. I sat down on one of the barstools and signalled over the bar keeper. They grabbed a glass and started filling it up with my chosen poison taking a sip, as soon as the icy glass hit my lips there was a contrasting warm feeling that spread around my body. Once it was empty I drank another and another until all emotion was gone.

"Last call!" I tried to get up but my vision was blurry and everything was spinning as I balanced one arm on the bar. "Are you ok?" Gary asked, my voice slurred as I answered. "I got to get back to my wife." My phone was giving off a lot of artificial light as my eyes squinted. I put my phone back in my pocket and when I felt I ad regained balance I started to stumble towards the door; it was a 15 minute walk home from here that I was now starting to regret. Cars kept driving past which was surprising to me taking note of how late it was on a school night... uh oh I have to teach tomorrow. Eventually I had made it home the walk seemed to have cleared my was a bit as I struggled to unlock the door whilst trying to be quiet. When I opened the door a huge conflict started in my head ending in me deciding to sleep on the sofa rather then risk waking Alice up.

"What are you doing out here? Where did you go last night?" Alice asked me my head pounding "I went out to the bar to leave you in peace." Alice slaps me round the face. "Why did you do that it's a school night?" I grabbed my burning cheek. "Why did you do that" I half shouted at her. "To stop you from doing this again, can you even drive yet?" She was obviously mad. "Probably it was like 5 hours ago and I didn't drink that, well... it was 5 hours ago."
"Well I don't want to risk it so I'll drive." She took the keys from my hand without me fighting against it. "At least you had the common sense to not wake anyone up" By this time both Miya and Justin were awake and outside waiting to leave for school, surprised by the fact I was now here.

"Rough night Mark?" I looked over to see Simon who taught side B science. It's at that point I realised I was wearing the same clothes that I wore yesterday; half my dirt was tucked in, my tie was a mess and the musket smell of beer still remained on the suit jacket. "Alice and I it into a bit of a dispute but i think we are good now." My head was still pounding as I answered and I don't know how well I'd be able to teach today but I put this all on myself. "I think all i need right now is some aspirin and a coffee." He chuckled slightly flicking the kettle on. "I bet you might also want to suit your suit out." I tucked my shirt in and redid the tie completely ditching my suit jacket and the smell that clung to it. "How are Miya and Justin doing?" He asked me as he made the coffees. "Well I thought they were getting better but after last week I'm not sure anymore. Especially with Miya she bought up what happened to her again, I know she won't forget it but she seemed sad about it and the other night she had a bad dream about it and couldn't get back to sleep." I trusted Simon with this information we were quite close friends. "I think the best ting to do it to take it one day at a time, I know it will be difficult sometimes but you need to be strong for ten especially with Harvey on the way." Tat's wen the bell went I quickly finished my coffee and prepared myself for the noise. "Good luck." Simon said patting my shoulder.

When I walked back int the classroom it was really stuffy so I opened up a ew windows ad turned the air conditioners off. They were already at the door a few looking in and one knocking on the window. "Good morning guys!" I said as they walked through the doors some were talking to friends whilst others muttered to themselves. "Today we are going to go through some maths questions." I was as excited as them. "Why don't we just pretend we did them I mean I ave maths first lesson." Zac shouted from the back of the class. "I've been told to do this with you so Zac as you volunteered you can hand the paper out please." I pulled up the PowerPoint as Zac passed paper around to unwilling and half asleep students.

Whilst the PowerPoint was playing I got up and closed the blinds to block the sunlight that was burning my eyes. "Can we turn the light on?" I wiped around to look at Hallie "I closed the blinds for a reason." I said in a strained voice holding my hand to my eyes for a few seconds. "Just get on with the questions." I spoke as if i had lost the will to live and I think I had. She got back to her work quietly as I turned back to the board where the answer now were projected on it. "So mark you're work and then the rest of the time can be free time." I heard a chuckle from the corner of the room where a group of boys were sat. "What's so funny over there?" One of them stopped laughing for long enough to answer. "Well ave yo ever realised your name is the same as your job." He said the next bit through a laugh "Because you mark work." That's when a lot of the mentor started laughing too. "Ok well did anyone get 10 out of 10?" Adam and Emma put their hands up. "Ok so I'll give you two house points." My headache was starting to disappear but the screen of my laptop was still too bright for my eyes. Five more minutes then I have a free lesson and I can just pull every blind down and turn the lights off so I can sit in complete darkness and silence for an hour.