Four Weddings And A Funeral 11 page

Marcus wasn't worried. He knew how loudly Will's doorbell rang inside the flat, and he knew he could ring it for a very long time.

Fiona had made a complaint to the school about Marcus's new trainers being stolen, so he had to go and see the head teacher, Mrs Morrison. He was waiting outside her office when a girl called Ellie McCrae came and sat down next to him. Ellie was fifteen and she was famous in the school. She wore a lot of black eye make-up and cut her own hair, and she was always in trouble, usually for something serious.

They sat in silence for a time, then Marcus thought he'd try to talk to Ellie. His mum was always saying he should talk to people at school.

'Hello, Ellie.'

'How does a little boy like you know my name?'

'You're famous.' He knew this was a mistake immediately.

'What am I famous for?'

'Don't know.'

'Yes, you do. I'm famous because I'm always in trouble. Do you know what I'm in trouble for this time? It's this sweatshirt. They don't want me to wear it, and I don't want to take it off, so there's going to be an argument.'

Marcus looked at Ellie's sweatshirt. It had a picture on it of a guy with long blond hair, big eyes and half a beard.

'Who's that?' he asked politely.

'Don't you know? It's Kirk O'Bane.'

'Oh, yes.' Marcus had never heard of Kirk O'Bane, but that wasn't surprising - he'd never heard of anybody. 'What does he do?'

'He's a footballer. He plays for Manchester United.'

'Does he?' Marcus thought that the guy on Ellie's sweatshirt looked more like a singer than a footballer. Footballers weren't sad, usually, and this man looked sad.

Just then Mrs Morrison's door opened and two young kids came out. 'Come in, Marcus,' said Mrs Morrison.

Marcus's talk with Mrs Morrison didn't go very well. She asked him about the boys who stole his trainers and he said he didn't know who they were. This wasn't true, of course, but he didn't want any more trouble from them.

'Marcus, if the other kids are bullying you, why don't you just keep out of their way?'

Marcus was annoyed. Did she think he was stupid? Did she think he went looking for trouble? 'I have tried,' he said.

'Maybe you haven't tried hard enough.'

Marcus stood up to go. He'd had enough. She wasn't going to be helpful because she didn't like him. Nobody at this school liked him and he didn't understand why.

'Sit down, Marcus. I haven't finished with you.'

'But I've finished with you.'

He had never been rude to a teacher before and he was very surprised at himself. He walked out of Mrs Morrison's office, and out of the school.

Marcus was walking slowly along Upper Street when Will saw him. Will was driving back from the supermarket, listening to loud music in his car. What was Marcus doing out of school at two o'clock in the afternoon, he wondered.

At exactly 4.15 that afternoon, right in the middle of Countdown, Marcus rang his doorbell. At first Will didn't answer, but Marcus rang and rang. Will turned off the TV and put on some music by the pop group Nirvana, hoping that Marcus would go away. But Marcus didn't stop ringing the bell, so finally Will opened the door and let him in.

'You shouldn't be here.'

'I came to ask you something. I want you to take me and a friend to a football match.'

'You don't like football.'

'I do now,' said Marcus. 'I like Manchester United. And I like a player called Kirk O'Bane. He's got long blond hair and a beard.'

'Marcus, there isn't a player called O'Bane who plays for Manchester United. I know all the players and there's nobody with long blond hair and a beard. There was a player called O'Kane who played for Nottingham about twenty-five years ago. What lessons did you have this afternoon?'

Marcus looked at him, trying to work out why he was asking the question. 'History, and then... umm...'

'Marcus, I saw you this afternoon.'

'What, in school?'

'Well, I didn't see you in school, did I? Because you weren't there. I drove past you on Upper Street.'

'It was Mrs Morrison's fault. The head teacher. She told me to keep out of their way - the boys who stole my trainers.' Marcus began to get upset, and to speak more quickly. 'They followed me! How can I keep out of their way if they follow me?'

'All right, Marcus, calm down. Did you tell her that?'

'Of course. But she didn't take any notice.'

'Right. So go home and tell your mum this. It's no good telling me.'

'I'm not telling her. She's got enough problems without me. Why can't you go and see her? Mrs Morrison.'

'You're joking. Listen, Marcus. I'm not your father, or your uncle, or any member of your family. No head teacher is going to take any notice of what I say. You've got to stop thinking I know the answer to anything, because I don't.'

'You know about things. You knew about the trainers. And you know about Kirk O'Bane. The footballer.'

Suddenly Will realized who Marcus was talking about. 'It's not Kirk O'Bane, you fool, it's Kurt Cobain. The singer with Nirvana.'

'I thought he must be a singer,' said Marcus. 'I didn't know about him, and my mum wouldn't either, but you did. You see, you know things. You can help.'

It was then, for the first time, that Will understood the kind of help that Marcus needed. Fiona had given him the idea that Marcus needed an adult male in his life, but that was wrong. Marcus needed help to be a kid. And, unfortunately for Will, that was exactly the kind of help that he could give. Will couldn't tell Marcus how to grow up, or how to cope with a mother who wanted to kill herself. But he could certainly tell him that Kurt Cobain wasn't a footballer.

Marcus went back to school the following day. Nobody had noticed that he had been absent the afternoon before, so he didn't get into trouble. In the morning break he found Ellie and a friend from her class, Zoe, by the drinks machine. Ellie was wearing her Kurt Cobain sweatshirt.

'Kurt Cobain doesn't play for Manchester United,' he told her. 'He plays... he sings... for Nirvana. A friend of mine has got one of their CDs. Nevermind'

'Thanks for telling me,' said Ellie and laughed. 'What year's your friend in? I didn't think anyone in this school liked Nirvana. And what do you think of them?'

'He's left school. He's quite old. And I don't know what I think of Nirvana.' Will had played him some of their music the evening before. It had been very noisy with a lot of shouting, but there had been some quiet bits too. He didn't think he would ever like it as much as Joni Mitchell or Mozart, but he could understand why Ellie might like it.

'It's a bit noisy,' said Marcus, 'but the picture on the cover is very interesting.' It was a picture of a baby, swimming after a dollar note. Will had said something about the picture, but he couldn't remember what it was. 'I think the cover has a meaning. Something about society.'

Ellie and Zoe looked at each other and laughed.

'You're very funny,' said Zoe. 'Who are you?'

'Marcus.'

'Cool name,' said Zoe, and they laughed again. 'See you around, Marcus.'

It was the longest conversation he'd had with anyone at school for weeks. Later, he told Will about Ellie.

'Can I invite her round to your flat?' he asked.

'I'm not sure she'd come, Marcus. How old is she? Fifteen? I'm not sure fifteen-year-old girls want to go around with twelve- year-old boys. She probably has a 25-year-old boyfriend who rides a Harley Davidson.'

Marcus hadn't thought of that. 'I don't want to go out with her. She wouldn't be interested in someone like me. But we can come round here and listen to your Nirvana CDs, can't we?'

'She's probably heard them already.'

Marcus was getting annoyed with Will. Why didn't he want him to make friends? 'OK, forget it then.'

'I'm sorry, Marcus. I'm glad you spoke to Ellie today. But a two-minute conversation with someone who's laughing at you... I'm not sure this relationship is going to last.'

Marcus wasn't listening. Ellie and her friend had said he was funny, and he'd made them laugh. That had made him feel good, and he knew he could make them laugh again. The next day he saw them again by the drinks machine.

'Ellie, how old is your boyfriend?' The girls laughed and Marcus felt happy. 'My friend Will said he's probably about twenty-five and rides a Harley Davidson.'

'He's a hundred and two,' said Ellie. 'How old's your girlfriend? She probably wants to kill me, doesn't she?'

'I haven't got one,' said Marcus, and the girls laughed again. They were laughing all the time now.

Ellie and Zoe came looking for Marcus at lunchtime. He was at his desk eating sandwiches when they came into his classroom, calling his name. Almost every kid in the room stopped what they were doing and turned round. You could see what they were thinking: Ellie and Marcus? Even Nicky and Mark, who hadn't spoken to him for weeks, looked up from their Gameboy.

'What are you all staring at? Marcus is our friend, aren't you, Marcus? Let's go to our classroom. You don't want to stay here with these boring little kids, do you?'

Some of the kids turned red, but nobody said anything. Nobody wanted to argue with Ellie. They watched as Marcus walked from his desk to where Ellie and Zoe were standing. When he got there, Ellie gave him a kiss.

Marcus felt very proud as he walked through the school with Ellie and Zoe. The other kids, and even the teachers, stared at them in surprise. When they got to Ellie's classroom, Ellie made him stand outside. He could hear her shouting to the other kids.

'OK, listen, everybody. I want you to meet Marcus. He's the only other person in the whole school who likes Kurt Cobain. Come in, Marcus.'

He walked in, and everybody laughed when they saw him. Ellie and Zoe stood beside him and Marcus felt great.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Christmas at Fiona's

Will was feeling depressed. It was only 19 November, but he had heard his dad's Christmas song in a supermarket that morning.

Will hated Christmas: people knocked on his door, singing the song he hated more than any other song in the world, and expected him to give them money. His dad had hated Christmas too, but for a different reason: it reminded him of how badly he had failed in his life. His famous Christmas song was the only successful song he had ever written. At Christmas, Will's dad had always got depressed and angry and drunk a lot, so it had never been a very happy time for Will.

Since his parents had died, Will had usually spent the holiday with friends, or girlfriends' families, but this year he had no plans. There was no girlfriend, and so there were no girlfriend's parents. He decided that he would sit at home and watch old films on TV and get drunk, but that didn't seem very Christmassy.

He thought about spending Christmas Day with a family - not his family, because he didn't have one, but a family. He definitely didn't want to spend Christmas with Marcus and

Fiona, though - eating vegetarian food, not watching TV, singing Christmas songs with his eyes closed. But the next afternoon Marcus came round and invited Will to spend Christmas with them

'Ummm,' said Will. 'That's... very kind of you.'

'But you're coming?'

'I don't know.'

'Why not?'

'Because

'Don't you want to come?'

'Yes, of course I do, but... what about your mum?'

'She'll be there too.'

'Yes, I know. But she wouldn't want me there.'

'I've already spoken to her about it. I said I wanted to invite a friend, and she said OK. She guessed it was you. I haven't got any other friends.'

'All right,' Will said at last. 'I'd love to spend Christmas with you, Marcus.'

When he arrived at Marcus and Fiona's flat on Christmas Day, he was pleased to find other people there too. There was Marcus's dad Clive, and his girlfriend Lindsey, and his girlfriend's mum, all sitting in a line on the sofa. Will was very surprised that Fiona and Clive were still friendly although their relationship had finished some time ago. The people in SPAT hadn't been like that about their broken relationships - they had been angry and unhappy.

Will gave Marcus a CD of Nevermind and a Kurt Cobain T-shirt, and Marcus gave Will a book of Countdown quizzes. Fiona gave Will The Single Parent's Guide as a joke.

'What's the joke?' asked Lindsey.

'Nothing,' said Will quickly.

'Will pretended to have a kid so he could join a single parents' group,' Marcus told her.

'Oh,' Lindsey said. She and her mum and Clive looked at Will with interest, but he just smiled.

Clive gave Marcus some computer games and CDs and sweatshirts. But Fiona's presents to Marcus weren't very interesting at all, Will thought - books, and a hairy jumper, and some piano music. But Marcus was really pleased with them, and for the first time Will understood that Marcus was a good kid. He didn't need expensive presents to be happy.

They had lunch and then watched TV. Marcus was happy and Will felt very relaxed. But later in the afternoon Suzie arrived with Megan. Fiona had told her that Will didn't really have a two-year-old son called Ned, but Will hadn't seen Suzie since then and now he felt really embarrassed and ashamed. He stood up, and then he sat down again, and then he stood up again and said he had to go.

'Don't be so silly, Will,' said Fiona.

So Will sat down again and Suzie sat next to him, but she refused to speak to him.

Megan went over to the Christmas tree and Fiona handed her a present. 'This is for you, Megan,' she said.

Megan stood holding her present and looked around the room. Then she walked over to Will and tried to give it to him. Will didn't move.

'Well, take it from her, you fool,' said Suzie.

'It's not my present,' said Will, but Megan continued to hold it out until he reached for it. 'Now what?' he said.

'Open it with her,' said Suzie.

Will helped Megan open the present. It was a plastic musical toy. They both looked at it.

'Now play with her,' Suzie said angrily. 'It's easy to see that you don't know anything about kids. But you should learn. It would be useful to you in your kind of work.'

'What is your kind of work?' asked Lindsey politely.

'He doesn't do anything,' Marcus said. 'His dad wrote a famous song and he earns a million pounds a minute.'

'He pretends he has a child so he can join single parents' groups and meet single mothers,' said Suzie.

'Yes, but he doesn't get paid for that,' said Marcus.

Will stood up again, but this time he didn't sit down. 'Thanks for the lunch,' he said. 'I'm going home now.'

'Suzie has a right to be angry with you,' Fiona said.

'Yes, and now I have a right to go home.'

'But I don't want him to go yet,' said Marcus suddenly. 'He's my friend. I invited him. I should be able to tell him when he goes home. Why is everyone being so horrible to him? He only pretended to have a kid for a couple of weeks. That's nothing. Kids at school do worse than that every day.'

'Yes, but Will isn't a kid,' said Suzie.

'Yes, but he's behaved better since then. He never wanted me round his flat every day. I just went. And he bought me those shoes and he listens when I say I'm having a bad time at school. And he knew who Kirk O'Bane was.'

'Kurt Cobain,' said Will.

'And you all do wrong things too sometimes,' said Marcus. 'I mean...' He had to be careful here. He knew he couldn't say anything about the hospital or Fiona. 'I mean, how did I first become friends with Will?'

'You threw a great big loaf of bread at a duck's head and killed it,' said Will.

Suzie and Fiona started laughing.

'Is that true, Marcus?' asked his father.

'There was something wrong with it,' Marcus said. 'I think it was going to die anyway.'

Suzie and Fiona laughed even more. The three people on the sofa looked shocked. Will sat down again.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Falling

Will met a woman called Rachel at a party on New Year's Eve, and fell in love with her. He'd never wanted to fall in love because he'd always thought of it as a very unpleasant experience. He had watched it happen to friends, and had seen them lose weight and sleep and become unhappy. He was sure that Rachel was going to make him very unhappy, because he didn't think she would find him interesting.

Rachel was beautiful and intelligent and she did drawings for children's books. She sat down next to Will at dinner and asked him questions, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Most people at the party worked in television, or had other interesting jobs, but Will didn't have a job and he hadn't done anything interesting with his life. He watched Countdown and drove around listening to Nirvana.

The most interesting thing about his life, Will suddenly realized, was Marcus. He could see that Rachel was quickly losing interest in him. She had begun to talk to the person sitting on her other side and they were having a conversation about pop music. Rachel was saying that to her Nirvana sounded just like the sixties group Led Zeppelin.

'I know a twelve-year-old boy who would kill you for saying that,' said Will. It wasn't true, of course. Marcus had only just started listening to Nirvana, and he didn't know anything about Led Zeppelin. But Rachel was interested.

'So do I,' she said. 'Maybe they should meet. What's yours called?'

He's not mine exactly, Will thought. 'Marcus.'

'Mine's Ali.'

'Right.'

'And is Marcus's mother here tonight?'

'Ummm...' Will looked up and down the table. 'No.' It wasn't a lie! Fiona wasn't there.

'You're not spending New Year's Eve with her?'

'No. We... er... don't live together.' This wasn't a lie either. He didn't live with Fiona, he had never lived with Fiona and he never intended to live with her in the future. 'How about Ali's dad?'

'He lives in America.'

'Right.'

Rachel started to talk about Ali's father and Will listened. He was very good at listening when a woman told him how badly her ex-husband had behaved. He had heard the same story many times from the women in SPAT.

At midnight Will and Rachel kissed, and at half-past twelve, just before Rachel left, they arranged for Marcus and Ali to meet and compare computer games and CDs.

Now Will had a problem. He had allowed Rachel to believe that he had a twelve-year-old son because it made him more interesting. He was going to have to talk to Marcus, and he knew the conversation would be difficult. So he took Marcus out to a place full of video machines.

'I want you to pretend to be my son,' he said.

'But why?' asked Marcus. 'I don't understand.'

'Because I've met a woman who thinks you're my son.'

'Why don't you tell her I'm not your son?'

'No.'

Why not? I'll tell her if you like. I don't mind.'

'That's very kind of you, Marcus, but it wouldn't help.'

Marcus was busy playing one of the video games. 'Why not? I don't understand.'

'Marcus, listen. I'm really interested in this woman. I let her believe you were my son because that's the only reason she might be interested in me.' 'What do you mean, you're really interested in her? Why is she so interesting?'

'I fancy this woman, Marcus. I want to go out with her. I want her to be my girlfriend.'

At last Marcus turned away from the video machine and looked at Will, his eyes shining. 'Really?'

'Yes, really.' Will wanted Rachel to be his wife, his lover, the centre of his world.

'How do you know you want her to be your girlfriend?'

'I don't know. I just feel it.'

'Oh,' said Marcus. 'Well, I feel the same about Ellie. I want her to be my girlfriend.'

'You want Ellie to be your girlfriend? Not just a friend?'

'Well,' said Marcus, 'I want to be with her all the time. And I want to tell her things before I tell anyone, even you or mum. And I don't want her to have another boyfriend.'

So Marcus agreed to help Will. Will called Rachel and Rachel invited them to lunch the following Saturday. Marcus came round to Will's flat just after midday. He was wearing the hairy juniper that he got from Fiona for Christmas and a pair of bright yellow trousers. Will looked cool: he was wearing his favourite shirt and a black leather jacket.

'Listen,' said Marcus in the car on the way over to Rachel's place. 'If you're my dad, you should know some things about me. When's my birthday?'

'I don't know.'

'August the nineteenth. And what's my favourite food?'

'Tell me.'

'Pizza. And where did I go on my first trip abroad?'

'France.'

'No, Spain. And who's my mum?'

'What?' The question was such an important one that Will couldn't think what to say. 'Your mum's your mum.'

'So you were married to my mum and then you separated. Are you worried about that? Am I?'

The questions seemed so silly that both Marcus and Will began to laugh. They laughed and laughed, and couldn't stop.

Rachel lived in a tall, thin house full of books and old furniture and photographs. It had a warm, welcoming feel, very different from Will's cool modern flat.

'Come in, both of you,' Rachel said. 'Come and meet Ali.' She shouted up the stairs: 'Ali!' No reply. 'ALI!' Still no reply. She looked at Will. 'He's got his headphones on. Shall we go up?'

They went upstairs. Ali's bedroom was typical of a twelve- year-old boy, with large pictures of singers and sexy actresses on the wall. Ali was bent over his computer with his headphones on, and didn't hear them come in. His mother touched him on the shoulder and he jumped.

'Oh, hi. Sorry.' Ali stood up and Will immediately saw that Ali and Marcus were very different. Ali was cool, with fashionable boots and trousers, long hair and even an earring. His face seemed to darken when he saw Marcus's yellow trousers and hairy jumper.

'Marcus - Ali, Ali - Marcus,' said Rachel. 'Do you guys want to stay up here?'

Marcus looked at Will. 'Yes,' he said, and for a moment Will loved him.

'OK,' said Ali, but he didn't sound very enthusiastic.

Marcus knew the lunch with Rachel was very important to Will, and he wanted to help as much as possible. He also thought that if he helped Will with Rachel, then Will might help him with Ellie. But Ali never gave him a chance.

'It isn't going to happen,' he said when Rachel and Will had gone downstairs.

'No?' said Marcus, although he didn't know what Ali was talking about.

'If your dad goes out with my mum, you're dead.'

'Oh, he's all right,' said Marcus.

Ali stared at him. 'I don't care if he's all right. I don't want him going out with my mum. So I don't want to see you or him round here ever again, OK?'

'Can I use the computer? What games have you got?' Marcus said, trying to change the subject.

'Are you listening to me?'

'Yes, but... I'm not sure there's very much I can do at the moment. We've come for lunch, and Will... that's my dad, but I call him Will... he's talking to your mum downstairs and he's really keen on her, and who knows? She might be keen on him, so...'

'SHE'S NOT KEEN ON HIM!' Ali suddenly shouted. 'SHE'S ONLY KEEN ON ME!'

Marcus was beginning to realize that Ali was crazy, and he wasn't sure what to do about it. He thought it would be dangerous to stay in Ali's room. He could go downstairs and jo in Will and Rachel, but he would have to explain that Ali was crazy, and that would be really embarrassing. He decided to run downstairs and out of the front door, and get a bus home.

He was standing at a bus stop when Will drove up beside him and told him to get into the car.

'What are you doing?' asked Will angrily. 'What happened upstairs?'

'Ali's crazy. He said he'd kill me if you went out with Rachel. And I believed him. He's really frightening. Where are we going now?'

It was raining now and the streets were full of traffic and people out shopping. Everywhere Marcus looked, there were people with long, wet hair.

'Back to Rachel's.'

'I don't want to go back there. She'll think I'm stupid.'

'She won't. She thought something like this might happen. She said Ali could be difficult sometimes. Anyway, he's crying like a three-year-old child.'

'Really?' Suddenly Marcus felt better. He was quite happy to go back to Rachel's, he decided.

'Ali has got something to say to you, Marcus,' said Rachel when they walked in.

'Sorry, Marcus,' said Ali. 'I didn't mean to say those things.'

Marcus wasn't sure if he believed Ali. How could you say that you were going to kill someone by mistake? But Ali was crying, and that made Marcus feel generous.

'That's OK, Ali,' he said.

Rachel made Ali and Marcus shake hands.

'Ali finds this kind of thing very difficult,' she said.

Will smiled. 'It's OK,' he said gently, and Rachel looked at him and smiled back. Suddenly Marcus could see why nice, attractive women like Rachel and Suzie might like Will. He had a way of looking at them that he had never used on Marcus - there was something in his eyes, a kind of softness. Would Ellie like him if he did that? She'd probably hit him.

'My last boyfriend was... anyway, he and Ali didn't like each other. I'm sorry, I'm not comparing you to him. I have no idea whether... I mean, I don't know, I just thought on New Year's Eve... oh, this is so embarrassing. It's all your fault, Ali. We shouldn't have to talk about this now.'

'It's OK,' said Marcus brightly. 'Will really fancies you. He told me.'

CHAPTER NINE

Depressions

Will wanted to spend the rest of his life with Rachel, and he knew that he couldn't continue pretending to her that Marcus was his son. So he told her the truth one evening when they were having dinner in a Chinese restaurant.

'Oh,' said Rachel. 'So who's his natural father?'

'It's a guy called Clive who lives in Cambridge.'

'Right. And are you friendly with him?'

'Yes. We spent Christmas together, actually.'

'So... if you're not Marcus's natural father, and you don't live with him... how is he your son?'

'Yes,' said Will. 'It must look very confusing from the outside.'

'Tell me how it is on the inside.'

'It's just that kind of relationship. I'm old enough to be his father, he's old enough to be my son...'

'Did you ever live with Marcus's mother?'

'No. Listen, I never actually said he was my son. The words "I have a son called Marcus" never passed my lips. That's what you chose to believe.'

'You mean... I wanted to believe you had a son, so I just imagined it? I'm the one who was imagining things?' Clearly Rachel thought that Will was crazy. But he felt she was beginning to see the funny side of the situation too. 'But what about Marcus? You didn't just hire him for the afternoon. There's some kind of relationship there.'

So Will told her everything about Marcus. Nearly everything anyway; he didn't tell her that he'd first met Marcus because he'd joined SPAT. He didn't think she would understand about SPAT. She might think he had some kind of problem.

Rachel invited him back to her flat after the meal and they sat drinking coffee out of big blue cups.

'Why did you think Marcus would make you more interesting?' she asked.

'Was I more interesting?'

'Yes, I suppose you were.'

'Why?'

'Because... you really want to know the truth? Because you seemed to be a shallow kind of person. You didn't do anything; you didn't seem to care about anything or have much to say - and then when you said you had a kid...'

'I didn't actually say...'

'I realized that I'd made a mistake about you. And I had made a mistake. You do care about Marcus, and you understand him, and you worry about him. You're not the shallow kind of guy I thought you were.'

Will knew that Rachel was trying to make him feel better about everything, but he still felt bad. He'd known Marcus for only a few months, so what about the thirty-six years before that? And he didn't want to be interesting only because of his relationship with Marcus. He wanted to be interesting for himself.

Will was in love with Rachel and everything had changed. For the first time in his life he wanted to be deeply involved with someone.

Three or four weeks passed. Marcus saw Will, and he saw Ellie and Zoe at school. Will bought him some new glasses, and took him to have his hair cut, and played him some music by singers who he liked and Ellie didn't hate. He felt that he was changing, in his own body and in his head, and then his mum started crying again.

Just like before, there didn't seem to be any reason for it. Finally, she started crying at breakfast again and Marcus knew that things were serious and that they were in trouble.

But one thing had changed for Marcus. When she had started crying at breakfast before, he had been alone. Now he had Will and Ellie.

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 751