Mark Thomas Campbell, esq. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aussielawyer) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
muserevival2013-11-14 11:53 am
aussielawyer) wrote in muserevival2013-11-14 11:53 am
Entry tags:
042.1. Muse prompt
"The most important thing in illness is never to lose heart." ~Nikolai Lenin
Mark had still been trying to wrap his head around the fact he was married when his surprise son landed on his doorstep. No one would argue that a drunk accidental wedding in Vegas was definitely something Mark Campbell could easily be guilty of considering his very promiscuous reputation and past record. The thing was, he was a recovering alcoholic, so he should never have really been drinking. He shouldn’t have necessarily had company on the Vegas business trip either. However, there had been an undeniable chemistry between him and Gen Hart from the moment they met. Mark did what he did best, and suavely flirted his way into her panties right there on the desk in her office. Yes, all very Mark Campbell.
What wasn’t Mark Campbell was marriage. People would laugh if they heard he had gone and gotten married. But he had invited Gen away with him for a dirty weekend in Vegas, and who could really have one of those without some expensive booze to celebrate? One thing led to another, and an awkwardly convenience jewellery store and Elvis Impersonator marriage celebrate meant Mark woke up with a wedding band on his finger, and one that matched the one on Gen’s finger. It must have been a hell of a night too because their Nevada marriage certificate had naughty doodles of dicks and boobs down the side too. Ah, good times.
Only not really. It all sort of freaked Mark out, but somewhere in the mix, he realised he had gone and somehow developed feelings for Gen. He had never thought he would be capable of pulling off another relationship since letting the one girl he ever loved get away. He and his ex had a beautiful daughter together and remained very close friends, but Mark had given up on relationships for good, honestly believing he just plain sucked at them after cheating on Ali during a booze bender ended things messily.
Life just had this way of throwing him curve balls right when he thought he found his footing again. Not only did he find himself wanting to date Gen, but they both agreed to see what this marriage thing could be before making with more hasty choices and writing up a quickie divorce. And it worked. Well, it worked for them in their own very unique way. They were so similar that clashes were inevitable. Very fiery and often bitchy clashes that always inevitably ended with hot angry sex. He couldn’t complain about that at all.
Mark made the mistake of booking a honeymoon in his home country of Australia at a beautiful tropical resort to give them some time to really sink into each other… among other things. He should have known that just when things seemed to be going good, something always happened to knock him off course.
That something turned out to be a college mistake coming back to haunt him in his thirties… in the form of a 16 year old son who was pretty much the spitting image of him. As if that wasn’t enough, the kid had substance abuse problems. Apple didn’t fall far from the tree, apparently. If only that was the end of it. The kid had an attitude and filthy mouth to boot. At 16 years old, and it came to light he was giving sexual favours to people older than him to get booze and drugs. He was a mess, showing up drunk and trashed on Mark’s doorstep two days before they were supposed to leave for their honeymoon. And promptly puked all over Mark and then some.
It just wasn’t enough of a confusing and shocking mess for Mark. It gradually started to come to light why the kid not only had substance issues but also the angry and defensive attitude. His mother didn’t give a shit about him and he was nothing more than an annoyance in the way of all the boyfriends she wanted to bang and plastic surgery she wanted to get. When she married a rich asshole, the poor kid was dumped at his grandparents, but they were just simple people who had no idea how to handle an unruly kid without putting themselves in the grave.
Confusion about his sexuality had been the whole catalyst of his pain and heartache. Trying to come out to a single friend he thought he could trust led to it being spread all over Facebook and the school, leading to him getting bullied and beaten up. Hearing this had broken Mark’s heart and made him feel physically ill. He blamed himself for not having been in his son’s life to make some sort of difference of unknown origin.
Falling into the wrong crowd when his own friends turned on him, the kid had no choice but to go along with what went down when you hung around with the ‘bad crowd’. Drugs, sex (with chicks when he knew inside he wasn’t straight), booze, stealing, suspension and finally expulsion. The kid packed up what he could fit in one bag and made his way to New York. He gave some older chick a handjob on the bus so she would buy him booze and give him weed when he started to panic his father wouldn’t want anything to do with him.
All that was what Mark had been trying to wrap his head around. He stepped up as much as he could, but for all the experience he had of being a bit of a wild teenager himself, he had no idea how to father one. Gen got thrown into the shitstorm and didn’t know what the hell to do. But if there was one thing that truly made him fall in love with her and to the point he finally recognised it as that, was when she stepped up too and took his son on as if he was her own. Without her, Mark knew he couldn’t have done it. He would have screwed it up and probably tried to drink his way through it like he always did when things got tough.
Mental illness, though. How are you supposed to cope when you’re still trying to wrap your head around a quickie marriage, falling in love, discovering your long-lost son with enough problems to keep a social worker living comfortably until retirement… and being told the crux of it all was your son had Bipolar Disorder. That lead to the kid overdosing when his mind decided to make him believe his father hated him and was only telling him he wanted him to stay to shut him up.
Mark still had no clue what he was supposed to be doing. All he wanted to do was take the kid’s illness away. He wanted to make his life so he didn’t have all these demons haunting him and heavy baggage he was trying to store inside his head. He woke up every day hoping his son was having a good day, but on the bad days, he saw the dullness in those blue eyes, it was hard not to feel like he was failing him. He had to try to stay strong with this, because he knew his son wasn’t. Not yet, and maybe never could be strong on his own ever again.
MARK CAMPBELL || Original Character || 1221 words
Mark had still been trying to wrap his head around the fact he was married when his surprise son landed on his doorstep. No one would argue that a drunk accidental wedding in Vegas was definitely something Mark Campbell could easily be guilty of considering his very promiscuous reputation and past record. The thing was, he was a recovering alcoholic, so he should never have really been drinking. He shouldn’t have necessarily had company on the Vegas business trip either. However, there had been an undeniable chemistry between him and Gen Hart from the moment they met. Mark did what he did best, and suavely flirted his way into her panties right there on the desk in her office. Yes, all very Mark Campbell.
What wasn’t Mark Campbell was marriage. People would laugh if they heard he had gone and gotten married. But he had invited Gen away with him for a dirty weekend in Vegas, and who could really have one of those without some expensive booze to celebrate? One thing led to another, and an awkwardly convenience jewellery store and Elvis Impersonator marriage celebrate meant Mark woke up with a wedding band on his finger, and one that matched the one on Gen’s finger. It must have been a hell of a night too because their Nevada marriage certificate had naughty doodles of dicks and boobs down the side too. Ah, good times.
Only not really. It all sort of freaked Mark out, but somewhere in the mix, he realised he had gone and somehow developed feelings for Gen. He had never thought he would be capable of pulling off another relationship since letting the one girl he ever loved get away. He and his ex had a beautiful daughter together and remained very close friends, but Mark had given up on relationships for good, honestly believing he just plain sucked at them after cheating on Ali during a booze bender ended things messily.
Life just had this way of throwing him curve balls right when he thought he found his footing again. Not only did he find himself wanting to date Gen, but they both agreed to see what this marriage thing could be before making with more hasty choices and writing up a quickie divorce. And it worked. Well, it worked for them in their own very unique way. They were so similar that clashes were inevitable. Very fiery and often bitchy clashes that always inevitably ended with hot angry sex. He couldn’t complain about that at all.
Mark made the mistake of booking a honeymoon in his home country of Australia at a beautiful tropical resort to give them some time to really sink into each other… among other things. He should have known that just when things seemed to be going good, something always happened to knock him off course.
That something turned out to be a college mistake coming back to haunt him in his thirties… in the form of a 16 year old son who was pretty much the spitting image of him. As if that wasn’t enough, the kid had substance abuse problems. Apple didn’t fall far from the tree, apparently. If only that was the end of it. The kid had an attitude and filthy mouth to boot. At 16 years old, and it came to light he was giving sexual favours to people older than him to get booze and drugs. He was a mess, showing up drunk and trashed on Mark’s doorstep two days before they were supposed to leave for their honeymoon. And promptly puked all over Mark and then some.
It just wasn’t enough of a confusing and shocking mess for Mark. It gradually started to come to light why the kid not only had substance issues but also the angry and defensive attitude. His mother didn’t give a shit about him and he was nothing more than an annoyance in the way of all the boyfriends she wanted to bang and plastic surgery she wanted to get. When she married a rich asshole, the poor kid was dumped at his grandparents, but they were just simple people who had no idea how to handle an unruly kid without putting themselves in the grave.
Confusion about his sexuality had been the whole catalyst of his pain and heartache. Trying to come out to a single friend he thought he could trust led to it being spread all over Facebook and the school, leading to him getting bullied and beaten up. Hearing this had broken Mark’s heart and made him feel physically ill. He blamed himself for not having been in his son’s life to make some sort of difference of unknown origin.
Falling into the wrong crowd when his own friends turned on him, the kid had no choice but to go along with what went down when you hung around with the ‘bad crowd’. Drugs, sex (with chicks when he knew inside he wasn’t straight), booze, stealing, suspension and finally expulsion. The kid packed up what he could fit in one bag and made his way to New York. He gave some older chick a handjob on the bus so she would buy him booze and give him weed when he started to panic his father wouldn’t want anything to do with him.
All that was what Mark had been trying to wrap his head around. He stepped up as much as he could, but for all the experience he had of being a bit of a wild teenager himself, he had no idea how to father one. Gen got thrown into the shitstorm and didn’t know what the hell to do. But if there was one thing that truly made him fall in love with her and to the point he finally recognised it as that, was when she stepped up too and took his son on as if he was her own. Without her, Mark knew he couldn’t have done it. He would have screwed it up and probably tried to drink his way through it like he always did when things got tough.
Mental illness, though. How are you supposed to cope when you’re still trying to wrap your head around a quickie marriage, falling in love, discovering your long-lost son with enough problems to keep a social worker living comfortably until retirement… and being told the crux of it all was your son had Bipolar Disorder. That lead to the kid overdosing when his mind decided to make him believe his father hated him and was only telling him he wanted him to stay to shut him up.
Mark still had no clue what he was supposed to be doing. All he wanted to do was take the kid’s illness away. He wanted to make his life so he didn’t have all these demons haunting him and heavy baggage he was trying to store inside his head. He woke up every day hoping his son was having a good day, but on the bad days, he saw the dullness in those blue eyes, it was hard not to feel like he was failing him. He had to try to stay strong with this, because he knew his son wasn’t. Not yet, and maybe never could be strong on his own ever again.
MARK CAMPBELL || Original Character || 1221 words