Jake

"Dude..."

"Marco?"

"Dude..."

"Marco, what are you trying to tell me?"

"Dude, I..."

"If you call me 'dude' one more time, I'll kill you."

"Ok," Marco took a deep breath. "Jake, buddy, I've got to tell you something."

"Well, spit it out soon, I've got plans with Cassie."

"Yeah," Marco rolled his eyes. "Plans. Figures. Anyway, I've got to tell you something, and you have to promise that you won't tell anyone. And that you won't kill me."

"What? Why would I kill you? Marco, just tell me what...oh my god! Cassie! Did you do anything with Cassie?" I yelled, despite myself.

"Uh, no," Marco said, looking at me like I was nuts. Which I possibly was, actually, but he just had this absolutely guilty look on his face like he had...

Wait.

"Rachel?!" I exclaimed, finally getting it.

"Shhh!!" Marco hissed. "You CANNOT! TELL! ANYONE!"

"Woah, dude," I said. Marco glared at me. "I wouldn't be worrying about me killing you."

Marco looked up in the rafters nervously. We were in Cassie's barn, after our meeting where we went over the situation concerning the elementary school. We'd pulled the tranquilizer dart out of Marco's butt, but he'd still slept through most of the meeting, where we'd come to the conclusion that we needed to do something more permanent to keep the Yeerks away from the elementary school. Unfortunately, the only one with an idea was Rachel, who wanted to blow the building up.

Needless to say, we were still exploring other options.

Anyway, after everyone had left, I stayed with Marco to wait for him to wake up. Luckily, he didn't get too close to the two hour time limit before he groggily demorphed and I explained to him what had gone on during his nap.

That was when he'd informed me that we needed to talk.

"How did this happen?" I asked Marco. He launched into a long-winded story about Rachel coming to his room in the middle of the night and more or less pouncing on him. I cut him off when he started describing a topless Rachel in way too much detail, considering she was my cousin.

"Are you making this up?" I asked him suspiciously.

Marco laughed. "Jake, if I'm making this up, Crayak can strike me dead right now and Tobias can dance on my grave."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it only yesterday Rachel attacked you in the school hallway and gave you a bloody nose?"

"I never said she's stopped being violent."

"So there is an abusive relationship going on."

"I don't know what's going on actually," Marco admitted with a shrug.

"Yeah...you guys didn't....uh....you know?" I asked.

"No," Marco said. "I kind of think, though, if my dad hadn't come in..."

"Your dad?"

Marco explained the interruption. I nodded sympathetically. "I know how you feel. This one time, Tom walked in on me and Cassie. I couldn't look at him for weeks. I almost would have rather had him catch me morphing."

Marco laughed. "Wait," Marco said when he stopped laughing. "Tom walked in on you and Cassie having sex?"

"Well...yeah," I admitted.

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Marco howled.

"What?!" I exclaimed, startled by the horrified look on his face.

"I didn't realize you and Cassie had actually done it!" Marco moaned.

"So?" I asked, still confused. "What's the big deal?"

"I'm the only virgin!"

"Is that all?" I asked, and rolled my eyes. "No, you're not--" I stopped. Considered Tobias's reaction yesterday to Marco wearing Rachel's black leather ensemble. "Well...I mean, Ax, probably..."

"Aliens don't count."

"Oh. Well, then, I guess...I mean, there's nothing wrong with it..."

"Nothing wrong with it?" Marco exclaimed. "Sure, there's technically nothing 'wrong' with being a virgin at 16. Unless every single other person you know isn't."

"It's really not a big deal," I told him patiently.

"Oh really?" He asked me. "How long ago did you and Cassie start doing it?"

"That's not important."

"Jake."

"Ok, like a year ago. But seriously Marco, you've never even had a girlfriend."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

I shrugged. "What I mean is, you just haven't had the opportunity. It's not like you'd really have time to date some girl from school, and I'm with Cassie, and Tobias and Rachel..."

Marco raised his eyebrows at me.

"Well, up until now you and Tobias weren't sharing Rachel."

"Hey!"

"So really, there's never been anyone for you. Unless there's something I don't know about you and Ax..."

"Ax is way too much alien for me to handle," Marco said.

"Right. So like I said...you just haven't really had the opportunity."

Marco sighed. "I guess you're right. So...what do you think I should do? About Rachel?"

I considered it. "Personally, I wouldn't care if you dated Rachel. Especially if it would make you two get along a little better. But with Tobias...I can see it becoming a huge issue. Whatever you end up doing, I just want you to make sure that the three of you can still all work together."

Marco sat down on a bale of hay. "If Tobias tried to kill me, he'd get in trouble, right?"

I sat down next to him. "Do you think that's really a possibility? You and Rachel?"

Marco shrugged. "Ten hours ago, I would have definitely said no. Right now, though, I'm a big believer in anything is possible."

I nodded in agreement. You kind of have to believe anything is possible when you're a teenager that can turn into a cockroach.

"Hey guys," Cassie said, walking into the barn. Marco jumped up guiltily.

"Uh, hey Cassie," Marco said. "You know, I was just about to get going, so I should probably...go." Cassie and I watched him speed-morph into an osprey and take off.

I looked at Cassie. "You know, don't you?" I asked her.

"About Marco and Rachel? Hours ago."

I nodded. "How do you think that's going to turn out?"

Cassie grabbed a rake and started mucking out a stall. I picked up another rake to help her. "Well, either Rachel is just having some sort of fling with Marco and is going to end it soon and break Marco's heart, or she's really interested in him and sooner or later she's going to have to break Tobias's heart."

"So not good?"

"Not good," Cassie agreed. "Either way. But...I think, best case, she ends it with Marco and Tobias never finds out."

I stopped mucking. "That's best case?"

Cassie stopped working, too. "Yeah. I think Marco would bounce back much easier than Tobias. I think, if Tobias loses Rachel...we might lose Tobias."

That was a little more serious than I had been expecting. I had pictured awkward silences, and maybe a fist fight (talon fight?) to break up. "I think you're wrong," I admitted to Cassie. "I think Tobias is tougher than that. If he could handle being trapped as a bird, he can handle getting dumped."

Cassie smiled. "I hope you're right," she said. "I really do. But triangles never turn out good. Didn't you watch season one of Dawson's Creek?"

"Of course I saw season--uh, I mean, no. Of course not. That show is for girls."

Cassie rolled her eyes.

"Ok, fine, I loved Dawson's Creek. Are you happy? But I'm still confused. Is Marco Joey or Jen in that scenario?"

"Jen. I mean, neither. That's not the point!" Cassie scolded me. "The point is, triangles never end well."

"Don't you think it's much closer to the Gunn-Fred-Wesley triangle on Angel?" I asked.

Cassie considered. "Yeah, I guess I could see that since they both liked her in the beginning, but Gunn dated her first and then Wesley swooped..." Cassie stopped and shook her head. "Wait, what am I doing? That is not the point!"

"Or maybe the Oz-Willow-Xander thing..."

"No, because that was a double triangle with Cordelia-Xander-Willow...damn it, Jake, stop trying to suck me into this conversation!"

"Sorry, Cassie. I'll stop, I promise....Wait! I've got it! Ray-Neela-Gallant on ER!"

"What about Greene-Corday-Romano?"

"Let's hope not, both those guys died. Besides, I'm not sure that counts as a triangle, because Romano and Corday never hooked up. And I'm still not convinced she liked him at all."

"You know it was there. Read between the lines a little. Any woman could see it. Kovac-Abby-Carter?"

"Again, which one would be Marco and which would be Tobias?"

"Obviously Tobias would be Kovac, because she dated him first."

"Yeah, but Carter didn't steal her, Kovac dumped her."

"Brian-Justin-Violin Guy on Queer as Folk ?"

"Cassie?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

I have seriously found the perfect girlfriend.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Haha, I know that's probably way more TV than Jake and Cassie have time for, but I am a TV-junkie and I had to throw in some references to that. I was crushed when Romano died on ER, especially since the whole thing with him and Corday never happened 

Sorry this one took a little longer. I ran into a wall for a little bit there. The name "Triangulated" comes from a song by Imogen Heap called "Loose Ends". I listen to it a lot when I'm trying to think of inspiration for this story. In fact, here's my Your Basic Nightmare playlist:

Head Over Feet, Alannis Morisette

Faded, Soul Decision

Loose Ends, Imogen Heap

Thnks Fr Th Mmrs, Fall Out Boy

I'd Do Anything, Simple Plan

Wonderwall, Oasis (although, in all honesty, this song can be applied to almost any relationship story)

Listen to it and enjoy.