Marcia watched as the clock slowly ticked past the twelve indicating that another minute had passed. 2 minutes and 56 seconds until 7th period. Not that she was obsessed or anything but she had a routine to uphold. Everyday after the sixth bell going into last period, she passed Jack in the hall. She blushed thinking of the split second of eye contact they shared. Sure it wasn't much but Marcia believed that things took time and she was plenty patient. Although she couldn't say the same for her best friend. Marcia looked to her left and watched Comet trying to balance a pencil on the tip of his finger. He found the oddest ways to pass time. His face was scrunched up in a rare concentrated look. She noticed his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth, she bit her lip to keep from laughing. Comets shaggy hair was in his eyes again and he blew up out of his eyes in annoyance.
"RING! RING! RING!"
The bell sent an instant shock to her chest and Marcia shot up out of her desk in a rush to see Jack. Comet smirked as he grabbed his bag and ran after Marcia.
"Gonna actually talk to him this time Marci?"
Comet nonchalantly pushed a loose strand of hair away from her eyes and behind her ears. Marcia hadn't even seemed to notice.
"No I can't! Not now anyways! I can't just suddenly go from eye contact to speaking! No, this time in the hallway is for eye contact only."
Comet shrugged.
"Well, you just have to be subtle about it."
"Like how?"
"Like just bump into him. That's called a 'conversation starter' get it?"
Marcia eyed him suspiciously.
"I can't pretend to bump into him, I'm not a good actor if we're being honest."
"Couldn't agree more."
"What was that?"
"Nothing ma'am! Hey look there he is!"
"Oh! Where?"
"There!"
And with that, Comet shoved Marcia as gently/hard as he could towards Jack. Comet watched as his plan successfully worked and she fell right into Jack. Jack caught her of course, he was like the smoothest guy in school. He was smiling at whatever Marcia was saying, it was probably something cute like her stuttering about how he was doing. Comet smiled to himself and patted himself on the back for helping his friend. Jack reached out and touched Marcia's arm. Comet felt his fingers twitch, and looked down to see his hands in fist.
"What the fruit cup?"
Comet forced his hands to relax and breathed in a few times, his chest felt tight. Comet to one last glance at Marcia before leaving for his class.
•
"Hey look, there he is!"
"Oh! Where?"
"There!"
Marcia felt Comet grab her waist and shove her into someone. Luckily the human was quick and grabbed her shoulders to steady her. Marcia began to apologize and took a moment to shake off Comets lingering touch on her waist.
"I apologize, Comet can be so CLUMSY sometimes.
The person let go of her shoulders. She hoped Comet could hear her.
"Hey, it's no prob Mar!"
Marica froze. Only three people in the entire school had special nicknames for her. There was Comets, Marci, which is what he mistakenly called her the first time he arrived on Earth. Then Jan who preferred 'Safe Girl' over anything. And last but not least:
"H-hey Jack!"
Marcia cringed at the sound of her own voice. Jack half smiled at her, which basically killed some of her brain cells.
"What's up with the flying across the hallway thing, Mar?"
"Oh that was all Comet! He thought that- I mean he tripped and accidentally pushed me and then I fell into you and now we are talking and here we are!"
Marcia wished she could dig a hole right there in the floor and crawl into it and possibly die.
"I didn't tale Comet as the clumsy type, huh, guess we all got our quirks."
Jack shrugged and flashed a grin. Marcia wanted to correct her mistake so she wouldn't have to worry about this conversation all weekend but she wasn't a conversationalist, not even close.
"So Jack, h-how are you doing?"
"Oh ya know, the usual. What about Mar? How's school coming?"
"Great! Math hasn't been to hard on me so I can't complain."
Marcia felt extremely giddy all of the sudden, like a wave of adrenaline was pumping through her. She didn't even have enough time to close her mouth and keep her question in.
"So Jack would you like to come get lunch with me sometime?"
Marcia instantly wished she could take it back as soon as it came out. She watched with dread as Jacks smile slipped from his face.
"Oh Mar I'm sorry but I don't think my girlfriend would like that, she's kinda jealous of you anyways."
Marcia didn't even want or care to know who his girlfriend was. She just wanted to get away from this. Jack reached out and touched her arm. Marcia held back from flinching away from his kind touch. He was just trying to make her feel better.
"Sorry Marcia, you're really cool but I don't-"
She didn't let him finish as she backed away from his hand and walked toward her last class of the day.
"It's fine Jack, don't worry about it."
Marcia found her class and crashed into her seat. She sighed and slumped into the chair, it was stiff and cold but it didn't bother her. She wasn't sure what the lesson was about, the class seemed to last for hours as she kept repeating her conversation with Jack in her head. She knew she should stop thinking about it since it only made her feel worse and she did stop think about for a while. Before Marcia knew it, the final bell was ringing releasing the students to go home. Marcia slowly grabbed her things and dragged her feet outside of the school. The weather reflected her mood, a rumble of thunder growled as rain fell steadily on the pavement. Marcia followed the sidewalk and with only the hood to protect her from the rain. Comet found her eventually, he had already used his wand to summon an umbrella. He began to jog down the street to catch up with her.
"Marcia! Wait up!"
He watched her stop but she didn't turn around. He finally came beside her and they began walking again. He held up his umbrella so it covered them both.
"So, how'd it go?"
Comet didn't have his last class with Marcia and he had been distracted the whole hour wondering what had happened.
"Oh, well it went fine."
Comet chuckled.
"That's not much of am answer Marci!"
"Well there's not much to say about it."
Now Comet was getting a little concerned, that definitely wasn't a normal Marcia answer.
"Marcia, what really happened? You can te-"
Comet looked at her face and saw that a stream of tears were flowing down both cheeks. Comet didn't even realize he dropped his umbrella as he quickly grabbed her shoulders.
"Marcia."
She was quickly trying to wipe her tears away as if he could unsee them. Each tear she wiped away was replaced with many more to take their place until Marcia let out a loud sob. Comet felt his heart crack and his breath caught in his lungs. He grabbed Marcia and wrapped her up in a warm embrace. Comet held onto her and squeezed as if he could squeeze out all of her pain.
"Marcia."
She buried her face deeper into his shirt when he said her name.
"Marcia, please tell me what happened. If I need to narwhal blast someone in the face them by gosh I will do it! Whoever has hurt you will pay deeply for this! I will-"
"Comet, please. He didn't hurt me on purpose."
"Wait do you mean that this was Jack? I'm so sorry for pushing you, I should not have done that! Ugh! I'm so stupid sometimes!"
"No Comet, it's okay it's not your fault he has a girlfriend."
"A girlfriend?"
"Comet can we please not talk about this right now."
"Okay fine Marci."
Comet reluctantly released Marcia from his embrace when she pulled away. But he refused to completely let her go. Comet swooped his hand down and grabbed hers. He examined her face, she looked really sad still.
"Marcia, in case you didn't know, you're amazing. Probably the only girl I know who can kick monster butt and still get straight A's. Marcia, Jack may not realize what he's missing out on but I'm gonna tell you in case you don't know. You're so smart and funny and cool and not to mention you're really beautiful-"
Comet paused to glance over at Marcia, he couldn't see her face very well. He felt a little sheepish for admitting he thought she was beautiful, well, he truly thought she was jaw-dropping but he decided he needed to keep it comfortable for her.
"-you care for your family and you're so kind to everyone. I know I don't say it enough but you are truly amazing Marcia. And it would be a shame if you let one bad experience change your attitude about yourself or make you less brave. Jack just doesn't see all the awesome stuff that makes Marcia so, well, awesome!"
Comet stopped. They made it to the Diaz household. Comet reached out to open the door but Marcia reached out and grabbed his hand. She whipped around and tackled Comet in a hug. Comet shuddered when he felt her lips touch his ears.
"Thanks Comet."
Comet took a deep breath as his body shuddered again.
"N-no problem! I mean every bit of it!"
Marcia simply smiled. It wasn't her usual happy smile but Comet thought it was a major improvement from the tears that were streaming down her face before. Comet followed her inside and the two friends spent the rest of the evening watching movies and eating nachos until their stomachs ached. The ache in Marcias chest was slowly fading as Comet talked to her about everything thing from the sky to the ground and anything in between.
