"Well lucky you, 'cause we're just a few meters away from one of the best bars in Texas. Drinks on me," Mark announced, and I hollered excitedly.
Mark asked about my brother Tanner. The excited look on my face faltered for a moment, but I quickly regained my composure. I didn't want to dwell on the past and bring up old scars.
"Tann's fine. Why don't we catch up over those bottles of quality beer you promised, huh?" I replied, waving off the question.
Mark seemed to understand and returned my smile. "Alright. The weather is great don't you think? Wait, let me get these blinds drawn." He got up from the couch and walked to the window. Then, he stiffened, "Shit! She's here again!"
All of a sudden, I noticed a shift in Mark's mood. His cheerful demeanor disappeared, replaced by a wary and malevolent expression. He looked like he was about to burst. Who was here?
"What the flying fuck? She's here again!" Mark exclaimed in a vehement tone. His frustration was palpable, evident by the prominent veins on his forehead.
"Python-man, what's wrong?" I called out to him, using the nickname every hunter called him. Mark was a predator like most of us, always with a smile among friends and not easily provoked. But when he's angry, no one would want to be on the receiving end of his wrath.
He walked away from the window and started pacing back and forth with clenched fists.
"She is what's wrong! That...that girl is what's wrong. Fuck!" Mark growled, staring out again. "She always keeps coming. Every evening of every damn day."
Curious to know what was going on and which girl had put him in such a foul mood, I got up from the couch and strode to the window. Peering out, I was stunned.
Holy...shit!
At the gate I had walked through just minutes ago, lay a girl. A homeless girl. Even from a distance, I could see her beauty, but it was marred by the grime and dirt that covered her. She looked emaciated, ragged, and desolate, as if she hadn't had a decent meal or proper rest in days.
As I caught sight of the girl, I immediately persuaded Marks to ignore her like he usually does. Hoping that maybe she won't return after today. My tense shoulders relaxed when he finally agreed, and we went back to our seats to continue our conversation and reminiscing.
We spent the entire day indoors, chatting and drinking, but my mind kept wandering back to the girl at the gate. I tried to push the thought out of my head, knowing that if Marks remembered her, he would start to raise hell.
It wasn't until that night that I walked over to the window and looked outside to find that she was gone.
The following day, Marks and I spent the morning eating and playing videogames, discussing our past hunting adventures together. As Marks was on his way to the wine bar again, his attention was suddenly drawn out of the window, causing him to spout several strings of unprintable curses.
Curiosity getting the better of me, I walked over to the window to see what had caught his attention. There she was again, the girl lying down at the gate.
"Dude, what did she do? She's just a poor girl," I inquired with my gaze still fixed on her, trying to understand why Marks was so angry.
Mark gruffly explained, "Every day she comes here. Every day she's by that gate and it's been going on for almost three weeks now. It's my fault, putting a shade over the gate and tiling the ground around it."
I knew Mark to be stubborn and uptight, but he shouldn't be reacting to the girl like this. She's just a young girl, maybe seventeen or eighteen years old.
"She wouldn't be at your gate every day if she had a place to stay. Why don't you reach out to her?" I suggested, knowing that Mark wouldn't like the idea very much.
He glared at me, confirming my thoughts. "Reach out to her? Oh, I'm gonna reach out to her... with my hands grabbing her and throwing her ten feet away from that gate," Mark said in a fiery manner, clenching his fists and making his way to the door.
"No, no, no, man. Calm down," I rushed after him and tugged him by his arm, halting him. "Don't do something you'll regret, man."
For the first time, Mark exhaled loudly and unclenched his fists. "Well, I guess I'm overreacting a bit. You know me, X-man. I hate women, and I love my own company better. I love the solitude of this place, and that's why I bought it. She's just disrupting the peace of it," he muttered, throwing a glare at the door that leads outside.
I suggested, "Why don't you go and get that chill drink you wanted to get from the bar, sit down, and take a swing. I'll go and have words with that girl."
Marks voiced his skepticism, "What if it's a girl that escaped the asylums?"