"I've missed you so much baby! I couldn't stand being this far apart from you, so I came to visit!"

Mark covers his blue painted face with his hands. "Claire, you can't keep doing this."

"Doing what? Surprising my boyfriend?"

"Boyfriend?! You guys are still together? Mark?"

He gives me a look that says no, but he nods his head slowly. I don't want to cry so I look away.

"Of course we are!" She squeals.

"Mark, you might want to go talk to (y/n) before smething happens," Jack whispers, then winks at me. He's got my back.

"What about Claire?"

"What about her?" Jack glares. "Mark, she's crazy, and using you. I'll detract her. You go talk to (y/n) or I'll go tell her myself."

"Tell me what? What is going on?" Neither of them noticed me eavesdropping being them.

"Go," Jack sayd demandingly towards Mark.

Mark does a sigh-grunt, and grabs my arm, pulling me away.

"Mark is gonna take a little break everyone," Jack announces.

"Form a separate line for him over here!" I hear Grace yell before I'm out of earshot.

"Where are we going?" I'm hesitant to ask. I can see the frustration on his face.

"I don't know yet..." he pulls me into a broom closet. "How about here?"

"Okay, fine. Now what is-" Mark puts his finger to my mouth.

"Shh."

"Bu-" he puts his finger to his own lips now, mouthing 'shh' in order to make me quiet.

"Mark!" I whine.

"Please." His voice is low and husky. He slowly reaches for the door, not breaking eyecontact, he locks it. I can feel the tension between us. Not the bad tension either. It's similar to a prepubescent, sexual teenage tension. The kind that has been ignored between us for years. Mark pulls me closet so out bodies touch. Our faces are centimeters apart. He gazes deeply into my eyes. Then, he does something I didn't expect.

He pulls me closet into a tight hug. He sobs into my shoulder. At first, I don't do anything. Then, I give in and hug him back. "So... you guys are still together?"

He shakes his head and I hear a muffled, "No."

"Then... why is she acting like you guys are?"

"I don't want to make her look bad-"

"Of course you wouldn't," I murmur.

(Y/n), okay. She basically...the only easy way to say this is she's crazy."

"I figured that..."

"Look... she and I were only really going out in college. That's when the deal went into effect."

"What? I don't understand."

"I did actually ask her out in high school. After dating for a couple of years, we realized we didn't like each other anymore. We had been dating for a long time so we didn't want to break it off. She came up with the idea that once college starts we would date for real again. During that time we would see other people until we got into college."

"So all of senior year and that summer you guys had an open relationship?"

"I didn't like that idea, I couldn't 'date' someone and then go mess around with other people."

"So why didn't you break up with her for that reason?"

"I tried, but she threatened to ruin my life, by telling lies and saying that I cheated on her. So I stuck with her and realized the only way out was if she broke up with me. I still cared for her... she just didn't act the same."

"Did she break up with you?"

"She did. I stopped buying her things, and not doing what she wanted so she was constantly mad at me."

"So why is she back now?"

"Now that I'm doing well in life and that I have money, she won't leave me alone. She's just acting like we are dating because she knows I'll play along just so she won't make a scene."

"Why do you let her do these things to you? Who cares what she says? We know it's not true!"

"I care. I don't want my fans to think any less of me."

"Why do you think their opinion of you would change?"

"If Claire makes a public scene...it will be easy for people to believe her because they will witness it."

"If they know the real you... they would know better than to trust a crazy person." I unlock the door and start to walk out. Mark grabs my wrist. I look back at him, avoiding showing emotion.

"Just stay in here with me for a couple more minutes?"