Only Yours - Ginny and Georgia | Marcus Baker

the morning after-chapter 22

You both fall asleep quickly after you come, your head nestled in the crook of Marcus's neck. You wake to the sun rising through the slit in Marcus's curtains and reach for your phone to check the time, but it's dead. You try to slip out of Marcus's hold without waking him, but fail. "Morning," he whispers groggily. "Hey," you reply, "sorry, but do you know what time it is? My phone is dead." He rolls over to grab his phone off his charger and glances at the screen with one eye closed, "Uh, it's only 6:57. I'm never up this early!" He kind of chuckles, falling back into his pillows.

You walk to the bathroom, trying to be as quiet as possible so you don't wake Max, but when you get to their shared bathroom, you hear singing coming from behind the closed door and realize she's already awake. You turn around quickly, making your way back to Marcus's bedroom, but you're too slow.

"Hallie!" Max calls after you animatedly. "Marcus is going to be asleep for awhile. Let's have breakfast!" You turn around slowly and walk towards her. "Sorry, you knew I was here?" You ask quietly and can feel the blush heat your cheeks. "Yeahhhhh... you guys kind of woke me up last night with your activities but it's all good! I threw in my headphones and fell asleep listening to King Princess. I'm happy to see him happy." She hums as she leads you downstairs, jumping off the last step before rushing over to the fridge.

"What sounds good? Want some leftover pizza? I love cold pizza." You shrug, "Sounds fine." Max gets two plates from the cupboard and places one piece of stiff pizza on each plate before walking over to the table and plopping herself and the plates down next to you.

"Thanks," you say quietly before picking off the black olives. "No prob!" Max takes a big bite out of hers, sauce getting on her cheek. She wipes it off with the back of her hand.

"So, what'd you do last night?" You ask, trying to make conversation and to feel less awkward.

"Oh, y'know, the usual. Hung out at Press's with people, went bowling, and then we just chilled in the parking lot at the high school," she takes another bite of pizza, smiling at you while chewing. "Omigod, I have to show you this video of Abby and Press doing the handshake dance thing from the Parent Trap. Abby trips and it's so funny!" Max gets her phone out of her bra and pulls up the video with greasy fingers, "Here," she says, handing you the phone and already giggling.

You watch the handshake but feel an icy jolt to your core when you recognize a face in the background of the small group. You swallow, putting on your best poker face. "Hey, who's that? I haven't seen him hang with you guys before." She takes her phone back to examine the face you're pointing to more closely.

"Oh, yeah, we met him at the bowling alley and he kind of hit it off with Press talking about some video game so he ended up hanging with us. I think he said his name was Harry or Hol-something. I dunno."

Your blood runs cold and you feel anxiety creeping into every hollow of your body. "Thanks for the pizza, but I gotta find a phone charger. I'm going to run upstairs!"

"See ya later girl!" Max shouts through a mouthful of crust.

You rush upstairs to Marcus's room and feel the tears start to pool in the corners of your eyes, a lump forming in your throat. You take Marcus's phone off the charger and replace it with yours. It's completely dead so you'll have to wait a few minutes to be able to check your notifications. Marcus stirs and opens his eyes, "Hey, g'morning." He still has one eye shut, adjusting to the brightness of the morning.

"Holden is here..."