Page 72 of Missed Steps

“I’ll provide the gasoline,” Tommy says, seriously.

“You’re both so grumpy,” Mark teases.

Sebastian glares at him, and while he might not light Mark on fire, he’ll probably get up and leave if Mark makes any more remarks like that. I pat his thigh under the table and he glances at me, fighting a smile.

“For the sake of trivia night, I’ll keep it PG,” he says.

His phone buzzes, and he digs it out. The name ‘Damien’flashes across the screenbefore he hangs up without answering and tucks the phone away. Sebastian and Tommy are talking—I catch a word or two.Gasoline. Firelighters. Matches. Rope.

“Everything okay?” I ask.

“All good,” Mark says.

I wonder about it, but don’t press. Although my wondering turns to worry as the calls keep coming in during the quiz, and Mark continuously declines to answer.

“It’s a whale, isn’t it?” Tommy says.

“Ah, yes,” Sebastian says, mocking. “Whales, the most famous of land animals.”

“Did he specify land animals?” Tommy demands.

“Yes, when he asked the question. If you hadn’t stopped listening half-way through, you might have heard it,” Sebastian says. He’s been giving Tommy a hard time the entire quiz. Probably because Tommy, despite his initial complaints, is more into it than any of us.

“Big eyes…predators all have small eyes,” Tommy muses. “Elephants are the biggest mammal but they have small eyes, and so do hippos. Horses have quite big—maybe ostriches? Half their head is just their eyes.”

Mark’s phone buzzes as Sebastian writes down the answer. The host is half-way through the next question.

“Do you need to answer it?” I ask Mark quietly.

“It’s nothing important,” he says. He puts the phone back into his pocket, and in seconds, it’s buzzing again. Mark ignores it. “What was the question again?”

I missed it, too. We glance at Sebastian and Tommy, who are too busy debating among themselves to hear him. We join in on the next question, and by the end of the night, we’re working as a team. Kind of. Sebastian keeps the paper, and he refuses to write any suggestion he doesn’t approve of. Tommy is devastated when the results come in.

“Last?” he repeats, outraged.

There are chuckles from the other patrons, and the host tells him that he’s won a consolation drink on the house. It doesn’t do much consoling.

“Are you always a sore loser?” Sebastian asks, as if hedidn’t look just as dissatisfied as Tommy when the results were announced.

Tommy grumbles under his breath as Mark retrieves our round of free drinks. He drinks his fast while I sip mine. He seems a little off, not paying much attention to the conversation right up until we’re leaving.

“Are we going to a club?” Tommy asks.

“Yes,” Sebastian replies. They’re both a few drinks in and geared up for a late night.

I glance at Mark, before I focus my attention on Tommy. “I’m going to call it a night,” I say.

Tommy jolts in the middle of nodding. “Would you prefer if we went somewhere you can sit? There are tons of late bars open still.”

“No, I’m good,” I say.

“Alright,” Tommy studies my face, probably checking to make sure I mean it and am not just being polite. “See you Monday,” he says. He and Sebastian break away, and I glance at Mark.

“Are you going to go with them?”

“With them?” Mark looks at me, clearly confused. “Let’s grab a taxi.”

We do that in relative silence, and I struggle not to fuss myself over it. Someone’s calling Mark that he doesn’t want to talk to, but he isn’t blocking them. It could be an ex, his brother, or maybe his dad? I go to ask but stop. He might not want to talk about it. And to be honest, I don’t like when I’m in an off mood and people keep asking if I’m okay.