Mark
Mark was sitting on his couch, halfway through a bottle of bourbon when there was a loud, sharp knock on his door. “What!” he yelled before getting up. If it was just some random salesperson going door-to-door, he was going to be pissed. He needed to wallow in his feelings for a while. If he couldn’t be with Stella, he had to be alone.
But a few seconds later there was another knock on the door, louder and more insistent. Mark groaned and got to his feet, putting the bourbon on the ground next to his couch before he stumbled over to the door, swinging to open to reveal his landlord, Ian.
“The fuck do you want?” Mark spat, wavering a little on his feet as a result of the alcohol he’d pounded down his throat over the past hour.
Ian stared at him a moment before reaching into the pocket of his coat and pulling out several sheets of paper. “I’ve got some things to show you.”
“I haven’t been late on the rent, so I’m pretty sure you’re legally obligated to leave me the fuck alone,” Mark said, barely keeping his voice above a growl. He needed to take his anger out on something or someone, and Ian was as good a target as any.
But Ian looked undeterred, offering forward the pile of papers for Mark to take. “Have a look,” he said, leaning against the frame of Mark’s door.
Mark dropped his eyes down to look at the papers, his heart jumping up in his throat as soon as he saw the pictures printed on the front. It was him and Stella. Naked, in bed together. Kissing.
“What the fuck?” Mark muttered out loud, sifting through the papers to see shot after shot of the two of them making love. He remembered it vividly. It was the night Cameron came by Stella’s apartment, the night they’d moved from fucking to something else. Something more tender and soft. Something scarier than anything else Mark had done before in his life. And now there was evidence of it. “Where did you get this?” he demanded, looking back up at Ian.
“That’s none of your concern,” Ian said casually. “What you should be worried about is Cameron. He’s seen these pictures, and let me tell you, he isn’t happy.”
Mark shoved the pictures into Ian’s chest, pushing the smaller man out of his doorway. “Get fucking lost. You think I care about what your little boss thinks? He’s nothing.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Ian said, shaking his head. “You might be able to take Cameron in a one-on-one fight, but let’s be real here, that’s not what’s going to happen. He’s going to run all over you, use everything he’s got. I just came by here to warn you, man. And maybe give you a little friendly advice, as well.”
Mark narrowed his eyes, his blood rushing in his veins, ready for a fight.
Ian pressed on. “Look, this isn’t your fight. You just got caught up in the crossfire. Cameron loves Stella. He’s obsessed with her, and he’s never going to back off. Believe me. And anyways, it’s not worth it for you to get involved in this mess. She’s just a common tramp.”
A common tramp? Those three words set off a fire inside Mark’s brain, obliterating all his thoughts except the need to smash Ian into a pulp. He roared loudly and pushed his body through the doorway, launching a hard punch right at Ian’s face. “Fucker!” he shouted as he swung again, this time landing directly on Ian’s nose.
“Shit, man!” Ian cried out, clutching at his bleeding face. “Wow, you can really throw a punch.”
Mark was about to sock him again, this time aiming for his stomach, but the odd lightness of Ian’s tone stopped him. When Ian pulled his hand away from his face, Mark saw that he was smiling, almost beaming despite the blood trickling down from his nose. “What the hell is going on here?” Mark asked.
The next second, a familiar-looking woman stepped out of the shadows of the hallway outside of Mark’s apartment. It took him a second to place her, but then he realized who she was. Nicole. Stella’s best friend.
“Hey, Mark,” Nicole said with a smile, reaching down to pick up the fallen pictures that Ian had dropped a second before. Without looking at them, she folded them in half and tore them up, four times in a row until they were in tiny pieces. “Can we come in? I need to throw this out.”
Mark was so confused that he didn’t know what to do, but he must have been standing aside with enough space anyway, as Nicole and Ian pushed past him to walk into his apartment. Nicole walked over to the nearest trashcan and dumped in the remainder of the pictures, all at once. “Ian, shut the door, okay? You never know who’s listening in.”
Ian gently pushed Mark to the side and did as Nicole instructed before going over to stand by his girlfriend. “Sorry about the pictures. But we had to be sure you cared about her.”
“What are you talking about?” Mark asked, his brain still not totally computing what was going on.
“Stella,” Nicole said. “I had to make sure that you really cared about her, so I took those pictures the night Cameron showed up. Originally I didn’t know if you were coming, so I figured I’d just take pictures of Cameron to try to prove to the police that he was stalking her, but then you showed up. I had a feeling you cared about her, but I needed to be sure. And now I am.” She smiled at him, her eyes glowing with happiness.
Mark was still utterly confounded, and a little part of him wanted to resist and say that no, he didn’t care about her, not really. But the stinging sensation on his now-open, bleeding knuckles told him otherwise. “Okay, but why? Is this just an elaborate way of screening all of Stella’s sexual partners or…?”
Ian laughed and shook his head. “We’ve got a proposal for you, Mark. But fair warning: it’s pretty fucking dangerous, so think about it before you answer.”
“A proposal for what?” Mark asked.
Nicole cleared her throat and stepped forward. “To get rid of Cameron. Once and for all. You interested?”