"Y'know I hate to say it, but Janna was right."
Marco Diaz grimaced as he swallowed another sip of his drink, a sickeningly-sweet mocktail that looked about as bad as it tasted. He put the glass down next to a plate of half-eaten chicken and mashed potatoes.
"And I mean, you would have thought that they'd at least get the food right, what with how much we paid!" he remarked snidely as a waiter walked by.
The evidently underpaid waiter rolled his eyes. "Yeah as though you could do any better," he muttered under his breath.
"UM, YEAH! AS A MATTER OF FACT I CAN!"
Marco leaped from his chair, seemingly intent on confronting the waiter. But as he rose, his arm haphazardly swiped the mocktail glass, sending pink liquid flying onto his white dinner jacket. His face turned red, a mixture of anger and embarrassment. On the verge of screaming, Marco felt a hand on his shoulder accompanied by a chuckle.
"Marco dude, take a chill pill."
Jackie Lynn Thomas smirked as she did what she could to clean up the mess on Marco. It was a lost cause; the jacket was hopelessly stained.
"Argh! I saved up months for this suit!" Marco cried helplessly.
"I know, but hey, shit happens. We'll take it to the cleaners first thing tomorrow."
Jackie then reached into her purse for a couple of polaroid prints.
"In any case, at least we got the pictures already," she said leaning into Marco with some photos from earlier in the evening.
It was enough to ease Marco up. He and Jackie did look good together, and that was ignoring the fact that his white tux and her ocean blue dress were great pieces of attire by themselves. In their first picture together three years ago, Marco had looked like an awkward nervous wreck. Now, nothing could be further from the truth, what with the mix of formal poses, silly faces, and affectionate glances. Marco and Jackie looked like a proper couple.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Marco smiled.
He turned to survey the ballroom. Most people were still sat at their tables, looking bored out of their minds. Between the terrible catering, Brittney Wong's painfully unfunny attempt at stand-up, and Oskar Greason's rather experimental soundtrack to the evening, prom night had been a calamity.
Marco sighed. "I don't know what I expected."
"Well dude, not everything can be an 80s teen movie."
"Oh yeah, definitely, but I mean… this is basically our farewell to high school, and it's more than a little underwhelming y'know? It's kinda sad actually."
"No, I get you. The whole idea of it being this great farewell event was the only reason I wanted to go."
"Heh, you would have thought we'd learned our lesson from that awful school dance huh?"
Jackie giggled. "Yeah!"
Suddenly, her eyes lit up, and she grabbed Marco's hand.
"But hey, better late than never. Wanna scram?"
Marco smiled. "Don't mind if I do!"
The two 17-year olds ran out of the room and into the cool and clear night. As they did so, Jackie pulled out her skateboard, and they leaped on in sync.
Some things hadn't changed even after three years. Marco was still terrified of getting on a skateboard, and as Jackie glided effortlessly through the empty Echo Creek streets, he held on to her waist for dear life.
But some things had changed. For one, Marco no longer feared silence with Jackie, nor did he feel compelled to fill the air with forced conversation. He'd learned to feel comfortable in the moment, to just enjoy the time they spent together.
And so they skated by the various sights of their sleepy Californian town – the park, Hill-Trank Plaza, Britta's Tacos – in pure silence. Eventually, they reached the town pier, greeted by a full moon shining on the sea. Jackie slowed the skateboard, and the couple hopped off to sit by the pier's edge.
"You know, you may not have gotten your perfect high school movie send-off, but this has gotta make up for it right?" Jackie said, staring off into the moonlight.
"I gotta say, it's beautiful…" Marco began, before pausing. He found himself staring at Jackie, mouth agape. Jackie turned her head to meet him.
"What, just like me?" she asked mockingly.
"NO! I mean… YES! I mean you are beautiful, but uh… That's not what I meant… I mean… GARGH!"
Jackie laughed. "It's fine dude. Sometimes a cringey cliché is just what the doctor called for."
She reached for Marco's hand; their eyes locked on each other. Slowly, they leaned in and began to kiss.
"I love you Jackie Lynn Thomas."
"And I love you Marco Diaz."
Jackie began to lie down on Marco's lap. As she made herself comfortable, Marco took out a cassette and a cassette player.
"Wanna listen?" he asked.
"No way! You actually made one!"
"Yeah! I mean, you're always making me mixtapes, I figured I'd try and return the favour. Y'know, as a prom gift."
"Well, a 24-karat gold skateboard would have been nice, but I guess this'll do," Jackie teased.
"Ha-ha. Very funny."
Jackie motioned to put the cassette tape into the player. Marco complied, and the air started filling with mellow electronic beats: a compromise between Jackie's love for jazzy beat tapes, and Marco's addiction to bubblegum pop like Love Sentence. She nodded in approval; turned out there was hope for her boyfriend's music taste after all.
As the night wore on, the couple reminisced about school – the good and the bad – and shared their fears for the future – the uncertainty of not knowing what exactly they wanted from life, nor how to achieve it.
"I don't know, I keep telling myself chef or karate instructor. But the first will probably make me miserable after awhile, and the second… let's just say I don't want to end up like my sensei."
"Dude… Instructor? Who are you kidding, you're good enough to go pro!"
"That's nice of you, but one state title doesn't mean I'm that good."
"Pssh, look at you and your false modesty."
"Hey!"
Just then, a shooting star came flying through the sky.
"Ooh! Make a wish Marco!"
Marco seemed caught off guard by the star. He gave it some thought, but soon found himself staring blankly into the night sky, even after the star had disappeared. He'd found his answer, and Jackie knew exactly what it was.
"Yeah. I wish she'd come back too," she said softly.
"Every time I think I've gotten over it, I'm reminded of how much I haven't. It just… I just wish we had some closure. Is she alright? Is she Queen of Mewni? I'd like to think that she is, but if she was, she would have popped by at some point, right?"
Jackie tried to be reassuring. "Well who knows, being queen sounds like a 24/7 job."
"Sure, in theory. But this is Star we're talking about, she'd make time to come visit. And if she isn't on Mewni, what's going on? Is she still floating off in space? Hell, was she even sucked into space to begin with? We don't even know what that portal led to."
Marco and Jackie sat in silence. Both knew they didn't have any answers.
"Sorry. I know it's a pointless discussion."
"Don't say that."
"If only she'd left behind her dimensional scissors. We could have tried to look for her at least. If only her magic mirror still worked, we could have asked her parents about what was going on."
Jackie placed her hands on Marco's cheeks, and turned his head to face her. She chose her words carefully.
"Marco, as much as it sucks, there's a lot out there that's just… beyond our control. She's a magical princess from another dimension, and we're just… human. There was literally nothing we could do after she fell into that portal. I wish that hadn't been the case, but… but that's just how it goes. It's not great by any means, but… that's life."
Marco took a deep breath. "You're right."
Jackie pecked Marco on the cheek. "Let's go."
Slowly, they made their way back to the Diaz household. Nobody was awake when they got home. Exhausted, both stumbled up to Marco's room before slumping right into bed.
Jackie put her arms around Marco as she closed her eyes. "Get some sleep, you'll feel better in the morning."
"I'll try."
She kissed him one more time.
"Good night."
"Good night."
Marco tried to fall asleep, but it was easier said than done. Several times he almost did, only to be interrupted by a random jolt in his legs, the cries of Mariposa, or some other annoyance. It didn't help that his mind was still preoccupied with his and Jackie's earlier conversation. However, as the clock struck 4 in the morning, it seemed like he would finally do it. Slowly, he gave in to the sandman. Gradually, his mind descended into numbness, and his eyes began to seal shut. The bliss of sleep was nigh.
Until it wasn't.
Suddenly, a blinding light filled the room. A whirlwind developed, sending most of the things in the room flying in a vortex. Marco struggled to open his eyes, but as he did, he was able to make out what looked like a dark, purplish portal. Within the portal, a black silhouette appeared in the distance, and it was coming closer and closer by the second. For whatever reason, Marco felt powerless. His mind told him to scream, to wake Jackie up, leap out of bed, and either run or confront the mystery figure approaching. But his body would not comply; he could do none of those things.
The silhouette was now nearly in the room. Marco continued to lie there; eyes wide open. It was then, however, that he began to make out more details on the approaching figure. A roundish face, a pair of glowing cheek marks, long - very long - hair, and a set of wings. His eyes bulged, and finally he was able to croak something out.
"Star?"