10 Hurt and Comfort

"Hey Mark is something wrong?" Vincent asked as all of them walked to their rooms.

"I think I can't make the final move tomorrow," Mark sighed.

"What?! But why?" they gasped, at the same time, Mark stopped walking immediately.

"I think I'm starting to like Alice." he breathed.

The others burst out laughing. "That's a good one," Gerald said as he wiped off a tear.

"I'm serious,"

The boys suddenly stopped laughing. Lance pulled Mark. "Let's have a private boy's talk,"

All of them were now gathered in Josh and Lance's room. They were all seated on the floor with Mark in the middle and the other guys formed a circle around him. He felt like he's in the court and they were the jury.

"Explain this Mark. What you're saying is really impossible," Alex said.

Mark took a deep breath, "It's confusing, I thought I hate her but then I just can't get her out of my head."

"That's probably because of her issue with Tiffany," Josh said and the rest nodded in agreement.

"During our date I actually enjoyed it, I even hugged her because she was so afraid back then," he said hesitantly. "And when she got injured I wanted to heal her and protect her."

Gerald shook his head. "I wouldn't say that you like her Mark," he said, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself rather than Mark.

"What if we leave the two of you alone tomorrow? You should decide," Josh suggested.

"Hey, why? I'm sure that I'm in love with Mia, it's just she is interfering with my thoughts." Mark scowled at the thought of him being in love with Alice.

"Whatever, we will still leave you two alone," Matthew said. "I'm pretty sure you'll be Mia's boyfriend tomorrow anyways."

"You got that right," Mark nodded. "Let's just forget that this conversation ever happened."

"HEY MARK ARE YOU STILL THERE?" Alice's loud voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"What?" Mark snapped back into reality, he then realized that they were in front of Mia's room.

"Come on, let's go inside," she told him. Mark wanted to stop her but she already opened the door.

"Hi there," Mia greeted.

"Hey Mia!" Alice greeted back as they entered the room. "Mark has an important thing to tell you."

"What is it, Mark?" Mia asked curiously.

"Well, we've been best friends for so long and I just wanted to tell you that I l—" he was cut off by a sudden knocking on the door.

"Hey, what's up?" someone greeted. They turned to see who it is and it was Jason, one of their schoolmates.

"Why is Jason here?" Alice pointed out to the latter. Mia giggled and Jason coughed. Alice's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Silly me, I guess you don't know about it yet. Jason is my boyfriend," Mia told them.

"What?" Mark and Alice exclaimed.

The couple chuckled. "I asked her on the first day of the retreat," Jason told them.

"What the hell, why didn't I know about this?" Alice thought as her fist clenched.

"Jason is such a sweet guy," Mia blushed as she held Jason's hand. Alice looked at Mark she was worried but he was surprisingly fine,

"Congratulations, that's awesome." he muttered as he forced a smile. Alice could see the hurt in his eyes.

"Yeah, I really wanted to tell you sooner since you are my best friend but Jason and I wanted to keep it a secret at first," Mia smiled sweetly.

Alice bit her lip. "He's hurt. Can't you tell… he's faking a smile… don't be insensitive Mia!" She screams in her thoughts.

"By the way what was it you wanted to tell me?" Alice was snapped back to reality when Mia asked the question.

"Uhm… it's--" Mark stuttered.

Alice immediately thought for an excuse, "I heard about it. I have my sources and Mark just wanted to greet you." she nervously said.

"Oh thanks, I wonder where you heard it from?" Mia thought aloud.

"Well you know me, I know a lot. We'll see you later. Congrats! Bye!" Alice quickly said as she grabbed Mark's arm and pulled him out of the room.

"Hey Alice what's the problem?" Mark asked. Alice ignored him and kept walking. Mark continued asking her but she kept ignoring him. Soon they arrived at Alice's room, she pushed Mark inside and slammed the door shut. "What the hell is your problem?" Mark asked angrily.

Alice punched the door in frustration. "You were there to confess to her! She just introduced you to her boyfriend and she even rubbed it in your face when she held hands with him! How can you just stand there and smile? And you even congratulated them!" she glared at Mark "You could've at least told her how you felt towards her! She's so stupid to not notice, I never felt the urge to punch someone on the face before! I wanted to punch her! And Jason too!" she said in frustration.

"Is that the reason why you're acting weird?" Mark's expression softened. He placed his hands on Alice's shoulders in order to calm her down. "Alice as much as I'm disappointed with Mia and Jason's relationship, as her best friend, I have to accept it and be happy for her."

"I'm just very disappointed with myself. I promised you all that you'd succeed but you didn't, I can't believe I never figured it out, that Jason likes Mia. I'm so stupid." a tear streamed on her cheek.

"Hey why are you crying?" Mark asked.

"I'm crying because of you! You are just so... annoying!" She exclaimed. "How can you act so cool with this! You should be mad at me for not fulfilling my promise!" she sobbed.

"Hey, stop." he said gently as he wiped the tears off her cheeks. "You're stronger than that," he murmured as he hugged her.

"I'm sorry, it's my fault" Alice snivelled.

"No, it's not your fault. Don't waste your tears, maybe Mia and I are only meant to be friends"

"You can cry too you know," Alice murmured

"Idiot," Mark chuckled as he rested his head on Alice's shoulder. "I've never cried in front of anyone…" his embrace tightened. "Anyone except for you," he whispered.

After Mark said those words, Alice heard soft sobs and warm tears fell on her shoulder. Alice bit her lip as more tears fell from her eyes.

On the following day, the ship docked on a beach since they'll be having their beach party and team games. It was the last two days of their retreat after all. Everyone was having fun with the games. Mark was acting normally, even the other guys despite finding out about what happened.

The only one who seemed affected by everything was Alice. She didn't even join in any of the games. Once the games ended everyone was permitted to do whatever they want. The guys went swimming while on the other hand, Alice just sat under a huge palm tree and watched them soullessly.

The guys decided to approach her since they weren't used to her acting so gloomy. "Look guys your crushes are over there, please leave me alone and go to them," Alice said as she pointed the girls, there wasn't any sign of enthusiasm in her voice.

"Yeah, we know but just so you know we are all hanging out with you today besides the past few days, all we ever did was bug you and ask you to accompany us." Gerald said and the others, except Mark who no longer has a crush or so he tried to convince himself, nodded in agreement.

"No thanks, please leave me alone," she deadpanned.

"You should have fun," Mark told her. Alice stared at the ocean for a few seconds before replying.

"It's not time to have fun,"

"If it's about yesterday forget about it and have fun." He said in a serious tone.

Suddenly the others approached her with grins on their faces. Alice looked at them questioningly. "What are you up to?" she asked suspiciously.

"Mark is right. You should have some fun," Josh said. Alice suddenly felt uneasy, she shook her head stubbornly.

Suddenly Gerald and Lance grabbed her wrists and pulled her up then the other guys pushed her, soon they were already at a high portion of the beach wherein below was deep ocean water.

Alice gulped nervously "This isn't a good idea, trust me on this."

"It is! You'll have fun once you're in the water," Gerald told her cheerfully.

"W-wait you don't understand," she panicked but she was pushed off and she fell in the water. The guys laughed victoriously but they stopped when they didn't hear Alice's complaints.

They immediately looked at the water, no sign of Alice, without thinking they dove into the water to search for their friend. Alex was the first to see her; she was slowly sinking he swam towards her and pulled her to the surface. The others saw them and they helped bring Alice to the shore.

Relief was shown on everyone's faces when Alice started coughing and panting for air, when her eyes opened she glared at the boys. If looks could kill, they would've dropped dead by now.

"Why did you do that? Wasn't it obvious that I didn't want to have fun? You're all a bunch of idiots!" she snapped.

"Well if you weren't acting so gloomy then we shouldn't have insisted in the first place!" Josh shouted back.

"Who told you to worry about me acting upset? All I want is peace damn it!"

"It's normal because we are your friends," Mark said softly.

"I know it is normal but I have my own life too. I thought helping you all with your love problems would make you all independent, I thought you'd all forget about me but you still keep bugging me!" she then faced Mark, she really was pissed off. "And you, I'm sorry about yesterday but please leave me alone for once. Date Tiffany or some other girl. Just get your own life!" she shouted angrily.

Mark clenched his fists as Alice kept ranting, "Just don't bug me. I need time for myself, I won't always need you guys," she added.

Their eyes widened in shock when Mark suddenly slapped Alice. Mark immediately regretted what he has done. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. You said mean words and my emotions got the best of me." he nervously said.

Alice glared at him and she ran to the ship, Mark immediately ran after her leaving the others dumbfounded,

"What just happened?" Gerald squeaked.

"I'm sure Alice didn't mean it," Vincent muttered.

"She didn't, she's just pissed because she almost drowned to death today." Alex sighed, he somewhat wanted to make a joke of the situation but it's too serious.

"Hey Alice!" Mark ran after her and he grabbed Alice's wrist, "I'm so sorry!" He panted.

"Leave me alone!" she yelled.

"You just walked out on us like that! How can I just leave you alone?!" he said, anger evident in his voice.

"You frickin' slapped me idiot!" she shouted

"You would have continued to say hurtful things that you didn't mean!" he competed by raising his voice.

��It's true. You idiots almost killed me a while ago, that wouldn't have happened if you guys left me alone!" she roared. People started to look at them, their classmates included but they all knew that they mustn't interfere unless they want to get involved in this 'argument'.

"We were worried about you Alice. You're not the Alice we know." Mark said, his voice getting gentler as he spoke.

Alice's anger was replaced with sadness, she looked at him. Tears were forming in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she tried to hold back her tears but it didn't work, a tear began streaming on her cheek. Mark smiled as he gently patted her hair

"It's fine, I'm sorry too Alice, we shouldn't have forced you and I'm sorry that I slapped you and I'm sorry that I'm the reason why you're upset. I should have tried harder to have Mia like me, but I guess my efforts weren't enough," Mark said.

"It's my fault. If only I knew Jason likes Mia, I could've done something. I could've helped you more." she sobbed.

"Alice, stop crying. You already wasted so many tears besides what happened to the Alice I know? Have you gone weak?" Mark tried to encourage her.

Alice smiled and she laughed weakly as she wiped her tears with her sleeve. "I'm such an idiot," she sighed. Mark nodded which caused Alice to let out a giggle.

"Good, I made you laugh." he smiled at her as he grabbed her arm. "Let's go back to the others,"

"No need to grab me, I'd go willingly." Alice assured him.

On one side of the ship, Tiffany was eyeing them suspiciously. "So Mark and Mia just won't work out huh? Good, now I just have to take Alice out of the picture." she smirked.

Mark and Alice soon joined the others. Alice slightly smiled "I'm sorry, especially when I said those mean words." There wasn't much emotion in it but they could tell that she was sincere. They all smiled

"We're glad you're back"

"You're not mad at me?" Alice asked as she pointed herself

"Why should we?" Lance asked.

"I uh… nevermind," she smiled. "I'm lucky to have such nice friends."

"Come on, the party will start soon. You should change your clothes," Mark said as he patted Alice. Her clothes were still wet because of the incident earlier.

"You guys should change too," she told them.

"I'm impressed," Josh mused. The others looked at him in confusion.

"Why?" they asked.

"I can't believe that Alice and Mark made up fast, I actually thought that I'd see them chasing around the beach." he chuckled.

"Have you guys gone soft on each other?" Lance asked bluntly.

Alice turned away from him. "No we're not!" she said defensively "It's just that we're on a ceasefire at the moment."

Mark laughed and Alice glared at him. "What are you laughing about?" she whined.

"You're amusing," he gave her a smug look, he was about to pat her shoulder when Alice swatted his hand away

"Shut up will you?" she said, there was a very faint blush on her cheeks. She turned and marched off. The guys smiled at each other, it's good that Alice is returning to her usual self.