Only Yours - Ginny and Georgia | Marcus Baker

tick tock-chapter 8

"Hey, yeah, Marcus rode my bike back," you reply to Maxine while searching the floor for the paintbrush Marcus flung from your hair. "It's nice to meet you officially, I'm Hallie."

Maxine waves animatedly before backing up and presenting the dark-haired girl with her hands, like a magician, "This is Norah. She's one of my besties." Norah waves at you, assessing the situation with her eyes. Marcus's hair is all over the place and he's standing with his hands strategically clasped just below his waist. At first glance, it looks like a casual, if not awkward pose, but you know that he's covering up a hard-on. "Anyway," Max prattles on, "We were just coming up here to see if I left my sandals in here from a few nights ago." She moves about the treehouse, searching around, picking up your paintbrush. "I think one of you dropped this. I saw your paintings outside. They look... interesting. Is it like some self portrait kind of thing you're doing?"

"Yeah, something like that," Marcus replies, clearing wanting this conversation to be over.

Max hands you the paintbrush, "I'm so glad to see my bro hanging out with someone. He's usually such a loner, holed up in his room listening to sad boy music and being lame." She laughs at herself, moving toward Marcus to punch him in the arm. "Norah and I are going to the pool and then to Abby's when she gets off work. I won't be home til late," she informs him. "Oh, and Hallie?" she says, heading toward the door, "Love this aesthetic you have going on... it's very art hoe chic. Inspired!" She blows a kiss to both of you before heading down the ladder with Norah.

Marcus sighs deeply, "She's... a lot... Holy shit." He sits down on a beanbag and looks up at you. "That got heavy."

You cast your gaze to the floor, thinking the same thing, "Yeah," you reply quietly.

"It was great," Marcus says, breaking up the anxiety that you can feel sweeping into your chest. "It's just been a while for me, so, I'm sorry if I came on too strong. I think you're cool, Hallie. I know we just met, but I am into you."

"I feel the same way," you say, with a sigh of relief. "So, we came up here for water. Do you want to grab those and we can finish our paintings?"

"Sure," he says, "Wait, hey, do you know what time it is?" You pull out your phone, looking at the time, "It's almost 12:30," you inform him.

"Shit, I have to work at 1:30. I work down at the skate shop. It's a super part-time gig during the summer. My parents made Max and I get jobs to understand how to manage money and all that shit. I applied on a whim. I figured if I had to work somewhere, I might as well try to work somewhere that's remotely interesting."

"That sounds fun," you say, "We can finish the paintings another day. Don't worry about it," you say while waving your hand like it's no big deal.

"I mean, yeah, but what are you doing tonight? I only work until 6:30 so we could finish them later if you want. Plus Max won't be here." Marcus stands up, moving toward the door. "C'mon, let's go outside."

"Okay, and yeah, that sounds good for tonight as long as my mom doesn't have something important planned. I should probably do some more unpacking today anyway." You follow him out of the treehouse.

"Cool, well, I'll text you then," Marcus says, walking backwards toward his house and saluting you. You give him the OK sign with your hand and head back to your place. You walk through the front door and welcome the blast of A/C. The sun is out in full force today, quite a bit hotter than yesterday. You walk upstairs to take a cool shower and try not to replay the heated moment over and over again in your head. After your shower, you lie on your bed in your towel and scroll through Instagram on your phone, not seeing anything interesting. You wonder what Autumn is up to and decide to FaceTime her. She picks up after a few rings, wearing the red two-piece from her post yesterday, "Yaaaas honey!" You hype her up, pretending to fan yourself. "What are you up to?" She pretends to cat walk beside her pool, "Nothing, darlin', just sunbathing and being fabulous. You?"

"Just about to do some more unpacking, and yeah..." you smile, not being able to hide your inner emotions. "Oh my god, Hallie, tell me his name!" Autumn squeals, recognizing your facial expressions when you have a crush on someone.

"This is crazy, right?! We got here yesterday! His name is Marcus. He lives across the street from me. Our bedroom windows face each other. What kind of Taylor Swift music video am I living in? And..." you say, raising your eyebrows. Autumn pulls her sunglasses down, looking at you over the top of them. "I manifested this shit for you, Hal. I knew things would look up for you in Massachusetts, even if you are thousands of miles away from me. You can't bloom when toxic sludge is holding you back." She wiggles her eyebrows, "And what?" You feel yourself blush before you tell her, "We kissed today. Well, not just kissed. We like, kind of made out. I thought I wasn't going to feel these butterfly mushy-gushy feelings again after Holden ripped my heart and soul out and stomped on them, but enter Marcus." Autumn and you talk for a while longer about some of the other people in your grade, her parents, and her baby sister before she has to go because said sister is wanting to learn how to blow bubbles, "Love ya, girl!" She says before ending the call.

You walk to the bathroom to change into a pair of running shorts and a sports bra and decide to let your hair air dry. Walking over to the overalls you threw to the ground before getting in the shower, you pull out the paintbrush that was securing your bun earlier and set it on your vanity. You put on some moisturizer before heading downstairs. You sit at one of the bar stools on the kitchen island, looking at all the boxes that still need to be unpacked staring back at you and groan internally. Looking over at the time on the stovetop, you see that it's only 1:45. You have no excuse not to unpack some boxes, so you get to work. You clean the guest bathroom, put up a shower curtain, and set up some extra toiletries. You start working on the box of your winter clothes when you hear your phone ring. It's your mom, "Hey, mom, what's up?"

"Oh, just checking in, honey. What are you up to?" You let her know you're doing some unpacking and she thanks you. "Hey, sweetie, I know it's only our second day here, and I'm sorry we haven't spent much time together yet, but the Dean of the college offered for me to sit in on a class later this afternoon, and then help run the night class. It's a good learning opportunity, so I probably won't be home until almost ten. There is pasta in the pantry and tomatoes in the fridge, but you can order something too if that doesn't sound good... oop, I gotta go! Love you!" She hangs up before you can reply, and you continue to sort through your cold weather wardrobe, getting lost in the task. By the time you finish organizing your closet, you check your phone again and see a Snapchat from Holden. You hesitantly open it up, not wanting to see his face... But, it's not his face. It's his dick. He sent you a Snapchat of himself holding his dick with the caption "Bet ur missing this". You close the app and feel the nausea hit you. What an asshole!

Checking the clock again, you see that it's nearly four, so you decide to watch something on Netflix to pass the time. You settle on a crime documentary, sitting cross legged on your bed, trying to forget about Holden's vile Snapchat and focus on the story about the murdered Girl Scouts. Ugh, is it 6:30 yet?