"Y'know, I love sitting up here with you." she said, pulling her hair back into a messy ponytail. She steadied herself on the slope of the roof with her feet.
"Yeah. Me too." he said absentmindedly. He couldn't get the thoughts from his head. Dear God, this was his best friend. It's not like he could TELL her and she'd understand.
"Marco? What's up?" she asked, her expression contorting to one of concern. "You seem off."
"I'm fine. Just...had a rough day." he said to his socks. She scooted in closer.
"Do you need to talk?" she asked. "I'm a really good listener."
He shook his head. "Star, no offense, but I need to figure this out myself."
As Marco turned his head he saw Star's face, inches from his. She took the opportunity to grab his face in her hands and make his eyes meet hers.
"Is this about Jackie?" she asked. Marco tried to turn away before Star felt his face heat up.
"Ohhhh..." he heard her softly sigh. "Marco, it wasn't your fault."
She finally let go of his face when she felt his cheeks get warm.
"You didn't know."
"The problem is, I did know. Sort of." he mumbled, and was promptly pulled into one of Star's signature bone-crushing hugs.
"I just wanted to see." he muttered. Star let the blood go back into his arms as she pulled away. "I know." she said, taking one of his hands in-between hers. "Well, on the plus-side, you totally got that first kiss."
"What?" Marco said, taken aback. "Wait, what are you talking about?"
Star shrugged. "I heard a rumor that you were gonna ask Jackie out on Valentines' Day by kissing her."
Marco pulled away. "Oh God, that's a rumor?"
"Yeah." Star said nonchalantly. "It's all over the school."
"Oh no." Marco said, his face heating up. "Who started that?"
Now Star looked away.
"Star!" Marco said. "Where'd you get that idea?"
"We were talking about it last week during a roof talk and you mentioned you might wanna try to ask Jackie out. I told you that you should kiss her and I thought you agreed with me. I'm sorry, I held it in as long as I could!"
Marco sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Wait, what were YOU talking about?" Star asked.
"I tried to show off in Chemistry class and I made a giant explosion and it blew up in her face."
Star stifled a giggle. "On purpose?"
"No!" Marco said. "Well, sort of. I knew what combining the chemicals did but I didn't plan for it to blow up in her face. It was humiliating. She's never going to want to be my lab partner again."
Star tilted her head slightly, watching how the moonlight hit Marco's face at such a perfect angle. She moved in even closer.
"Marco, I need you to promise you're going to listen to me." she said, and he nodded. "Jackie REALLY likes you. I overheard her talking to Janna and Hope earlier. A silly little explosion isn't going to change that! She thinks your dorkiness is cute."
Star added the last part, despite not hearing it. She needed to embellish to make the story believable. Plus, Jackie has to think Marco's dorkiness is cute, right? Even Star had to admit it was adorable.
"It turned everything blue." Marco said, showing Star a few splatters on his hand. She stifled another giggle.
"Well, blue's her favorite color."
Star made that up. She had no idea what Jackie's favorite color was.
"Really?" Marco asked, and Star nodded, biting her tongue. "...did she really say...you know...she likes me?"
"Totally." Star said. "She's totally crushing."
"Okay." Marco said, smiling. Star put an arm around his shoulders.
"Lucky for you, you've got Mewni's best love coach right here." she said, and Marco raised an eyebrow.
"I think I'll stick to my plan, but thanks." he said.
"Well, tomorrow's the day after Valentines'. You gonna do something romantic?" Star asked.
"I dunno." Marco said nervously. "I mean, I had an idea for today, but...it's dorky."
"Tell me." Star said, crossing her legs and placing her hands in her lap.
"Well, uh, I was going to tape a note to her locker, telling her to meet me in the auditorium, and I was going to.., never mind, it's stupid."
"TELL ME, NERD!" Star said, poking his arm.
"I was going to play her a song. Y'know, on guitar." Marco mumbled, unable to meet Star's eyes.
Star let out a high-pitched squeal. "Oh my gosh, that's ADORABLE!!!!" she exclaimed, taking Marco's hand again. "I had no idea you were such a romantic!" she said slyly. Marco looked away.
"It's not...I'm not..." he tried to say, but Star barely let him get a word in.
"Wow, I wish someday that someone would do something that cute for me. The cutest thing Tom ever did was steal some dead flowers from the cemetery for me. And Oskar doesn't even know my name. He called me Samantha the other day." Star huffed. "Jackie's really lucky."
Marco looked at Star, who looked as if she was in a romantic slump. He took a deep breath...
I can't believe I'm going to do this, oh God, he thought.
"Hey, Star." Marco said, and when she looked up he quickly kissed her cheek before he could give it a second thought. "Happy Valentines' Day."
Star sat there in shock as her hand shot up to her face. Both started madly blushing.
"T...th...thanks." Star said, and as they realized they were holding hands they both quickly turned away.
"I've, uh...gotta go to bed. I have a test tomorrow." Marco lied. Star nodded, not looking over.
"I...I'm gonna take a few more minutes." she said awkwardly as Marco climbed through the window back into the house. "Goodnight." she whispered.
Once she knew he was safely inside she looked up at the night sky, pulling on the sleeves of the hoodie Marco'd given her for her birthday.
"He just..." she mumbled, a stupid-looking smile plastered on her face.
She let out a long sigh.
"Jackie is reeeeeeally lucky." she mumbled, her hand on her cheek.
It still felt warm.
It may have been because the heart was glowing.
