If you're in love with Marc, just like I am, then you'll absolutely love this chapter.

Enjoy!

Chapter 11: Stuck In The Middle

"All I'm asking is to give me more, more than this heartbeat
I'm stuck in the middle of."

- Parachute

Bella POV

It seemed that everyone wanted to spend his or her time with me because later that day, after Ives and I returned from Paris, Marc called me, asking if we could spend some time together.

"Just you?" I asked him, "What about Rhia?"

I could practically hear him rolling his eyes on the other end. "Rhia's busy with her friends. As usual," he replied. I could sense irritation in his voice, but why? Ohhh, is my KangaRoux jealous? I had thought to bring it up, but decided not to. Those two needed to find their ways to each other on their own.

"How about tomorrow then?" I asked.

"That would be awesome!" he exclaimed. "Ohhh, who are you talking to Marc-y poo? Is it your guuuuurlfriend?" I could hear teenage voices getting closer and closer to Marc's side of the conversation. It seemed that Marc must have tried to muffle the phone, but I could distinctly what he said back to them. "Oh, fuck off you guys!" Then suddenly, as if remembering I was there, Marc added, "Sorry about that, Bella. They're stupid."

"Marc Seth Roux!" I said, appalled. "Did I just hear you say the F word?"

"Fuck," he repeated with confidence in his voice. "Fuckity fuck, fuck, fuck."

"Boy, you sure are grown up now," I commented with a smile on my face.

"You're smiling right now, aren't you?"

I grinned. "Why, yes I am. How'd you know?"

He chuckled. "I could practically hear it dripping from your voice. Yes, mother, I actually curse now. I am a legal adult now. You know, being eighteen years old and all," he replied.

"Okay, okay. Well then, I'll pick you up tomorrow. What time do you get out?" I asked.

"I have football practice tomorrow, so I'll get out around five, if that's okay with you," he answered.

"I'll come at four. I wanna see you in action!" I exclaimed, genuinely excited to see Marc play football.

"Bella? Are you sure? My friends are dicks," he said bluntly, anxiousness laced in his voice.

"Please, Marc. You give me no credit at all. If they say one rude thing to me, I'll kick their ass."

Marc laughed. "Okay then. I'll see you tomorrow!"

And that's basically how I found myself walking towards Forks High's football field. It was weird seeing a football field there. Back when I had gone here, we didn't have a football field. They must have built it within the eighty years that I haven't been back.

I walked through the fenced gate and started to make my way up the bleachers.

Marc was right. Rhia was busy. I called her and asked if she wanted to join Marc and me but she quickly denied. She said she was going to practice for her drama class or something. Marc told me she doesn't have a drama class. So there's that.

As I got about mid-way through the bleachers, I decided to finally take a seat. With my keen Phoenix eyes, I was able to easily spot Marc. He told me he was number 30 and sure enough, there he was.

Hey, Marc! I greeted him through our super cool telepathic link.

His head popped up and easily found me. He waved back. However, his attention was quickly placed back onto the practice.

I guess they were doing some warm-ups, in which they were just going long, trying to catch the football. Marc, it seemed, was the best out of all of them. And I wasn't being biased or anything. He literally caught every ball thrown at him and would throw each football with just enough intensity for the catcher. However, not all the catchers were great, so even though Marc was literally just throwing it in their hands, they would still drop the ball.

After some time, the players started rushing at each other. I couldn't help myself. I still saw Marc as the little boy that I loved and cared for. When this huge hulk of a boy rushed at him, I gasped with concern, but it seemed that it wasn't Marc I should have been scared for. It was the other boy, because Marc rushed back at him with even more power, knocking him to the ground.

Wow. They weren't kidding when they said that Marc was the star player of the team.

The coach soon blew the whistle, ending the practice. But before the players could get dressed, they did one more lap around the football field. After the lap, all the players made their ways to the locker room.

Meaning to meet up with Marc, I started making my way down the bleachers. I stood by my car, waiting for him.

A few of the players had come out with freshly washed hair. I noticed that one of them was the boy Marc rushed at. All of them gave me catcalls.

"Bye, Marc's sugar mama!" one of them exclaimed, laughing a deep belly laugh. Before I could say anything to them, they already got into their car and rushed out of the parking lot. I huffed.

"Damn immature boys," I muttered under my breath.

After a few more minutes, Marc finally got out. He, too, had freshly washed hair. As soon as he saw me, he jogged a little and then crushed me to him for a hug.

"I. Can't. Breathe," I said in between breaths. Marc's eyes widened and he soon put me down.

He chuckled. "Sorry about that," he apologized, "I just missed you."

"It's okay," I smiled.

As soon as he put me down, I found that I was looking up at him as I talked. No longer was he the one looking up at me.

"Geez, KangaRoux, I didn't realize how much you've grown. You're like a whole foot taller than me!"

He put an arm around my shoulders. "Well, blame Mom and Dad. They were the ones obsessed with giving me the proper nutrients and crap."

I laughed. "You? Getting the proper nutrients? Such the joker." He grinned and laughed along with me.

"You know, the entire football team calls you my Sugar Mama," he informed me, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

I chuckled. "Oh, just get in the car."

He saluted me. "Yes, ma'am!"

As the two of us got into the car, I asked, "Wanna get some ice cream?"

He turned to me and gave me a wide breath-taking grin. "Do you even have to ask?" We shared a whole-hearted laugh together.

I quickly put my car into drive and drove to the only ice cream shop I knew in Forks.

"Have you ever been here before?" I asked him. He shook his head. "Well, then, get ready for the best ice cream of your life!"

I ordered the S'mores while Marc got the Blood Velvet. I stared at Marc in anticipation. Finally, he put some ice cream in his mouth. I saw his eyes literally roll back.

"Holy shit, you weren't kidding. That's the best thing I've ever eaten!" he exclaimed. I chuckled.

"I told you so," I grinned.

"Thanks for hanging out with me today, Bella," he said seriously, "I really have missed you."

My heart lurched at the declaration. "I've missed you too," I admitted. I soon realized that we were about to go into the serious part of our day. It seemed that was the pattern. We'd have fun then we'd get back to the real issue at hand.

Marc easily noticed my change of mood. "What's wrong?" he asked, concerned.

"I'm sorry for not being there to see you grow up," I apologized quietly. "I just feel like I missed out on so much."

"Hey," he said softly, reaching across the table to grab my hand. "You watched me stay as a little kid for fifty years. You're forgiven. Besides, it's not like I didn't talk to you every single day for the last thirty years. You might have not seen me grow up physically, but you were definitely there to watch me mature."

I quickly wiped the lone tear that slid down my face. "That was a nice speech," I chuckled, sniffling. "You really have grown up."

"You're the only one who keeps bringing it up," he joked. "I guess everyone just got used to me being this age already."

"Well, I'm not used to seeing my little KangaRoux as a man," I told him. He shook his head with a smile.

"I'm always going to be your KangaRoux," he said, smiling.

"Okay, okay. You can't look this good without having a girlfriend," I said, changing the subject. He laughed and shook his head. "Why not?" I demanded, "You're hot and the star football player! Girls must be drooling over you."

"I'm hot?" he asked cockily. I rolled my eyes.

"As if you didn't know that already."

"Yeah, I know I'm hot," he confirmed. We both laughed at his boldness. "I mean, there have been girls I've liked… but none of them ever stick. So no, I have never had a girlfriend," he confessed.

Suddenly, I remembered the last conversation we had before I left.

I hugged Marc as tightly as I could. "I'm gonna miss you too, my Kangaroux. I'll be back. I promise."

"But, when?" he whined.

I looked at Rhia but she only shrugged.

"I don't know when. I can only promise that I'll be back at some point. Hopefully before you get your first girlfriend," I joked. He pulled back and wrinkled his nose.

"Eww. I don't want a girlfriend," he denied.

"When I left," I reminded him, "you asked me when I would be back. I said that hopefully I'd be back before you had your first girlfriend."

Marc laughed. "Guess everything worked out then." But despite what he said, I could see some lingering look behind his eyes, like he was trying to hide something.

"What are you hiding from me?" I asked suspiciously.

He gave me a look. "What are you talking about?"

"Come on, Marc, you know you can't hide anything from me. I can see it in your eyes. You're not telling me something."

He turned back to his ice cream and wouldn't meet my eyes. "It's no one."

I hadn't even mentioned it being about somebody. My eyes widened. "Aha! So there is someone! Who is it? Come on! I won't tell anyone. I promise!"

Marc mumbled something but I couldn't quite figure out what he was trying to say. His words were muffled by the ice cream in his mouth.

"Can you repeat that again?"

"It's Rhia…" he said so quietly that I almost didn't catch it.

I made a squeak of excitement and began clapping my hands. I couldn't contain the delight I felt about their situation.

"Shhhhh!" he quickly hushed me. "You have to promise not to tell anyone!"

"I promise. I promise," I said, grinning from ear to ear. "So, how did it happen?"

"I don't know," he started off reluctantly. "I guess, I've always had a crush on her, even as a little kid. She's just so… so badass. I admired her for being able to take everything in a stride. Nothing ever fazed her. And now that we're in high school, that crush turned into something more. God, Bella. She's so beautiful."

OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!

I couldn't help the giddiness building up inside of me. I knew how Rhia felt about him and it was awesome to know that he felt the exact same way.

"Well, why haven't you done anything about it?" I asked, trying to hide the eagerness in my voice.

"Everyone in school knows that we're siblings and we're on opposite sides of the social spectrum. I'm the star football player and she's the goth queen. That's got to be the weirdest couple I've ever heard of," he explained.

I was hiding the fact that I was totally playing out their love story in my head.

"You're known each other for years, Marc. Whatever the kids here think shouldn't matter because years down the road, the family is going to move again. You'll be in a place where no one knows who you are. So I'm going to ask again, why aren't you making a move?" I asked, genuinely concerned.

I looked down and saw that his ice cream had already melted. He didn't even finish half of it. He pushed the cup away from him and rested his head on the table.

"I don't know," he said, sighing.

"Of course you do," I said softly.

"Truth is," he said, taking a deep breath, "I'm just scared."

I could understand the feeling.

"You know how Rhia is," he started, "I'm just so scared that she's going to shut me down without remorse. I'm not good enough for her, or maybe, I'm not bad enough for her. Sometimes I feel like I'm always trying to play catch up. I don't know what she wants from me."

"Well, if you never take the chance, then you'll never know," I told him.

"Is that why you're still here?" he asked, changing the subject.

I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"We can all see how much you're hurting over Landon, but you're still here. Even though you know that he belongs to something else, you're still taking the chance," he explained delicately.

I sighed. "Who said I was going to do something?"

"Are you really going to just sit around and not fight for him?" Marc asked with concern.

I shook my head. "Wait, how did the conversation get to this anyways? We were talking about you and Rhia."

"Avoiding the topic isn't going to make it go away, you know," he pointed out.

"I could say the same to you."

Marc and I stared at each other for a long minute.

"Wow, the two of us are definitely hopelessly stuck," he finally said.

"And to think that Ives is actually starting to have a love life now," I added.

Marc chuckled. "Yeah, how is that working for him?"

"I mean, Mandy keeps denying it, but I can tell that she likes him back just as much. Hell, she might even love him back."

"Love him back?" Marc asked with wide eyes. "Are you telling me that – "

"Yes," I interjected with a smile. "Ives admitted to me that he's in love with Mandy."

Marc's lips curved into a small smile. "Well, at least someone's love story is playing out real well."

"It's okay," I assured him, patting his hand. "Your love story is just stuck somewhere in the middle. You're just going to need to do something to turn the page."

"Nice metaphor," he complimented. I chuckled. "But Bella, I think your love story is in the same boat. It's just going to take a little bit more effort to turn your page. There's too much backstory to go back to."

"Nice metaphor," I said, mocking him. He only smiled back.

Our metaphors were definitely on point.

We were both stuck somewhere in the middle.

Marc has really grown up *tear*

Marc + Rhia = LOOOOOVE

Anywhooo, in the next chapter, ya'll will be meeting a new character. He may just spice things up a bit. Ohhh, how exciting!

You want that next chapter? Do you? Do you really? You know the drill.

15 REVIEWS and it's all yours! Soooo REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! :D