Recognition

Everyone has someone. A person with shoulders that can carry a human head when it's too heavy to be carried by its owner. A someone with locked ears that hold all of your secrets. A heart so near and dear to yours that life without them would be unbearable. Liam and Marco were two sides of the same coin. You wouldn't see one without the other. Liam's someone was Marco. And Marco was missing.

"Have a seat, young man. What can I help you with?" The cop sitting across from Liam takes a palm sized notebook from his blue slacks. He throws it down on the metal table with a clang, retrieves the pen from his chest pocket and clicks the top, bringing forth its tip. He waits for Liam to speak.

"I'd like to file a missing persons. I can't find my friend Marco." The 17 year old had walked into the precinct alone that day. Unsure of his actions but felt it had to be done.

"Marco's last name?" The cop continues with his questions like Liam mentioned his cat instead of his best friend of 10 years.

"Welton. Marco Welton." Liam answers the question since he knows the cop is only doing his job. But everyone knows who Marco is.

"State your name for the recording, son." The cop points to the tape recorder in the middle of the table. Liam hadn't noticed it before that. He clears his throat before speaking.

"Liam Wrath." He sits back in his chair as he takes a look around the room. Liam has never been in an interrogation room before. It isn't like the shows, thank god. It's not nearly as creepy. More like a security office in the back room of a mall. He and Marco are familiar with those.

"So how'd you and Marco meet?" The cop starts again, seemingly reading Liam's mind. "Two kids on a playground type of deal?"

"Something like that, I guess. Both our parents thought we needed speech therapy when Marco was 6 and I was 7. We've been friends ever since."

"The golden boy needed speech classes? Hard to believe." The cop adorns a grin that puts Liam at ease a bit. Liam is right, the cop does know who Marco is. No surprise there. At least he is easy to talk to.

"Believe it! His stutter comes back when he gets nervous. But he's rarely ever nervous." Liam is happy to share some info that no one else knows. It fills him with pride to be the keeper of everything Marco. No one knows him like Liam does.

"Tell me more about Marco. Let's start with where you think he could be right now." The squinty eyed cop slowly chews a wad of tobacco in his left cheek. Spitting twice into a tin cup before Liam answers.

"I have no idea, sir. If I knew, I'd drag him home myself. His mama is worried about him." The teenager shuffles in his seat a bit.

"Why is his mother here and not you?" The cop puts down his pad and attempts to make eye contact with Liam. Spitting again into the cup. Liam decides he hates the cop's disgusting habit.

"Mama Welton couldn't bring herself to make the report. Asked if I would do it on account we're like brothers." Liam's chin drops to his chest and you can see a sorta dark cloud hover over him. At least the detective sees it. "She's trying her hardest to stay optimistic. But Marco missed practice today and…well…that's just something he would never do."

Silence falls over the room. Liam doesn't look up from his feet. He is growing more uneasy as time passes on. "I know a bit about football myself?" The cop decides to dissipate the uneasiness in the room.

"Oh yea?" Liam says sarcastically, not prying his eyes from the floor. He isn't surprised. Everyone rooted for their football team. There isn't much else to do in such a small town. All the people have there are football and God.

"Yea, I was a lineman in my younger days. I still follow the big games at the local college and even Gator River High. Like the one you and Marco had last week."

"Yea, that was a big game for Marco." Liam's voice has no enthusiasm.

"And a big game for you." The cop points to Liam and finally gets his attention.

"That's real nice, sir but Marco was the one with the touchdowns and the spot on the news the next morning." Liam giggles but it's not genuine. It's awkward. It tells the cop that Liam feels more comfortable talking about Marco than himself.

“Funny thing about sports… the guy who scores usually isn’t the real hero. Takes a sharp eye to see the one who set it up. Yeah, Marco scored 3 touchdowns but he couldn't have done it without your excellent defense." The cop shot back.

Liam is surprised to hear this. He straightens up in his chair. Paying more attention to what the cop has to say. "I've watched you both all through your high school careers and if it's one thing I know, it's that Marco may be the star but it's you who the team can't do without."

"You really think so?" Liam's voice is a little higher than it was before. His eyes show the longing in his heart.

"No question! I bet you save Marco's ass all the time, don't you?" Liam sits back in his chair and folds his arms. Looking away from the cop.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you do. Brothers always help their brother, yeah? If Marco needed help with a school project, you'd swoop right in and make sure he got a good grade." The cop proposed this as more something he knew to be true instead of a question.

"Last semester, we did a partner science project and who did all the research while Marco goofed off with some babe for two weeks? Me. But that's just how it was with me and Marco."

"Nah, dat don't seem right. A man ain't a man if he ain't putin' in the work. Tell me something, Liam. Marco was popular with the girls, yeah?"

"Yeah, every babe wanted him. But it was because they thought he was handsome or whatever. But they didn't know him."

"But you do. You know Marco. Bet there was a girl you liked first but she wanted Marco too." The cop had no proof but he felt something about to shift in Liam. If only he kept poking.

"I'm used to it, ya know. Marco gets every babe he wants. But Alina is too good for him. She deserves someone better. Someone who is nice…someone like…"

"Like you. Like you, Liam?" Liam shuffles in his seat again. His hands fidget in his lap. "What happened with Alina? You tell her how you feel and she rejects you, yeah? She wants ya pal."

"She said that her and Marco had already…they had already…" The cop keeps quiet. Showing no emotion on his face. "He knew I fancied her, too! But he didn't care. That was Marco." Liam's blood pressure begins to rise. And the cop can see that too.

"You carried him, Liam. Every game, every test, every moment that mattered — it was you. He just took the bow."

"Nobody ever says that. Nobody ever notices." Liam's leg bounces up and down. Like he has no control over it.

"I notice. You deserved the credit. You deserved the news spread. Hell, maybe even the girl. Not him."

"He… he didn’t deserve any of it!" Liam raises his voice like Marco is there to hear him.

"And you couldn’t let him keep stealing from you, could you?" The cop pokes again. No longer subtly asking questions but outright accusing Liam of hurting Marco. Silence. You could hear the metal table screech every time Liam's knee would tap it. Liam drops his head.

"You know what he said to me the night before he went missing?" The cop almost can't make out what he said Liam is speaking so low.

"What’s that?"

"He called me second place. Like… like that’s all I’ll ever be. After everything I’ve done for him! Everything!" Liam repeatedly and rubs his palms across his jeans. Turning his entire hands and wrists red.

"And that was the last time you saw him?" The cop lowers his voice to match Liam's. He doesn't have a clue what he's about to hear.

Liam shakes his head slowly, tears in his eyes. "…No…"

"Where was the last time, Liam?"

Liam is whispering now, almost to himself. "Out by the old field. He kept laughing… wouldn’t shut up. I just—" Liam slams his fists on the table. "I made him stop!"

"How? How'd you make him stop?"

A giggle leaves Liam's lips and the hairs on the cop's arms stand up. "I picked up a rock, bigger than both our heads. It was heavy but I knew it needed to be heavy. I wasn't sure what I was gonna do with it, yet."

"What did you do with it?" The cop lowers his voice even softer than Liam's.

"He laughed even harder. Told me I didn't have it in me. Marco said I wasn't no real man. He said…he…he said Alina knows what a real man looks like." The cop winces a bit inside. That would hurt any man's pride. "The next thing I remember is standing over Marco…well, it didn't look like Marco anymore. Blood all over the rock, the leaves and all over my new Kevin Klein sweater."

"Seems you're gonna get everything you want, Liam." Says the cop as he stands up, pulls his cuffs from his belt and walks around the table. Liam speaks softly.

"And what is that, sir?" Liam stands and puts his hands behind his back without being instructed.

"Everyone will know exactly who you are. Your face will be everywhere. All the conversations for weeks will be about Liam Wrath." The cop opens the door of the interrogation room and escorts Liam out.

Liam adorns a childlike smile while everyone in the precinct is either whispering about him or staring him down. His smile grows as the crowd spreads to make room for him. He has the whole room's attention and soon the whole town's. He grinned an even bigger grin. Thinking to himself, "Finally."