Notes: there are a lots of fucks in this chapter.

"Jean" I heard when I was half asleep, Reiner's 'sweet' voice penetrated my ears at seven in the morning, Wednesday "Jean, breakfast almost ready, get your ass here!"

I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand, my back bones cracked when I sat in my bed, my morning breath was horrific, and my hair had a big cowlick that it wasn't going to get down very soon. Everything was normal.

But, I had a strange feeling, for some reason I was in peace even though I haven't had slept almost the whole night.

"Nice eye bags!" Reiner said from the kitchen table while Bert was doing breakfast.

"Don't you have your own dorm?" I frowned when I sat down in front of him.

"Not a morning person, uh" he smiled pouring coffee in my mug.

"You noticed?" I responded sarcastically taking a sip and biting my tongue afterwards "agh, id hod"

"Of course it's hot, you jackass" Reiner giggled "its coffee"

"Reiner" Bert said serving me eggs and a toast "he didn't sleep well, don't make fun of him"

"Please listen to your—how did you know I didn't sleep well?" I asked.

"You moved like a fucking maniac last night" Reiner said with university newspaper in his hands "your bed's strings are noisy as fuck man"

"Oh" I breathed putting egg in my toast "sorry"

When Bert sat down next to me, I realized we looked particularly like a family, taking breakfast together, Reiner reading the news, while taking big sips of his dark coffee while Bert drank tea telling him to not to read on the table.

I smiled at myself, maybe because I missed things like this since I came up to uni, or maybe because I really like the idea of having two friends that make me feel like home.

Of course I didn't say anything about it to any of them, I finished my toast and my coffee and made my way to my first class in the morning saying see you to Bert and fuck you to Reiner.

I walked as fast as I could to my class, not just because I wanted to be responsible for one time in my life but also because I didn't wanted meet Marco in the way.

Yes, pathetic, I know.

"-right?" I heard someone said from my back.

I pull my headphone off and turned in my heels just to look down to a blond haired guy.

Armin.

"Sorry, did you say something?" I said in the most polite tone I could trail off.

"You're Jean, right?" He repeated

"Yeah" I said "and you are?"

Yeah, pretend that you haven't already stalked his Facebook, Jean.

"Oh, I'm Armin, Marco's friend" he said holding out a hand which I shake for a couple of seconds "we kind of saw each other yesterday, nice to meet you"

"Oh yeah, nice to meet you too" I said

"I was going to thank you for inviting us to your party. That was very thoughtful of you"

If you only knew.

"No problem" I smiled "uh, I should go now, I have class—"

"You have class with Erwin"

"Yeah" I said arching an eyebrow.

"I'm his assistant" of course you are "I could tell him you helped me with some books, so we could talk for a sec"

Do I really have a choice?

"Sure" I said following him to the bench.

I noticed that the height difference wasn't something that bothered Armin, he looked bigger than me in some kind of way, more mature and confident.

We stayed in silence for a moment before he looked at me and sighed

"So" he breathed "I wanted to talk about Marco"

My heart stopped

"Yes?"

"Well" he said "Marco and I are very close to each other, and that's why I would like you to—"

Everything stopped.

Close to each other.

Marco said they were just friends, but what if Armin doesn't feel the same way?

Maybe he wants you to help him to date Marco, said the voice.

How that's even possible?

He knows you went to the same school as Marco did, you know him more than he does, maybe he tries to use that, the voice said.

That doesn't make sense.

What is that feeling?

I'm going to be sick.

"I can't" I interrupted him.

"Uh?" He said opening his big eyes in confusion.

"I can't help you to date Marco, I-I can't" I said clenching my fists

"What?!" He said, leaving aside the calmed and controlled person he was a second before "why would I want that kind of-you think I like Marco?"

I felt how the all the blood of my body ran right to my face.

I blushed, I fucking blushed.

"...you don't?"

"No" he said.

"So you aren't-"

"Gay?" He interrupted me giving me a little smile "no, actually I'm bi, but either way, Marco is just a friend, a really good one, and that's why I wanted to talk to you"

Where are the meteors when you need one to crash you to death?

"I'm sorry" I said without looking at him.

"He told me about you" he said, making my fists clench again "last year, he got really drunk in a party, and for no reason he told me about the guy he liked in high school and how it didn't worked out"

He looked at me searching for a reply, but I was too busy looking at my feet in regret, so he continued.

"He didn't remembered he told me, so I didn't mentioned, but when he told me that an old friend from school was here, I knew it was you, you were the guy"

"How?" I simply said.

"You should see him when he talks about you" he smiled to himself "he looks so happy, it's quite annoying how he implies you in every conversation we have since you came here" my stomach gave a turn, Armin smiled slightly "he's really excited about the party, but-"

"But?" I said looking at him for a couple of seconds before he turned back to me.

He sighed fixing his glasses.

"Look, when he told me it didn't worked out, even if he was drunk, he looked devastated, and I know it's not of my business, but I don't want him to have hopes with you again if you don't feel the same about him"

It's the same way I felt when Thomas started dating Marco.

I was doing the same thing that Armin is doing now.

Trying to protect my friend from being hurt.

I remember when I asked Marco if he was happy with Thomas.

He looked so uncomfortable, he didn't knew the answer.

But I do.

"I'm sorry if I sounded rude I-"

"No," I said "it's okay, I was…thinking"

He practically told you that Marco likes you.

The way he talks about you, he doesn't stop talking about you.

He told Armin about you.

Even if you acted like an asshole.

He still likes you.

And you like him too.

You like Marco.

"I feel the same way" I finally said, or whispered, I'm not really sure.

I like Marco.

"I'm sorry?" he said looking confused.

"I like Marco" I said, Armin sighed in relief before I grabbed my face between my hands "I-I do, fuck I like Marco"

"I'm glad you said it" Arming chuckled petting my back "we should go class now"

"Yeah" I breathed getting up and grabbing the books Armin gave me to bring to Erwin class.

I like Marco.

I like Marco.

Marco's coming to the party on Saturday.

That's going to be my chance to finally confess and…

Then it came to my mind like a slap from the universe.

Reiner's bet.

Fuck!

Not even once everything could be just perfect, no fucking way.

Fuck.

"Jean, are you coming or not?" Armin asked a couple of meters before me

"Fu—I mean, yeah, sorry" I said catching him up.

Armin chuckled while we walked together to class.

-o-

The rest of the week was particularly nice and calmed. Marco and I talked until one of us fell asleep, or until Reiner came up to my room asking what I was doing in the dark, there was only one solid answer to that question: jerking off.

Saturday came up sooner than I expected it. The realization of having Marco (and yeah, other people) over, transformed me and Bert into two clean obsessed freaks, Reiner was in charge of the food and the booze for the party, and make sure that Bert and I didn't die intoxicated by the chlorine. The house was finally disinfected, organized and with an artificial lily odor around six thirty o'clock in the evening.

"I think my hands are going to fall off thanks to the chlorine" I said laying on the floor

"My nose is going to fall off thanks to you" Reiner replied sitting next to Bertholdt, who was taking a nap on his shoulder "seriously man, you haven't showered since Wednesday"

"Thursday" I corrected straighten up "and I've been too busy"

"Yeah" he said "wanking"

"I'm going to take a shower" I said taking my shirt off, I looked at it for a second before throwing it to Reiner's face "so you can remember me"

He grunted throwing it back to me before looking at Bert moving on his shoulder, I walked to the back of the couch were I was safe from Reiner's arms.

"I'm going to fucking murder you" he hissed looking over his shoulder.

"Thanks Bert for saving me in your sleep" I said kissing the top of his head, receiving a slap on my temple "motherfu—"

"You have two seconds to get out of here before I—"

"Woah, Reiner, jealousy isn't good for—"

"Jean I swear to God" he said leaning back trying to catch me with his free arm before I ran to the bathroom, laughing my ass off.

I undressed myself before entering to the warm shower, I let the water cover my head completely, I felt a salty flavor on my lips, I supposed it was the sweat I was letting pile up in my head. I noticed how the water under my feet was slightly brown before going down to the drainage.

God I'm disgusting.

After twenty relaxing minutes, including new hairstyles with foam (yeah I did it, sue me) and a exfoliation process, I was in front of my closet trying to decide what to wear to look amazing but in a subtle way, hot but only for Marco, with style but not like a douche bag.

I was lost, basically.

Or I was until I found my old jean jacket.

Why the fuck no?

"Whoa Jean" said Bert when I got out of my room, he looked me up and down, my jean jacket over a white shirt and black skinny jeans "you look really handsome"

That's something my mom would say Bert.

"Yeah, Jean" Reiner said before I could answer, holding a knife next to his face "come here to congratulate you"

"No fucking way I'm going near you while you're holding that" I said before someone knocked the dorm door.

"Saved by the bell" he grinned archly.

I shuddered.

"I swear to god you scare the shit out of me sometimes" I said as I walked to the door.

When I opened the door, the only thing I could thought off was: saved by the bell is an overrated fraise because you never know what's on the other side of the door.

Marco Boldt was in front of me on the hallway, wearing a black leader jacket over a blue plaid shirt and black skinny jeans, his hair fixed as always, but with a subtle shine, he was holding a supermarket bag on his hand, and he smelled just…amazing.

Basically, he looked hot as fuck.

"Hi Jean" he smiled blushing slightly, maybe product of my imagination.

"Hi Marco" I smiled back.

Free lunches weren't a priority anyways.

Notes: OK SO, I know what you're going to say now "WHAT TH E FUC K IS THAT END?! YOU'RE GOUNG TO LEAVE IT LIKE THI?S W HAT THE FUCK" CHILL ok?, I worked for this chapter a lot (almost three solid months) and after writing it and erasing over and over, it was horrifically long, so I decided to split it up in two, yeah in this specific part because I'm a jackass who likes to make you suffer, so I'm going to upload the second part next week, specifically on Sunday evening.

Now, about the lack of activity in this story (and all my projects basically), since September my life, mentally and emotionally, it's been a fucking roller coaster, I actually don't know how I made it alive to this year, to be honest, and thanks to that I've been unable to write because I was (am) so frustrated and, ugh, life… not everything is bad though, little things happened, like, I finished my first year at uni, I may have a full scholarship this year, I have friends from school and from uni who are amazing as hell and I freaking love them . Anyway, I already finished writing this fic, I'm really satisfied with the result, and by saying that I was thinking on leaving multichapter fics aside for a while, as same as I did with my first fic, writing them it's a stress factor and I don't want it to be. BUT That doesn't mean I'm quitting writing, there are some projects I've working on for like, two years? And I really would like to publish when they're finished, so yeah, as always, see you in the next chapter, thanks for reading my story and being patient, take care and bYE.