Lazy Afternoon (Mark)

Greg lay down on the couch, one of the few pieces of furniture that actually resided in the main room of the weird almost house that he and Mark shared. His arm was haphazardly tossed over his face so that his eyes were covered, blocking out the sun. He was also entirely half asleep at the moment, the only thing keeping him awake was the fact that he knew he shouldn’t fall asleep here, he should go to his room, to the left of the main room rather than the right where he was fairly certain Mark was still sleeping. Or maybe he had actually gotten up and gone to go be a warrior or something. Greg wasn’t good at keeping track thanks to his own odd hours.

He had just come off a shift, after working through the night. He was supposed to have gotten in two hours earlier, so he could get some rest before he had to go in again, but there had been an emergency. Two little girls had been out playing and had gotten themselves hurt. They would be fine but it had been some deep cuts from falling into the ravine and Greg had been worried for a little while there that they wouldn’t be so fine.

So he had stayed to help despite the fact that everyone had told him to go, get some rest, they could handle it. He just knew he wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he had left and they hadn’t made it, anymore than he could live with himself if they hadn’t made it and he had been there. It was just not a good line of work for someone as open hearted as Greg, but he liked helping. He liked knowing he made a difference.

And thanks to what his father had done to him growing up, he also had known some basic stuff about helping sew people up even before they had begun to train him for the position. Besides, he was helping the camp with being a medic. He couldn’t be a warrior, he wasn’t strong and he left that to Mark. He couldn’t be a banker like he was supposed to be being that the camp didn’t run on money in the traditional sense. And he wouldn’t be good in the markets because he was bad at talking to people. So being a medic was the best thing for him.

The most that Greg had done to get ready for going to bed for a little while before he had to go back into the world with far too little sleep, however, was to toss off the shirt that had been blood stained and pull on a button up that he had found—which was his—hanging on the back of a chair. And then the couch had called his name so sweetly, much more sweetly than his bed which was farther away. So he had collapsed down into it and here he had lain ever since.

He kept telling himself that he would get up in a moment. That he would make it to his bed. But that just didn’t seem to be happening, nope, not at all. He was good at working on no sleep, that wasn’t the issue, he had once gone forty eight hours because he wanted to see if he could, he was pretty sure Mark ahd dared him in fact. And he could call it in that he couldn’t come in, they’d understand after he had been there so long. So that wasn’t an issue and he knew it.

But he just felt bone deep exhausted, the type of tired that meant he probably wouldn’t actually be sleeping, just dozing off a time or two. He grumbled and nearly pushed himself up to sit but then flopped right on back down. A spring was digging into his back—this was not a classy couch, but being that two teenage boys lived here they both didn’t much care—but even that was not inspiring him to move and get up. Just five more minutes and then maybe he’d make it to his bed. Maybe. It wasn’t entirely likely but oh well.

It was almost funny how Greg was such an upstanding citizen outside of this house. He was polite, he was more than a bit shy, and he always was ready to lend a helping hand. But inside this house, if his current lazy moment said anything about it, he really was a typical eighteen year old. He figured everyone but Mark generally forgot how young he was because of that. But who knew. Anyway, here it was just him and Mark and he was as quick to shove and wrestle and laze around with the best of them. Like any normal teenage boy would really.

He just didn’t show that side of himself outside of this house. Like. Thing. It wasn’t’ really a house, it would have to be bigger to be a house, but it was as much as house as any other in the Camp and it suited them both fine so Greg was pretty sure that that was all that mattered. And with that thought he totally began to doze off again, slowly slipping off in that hazy way that people often did.

Until the sound of a doorknob made him blink back awake. He didn’t move his arm off his face, fearing that the sunlight would blind him in his current state. But he mumbled instead. He wasn’t sure which door had opened but he knew there was only one person who would be coming through either door. ”I’m up, I’m up” he grumbled, only half sure that what he said made any sense or sounded like real words.