A/N: Here's good ol' chapter two. I'm just writing where it takes me, so I think it's slowly evolving into a look into more than just Craig and Marco... not that I'm complaining, though, haha. Hope you enjoy this, and as always, review with whatever you thought, good or bad!
--------
Disclaimer: I still own nothing. Alas, I can only dream of such awesome power.
--------
Ellie was not entirely surprised when she arrived at school Monday morning, only to find Craig hurrying over towards her. After all, she'd spent a great part of Saturday with Marco, and so she'd heard all about the party, and Dylan, and the nerve of it all. She'd also heard a brief mention of something involving Craig, but Marco rushed over the details, leaving Ellie to assume it must not have been all that important.
Apparently, she assumed wrong.
"Ellie! Ellie!" Craig was still making a beeline towards her, but Ellie continued to walk towards the front doors. Skidding a bit, Craig finally caught up and slowed to a walk alongside her.
"Wait, Ellie, there's something I need to ask you about."
Ellie stopped and turned, with a roll of her eyes, to face Craig. "Let me guess. Marco?"
A slight flinch. "Uh, well, uh..."
"Marco told me." The boy's eyes grew wider. "Or didn't tell me," Ellie corrected quickly. "He mentioned something. Didn't really get into it."
Now, eyebrows raised and lips set in a nervous frown, Craig's facial expression made Ellie all the more curious.
"Why are you asking me anyway?" she challenged. "Ash should be here soon."
Craig's head bobbed back and forth as he shrugged. "Yeah, well. I know we're not the best of friends, but... you know Marco."
"And you don't?"
"Not like you, Ellie. You're like, a Marco expert."
"Call it that if you will, but I have to go to my locker before homeroom," Ellie said. "I'll see you and Ash at lunch."
"But--" Craig threw his arms up in exasperation. As if he could talk about this around Ash. He watched Ellie's retreating figure as he slumped his bookbag onto the ground and sat up on one of brick half-walls. Ashley would be arriving soon, and who knew. Maybe seeing her would fix everything. After all, she was his future.
Right?
--------
"El!"
Ellie looked to the ceiling and contemplated shutting her face in her locker. Didn't everyone know she preferred being ignored and unpopular?
But this time, as she turned to look who was demanding her now, the sense of impending doom for the conversation to follow wasn't present. Instead, she was relieved to see Marco smiling broadly and looking much healthier than he had on Saturday.
"El, you are not going to believe this: I might be going to Africa! For the summer!"
How could she not smile for the boy? His cheer was so contagious, even for her.
"Oh?" Ellie replied, continuing to transfer books to her bag.
"Ellie, I feel amazing! I went to Caitlin's set yesterday; they won't air the clip, but she offered me this opportunity to do something about AIDS, and it's not final but..." he took a breath and grinned, "I think it'll work out. I've already sold Ma on the idea."
"That does sound great, Marco."
"It's just--this freedom! Before, I had all these plans for the summer, but now? Could I be any luckier?" Grabbing one of Ellie's hands, Marco dipped his head just slightly to look sincerely into her eyes. "I owe you so much, El."
Ellie smirked and rolled her eyes. "Trust me, this was not my doing. I just talked to you."
"You made me understand that there's life beyond Dylan." Marco dropped her hand and sighed. "I guess we should get going to Simpson's."
"Ah, yes. Simpson's it is," said Ellie as she shut her locker.
--------
Sitting in his chair, minutes before the bell was to ring, Craig could feel one of his legs shaking uncontrollably. He didn't know why he was so jittery. Or, rather, he did know why: Any minute now, Marco would be walking through the door, taking his seat in the same room. He just didn't know why the anticipation of such a harmless event was sending his heart rate through the roof. For the third time that morning, Craig checked his school email and lightly tapped his fingers on the keys, staring blankly at the screen.
Ashley had also been staring, though her gaze was on Craig, and her expression was more bewildered than blank. She wished it wasn't the case, but all she could think was that Craig had missed his meds over the weekend. Of course, the first time a break from Craig for more than a day comes along, he can't control himself. Figured. Finally, Ashley decided to interfere.
"Craig," she whispered sharply.
"Huh?" Still shaking, still staring.
"Craig!"
This time, Craig got the message. "What?"
"Craig, you're shaking, and like, freaking out. What's wrong?"
"Nothing." His answer was short--too short. Ashley drew a breath before going into the forbidden territory.
"Look, I don't want to ask this, but... have you been taking your meds?" Ashley knew it was a sensitive subject, but pressed on anyway. "You're not normal today."
Craig broke his gaze from the computer, slowly turning his head to face Ashley. On his face, his expression approached disgust.
"Don't talk to me."
Ashley's voice raised slightly in volume, but still she whispered: "Craig!"
"You wouldn't understand, Ashley." With that, Craig stood up and grabbed his bag, defiantly moving down the row to an empty seat. But in all his huffing and puffing, Craig didn't realize who was trying to walk by at the same time.
He couldn't have planned it any worse if he'd tried.
--------
"Craig! Ow! Hey, where are you going?"
Marco.
Shit.
Craig's face scrunched up in about every possible way as he slid into the free seat on the end, conveniently next to the one person he was consciously avoiding. Across the room, Ellie stared with a mixed look of interest and suppressed hilarity. Marco was seated now, unloading some things out of his messenger bag and outwardly showing the least bit of awareness towards Craig's bizarre behavior.
Still cringing, Craig logged onto his email and typed out a quick message before the starting bell rang. Suspecting she was the target of Craig's furious writing, Ellie turned her attention from the droning morning announcements to her email inbox. Surprisingly, though, she found two messages awaiting her eyes. The first was from Ashley:
what the hell is wrong with my bf?
Shocker.
Next, the message she was truly interested to see:
forget lunch we need to talk asap... nothing around ash PLEASE
Ellie rolled her eyes, not just at her position stuck between all these people, but also at the fact that she wanted to know more, that she was willing to play the game to figure out what possibly could have happened at Dylan's party. Quickly, she replied to both emails, then looked over to Marco for some sort of silent help. He shrugged nonchalantly, but his unintentional body language spoke volumes. Marco could pretend to ignore Craig's awkwardness all he wanted, yet to Ellie, he was visibly just as uncomfortable and antsy as the boy sitting beside him.
Craig wasn't lying, Ellie realized. She really was a Marco expert.
