Marco stared blankly at his room. His tiny, average, boring, suburban, earthling room. Every trace of Star Butterfly's existence had been wiped clean before his eyes.
"No," he whispered. "No, this isn't happening. I am not letting this happen. This does not have my permission to happen. I am Princess Marco Diaz, and my best friend isn't going to leave me alone all summer!" He marched downstairs and turned to face his party guests, all of whom were still shell-shocked over Star's outburst seconds before. "Okay, listen up: Anyone that has something more important going on this summer than Star leaving Earth, raise your hand as high as you can. Don't be shy, no judging here."
A couple kids put their hands up. "I registered for some college courses, and I'm really excited about-"
"Get out of my house."
"But you said-"
"I know, but guess what? The party is over now. There's no reason for you to be here anymore. Get out."
"The party's over?" another voice piped up.
"Okay, anyone who's just here for the party, you can go, too."
One by one, half the guests left out Marco's front door; directed by his stiff, unmoving finger. "Everybody here now have plans that they can cancel? Like, cancel in the immediate future?"
Everybody raised their hands.
"Great, excellent," Marco nodded, giving his dry lips a quick lick. "Um… Star's gone. She just moved out. She's back on Mewni now." The surprise in the room had died, but not the tension. "And we're all going to go with her."
Cheers. Questions. Accusations regarding teenage hormones.
"Don't worry, it's just for the summer. Uh, probably. Maybe for you guys. I'm not sure what Star's dealing with, but if we call ourselves her friends, we shouldn't let her face it alone."
Cheers, more unified. New questions.
"That's why I just decided that Mewni's getting its own summer camp. I… also just realized that you have nothing to bring with you. Let's sayyy two hours to go home and pack?"
One question.
"With these." Marco reached into his pocket. The scissors were bulky and awkwardly warm to the touch, but they were on his top five list of his most prized possessions. And after tonight, they were now on the number one spot, no contest.
A crash interfered with Love Sentence's Heartbreak Confinement album on shuffle. Star's red, tearful eyes looked up from her goose feather pillow. She wondered if Toffee was striking while the iron was hot.
"Star!" River's voice called behind her locked bedroom door. "I believe you have company, dear."
"Go away!" Star bawled. "I said I want to be alone."
"I'm pretty sure they want to see you, darling."
"There isn't anyone that I want see, so there!"
"Really?" River wondered. "I could've sworn that the Diaz's flushing throne was your favorite part of their house. Guess I'll have to keep it all to myself~"
Star's grief lost to her confusion, and she got up to unlock the door. "The Diaz's toilet? Why would you have their-MARCO."
The king wasn't lying, he had a toilet wrapped underneath his arm. Beside him, however, was Marco, grinned uncontrollably, but trying to look apologetic and approachable. Star tried to slam the door shut again, but Marco stuck out a foot in the way. Unfortunately, he underestimated Star's strength and the weight of the door, and felt a nasty bruise in the near future.
"Sorry Marco, sorry. I just don't want to talk right now." The door didn't open wider than the earth-boy's-foot-wide crack, but Star's eyes spotted part of a heavy suitcase. "And coming to live here was a bad idea. You need to go home, Marco."
"Well, that's going to be a problem," Marco said smugly. "See, there was this freak dimensional scissor accident, and my home is currently on top of your home. But hey, what's a castle with a floor or two more, am I right?"
"You little sneak," whispered Star.
"Well, that part was Janna's idea, but I really do want to live here with you, Star."
"They brought a toilet, Star," River reiterated. "They brought two toilets!"
Star appeared very interested with an invisible object near her feet. "And what does Jackie have to say about it?"
"She's bunking up here, too! Along with Ferguson, Alfonso, Janna, Pony Head, Kelly, Starfan13, and most of freshman year. C'mon, I walked past eighteen master bedrooms on the way over here."
Star flung open the door to look Marco directly in the eyes. "Marco, I don't think that's the way to reel our relationship back to normal. You're usually the one who lists off the ways sleeping arrangements like that can go wrong."
"Star, it took half a second with you living away from Earth to make me realize two things: Echo Creek will never be the same without you, and our relationship will never be back to the way it was before Song Day. This is me accepting the second thing, and refusing to face the first."
"Marco, I don't want you to feel obligated to be in love with me, so before you go all 'I can't live without you' to make me feel better-"
"Star, I'm not in love with you. Scratch that, I can't tell if we're in love with each other or just have some kind of tension from spending every moment of our lives together. I have no idea what it's liketo have a romantic life. I'm fourteen-year-old that had anxiety attacks from the thought of Jackie sitting next to me at lunch. The one thing that I'm sure of? It's that you made yourself a part of me. You give me purpose. You give me reasons.
"You're the reason I get up every 5:30am to do thirty sit-ups, because I know how I'd look like with a six-pack. You're the reason I know how to run from a burning prison in heels, because you helped me become the face of a women's equality movement. Because of you, I know how a goblin dog, a goblin dog, tastes like. You changed my life for the better, Star, and as corny as this sounds, you got me to believe in literal magic when I met you. I came to Mewni not just because I'd miss you, but because you give my life another dimension, and I can't go back to being flat. Having a friendship change like ours is doing is scary, but losing you completely? That's worse than a thousand slaps on my bald spot."
Star wiped away what she hoped was her last tear. "It wasn't my choice to leave Earth, y'know? It wasn't my choice come there, either. It feels like my life is spiraling out of control, and not in the fun way. I feel like I'm in a Beejuician galactic hurricane, and my body is burning away by the plasma while being flopped around. Marco, what if the next thing that's beyond my control is you being killed by something here in Mewni?"
"Well, if you feel like you're fighting an army, call for reinforcements."
"Where'd you hear that?" River asked, trying to make the dismantled toilet flush.
"From Sensei's karate VHS'," Marco humblebragged. "Turns out that self-defense doesn't really go that far when you're defending all by yourself. Tell me what's wrong, Star."
"Toffee's back."
"Then he's a glutton for punishment."
