CHAPTER 9.2 – Acceleration pt.2

"You WHAT?!" Keila screamed shrilly.

The entire lunchroom stared her way for a moment before everyone resumed to their own lunchtime agendas. Awkward.

"Shush, you." Marceline said, hiding her face. "I'm heavily ashamed enough as is, but I really don't know what to do."

Grey looked like he was going to burn her right there on her seat with his stare, but it was more out of concern rather than anything bad… it still made Marceline shift in her seat.

"How long has this been going on?" He said, guiding her back into conversation.

Marceline blinked, thinking of things at length. "Which one are we talking about? The fact that I'm the anonymous RED, or the making out thing?"

Keila and Grey looked at each other briefly, then turned her way. "Both."

"Well…" Marceline started. "The RED thing began when I started a Tumblr blog, like, before the semester started and— and don't laugh. God, stop—"

Grey and Keila were back to having this strangely contorted look on their faces, and it was irksome but they tried to keep their faces impassive, at least.

With laughter barely contained in her voice, Keila urged Marceline to go on, "Go, go. Tumblr, yeah— pfft."

With a scowl, Marceline continued. "Anyway, she hit me up and I got so nervous that I ended up calling myself some random playable Pokémon character."

"You're such a wussy," Grey laughed, humming. Thinking.

"I just… and the making out thing is recent, I suppose." Marceline lamented, "It's only been a month or so since the RED thing started, and she's pretty much using me as some sort of sexual punching bag… because she's into RED."

"Kinky." Keila commented dryly. "She's a little more of that than I gave her credit for."

"But that's also kind of paradoxical and all sorts of weird." Grey added. "You're in a, um. How do you say? An unusual situation?"

"So, recap…" Keila interjected, before Marceline could say anything. "I mean, we all know that you've liked Bonnibel for years—"

"What?! No, I—" Marceline said, stumbling on your words.

"Marceline, we've known each other for years. We know damn well that your kindergarten crush on Bonnie was a subject we went about for… a while." Keila said, smiling knowingly.

"I told you about it when we were kids! How dare you betray me? It's been years, so you really ain't got none, girl."

Grey made circle motions with his hands, but his face was slightly serious. He really was taking all of this to heart. "You can try to hide but we'll be running around in circles."

"Fine…" Marceline grumbled.

/-/-/

"I like you!" Grey said, practically glowing red as Bonnibel held onto the flowers that he had given her. "I've liked you for a while, and like, I was hoping…"

Bonnibel smiled but it definitely didn't seem genuine. Not to Marceline, at least.

"That's really sweet of you, Grey." She began. "But I can't reciprocate your feelings. I just— yeah."

Grey deflated a bit but he gave her a soft smile, either way. "Thank you for being honest, at least. I promise I won't bug you on about it."

Bonnie's smile cranked up a bit and nodded, walking her own way off into the cafeteria.

She was evidently at peace, but Grey was really torn by the looks of it. He was trying to make the most to salvage what pride is taken away by these stupid confession moments. So sad, indeed.

"Hey Grey?" Marceline said, approaching him cautiously.

"Hm?" He said, snapping into attention.

"How are you holding up there?"

"I'm doing okay, for the most part. I'm just a little bit out of it." He sighed. "I could have guessed this would have been the outcome. We never did really talk that much, to be fair."

Marceline hummed in thought, pretty much gauging where she should take the conversation. "You know, it's not that you're any bad. I mean, when we dated it was mostly a fluke of a connection. So maybe we'll all settle in some sort of discomfort every now and down."

"Gee, Marce. I totally feel better," he replied drolly. "I'm just gonna ditch the feelings. But it's not so bad. She let me down gently so that's a good thing."

Patting his back, he and Marceline walked back into the back of the school, looking for Keila.

Upon the sight of the girl, she gave a weak smile.

"What's up? How'd it go?"

Marceline waved a hand vaguely, but responded in turn. "She basically rejected him. Nothing big."

Keila probably should've kept what hope she had from immediately popping on her face, but she seemed to have cheered up from that point. It was a small consolation for her and her unrequited feelings, after all.

"Are you gonna hate her for this?" Marceline asked Grey.

"That kind of petty shit is fucked up." He replied. "I'll be bitter but not that petty, thanks."

"What do you think, Keila?" Marceline added.

Keila wasn't sure what else to offer but a mere shrug.

"She's got it good, really." She murmured. "Who wouldn't want her?"

-/-/-/-

"We can't really figure out what kind of advice to give you," Keila said. "But the thing is, I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to get out of this mess. I can't assure you that it'll end nicely at all, though."

Marceline just let the words process further into her head and she was pretty sure she didn't have any other way to let it be at the end of the day. She might as well just succumb and proceed with whatever her guts might tell her.

She let herself fall into the depths of her statistics class. She really wasn't feeling like going to begin with, especially with the fact that Bonnibel sat right in front of her. She didn't want to risk ditching though, and Bonnie wasn't exactly a bad view. The idea that she was feeling this amalgamation of shitty guilt was pretty much the precursor of a lot of things, sadly. She realized that she was losing her resolve again.

At some point, Marceline lost track of what was going on, and found herself being prodded to take some papers from the girl who sat in the seat in front of her.

"Marceline, we've got something to do. You have to try to stay alert, at least."

Bonnie's tone was playful, but Marceline couldn't help but level a glare at her. She didn't quite understand where she should've directed this affair, but she was growing a little uncomfortable with the familiarity, though not exactly because of Bonnie.

Answering the paper was good enough, as she decided to finish the work and ditch the class right after.

She felt Bonnibel watch her leave the room, but she was just so exhausted.

-/-/-/-

Her time smoking by the back of a gas station a little into the edge of town was her way to cope. Her father might not exactly approve of her current activity but she didn't find it in her to care.

"I'm making too much of a big deal about this," Marceline muttered to herself. "It is way too dramatic in my head than it should be."

There was a little noise of a rather trashy looking car that parked up right next to where she parked hers. She didn't really care at that point, having to stay over at some random station as the evening was close to creeping by. The car was familiar. She didn't want to have to stick around to figure out whose car it was.

As she proceeded to open her own car, a familiar boy with a shoddy Mohawk came into view, obviously shocked to see Marceline there as well.

"Marceline?"

Jesus fucking Christ.

"Hi, Ash."