I Lost Everything For You (Gumlee / Marball)

Awkward silence

After the third period bell rung, Bubba gathered his supplies, and left the class, it now being lunch. He’d probably find and hang out with Fionna and possibly Cake today, although he heard Cake has been sick the past week, so she’s missing the first week of school entirely. He didn’t really want to hang out with Marshall though. After Marshall stormed out of class in 1st period, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to handle that level of immaturity.

He walked to his locker, and found Fionna there, talking to a noticeably orange boy, who was about a foot taller than her. He then figured it was Flame Prince, or FP as Fionna liked to call him, when he leaned forward and gently kissed her. Bubba looked away, seeing that after a few moments they were still kissing, and opened his locker. But he froze when he felt a sharp jab at his shoulder. “Sad to see your girl kissing another guy?”

Bubba turned around to see Marshall’s slightly looming stature, with his hands in his pockets. “Shut up, I’m not. I’m happy for her you dummy...” He muttered, taking out books for his next class period.

“Sure didn’t seem that way. You kinda seemed jealous. Like you...wanted to be the one with her instead.” Marshall pointed out, closing his own locker.

Bubba sighed, not wanting to deal with this right now. “I assure you, I’ve never had the intentions of kissing Fionna. Now please stop.”

Marshall laughed with one brow raised, “You haven’t? It’s only my second day here and I’m pretty sure most guys here would.”

Bubba groaned and zipped his bag up, and slid it onto his back. “Well I wouldn’t. So leave it at that.”

“What are we talking about?” Fionna intruded, one slim arm slung around her waist, FP towering over her.

“Oh nothing-”

“We were talking about Bubba’s total lack of interest in the female species.” Marshall said with a smirk, not surprised by Bubba’s glare.

“Oh. That’s cuz he’s gay.” Fionna said with a nervous laugh, Bubba now glaring at her too.

Marshall looked at Bubba, his mouth slightly open in surprise. “You are? So that thing with Brendon all those years ago was true!?”

Bubba’s cheeks heated, hating having the spotlight on him, especially about this topic. He’s already talked about it enough. Can’t he have a break? “Of course it was true. And Fionna, I’ll tell you about Brendon later. I’m too tired to answer your questions about it right now.” He added, noticing Fionna’s obvious curiosity.

 The topic was discarded when FP brought up tryouts for the basketball season and how nervous he was, while Fionna hugged him and reassured him with sweet words and kisses. Marshall and Bubba trailed behind, an awkward distance between them. Bubba wasn’t sure why he wasn’t able to say anything, or why he felt like Marshall kept looking at him. Maybe he was finally becoming truly paranoid or something.

Mustering up conversation, he asked, “So...how has your past few years been?”

Marshall seemed to be thinking for a moment, then said, “It was fine. Pretty boring. I moved to a new apartment and that was it.”

“But you were sick weren’t you?” Bubba asked, chancing a glance at him. But Marshall said something under his breath and raked his hand through his hair, making it even messier. “Damn it Bubba, can’t you just set it aside? I’m back finally and all you care about is what happened to me so long ago or our parents.”

“It’s important though Marshall, if it involves my parents too, shouldn’t I know?” Bubba said as they walked into an empty classroom, sitting a few rows behind Fionna and FP.

“Not really how it works though. Just...I’ll tell you sometime later okay? Just not right now.” Bubba then noticed how tired his vibrant red eyes were, and how grey and heavy the bags under them were. It was only the second day of school, so Bubba was pretty sure Marshall wasn’t terribly stressed out by it, so maybe something at home? Maybe he was still sick...

“What are you staring at?” Marshall asked, his cheeks darkening. Bubba blushed heavily, realizing he was basically staring at him like an idiot, and looked away, and said, “Nothing. I was just staring into space.”

They sat next to each other, an awkward silence falling over them in the nearly empty classroom, except for the whispers and quiet laughs exchanged from Fionna and FP. Bubba sometimes wished he could look so cute with someone like that, and as of yesterday, his wish sort of started to involve Marshall, but yet, he knew how unlikely that was. His heart ached a little when he thought it was realistically more plausible for Marshall to like and get together with Fionna or some girl in his class to ever take a second notice of him.

Starting that day, he decided before he started actively crushing on his once best friend, he’d close himself off and stop himself before it was too late.

A/N

 Thank you all so much for the votes and the comments :) It means a lot to me!! Sorry if this chapter is kinda lame, I didn’t put much effort into it because I’m really tired...hope it’s still enjoyable though. Thank you so much for all the votes and comments, it really makes my day C: