MAX
I heard the door open to the bedroom after hearing Dawaen yelling in there. Kole was trying to slip past without talking to me but I couldn't let it go. I looked at Mars, who had fallen asleep at the console and then at the door where Kole had gone to. I sighed, knowing I was going to have to confront him. I got up and went to the bathroom, opening the door. Kole was brushing his teeth and I thought he heard me, so I stood there waiting for him. He spit out the foam and stood back up, yelling at my reflection in the mirror and turning around. I didn't really know what to say so I tried to find something to talk about. I found my eyes gravitating to his stomach and I remember Dawaen telling me the aliens had done experiments on him and Kole.
"Dawaen said you guys got impregnated on the ship."
"Y-yeah..."
I thought he'd have more to say but I guess me being alive and having to face your demons was still shocking to him. He seemed nervous and fidgety and finally I knew that I was going to have to pull the confession out of him.
"Kole, we need to talk."
He knew what I meant and he turned back around, finishing brushing his teeth and turned the water off. He brushed past me and left the room. I blinked in confusion and then followed him.
"Kole."
"What?'
"We need to talk."
"No, we don't."
"Yes, we do. Don't you dare ignore me."
"You're not real. You're just another figment of my imagination. It's just like it was on the ship. You're not Max. You're an alien pretending to be Max."
I watched him go around the kitchen, looking for something, and then he snapped his fingers, realizing he had to go to the replicator thing.
"A plate of Twizzlers, the red ones."
A plate of Twizzlers appeared and he moved around the island again, trying to avoid me. I breathed in and grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Kole, stop."
"Let me go."
"Why did you let him do that to me?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Stop avoiding the question! Kole! Answer me!" I yelled, starting to get angry and still very confused.
Why was he doing this? Why couldn't he just answer the question? I mean, even Dawaen apologized for what he had done but Kole was my friend... or so I thought. I needed to know why he didn't try to help me. I put my hand to my head, trying not to remember that night, but it was slowly coming back to me. I could see him so plainly... the way he looked at me, the way he didn't move...
"Kole, please... Please just tell me why you didn't help me?"
"I don't have an answer." He said, keeping his back to me. "I can't give you an answer."
"You have to have one!"
"No, I don't!" he yelled, turning to me, his eyes wide. "I don't have to tell you anything and I don't have to have an answer for you."
"I don't understand..." I said, feeling those old feelings come up within me.
I know it's been two years, but for me it hasn't changed. I haven't been able to grow as a person like everyone else has. I've been stuck in a tank with nothing but my own thoughts and wishes to contend with. To me, Kole was still a friend... even though he did what he did.
"Of course you don't understand." Kole said, laughing humorlessly. "Why would you? The poor little victim... Let's all feel sorry for Max."
I turned my head. "What are you talking about?"
"Stop acting like you're the victim all the god damned time!" he screamed, looking at me with an anger I had never seen from him. "That's all you ever did! Every time we hung out, all you did was try to make everyone feel sorry for you. 'Whoa is me, my family is smothering me with their love' 'Everybody look at my new scar. This is because my parents didn't let me do what I wanted' 'My dad acts like he hates me, boo hoo.' Literally all the fucking time."
"It's called depression-"
"It's called being a fucking fake." He growled. He motioned to me. "You have all those little scars because you're just a cop out. At least I know what I am but you're nothing but a fake. A fake emo kid, a fake person and a fake friend."
"I am not a fake person or a fake friend! I didn't hurt myself because I was trying to get attention or trying to be emo, I did it because it was the closest thing I could get to death without dying. I already tried that and Mars made me promise to never do it again."
"But why ? You had the perfect life. You had parents who loved you, a family that cared about you, friends, everything. It's like you weren't satisfied with what you had and then all you did was just rub it in my face all the time. Your perfect life... God, I fucking hated hanging out with you."
"Answer my question, Kole. Stop deflecting everything back to me."
"You want the truth?" he finally said, turning to me.
"Yes."
"Alright." He turned to me, putting his hands in front of him like he was about to make a presentation. "Here is the complete and utter truth: I never liked you. I hated hanging out with you and I hated being your friend. I wanted to be Mars' friend, but for some reason Mars didn't like me, so the only way I could get close to him was to be friends with you. The more I hung out with you, the more I didn't understand why in the world someone like Mars would hang out with you , a wannabe emo and an emotionally manipulative little shit."
"Stop trying to gaslight me you asshole!" I snarled, pushing him in the shoulders. "I may have been stuck in that tank for two years but I've gotten enough mindfucks to know when I'm getting mindfucked. Answer. My fucking. QUESTION!!!" I screamed, pushing him with each word until I had him up against the wall. I grabbed his shirt and slammed him against it. "ANSWER MY QUESTION!!!"
"Stop." I turned, finding Mars standing there with a tired but angry look on his face. "Move."
I moved out of his way, not sure what was about to happen. Mars has always been my friend but I still could never understand him. Most of the time he was friendly, sometimes annoyingly talkative, and always there for me. But occasionally, he had this dark side to him... a side of him that he swore he'd never show in front of me after that one time. I waited for him to do something, but all the did was stand there for a moment.
"Kole." He looked at him. "I will give you one free chance to answer Max's question. After that, every time you deny answering him, I will punch you. If we reach ten times, then I will smash your head into the wall. When we reach five, most likely your nose will be shattered and your teeth will have all been knocked out. If I have to go beyond that, you will not see Earth. As of right now, I don't know if that's going to be because I will have punched your eyes in or because you will be in a coma. So. You get one free chance to answer the question: why?"
I looked at Kole as he stared at Mars in horror, fear in his eyes and in his demeanor. Mars wasn't looking at me, but I know he had a pretty intimidating stare. Kole didn't say anything and Mars sighed.
"One."
He pulled back his arm and Kole yelled, throwing his hands over his face.
"Okay! I'll say!" Mars put his arm down and Kole kind of looked at both of us. "I saw Mars beat this guy up and I knew that if I was going to survive high school, I needed him as a friend. But he didn't want me as a friend... and it pissed me off! I tried everything, but nothing seemed to work. And then I saw him hanging out with you..." He said, looking at me angrily. "What could Mars possibly see in someone like you , an introverted little punk with fake parental problems who cut himself for attention and sympathy? I know I'm not amazing, but you're just so boring . I mean, hanging out with you was like hanging out with a pair of shoes... but if I wanted the protection of Mars, I had to be around you. Apparently Mars is a lot smarter than you ever were, so he made sure he was never around. But, if I hurt you -poor little sensitive Max- I knew I'd get my ass kicked, so I had to deal with your fake, boring self... until you got abducted. With you gone, I thought he'd just carry on, but I was wrong. It was still always about you.
"I thought at first Mars was gay, but then I realized it had nothing to do with that. Somehow, you had sucked him into some sort of weird symbiotic relationship. He made you feel important and you made him feel... I don't know. All I knew was that you were doing some sort of manipulation. I mean, no one as dull as you could have someone as cool as Mars as a friend just for mere happenstance. So, when you came back and they announced that you were pregnant with an alien, I thought that Mars would be disgusted and drop you... But, as usual, I was wrong.
"Since my mom didn't really want me near Max, I knew I wasn't going to be able to use that as an excuse to be with Mars, so I started hanging out with Dawaen. When Dawaen started talking about how much he hated Max and I thought that maybe I could get a bunch of things done all at the same time. I'd re-friend Max, get Dawaen to beat him up, rescue Max from him, call Mars up, and then because I saved dear old Maxxy Poo, he'd be in my debt... but it all went wrong.
"When Dawaen started wailing on Max, I truly was dumbfounded. I was in shock at how easy he did it and how if I hadn't been scared of what Mars was going to do, how easy I could have done it. I mean, an emotionally manipulative fake like you should have gotten your ass kicked a long time ago. You were getting exactly what you deserved. I was thinking about that when I realized Dawaen had gone too far and then I realized I couldn't do anything because of my own idiocy."
I was quiet for a moment, trying to let all of that information sink in. Apparently, I was a really bad judge of character. No wonder Mars was mad when I thought that Kole was my best friend and not him; he'd seen Kole's deception a mile away...
"You... just... didn't like me?" I said, for some reason so exhausted it was hard to talk.
"You act like that's a new thing." He said sarcastically. "I hated every minute with you."
"Why did you want to be Mars' friend so bad? I mean, it's just Mars..."
"Mars is the fiercest person I've ever met. That guy he beat up wasn't just 'some guy'. He was a delinquent dropout that hung around the school terrorizing everybody. He was known for doing all sorts of stuff from the basic hustle of lunch money to using people as initiations for gangs to kidnapping and raping girls. I mean, no one could take him and he always eluded the police... but Mars was able to deal with him once and for all. Mars fucked him up so bad that the guy actually called the cops on himself to turn himself in so that he wouldn't have to run into Mars again."
I looked at Mars, who wasn't really saying anything.
"Is that true?" I asked.
"Yes." He said, looking away and crossing his arms. "I didn't think it was necessary to tell you."
"I'm not mad, I'm just... trying to understand what the hell is going on right now." I said, putting my hands to my head. "I'm trying to fathom the thought that Kole wanted to be your friend so badly that he just let me get beaten half to death?"
"It's not just that, you dumbass." Kole snarled.
"So far that's all I'm getting out of this lengthy conversation!"
The door opened to the bedroom and Dawaen walked out, looking kind of mad.
"You guys are drawing this out way too long. Kole is just skirting around the subject just like he always does with everything. I'll tell you why he let it happen. Simply put, Kole idolized Mars for his ferocity and ability to handle himself. Kole wanted to be like Mars... but Max made Mars a better person. I thought at first that Kole was envious of yall's friendship, but then I realized that it wasn't envy or jealousy: it was obsession ."
"Obsession?" Mars and I said at the same time.
"I'm going to reveal this just because I'm so fucking tired of listening to everyone whine about this issue. Kole's mom verbally abuses him. That's why Kole has this amazing ability to be the best little bitch anyone could ask for. To stop his mom from saying mean things, he just groveled at her feet and it leaked into his everyday life. He used it to get protection from bullies and be immune. But then, he saw Mars and it was like he had found someone who was everything he ever wanted to be but everything he never could be. If he could just be Mars' friend then he could live vicariously through him and still have the immunity... but Max had some sort of control of Mars and that pissed him off."
"That's bullshit!" Kole yelled, looking almost crazy. "That's complete bullshit!"
"No it isn't!" Dawaen yelled back at him. "If anyone is the manipulative one around here it's you ! Mars was smart and knew what type of person you were. You probably came at him with some sort of proposition, thinking he was some sort of big shot bully or something. How sad it was for you to know that he wasn't that type of person at all. He was actually liked and sociable, not tough and amazing like you thought. Then you found out he was friends with Max and you realized that Mars' friendship with him made Mars seem docile. You found the perfect person to look up to and that dumb idiot was being all nice to the emo kid? I mean, what the hell? So in your twisted little mind, you thought that Max was keeping Mars to himself for his own weird gain and you didn't like it."
"That doesn't make any sense!" Kole yelled.
"Of course it doesn't, because I also figured out that you are fucking insane! You honestly thought that Max was doing the same thing you were and was making your hero and idol into a weakling. You believed Max was manipulating Mars into being this weird pet-like person where he controlled Mars and made him super docile and obedient only with him but he was also able to use him against people he didn't like. Max was pulling the strings on your ideal person and if anyone was going to have someone like that, it was going to be you. You had perfected it since you were little, molding it in how you dealt with your mother... and then here comes Max. Your mind was already twisted but all this abduction stuff has just made it worse. You are a wicked son of a bitch and just as bad, if not worse, than your own horrible mother. You got everyone here involved in your crazy, twisted scheme all because Mars wasn't doing what you thought he should be doing in your weird little mind. Max was in your way and I was just a tool."
We all stood there in silence, waiting for someone to say something. This was all just so bizarre. I just wanted to know why the guy I thought was my friend let me get beaten up by the guy I thought was my enemy, but apparently, everyone was played.
"I vote that we shoot Kole out of the back of the shuttle."
We all looked at Mars, who was watching Kole with his arms crossed.
We waited in silence again.
"Oh, you weren't kidding." Dawaen said.
"Why would I joke about that?"
"Because... that's murder?" Dawaen said.
"We lost him when we escaped, he was left behind, he tripped and fell, I don't care what we tell everyone back home. Because of him, everyone here was subjected to the Elbaskins in some way."
"How can you blame me for Max's-" Kole started.
"Shut that hole in your face before I break your god damn neck." Mars said so calmly that everyone actually took a step back from him. "I'm sure you dropped some sort of parasitic thoughts into Max's head to drive him into hating his parents and making him reliant on you as a friend. The details are annoying and in the words of Dawaen, I'm fucking tired of listening to this subject. So, I vote that we throw him out the back of the shuttle. Anyone else?"