Chapter updates will not be consistent because I am an unreliable crumb I'm sorry.

Warning: lots of swearing. lots.

It was raining on the day I met Marco Bodt. Not a gentle rain, like those warm summer showers you get that make you want to go out into the middle of the road and spin around, soaking wet, while your neighbours stare at you from their living room windows like you're some crazy, deranged hooligan. Oh no. I'm talking about the cold, heavy rain that makes you want to cease existing.

Kind of the opposite of what you'd expect, given that Marco might be the cheeriest person you'll ever fucking meet.

Connie and Sasha had, by some God-given miracle, gotten me out of bed that day and convinced me to go to a party. Well okay, that makes me sound like some dweeb who's never been to a party. Don't get me wrong, I've definitely been to many a party in my day. Hell, I love to party.

It's just that, on that rainy ass day, I was in a bad fuckin' mood. The baddest mood to ever bad mood.

It happens sometimes. The crushing weight of reality suddenly decides that, hey, wouldn't it be swell if it were to just burst out of my subconscious and sit it's big fucking ass on the forefront of my mind. Those are the days where I mope a lot.

I think it's mostly just a stress thing.

The day before, I'd graduated from Maria High School. It had been an absolute blast, with all of us throwing our caps in the air like in some cheesy movie, and Armin almost getting trampled by the crowd, and Eren picking his friend up and putting him on his shoulders, and Sasha eating the candies that Connie had glued to his cap while he vainly tried to fend her off, and then Connie tackling me to the ground when I'd stepped off the stage, crushing my diploma in the process, and… and…

Well, you get the point. Treasured memories.

I had tried to start packing for university the day after, because I knew I would procrastinate doing it for the entire summer. Hence, the source of my bad mood.

I know it's childish as hell, but I really didn't want to go. I didn't want to be sent off to university to study maths and sciences and get a fancy degree in God-knows-what. Well wait no... Ok, I definitely do want to pursue a higher education. There isn't really much you can do without at least a college education these days. But, I don't know. Everything seems like it's moving too fast. I don't feel like I'm ready to go just yet. I want more time.

Trost U is the city's main university. It's got a nice campus, esteemed teachers, and a cafeteria with food that might actually not kill you. In all honesty, I'm really excited about it. I'm just not a fan of big changes in life. What a dumb thing to get worked up about.

So anyways, I was about to give up on packing my shitty clothes, deciding that rolling up my posters seemed like a much more appealing task that thankfully involved no thought whatsoever, when Sasha jumped me.

Neither Sasha nor Connie knock. Rude, I know. You literally have no idea that they're in your house until you've been viciously attacked from behind or you see one of them out of the corner of your eye and wet yourself.

I didn't put up much of a fight because I knew it really wasn't a choice I got to make. I could either go or they would take me. My fate had already been decided by two unholy deities. I was going to this party.

And also, it would be kind of a bummer to sit out Jaeger's end-of-school party, no matter how much I wanted to.

Eren's dad is gone a lot of the time so he has a free house almost every weekend, which means he throws a party almost every weekend. But this time, Eren had invited probably the entire town to come celebrate our graduation. That meant a very large amount of people that I was expected to mingle with. Meanwhile, I was stewing in own personal shitstorm, in a spectacularly shitty mood, while Connie and Sasha chattered excitedly about fuck-all.

What I had yet to experience, while I was slumped in the backseat of Connie's 2002 Honda loathing my existence, was my very first meeting with Marco Bodt. The future most important person in my life was currently mingling amongst a drunken houseful of people about two blocks from where I was sitting.