Chris smiled at him. He was about to answer when his phone vibrated in his pocket.
“Is that your new girlfriend?” Marc asked sardonically as he walked over to the kitchen window again to leave the ashtray.
“Jealous?”
“You wish.” He snorted.
Chris chuckled. “This chick has kinda grown on me. Super sweet. But she’s just a client,” he said, inspecting the picture Jenna had sent him. The tattoo was healing great, even over the mark that went from her wrist to halfway up her forearm.
“Mm-hmm…” Marc put on a smug expression.
“She… Her tattoo is in adelicatearea and I told her I wanted to do a closer follow-up for at least a month.”
The bassist tilted his head. “Delicate area?”
“Scars.”
“Oh.”
“They’re hard to cover and the tissue is usually so damaged and thin the results are unpredictable sometimes.”
Marc smiled at him, but there was sadness in his expression.
“What’s with the puppy dog look?”
“I’m not giving you any look. I’m just proud of you and the way you help others, even through your job.”
“Now you’re being cheesy.”
“I’m not! I…” Marc trailed off, his usually inquisitive and intent gaze falling to their feet.
It was only a few seconds of silence in the dimmed atmosphere glowing with the yellowish backyard lights, but Chris knew. He knew what Marc was thinking. They hadn’t talked about it, but the bassist had kissed his scars in a way that screamed he wished he could take his pain away more than once.
“I know you’ve noticed mine.”
Marc’s eyes shifted between his. “Yeah…”
“You wanna know why or if I still do it?” Chris asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Only if you feel comfortable talking about it.” He hooked a finger inside the front pocket of the guitarist’s jeans.
“I don’t do it anymore, haven’t done it in a long while.” As those words rolled off his tongue, the bassist relaxed. “And opposed to what most people might think, I didn’t want to die. It was never an attempt to take my life.”
“I know, sometimes, it’s just a way to feel… A way to get your mind out of a block and override the emotional pain caused by something else,” Marc stated.
Chris slightly tilted his head.
“One of my sisters started doing it after my dad passed away.”
“I see.”
“Yeah… But, what—I never thought you’d gone through something like that.”
“Because I take everything as a joke?” Chris asked bitterly.
“Partly.” Marc nodded. “But since you’re so close to Luca and Leah, and your relationship with your mom is so tight… I assumed that at least you vented to them. Never thought your emotional baggage was so heavy.”
“My mom and Leah know. And I don’t have emotional baggage.”
