"So...how's progress with jackie?", Star said, hopping alongside marco, "Prom's coming up and you said you planned on her being your date right? Do you even know what you're going to do to prompose?"

"Star, prom's still months away, no need to do it THAT soon...", marco said, mumbling and avoiding eye contact, much to her obvious annoyance. His answer did not satisfy her, especially since marco always planned ahead, if he didn't ask his crush out eventually, well, there were plenty or guys and girls who could ask her out themselves and he wouldn't even get the chance.

This was a huge aspect of marco's plan with jackie and he only recently made it to friendship, he'd run out of time if he kept waiting longer.

She'd think marco would leap at planning how he was to ask her out, but for some reason he seemed...distracted instead, unfocused on jackie. He had no plan already on how he wanted to ask her, he hadn't planned out for 50 different situations or what tux he wanted to wear, none of the prep that marco usually went through to well, do anything.

Distracted and moody, two things marco usually wasn't.

Star didn't linger too much on it though, jackie herself was turning the corner and she waved to the duo, star immediately running up and talking to her. Marco put on his best smile to talk to her too when tom finally met up with the group, in his ripped jeans, jackie and rock shirt, and of course with his spiked collar and punk bracelets. He looked like he crawled out of a rock concert and yet he radiated good energy for marco.

Tom was a beacon of light in a shroud of black.

Marco now truly smiling at seeing him, feelin gat least a little better then he had been.

"Tom!", he said, almost a little too happily.

"Hey guys, sorry i'm late, got held up in my last class...ready for lunch?", he fixed himself up and winked at the group. "I want to get pizza this time bit I might go for the chicken, but I wanna treat you guys this time If i can so you let me know if there's anything on the menu you want, I made some great allowance helping mom clean up our house.".

One of these days marco would have to pay for him, repay how much he liked to pay for his friends so much.

Jackie greeted tom herself, complimenting him on his outfit as they all started heading off to get something to eat. She and star continued talking, the boys behind them, tom looking at the back of star's head as they did. Marco tugging on the straps of is backpack, looking for a subject to talk about that would distract his mind from it's strange mess. Though the stares he was receiving from some of his classmates were not helping at all.

Lucky for him, tom was already ready to talk.

"Hey...so I was thinking, would you wanna go to a concert sometimes...together?", he clutched his jacket, biting at his lips. "Love Sentence is touring soon in the future so...I was wondering...if you'd like to go together, I've never gotten to go to a concert with a friend before...and we had so much fun singing their songs together so if it's cool with you I could get us tickets?".

Marco didn't even have to think about it too hard.

A wide grin on his face followed by a fast, "Yes!", a concert sounded awesome frankly, it was a good time to just get out of the house and get some fresh air. And he could use more fresh air these days, anything to distract him. It meant her didn't have to worry about jeremy or Brittney or school or jackie. He could sit back and have fun and not have all these thoughts hurting his brain.

Tom seemed to just know how to distract him.

Though as he felt tom playfully put an arm around marco's shoulders he felt his body tense up, though he didn't say anything to tom about it, not wanting to make himself look like an idiot in front of the boy.

Ever since the sleepover he's started feeling more...strange around tom, like he enjoyed his presence even more then usual or he got more worried about screwing up in front of tom. Marco lately had summed it up as him having grown much closer to tom, after all, sharing such personal stuff to each other was a clear sign of them becoming closer friends and trusting each other.

And marco just felt more anxious about breaking tom's trust or screwing up in front of him.

That'd explain a lot of his actions recently frankly.

Star and Jackie continued to remain talking as they got to the cafeteria, all of them getting lunch together before jackie said she had to head to a different table with some of her other friends, leaving star and the boys to sit at their regular table. Tom seemed to be checking to marco to see if that bothered him but marco seemed fine, and marco simply shrugged to him.

"It's ok, she sits with us on most days anyway.".

They started munching on pizza and talking about their recent classes, tom gulping down some chocolate milk and going off about how much he's been enjoying art class recently. Star joined it, if only to talk about how much she fingerpaints and how much the teachers tell her she's using way too much glitter on a sculpture of all things, making tom call her out on how that would ruin the clay.

Yeah these two were on some similar levels weren't they?

No wonder tom liked star.

Though marco did seem to feel a little left out as they laughed together, even if tom was edging him on with other conversations to get him to share about his classes today and how stressful his homework was. He liked seeing them friends, it was way better then seeing them fight like star was basically doing, but something just seemed to bug him.

He pushed those thoughts away, he didn't want to be selfish, not when tom liked star so much.

Tom didn't have a problem with him and jackie, he shouldn't care so much about tom and star.

He pushed it down, taking breaths, he needed to relax and focus, he was hanging out with his best friends and he was letting his weird emotions get to him. He took a sip of juice before taking out his phone to show off some cute cat photos to his pals. If anything were to distract these two, it seemed to be extremely cute animals, especially tiny fluffy ones.

Their smiling faces helped make marco feel a little better, tom and star showing off some animal clips and pics as well to the boy. They were both so cheerful, so goofy, seeing them happy really made marco's day. He just liked having them around to keep him company and stop him from spending his days alone and chasing after a girl. Sure, he on occasion hung out with people like Ferguson and Alphonso, a couple of nerds he knew since elementary school.

But tom and star felt different, like genuine friends, not like he hung out just not to be alone and worry his parents.

He felt something with them, he really did.

Maybe that was why he was getting so emotional, he found something valuable.

And he didn't want to lose it.

"Geez...that girl is still staring at us...", star mumbled, staring off to another table where brittney and the other cheerleaders sat, gossiping and glancing over to their table on occasion. It was mostly probably more about tom but tom didn't seem to either notice most of the stuff going around about him, or he pretty much was ignoring it like crazy.

Or maybe people were just too afraid to say it to his face after finding out how strong he was.

That would check out.

Tom glared at the head cheerleader, maybe he didn't know about the rumors but he did know she was giving them all a rather unpleasant look right now and that was enough for him to not like this girl.

She smelled of bad news all over, like she was looking for anything to start something. He'd dealt with people like that before of course, this was far from anything new for him, but there was a apart of him that wanted to tell her off for her disgusted gaze. He didn't like the way she was looking at him, star, or marco as he kept his anger and annoyance in silence.

Though he tried to keep positive around his friends, trying to simply ignore her gaze, "Who cares...anyways...can I come over to study with you guys? Not because I need a lot of help but uh...considering star's grades...". She pouted at tom, how often were him and marco both gonna keep commenting on her grades? They weren't THAT bad were they?

"That seems fair...", marco could never say no to having tom come over and hang out.

She gave marco a dirty look, though it wasn't clear if she was bothered more by the comment or tom just coming along. She never liked to be lectured on her grades by anyone, whether her mom or marco as they were the ones to normally do it.

Marco didn't even defend himself, crossing his arms.

"What? You don't exactly get a ton better from studying with me, maybe tom might help a lot more! I mean, it's worth a shot, besides...you barely listen to me when we study anyway, I don't think tom being there will make it any worse then it already is.".

Besides, more hangout time with tom was always a good thing, especially since marco was in a bad mood to begin with.

Star protested even after lunch and their last period of classes, clearly still not happy about studying. But with tom being dropped off with them and the fact they always studied at marco's house, she didn't have much of a say in the matter. Tom was going to stay no matter what she she didn't wanna go home and deal with her parents instead, so studying it was.

Tom was gonna study with them, period.

And hopefully it might help her grades in some way so star didn't end up repeating a year of school.

As star headed upstairs to marco's room in a rush, marco patted tom on the back, " It's ok, she'll get over it, besides...it'll give you more time to spend with your crush and stuff.". It was a sweet gesture and tom seemed to appreciate it, but marco couldn't lie and say he felt like he wanted to spend more time with tom instead. Not to keep tom from his crush, but seeing them having fun without him...made him feel weird.

He wanted to spend time with him, just a little more today, if only because he felt he needed the company.

Lucky for him, tom seemed to be in no rush to mess with star, asking marco to grab some snacks before they headed up. Marco helping him make some cheesy pretzels to bring up to his room and to share with their weird friend. Tom smiling bright and laughing at the jokes marco was making to him, mostly about how star tried everything in her power to not study.

He really liked hearing tom laugh.

Maybe soon they could do another sleepover, but in marco's room next time.

Tom playfully butted him as they went into marco's room, where star already put off studying to play on her phone instead, ignoring both boys intentionally and overall just wasting time so she didn't have to study. It was so much like star, she was like a painful little sister, and marco hoped to god his baby sister didn't turn out like she when she got to be this age.

Star would probably be a bad influence on her.

"Star~", marco said, teasingly, "C'mon, we got study time!".

"Yeah, well I am studying!", she said in a rather rude voice all things considered, of course she hated studying but still.

Marco looked over her phone to see she was playing one of those cute mobile dress up games and raised an eyebrow, "Uh huh? Studying what? What to wear tomorrow?". He got it, studying was not fun at all, but star had to do it or she would get in serious trouble. Last thing she needed was another reason for her mom to get frustrated with her by the sounds of it.

"Star...c'mon, promise, it won't be so bad this time...we can start with English if you want", he pulled out a book from his backpack from their class and waved it in front of her, "You gotta read star".

"Read to me instead, it'll be more fun!", she said back, still on her phone, marco tapping his foot like an impatient mother.

"But if you're not paying attention, what's the point?".

The food was set aside and tom took the book from marco, breezing through it, "Well, maybe the best way for star to study is to do it in a transformative way? Maybe we like...tell her the story in a way to make it exciting for her?". Marco could see what tom was getting at and honestly it's possible it might actually work, though tom had better come up with something good for it to work.

Yet tom seemed to want marco's guidance, judging by how he was looking at him. He still appreciated that tom was asking him for impust, even if marco didn't always know what he was supposed to do to help.

"Uh...no offence tom, I'm not much of the "Creative type", I'm more the flighty nerd guy, not really the 'artsy' type", but the boy shook his head, "C'mon marco, you love action and adventure, you got some creative juices flowing up there, besides...I could use your help, so maybe this is a good time to maybe get a hang of it?". He was practically begging for it with those eyes and marco couldn't say no to him, guess it really couldn't hurt to help out his best friends with this.

"Alright, fine...I'll give it a shot with you...so...you finished this book already?".

He nodded, "I sorta read it at home after dinner, i'm not a super big reader so i thought the sooner i finish it the better so i can play video games and stuff, but knowing you you're been reading it chapter by chapter and are still only halfway through the book...right?". How did he know? Was marco really this predictable that tom knew him like the back of his hand? Though tom seemed pretty proud he got marco on that one, he was really getting a hang of his personality.

"Don't...spoil it for me...ok?", he asked under his breath.

"I got you...besides, we're not saying exactly what happened, but helping star processing it in a way she'll like!". That was true, marco would probably finish the rest without truly being spoiled on what happened since tom was masking everything. Hopefully star would actually understand instead of being dreadfully confused about everything tom was trying to say to her.

But who knew with star, she might just ignore all of it, she tended to forget a lot of what she was taught days after anyway.

"Star? Hey, here...we'll tell you a bit about the story", tom tapped her shoulder and she grumpily turned around to see tom open the book and pulled marco to sit next to him on the bed.

She didn't seem all that excited, but what else could they do?

"So in this story, we got this cool fierce girl, and she's out looking for treasure, and she's working with these guys she doesn't really like...but learns to like, and there's betrayal and she has to survive...". He was summing it up and making it more exciting then it probably was, but it was getting star's attention, at least for a little bit. Her crown dissipating a little.

"So she like fights for her life against enemies and well...", he looked to marco, "Not to spoil the ending but...it gets wild!".

Star looked a bit skeptic, but more interested then she did before.

So it seemed to be working, even if it was only for a little bit.

Tom continued further, not disclosing all the details and replacing some of the aspects with something else but star was starting to get more and more interested then this then her phone as tom went on, marco quickly joining in. Though maybe the two of them were getting off track just a little as it devolved into a story involving fairs and dragons and demons.

Tom insisting that the demons aren't evil, but just tricky, and that there was a demon who was in love with the human girl protagonist.

With tom's love of creepy and spooky things, his want to have the scary monsters be seen as good people was rather unsurprising, instead of being defeated, tom wanted them as the hero of the story.

Honestly he should his own story someday, he seemed to really enjoy it and have a knack for it. With his fun demonic heros and a magical land, it seems like something tom would have a blast doing since he seemed to be able to come up with this all off the bat.

Definitely not in the story, but marco had to admire tom's creativity, he was pretty good.

The study session actually seemed to get star to take out her book and start reading, even if technically they weren't being entirely truthful, but getting her excited about reading was a good thing if any.

Hopefully this would get her to maybe read more books in the future if they could do that.

As the session progressed, marco felt they had made some progress, even if they had partially goofed off quite a bit throughout the whole thing. Their homework got finished and the three soon found themselves watching some movies together downstairs later that night, marco resting in between his two best friends and laughing alongside them both.

He was actually feeling a lot better, maybe they could get more study sessions like this soon?

Where marco could just rest and relax and enjoy himself and not...worry so much, like he seemed to do way too much as is.

Though he soon felt drowsy, clearly everything of the day finally wearing him down. His eyes were starting to close and his head was nodding off, he was sinking into the couch and he could barely keep himself up and awake anymore, his friend's voices becoming a blur.

His head falling over unknowingly onto tom's shoulder next to him, tired and falling to sleep. Tom was not yet asleep but didn't push marco away either, allowing the boy to rest against him, snoring softly. Tom smiled, watching the rest of the movie with his friends next to him. Ignoring star, who was staring right at them with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

Tom closing his eyes for a nap himself, his head resting on marco's.

Comfortable, and happy.

Marco woke up later, stretching himself out only to find the bodies of his two friends were both gone. His hands instead patting the surface of the couch and his eyes finally awaking to find himself alone in his living room.

He rubbed his eyes, thinking maybe he was dreaming, but as he blinked again, no, he was indeed awake. His best friends just were no longer beside him on the couch, or anywhere in sight for that matter.

His friends went home? Without even telling him bye? No, that didn't seem like something they'd do.

Or were they in the bathroom or something?

He yawned, how long had he been asleep exactly? He remembered the movie and next thing he new...he was nodding off.

Then he heard voices coming from upstairs and got up and off the couch, fixing his hair to head upstairs and see where his friends were. The voices seemingly coming from the boy's bedroom. Marco wanted to just head in and see them before they headed home tonight, but he found himself pressing an ear against his own door instead, wondering what the two could be talking about that led to them locking themselves inside his own room.

This was probably wrong.

But-

Something seemed...off, and marco had to know what was going on just in case his friends were up to something bad. For all he knew star was about to do something stupid and dangerous again.

"Are you going to tell him?", star asking, seemingly coming from where his bed normally was, probably meaning she was sitting on it. Knowing her, she was the one who suggested to go in marco's room, janna told her well enough about it's locks after all.

"I'm not sure...I mean, I want to...I think I should but...what would he think? I mean, you and me...we're-"., Tom said, the sound of footsteps following him, he must've been pacing around.

"I'm sure he wouldn't care THAT much tom, probably", she said back, and knowing her, she was probably shrugging or something, he legs hanging off the bed and kicking.

"They why do I have to tell him, why not you?"

The pacing seemed to stop.

"You know why...if you don't say anything he'll figure it out on his own eventually...It's hard enough keeping it secret as is...".

Secret? What secret?

Tom had a secret? And star was in on it?

"Star, even you avoided telling him, clearly it does matter to you if you haven't said anything already...", knowing tom he was crossing his arms at her, making a face and looking disapproving to the girl. At leas that's how marco imagined it going knowing his friends right now.

Star didn't respond, marco pressing against the door further.

"Ok fine, but like...he's kinda our best friend...we gotta stop meeting in secret, otherwise he's gonna walk in on us and well...I'm not sure how we'd talk our way out of it. We're already on a tightrope around him at this point, you know he'll catch on soon.". Tightrope? Star was terrible at lying to marco about much of anything! What could she possibly hide from him he wouldn't know about?

"We'll need time to figure it out...I guess...".

Star sighed, "Yeah, just...be careful in the meantime...".

"I could say the same for you...you aren't exactly super subtle...", tom teased, and marco could imagine star pouting and crossing her arms. "Meh, let's just get back to marco...we have to head out soon anyway...we don't wanna leave without saying goodbye!". Marco felt a shudder through his body before quickly moving from the door to head back downstairs and back on the couch.

He didn't want them to know he heard them, or knew something was up.

Though the whole thing left his mind wandering as he tried to pretend to be asleep, first tom and star talk and work things out without him knowing. Now he finds they're sharing secrets and talking behind his back? Maybe he was taking this too far, his friends could talk without him, but it just...bothered him. He had so many questions, that when the two came back downstairs, he failed to hide his nervousness as he "Woke up".

"Hey Marco! Sorry to wake you, but we better get back home!", Tom motioned to star, "Thanks for inviting me...i'll text you later ok?". It seemed tom nor star had noticed marco's weird smile too well, probably assuming marco was just startled awake by their presence. Tom went in for the hug, marco wrapping his arms around him softly before star joined in.

The two sending him waves and smiles as they headed out, marco left feeling stranger and stranger.

What was going on?

Marco spent way too long that night trying to process everything, his emotions were getting weird, his friends were acting weird.

Was he just going crazy?

He was probably taking this all way too seriously, whatever tom and star wanted to tell them they could tell them in their own time, he shouldn't be snooping through something that was personal for them. It just felt...strange, he never got left out by his best friends like this before, he was used to star and tom sharing stuff with him, what made this different?

Did marco do something wrong?

He was beating himself up mentally for thinking like that, of course not, it must be something different entirely.

Hopefully.

Hanging out with them the next day, marco was struggling to try and hide the fact that he knew something. That he knew something that he wasn't supposed to know about, trying to be normal as the two of them talked, he was too distracted to even focus on jackie when she waved to him that day. He tried to play it off as lack of sleep but he did feel like tom suspected something.

Tom was already getting their tickets and smiling and talking and Marco couldn't even enjoy it as much as he wanted to, worried he'd slip that he spied on his best friends and listened in on them.

Star had lessons that night and tom told marco he'd be busy that night helping his parents go shopping, so marco was left to his own devices as he did his homework. He couldn't focus though, it was hard to when his mind was wandering so much. He wished he had his friends here to help distract him but all he had now were his own thoughts and nothing else.

He sighed, looking at his empty bedroom.

He wondered if they were talking to each other more often without him, and what they said to each other.

Tap tap.

"AHHH!", marco nearly tossed his book aside, practically fainting as janna opened his window and popped her way inside. The girl loved to do stuff like this but BOY was marco not in the mood for her nonsense. Janna must've known marco was alone tonight, deciding it was a great time to break in and mess with him, because of course this was the time she wanted to break in.

"JANNA!".

"Hey marco!", she said, smirking, shutting the window behind her, "Mind if i drop in? No? Good.". She casually strode in, right to Marco's closet, digging through it for anything of use. "So star and tom are out tonight? Never thought they'd leave you alone, they're always attached to your hip like glue. But hey, finally means I get my chance to hang out in here.".

"Since when do you care about if you break in when people are looking?".

She shrugged, "I don't, I just prefer to not have any distractions when I'm bothering you.". She said it so casually, and marco snorted at her while she went through his things, though considering his resistance to her actions, janna had a feeling something was up. Marco usually started flipping out about her but now he just seemed...blank and sad.

She looked at his face, stopping what she was doing before giving him a look.

"Uh...what's wrong with you?".

"It's none of your beeswax janna...".

However, this only encouraged her, standing up, "Y'know, if you don't tell me i can easily hypnotize you into telling my yourself right? So I mean, would you rather tell em now or have me spill all your dark secrets to the world?". Marco became red faced, of course she went there, of course, he should have known better then to give her any reason to be suspicious.

Fantastic.

"Look it's just...star and tom are talking without me and I think they're hiding something from me and...".

"Oh? So they're dating now in secret and you're getting jealous?".

Marco was caught entirely off guard from that response, "W-what?".

"Dude, c'mon, it's obvious, they're dating and have no idea how to tell you...probably think it'll hurt your friendship or something...c'mon now", she said this so plainly, like marco was stupid for never actually thinking it beforehand. Marco was not sure how to respond, it was just like janna to make stuff like this up for the purpose of messing with him.

But she almost seemed to make sense, her claim at least.

Tom and Star did meet in secret without telling marco and seem to patch things up between them, and they did seem to look at each other a bit, and he did know tom had been pursuing her for a bit. But without telling marco? That didn't seem like tom much at all, tom and him were always talking about their crushes and helping each other out , why not say anything?

Maybe he could see Star not tell him considering how she felt about tom before.

But Tom?

"In denial huh?", Janna was being way too smug right now and marco didn't like one bit of it, "Hey, that's fine dude, don't complain to be when they start meeting more in secret, going on dates, kissing at lunch in front of you...". marco suddenly got very red faced and pushed her away from him, "Just...stop, I-I'm not...jealous, even if they were dating now...why would I be jealous? They'd be happy right? it's what tom wants."

Janna was still smirking, "I mean, it's getting a bit obvious...but I mean, it's fine, it'll be funnier watching you deal with it yourself". Marco was about ready to kick her from his home at this point, having it up to here with this. "Look, I've told everyone countless time over and over...ever since she arrived, me and star are NOT an item?! Ok? I don't have a crush on her!".

"I mean, I didn't say it had to be star...".

"Out!"

Marco was already pushing her out of his room and shutting the door behind her before resting his back against it and sighing, what if she was right? What if Tom and Star were dating in secret?

What if marco really was starting to get...jealous?

He shook his head, no no, he's starting to fall for more of her nonsense again, he really should stop falling for it, unless he wanted to get himself into more trouble. Janna was not the most truth worthy person around and he should know better then to listen to a word coming from her mouth. She was simply trying to mess with him, mess with his emotions and get him upset.

And Marco was just letting her.

Next time he saw star and tom, he was going to be a better friend, more trusting, less of a mess as he was for now.

If janna ruined their friendships over this nonsense he was going to explode.

He took a moment to breathe, he just needed some sleep, he was getting too worked up over this. Then he heard janna talking to his parents downstairs and immediately opened the door, he shoved janna out of his room, not his house! Who knows what she was doing downstairs! Marco quickly opened the door and headed downstairs, seeing his parents laughing with janna on the couch, making marco even more frustrated as they all waved at him.

"Marco! We didn't know you had a friend over!".

"I don't.", he said bitterly.

Janna smirked at him, lying back on the couch and enjoying herself, "Marco was just telling me about his crush on-". Marco shushed her as loud as possible, "Sorry guys, but janna is leaving, before pulling janna from the couch. Janna didn't even protest as marco pulled her away and towards the door," C'mon, stop busting into my house, what if i was naked?!".

"Fine with me.".

"Out."

Janna was pushed out the door and before marco could even close it she leaned herself against it, "C'mon marco, you've had to have at least considered it? You sure aren't getting this way about jackie." Marco was so red faced and embarrassed and he just wanted her out, shutting the door in her face, what did she know about his feelings? She couldn't read minds.

And she was questioning how much he liked jackie? She was with them since kindergarten! Of course she was aware of marco's long crush on jackie! She used to tease him about it all the time! Marco sighed and locked the door, his parents watching him curiously, probably worried something was seriously wrong with him. He smiled and pointed to the stairs, "I'm...going to get some rest...I'll see you tomorrow.".

He quickly headed upstairs, still red in the face.

Opening his door to find-

"Janna!?".

"Yo."

There she was, sitting on his bet, eating chips.

He forgot to lock the window.

"Janna for pete's sake, why can't you just leave me alone!", marco shouted at her, janna munching on her food to herself. "Alright fine marco, i'll go, but like, you outta be careful, before you hurt someone's feelings.". She shrugged before heading out of the window, the window shutting behind her and leaving marco in the dust. Marco feeling a weight off him but somehow...he almost regretted her going.

Like he didn't want to be alone.

He sat on his knees, thinking heavily about all the words coming from janna's mouth, messing with his hair.

"I don't...I don't know why my best friends don't want to tell me the truth but...whatever reason it's for, it has to be important to them", he liked his lips, brushing at his face, "They're my friends, if they're dating, i should just wait till they come out and tell me, wait until they're ready...right? Right. I have to be here to support them, I...I need to trust them.".

Then he remembered what else she said and shook his head.

"No no...none of that, they're just my friends...star is my best friend, tom is...", he felt himself hesitate with that one a bit more, "Best friend, he's just my best friend...and tomorrow...i'm gonna be the best friend i can possibly be for both of them".