Disclaimer: I do not own Waterloo Road or any of the characters in the story
Chapter 14
The next day in school went by quite normally for both Leo and Marco. Lizzie ranted on about how she wants a boyfriend, but everyone Marco mentioned was apparently awful.
'And she said I have high standards.' Marco sighed, listening to his brunette counterpart rant on, occasionally nodding, and pretending to care.
"It'll be the same every time. I mean why can't I find someone nice?" Lizzie huffed. "Am I not pretty enough? Am I too loud? Too bossy?"
"No, you're fine." Marco replied rolling his eyes. "You'll find the right person eventually; it's just the guys in this school like their girls easy. You don't need to put yourself out there, honestly, the right guy will come."
"I suppose." Lizzie sighed dejectedly. "Maybe it's the curly hair…"
"…Lizzie, just drop it. People don't like desperate, it's not cute."
"Wow, someone's grumpy today." Lizzie snapped.
"No, I just need you to snap out of this self-loathing bubble you're in; it's putting me on a downer."
"Well, I know something that will cheer you up!" Lizzie cheered; Marco was worried about how quickly Lizzie's mood changed.
'Oh god. Should I fear for my life?'
"Brandon's throwing a party on Friday night, and we're all invited, how cool!" Lizzie squeaked.
"Thanks, but no thanks." Marco shrugged, leaving Lizzie stammering.
"W-wait, you're turning down a party, I thought you loved to party."
"Yeah, but from the sample I got last time, the parties here are pretty crappy. Plus, my drink got spiked last time, and I don't fancy ending up like Cory."
"It wasn't a great party, but it wasn't crappy!" Lizzie retorted defensively. "And we'd make sure that didn't happen again. Everyone felt really bad, especially since your friend died…"
"…that's not the point. I could've died too. The only reason people felt bad was because of Cory, not the fact the same could've happened to me quite easily, and none of you gave a damn."
"Come on. You should go." Lizzie pleaded.
"I already have plans for Friday night, too. I'm not one to cancel plans."
"Really?" Lizzie replied in disbelief. "And what are these plans of yours?"
Marco had to tread carefully. If he and Leo didn't want things out in the open yet, it was probably best to make something up.
"Oh, I have a friend up for the weekend on Friday night from London, and we're having a pizza and Netflix night."
"Really, you're turning down a party for pizza and Netflix? You should just bring them along."
"They're arriving quite late, there'd be no point going by the time the train arrives and stuff."
"So your London friends are more important than us."
"Well this one is, yeah. You would do the same for a one of your childhood friends, wouldn't you?"
"No, because I just talk over Facebook like a normal person."
"Well tough, I'm not going." Marco stood firm.
"Everyone will think you're such a bore though." Lizzie made a last ditch attempt to convince her redhead friend.
"Lizzie." Marco replied, shaking his head in disappointment. "Why should I care? I'm allowed nights in."
"Fine." Lizzie huffed. "You're so boring lately; it's probably hanging around with Leo Fitzgerald too much."
Marco rolled his eyes. "What does he have to do with this?"
"Well, you know I think you two look good together." Lizzie began, and Marco knew if anyone else was talking about it, he'd be so defensive, but as it was a usually conversation Lizzie had with him, he'd grown used to it. "And you've been hanging around with him more. Maybe his boring ways have changed you."
"Don't be stupid." Marco defended. "And he's not boring, you're just judgemental."
"Really." Lizzie replied sarcastically. "I've never met someone so boring in my life! There has to be a reason he has no friends."
"People are allowed to like different things. Maybe people just haven't tried to get to know him."
"Come on!" Lizzie sighed, utterly exasperated "You get more personality from my goldfish."
"Okay, that's just mean." Marco was trying not to get agitated and low his cover, but Lizzie was making it difficult. "Why do you have such an issue with me talking to Leo? It's not affecting anyone else."
"Yes, but it's hardly doing your social life any favours. I'm only saying this because I care."
"No Lizzie, you're just so shallow you only want 'popular' friends."
"You think I'm that shallow?"
"You were just talking about your boyfriend issues like it was the end of the world then went and attacked my life choices. You should understand I'm a bit annoyed; maybe I don't want to go to parties and hook up with some random skank just so I can say I pulled. Maybe I did that in Chelsea, but Greenock is a different place."
"Sometimes I wished you'd just go back to Chelsea and stay there." Lizzie sneered, immediately regretting what she'd just said, as Marco's eyes narrowed.
"Well, it's nice to know what you really think." He replied coldly. "Bye Lizzie."
"I mean who the hell does she think she is saying stuff to me like that?" Marco ranted walking home. Leo had to try his best not to laugh. The pair usually argued, but Marco seemed to have blown it out of proportion.
"It's nice you were defending me and all, but you both just seem like you overreacted."
"You think?" Marco asked, being snapped out of his rant.
"I'm used to people saying bad stuff about me all the time, I'm fine with it, and what she said to you seems like she was just angry."
"I don't know how you deal with all the shit you get, Leo." Marco sighed, pulling out his phone and texting a half-arsed apology to Lizzie.
Leo couldn't really answer Marco, because he had no idea himself. It was becoming more difficult for him to just write everything off, though he would never admit it, things were really starting to pile up onto him, and the fact people were so awful to him got to him more than he'd let on.
"You get used to it." Leo replied.
"It shouldn't be something you have to get used to."
"Can we just drop it?" Leo replied, making Marco overly aware that the topic seemed to be something Leo avoided often. He wasn't a person to pressure people into things, yet he was always told to talk about it, or it would just get worse. Obviously, Leo had never had that, but Marco wasn't quite sure of what to do to help him, since he knew ignoring it wouldn't make it go away.
Almost as a reprise of the day before, neither Leo nor Marco wanted to let go of one another's hand when they reached the same corner they left each other every day. Leo's phone was again the cause of his distraction, which he wished he could throw at a brick wall at that particular moment.
"I meant what I said yesterday." Leo looked confused at Marco's comment. "I'm here if you need me for talking to."
Leo just nodded. "I know, and I appreciate it, but it's nothing I can't deal with."
"Fine, if you say so" Marco sighed, sounding defeated. "I'll have to make sure Friday is 'cheer up Leo' day then."
"I'm honestly fine." Leo insisted. "We don't need any 'cheer up Leo' days. At all."
"None? Well that's too bad, since you already said yes to Friday, there's no backing out now."
"Isn't Brandon having a party on Friday?"
"Yeah, so?" Marco shrugged. "That's basically what my whole argument with Lizzie was about."
"I thought you'd be going, that's all."
"I already had plans with you, why would I cancel hanging out with you to go to some stupid party? Unless you want to go along with me?"
Sensing the sarcasm laced in Marco's voice, it didn't take much for Leo to get the hint Marco really didn't want to go to this party.
"No thanks, it's not really my scene."
"Good, because I had no intention of going in anyway. I'd rather spend my Friday night eating my own body weight in junk food and playing video games. And y'know, I think I'm overly paranoid about people drugging me, again."
"Yeah, that would put me off ever leaving the house."
"It's happened before. I deal with it." Marco shrugged. "I guess it never really bothered me that much until Cory died, it kind of hit home just how stupid I was."
"Well, we'll be drugged up on caffeine; that counts."
"True, caffeine is a wonderful drug though; I'd never get through life without it. I can't get through a morning without a cup of coffee."
"Not a morning person either?" Leo enquired.
"Never. Mornings are awful."
"If I didn't have my Dad nagging at me all the time, I would probably sleep through my alarm."
"I'm guilty, phoned in sick at school since I didn't wake up 'til 11:00."
"Okay, I've never been that bad."
"But your Dad is a teacher, so you'd never get a sick day for sleeping in."
"Yep, sometimes I'd rather my Dad not be a teacher, you're lucky."
"My Dad hates kids, there's no way he'd give up his comfy well-paid office job to teach snotty teenagers with attitude problems. They couldn't pay him enough. He tolerates me and my brothers because we're his, but he doesn't like most kids." Marco reminisced,
"I never knew you had brothers." Leo inquired.
"Oh, yeah, I'm the youngest of three." Marco shrugged, as if it was casual information that wasn't important.
"You aren't much of a family person, are you?" Leo asked, immediately feeling guilty, seeing Marco's reaction. Leo made a mental note not to bring it up again, if it was as sensitive as a topic as it seemed.
"You could say that." Marco agreed, regaining his composure. "You seem like quite the opposite."
"I have to be. With my mum in hospital and my parents divorced and Justin and my Dad arguing all the time, someone has to try." Leo replied. He regretted speaking about it as soon as he said it. He assumed Marco wouldn't really want to hear about everything wrong with Leo's life. He had his own worries. He was unsure if the small cracks in his "I'm fine" façade were because of it all being too much, or if it was him being able to trust Marco more.
Marco gave Leo a sympathetic smile. He'd never been in a situation where everyone was so reliant on him, and had no clue of the kind of stress that would put on a person. Marco was quite used to disappointing people, but it seemed Leo wasn't, and the thought of doing so had closed him off to the world.
"You're amazing, you know?"
Leo blushed, just looking down.
"I'm serious, you might not believe me, but you are." Marco insisted, pecking him on the cheek.
The two departed with a kiss and hug like the day before and they both headed home.
Leo entered his house and was immediately alerted to the lack of sound in the flat. The TV was off, there was no music blasting from Justin's room, or any arguing. The silence was slightly unnerving, as it wasn't usual Leo returned to an empty home.
Walking into the kitchen, he saw two different notes on the table.
'Hi Leo, my phone's got no credit, I've gone out with Tiff, should be back later tonight
Justin."
Leo just rolled his eyes, his brother having no credit really wasn't something new, but he was surprised the note was left in the open, when he knew how much his dad didn't like him and Tiffany together.
The other note that caught his attention answered this question.
'Hi boys, had to head out for a bit, should be back later. Justin could you make dinner tonight for you both if I'm not back.
Dad'
Leo sighed, annoyed that he'd just been left, and the fact his Dad assumed he wasn't able enough to cook for himself. Plus, he hadn't long called him, asking where he was and if he'd be home soon. Leo was starting to wonder whether he was his son or his house keeper.
'I'm 16 not 6.' Leo had to take a minute to calm down; he was getting angry over nothing, if he wasn't calm then who would be?
'Even my own family would rather be anywhere else.'
Leo tried to shake away the negative thoughts. They usually nagged at the back of his head, but since his mum got ill, and they'd moved to live with their Dad, and he'd left his old school friends behind, he had these thoughts. He felt like nothing but a burden to those around him.
His spiral of self-loathing wasn't easy to snap, but Marco seemed to notice when Leo was feeling down, as much as he tried to just deal with it on his own, he would always say something to make him laugh or something so completely off topic, he had no clue how his train of thought got him there.
Maybe he wasn't as much of a family person as Marco assumed? Because all Leo really wanted was to be a normal teenager, but he knew the harsh reality.
He surpassed normal a long time ago.
AN: Sorry this is filler-ish and boring, but development is always fun, no? I tried :P
Date night next chapter :3
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