The Mark of Liesmith

Nick was the kind of kid that went out of his way make sure you weren’t eating alone in the cafetaria. He had kind, warm smile, and when he laughed, the world brightened up with him. Everybody wanted to be his friends. It was just so easy to dismiss the huge mark of Liesmith in his neck.

Everybody else pretended that the mark didn’t exist. That should

make them as much as a liar as Nick was. Alex couldn’t. Everytime he saw Nick, his eyes immediately zeroed in to the ugly black spots spread from his collarbone up to his neck that stop right under his chin. It was the ugliest and biggest mark he’d ever seen. He didn’t know how people could turn a blind eye on it.

It bothered him, and not because Nick was a liar. Only 5% adults

grew up without mark of Liesmith. The society had accepted that people couldn’t socialize without lies. Alex himself had one small mark in his belly, easily hidden away. To have such a huge mark in exposed skin indicated that Nick was a Pathological Liar.

The problem was, Nick didn’t smell like one.

Alex knew someone close in his life who was a Pathological Liar.

They smelled worse than dead rats in gutters. Everytime they spoke, people recoiled away. People lied everyday but nobody wanted to trust Liars. This was the kind of society they’d lived in.

But Nick was different. He smelled like the first rain of the season. When he gave out compliments and offered help, you could only smell flowery honesty from him. Alex didn’t even know honesty could smell that good.

It bothered him.

Nick should be the last person on Earth who had the mark of

Liesmith. He was gentle, popular, outgoing, and he knew how to make you feel appreciated.

Alex couldn’t figure out the answer until he catched Nick alone

in the parking lot. The usually smiling kid was crouching in the corner, shaking and shivering. He looked like an abandoned kitten. Alex didn’t know why a seemingly have-it-all guy like Nick could suffer from panic attack but he tried to help anyway.

“Hey, is there anything I can do?” he asked.

“I am fine,” Nick spat out, still shivering.

Alex almost staggered back at the sudden onslaught of his sense.

All he could smell was rotten carcass. It made him dizzy to the point he felt like passing out. The only reason he could still stand was because he was familiar with it. Anybody else probably would have fainted at the first word uttered.

“You’re lying,” he whispered, wide-eyed with understandings. The

only one person Nick couldn’t be honest to was himself. “You’re not fine, Nick.”

“I am okay,” Nick said through gritted teeth.

Alex covered his nose. The smell somehow managed to get worse.

“Stop talking.”

He waited until Nick fully calmed down before sitting down

beside him. Nick’s face was pale and sweaty and anyone who took one look at him would know that he was, in fact, not fine. In hindsight, Alex should have figured this out since the moment he saw him. No wonder the teachers always treated him like he was built out of fragile glass. They must have figured it out first. He wondered how many times they’d seen cases like Nick in their

career before.

“Thank you, Bank,” Nick said weakly, breaking the comfortable

silence between them. With just two words, the rotten smell radiating off him was easily replaced by enchanting smell. The sharp contrast made Alex dizzy again.

He ignored the beginning of headache at the back of his head and asked, “You know me?”

They rarely shared class together and he always avoided attentions. He didn’t even know anybody realize he existed.

Nick smiled amusedly as if Alex just stated the joke of century.

“You’re honest. Everybody want to be your friends.”

This close, the honesty smelled even more amazing. Alex would be

flattered but he knew better.

“Thanks, but your honesty doesn’t necessarily mean the the

truth,” he said. His father once told him that it was honest people that they had to watch out for. Nick’s eyes widened in surprise. “Just because you’re honest doesn’t mean that you’re right.”

Nick looked lost, as if someone just told him that Earth was

flat. “That’s the first time I heard something like that.”

Alex didn’t usually share his family’s unorthodox view with

anyone. But this was Nick who smelled like flowers and had a huge mark of Liesmith in his neck, who, just a few minutes ago, was kneeling on the ground with shaky legs and still said he was fine. He imagined his mother wouldn’t mind. “And just because you lie doesn’t mean that it’s never true.”

People’s words would always be forever subjective. No two people could perceive the truth in the same exact way. There was no right and wrong in humanity because everybody saw the world differently.

Don’t believe the truth, Alex, his mother once whispered. She always smelled like honey. Believe the facts.

Nick stared at him. ”Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” Alex shrugged.

“My mother doesn’t have the mark of Liesmith,” he said. He

didn’t look at Alex as he continued, “She always said that I will always be a failure in my life. She said nobody will love me. What do you think?”

Alex was thinking Nick’s mother should go to trash where she

belonged. He held back because he knew what he said next would affect Nick’s life. The society treated honest people like they had every answer in the universe. He couldn’t even remember the breakfast he had this morning. But for Nick, who looked at him like he hung the moon, Alex was willing to pretend.

“I think you shouldn’t care what people think of you, Nick,” he

answered as gently as he could. “But if it makes you feel better, I think you’re a cool guy.” Without even realizing it, he reached out and hold Nick’s hands. “You’re loved and you will never be a failure.”

Nick broke down, crying into his arms. Alex awkwardly patted his

back. “So stop lying to yourself, okay?”

“Okay,” Nick said between choked sobs. “I am okay.”

This time, he didn’t smell like thrown away wet socks.