Message In A Bottle ↬Markson

Chapter 8

It's a few minutes before 3pm. Mark walks towards the building with 'Wang's fencing' written on it. He looks up at the building, sun shining in his eyes. His eyes squint and he blocks his eyes with his hand.

Mark is sure that this is the building Jackson told him about yesterday. He waits outside, not daring to go inside to be met with new people. He'd rather wait here, meeting Jackson is already nerve-wrecking enough.

Mark barely slept last night, he drifted off to sleep easily but he kept waking up throughout the night, wondering if it was time to get up yet. Every time he was met with his alarm which indicated that it was only half an hour later than the last time he checked.

Mark sighs and places his hands in his pockets, looking down at the ground. Though it was a sunny day outside it was nearing winter. He had wrapped his neck with a scarf to try to stay away from the cold, but also partially to cover his face from Jackson.

Why he does that actually had no logical reason, Mark knows that. Yet something inside of him tells him to do so, so he did.

Mark looks up to see the door of the large building open. Jackson walks out, a bag slung over his shoulder and jacket open.

"Mark!" Jackson greets with a wide smile.

Mark smiles a little, "Hi Jackson."

"How have you been? It's been such a while since we've seen each other." Jackson says excitedly, all day he's been anticipating on meeting the elder again.

"I've been good, what about you?"

"I've been good too, my schedule has been killing me but it's okay because I really want to win this tournament."

"I can understand that, it must be so exhausting to train so much."

"It is, but I have to make everything perfect and I have to be prepared for every possible situation."

"Are you sure you're done for today?"

"Not really, but it's okay since I'm meeting up with you."

"It's okay, you can practice some more. I'll just wait."

"You don't have to wait, you can watch me. If you want to of course."

"Yes, I'd love to. I don't really know anything about fencing so it'd be interesting to watch you practice."

"Okay, let's go then."

Mark and Jackson enter the huge building. Jackson walks past the reception and up the stairs, Mark follows him.

At the end of the stairs Jackson walks to the dressing rooms, he takes Mark in to the room full of benches, lockers, showers and a weird kind of smell. Mark assumes it's probably the smell of all the athletes' sweat.

Mark sits down on a bench while Jackson changes into his fencing gear. They don't really talk, which makes that Mark is consumed by his thoughts again. He's waiting for the right moment to apologize to Jackson. He feels guilty again thinking about it. 

'Maybe after practice I can tell him?' He thinks.

Jackson is done changing and puts all the stuff away in his locker. He locks it and walks towards Mark.

"Okay let's go Mark. I'll show you around." The younger boy holds his sabre and his mask.

Mark has to admit that he looks good in his fencing gear, this muscles visible in his tight gear.

"Uh- yes, let's go." Mark stand up and walks besides Jackson.

The blond haired boy shows him around the building, explaining fencing as they walk. He ends their walk at his practice room. His trainer looks up at them.