Okay, so, I had to write a part from Marco's POV too. Might do some other characters as well.
What Once Was:
Marco
All it took was a few seconds and she was gone.
Marco stood in the gutted out shell that was formerly Star's room, staring at the wooden floor and empty walls as if he could blink and watch it all fall back into place. The emptiness of it all echoed inside of him and he found himself shutting and locking the door behind him, needing to separate himself from everything else. He was aware that he'd left a house full of people downstairs, people that were likely already gossiping about the exchange that had unfolded before them, but he didn't care. Social embarrassment was nothing compared to the gut-wrenching pain of losing his best friend. There was a finality and severity in Star's voice that was so unfamiliar that he knew she wasn't lying to him. She was leaving and...she liked him. It was a lot to take in all at once and the confusing mix of emotions left him to sit, numb. He'd been having a good time. Sort of. Things were awkward to say the least and while he was trying to spend time with Jackie, every few minutes he found himself thinking of Star. He felt like an awful person but he wasn't sure what to do. Jackie was his dream girl, the one person he'd been pining after ever since middle school. She was world's cooler than he could ever hope to be and, whenever she was around, he made a complete ass of himself. He was always too nervous to ask her on a date, convincing himself that it was a lost cause. A girl like Jackie would never be interested in him. It was Star that pushed him to take a chance and he wasn't sure he ever would've gone for it if not for her support. He sighed as he pulled his hood over his head, tugging the strings tightly to hide himself. He finally got the girl, by some miracle, and somehow things were still screwed up.
He always knew that his feelings for Star went beyond a normal friendship. They started out as best friends, joking around and hanging out, nothing out of the ordinary (if he didn't count the monsters and magic spells). It started quietly at first but it didn't take long before the thoughts were far too loud for him to ignore. Star was wacky and weird but she was also fiercely loyal to her friends and always good for a laugh. She took his boring, mundane life and made it exciting and new. Every day was an adventure with her and he grew to appreciate all of her quirks. Even when she annoyed him, even when she drove him crazy, he still wouldn't trade her for anything in the world. She was important to him and now she was gone.
This wasn't the first time that something devastating had happened but it felt far more severe than any of those instances combined. He'd been terrified when Toffee captured him, even if he kept an about face. He'd been scared when Ludo showed up waving around a wand, nearly winning the fight against them. He'd even been nervous after Glossaryck was taken, knowing how much it affected Star. He'd been scared before but this was a different feeling entirely. He was almost...defeated. He knew that he was only human and, while he was strong and could certainly hold his own in a fight, he didn't know what to do when things got this serious. Star may have been a teenager but she had major responsibilities, ones that included being an heir to the throne. At the end of the day, she was a royal princess with a legacy to uphold and he was just...plain old Marco. Did he really believe that things would be this way forever? They were getting older. What would happen when they graduated? It wasn't like Star could live with him forever, like things could stay the same way forever. He told himself this and yet it didn't help. If anything, it made him feel worse.
"Marco?"
The quiet voice belonged to none other than Jackie. He heard her twisting the doorknob and then there was a soft knock.
"Marco, I know you're in there. Can you talk to me? Please?"
There was a desperation in her voice that saddened him but he couldn't make himself get up. He wanted to wallow in his feelings, at least for awhile. It would take a long time before he was over this.
"I'm...having a Marco moment".
It was a term Jackie herself had coined, for whenever he freaked out and let his anxiety get the better of him. It was a term of endearment and he came to appreciate it, finally understanding that it was one of the things that Jackie liked about him. She told him that him worrying so much showed how much he cared about other people. It may have been true but he wished, for once, that he could just act without dwelling on every little detail.
"...Okay. I...just...call me when you get a chance".
He listened closely to the sound of footsteps descending the stairs and then it was quiet again. He liked Jackie, he really did, but...he liked Star too. If he was being honest with himself, he'd liked her ever since the Blood Moon Ball. He told himself that he'd only gone because Tom was a massive jerk but, truthfully, he was upset that Star had left him behind. He remembered how stunning she looked in her ballgown and how much he wanted to let her know, but he didn't say anything. As usual, he was too nervous to go for it, too chicken to take a chance. It was easy when he was disguised, pretending to be nothing more than a stranger. He didn't have to worry about embarrassing himself or saying something stupid. They danced as if they were in sync, everything perfectly harmonized. That night, he knew that there was the potential for everything to change but it didn't happen. He put it behind him and wrote it off as a weird moment; that was that. Except it wasn't. He hid his feelings but they were still very much there. He thought dating Jackie would put them to rest but it only seemed to make them worse. Star was always in the back of his mind, no matter what. He never thought that she would ever like him back.
The thought of anyone having a crush on him was still a foreign concept. He saw himself as geeky and lame, certainly not worthy of being the object of someone's affections. He'd been floored when Jackie accepted his date proposal and he often had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that she was his girlfriend. Now he was having those same thoughts all over again. He thought about how adamant Star was for the three of them to hang out, how she was always pushing them to spend time together, and it finally clicked. She was afraid of being left out, of being abandoned. Of him forgetting her. He felt terrible when he thought about all the times he'd been out with Jackie, never really considering how Star might've felt. He missed plenty of movie nights, always telling her that he'd make it up to her but never actually following through. Star was always so happy-go-lucky that he couldn't imagine her being sad or upset. But she was and he was too selfish to even notice. This whole time, she'd been working to make him happy despite her own feelings. And now she wasn't even here for him to apologize.
How could he have been so stupid? He even tried to convince himself that summer vacation would fix things. All it would do was put a band-aid over something that required stitches. Nothing would go back to normal, no matter how much he pretended. He just wanted to forget about Song Day and all the conflicting feelings that went along with it. He replayed that moment over and over again in his head, unable to process the flush of embarrassment that colored Star's face or the lyrics that admitted her true feelings. It was impossible to make sense of it when he had no idea she felt that way about him. He avoided her, not to be rude but because he wasn't sure what to say. She obviously wanted to keep it a secret and he was absolutely fine with that. He tip-toed around her, picking and choosing his words with the utmost care and consideration. Everything was awkward and weird and he hated it. Even after they finally talked and put everything out in the open, he still felt like there was a huge weight on his shoulders. She told him that she didn't have a crush on him, that she wanted things to stay the same. He didn't buy it for a second; Star wore her feelings all over her face. He should've told her. Right then, he should've told her that it was okay - that he liked her too. But it was so much easier to go along with it. He went back to Jackie, assuring himself that everything would work out in the end like it always did.
When she came back downstairs, he had no idea that she would drop a bombshell. It was rare to see her look so defeated and his immediate reaction was to find out what was wrong. He didn't have time to ask before she was blurting everything out, telling him that she did have a crush on him. He barely had time to react to that when she continued, explaining that she had to leave Earth - right now - and she needed to say goodbye. He wanted to comfort her, to stop her, but it was impossible to do either. By the time he reached her room, she was already gone.
He reached into his pocket to fish out his cellphone, quickly going to his Gallery. He silently scrolled through the pictures, most of them of he and Star, back when everything was still fun. Back before all of this. He had fond memories of each moment and it pained him to think about the fact that the pictures were all that was left. Star was in trouble, that much was obvious, and he couldn't abandon her. Not again, not now. He scrambled to his feet before leaving the room, taking one final glance behind him as he shut the door. He could still hear idle chatter going on downstairs, including the voices of Janna and Ponyhead. He grimaced as he crept his way to his bedroom, not wanting to alert either of them to his presence. He knew that they would be the first to want to speak with him and he wasn't in the mood to rehash what had just happened. Once he was safely tucked away inside his room, he rushed over to his dresser and starting digging through the first drawer. Everything was neatly organized, as always, and he knew what he was looking for would be right there at the bottom...
It didn't take long for his fingers to close around something metal. He stared down at the pair of scissors in his hand, the ones with his name permanently etched onto them, and breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't sure what he would do but this was a vital piece of the puzzle.
