Marco's POV

"Marco?", my father asked tiredly, "Is something wrong?" He was shirtless and was pulling up his pants.

I closed the door and locked it behind me, "Yes, dad, there is something wrong, Ja-"

Before I could continue, there was a knock on the door. "Are you fucking shitting me?", I asked.

"Hey", my father said pointing a finger at me, "Watch that language, boy. Your mother might be on the other side of that door."

I contained my composure and opened the door. Jackie Lynn Thomas, in all her angelic beauty, was standing outside the door with a calm smile. She began to slowly shake her head in the 'no' position. I didn't understand what she was doing until her expression changed into a look of despair and she made a praying position with her hands.

For some reason, she didn't want me to tell my father about her abuse. I didn't know why. My family and I could help her. We could give her a better life and make her happy, but she didn't seem to want that for dome reason.

"Who is it?", my father asked while putting on his shirt.

"I-It's my friend, Jackie", I said.

"Really?", he said, his shirt was fully on now, "I didn't know she was over here."

"That's what I wanted to tell you", I said coming up with a quick lie, "Mom said that she could stay over for dinner."

My father walked over to the door and gave Jackie a smile, "Nice to meet you, Jackie. I've wanted to meet you ever since Marco mentioned his new girlfriend."

Jackie smiled as I blushed furiously and said, "D-Dad, I never said that she was my girlfriend."

"But you want me to be, don't you?", Jackie teased.

"Of course", I said without even thinking about what was coming out of my mouth, "I just don't want my parents to freak out if we officially become a couple." I realized what I said and covered my damn mouth.

My father chuckled and said, "Don't worry son, your mother is gonna be the one freaking out. I'll just be in the corner cheering you on." Well, that kinda makes me feel better, just a little. The three of us walked down to the dinning room, and as we did, Jackie grabbed my hand which made me blush.

Dinner was uneventful as it normally was. Dinner time at my house normally consisted of my parents talking while I ate whatever disgusting shit was on my plate. Today was different though. My parents still forgot that I was in the room, but this time, I had two people to talk to.

Star and Jackie would occasionally talk to each other about girl stuff that I of course had no knowledge of, but eventually they would turn their attention back yo me and asked me what I thought about the topic. Even though my answers were often shitty due to me not knowing anything about what they were talking about, but they did a pretty good job of masking their amusement.

When Star saw that I wasn't eating any of my food, she actually tried to feed me. I wasn't having any of it, but I eventually gave in and let her feed me, that is, until she suggested that I licked the cheese from her fingers. If it was anyone else, I would've spit in their face and walked away without caring about the possible diseases I have passed on to them, but this was Star Butterfly, and I could never do that to her.

As all of this was happening, Jackie Lynn Thomas was looking on with a cute smirk. I wasn't sure what the heck she was thinking about, but it gave me butterflies to see her make that face.

After dinner, my parents went up to their room to discuss some stuff, leaving me alone with Jackie and Star. "Is Jackie staying over again?", Star said getting excited, "That would be awesome!"

Before Jackie could answer, I said, "Yes, she is. How about you go get us some blankets from my bedroom closet."

"Yay!", Star said jumping in the air. She gave Jackie and a quick hug and me a kiss on the cheek as she left the room.

Jackie looked me with an adorable sparkle of joy visible in her beautiful eyes, "You're really letting me sleep over again?"

I nodded, "Yes. You are not going back to that house, I don't care what I have to do. I will hide you under my God damn bed if I have to." Jackie chuckled and blushed. Although I tried not to mimic her actions, seeing her in that adorable state made my stomach tickle with butterflies and my face burn red.

"I want to help you. I don't know why you stopped me from telling my father earlier", I said trying to get hide my blush.

"I don't know why you would tell him", Jackie said. She was now speaking quietly so she wouldn't risk someone hearing. "He doesn't need to know."

"How else are you gonna get help?", I asked.

"You really think telling your parents is gonna help?", Jackie asked rhetorically, "Let me tell you something, nothing you can do can put my parents away. I've tried, and I failed. And you think that you can do something."

"Of course I could do something", I said, "I ca-"

"No you fucking can't", Jackie said interrupting me, "You can't stop evil."

In hindsight, I should've expected this. She desensitized to the abuse. She's gotten use to the thought that there is no hope for her. She's excepted that she couldn't bring a stop to her suffering and she couldn't stop her evil parents, but what she doesn't know, is that with the right people, she could easily escape.

"Jackie, forget about all the times you failed at escaping because I am in your life now, and I'm gonna rest until I make sure your parents pay for what they've done to you", I said with grave seriousness in my voice. I would rather die than let those peices of shit get away with what they've done.

Jackie blushed darkly again, but she didn't say anything. I wasn't sure what that meant. What could her pretty little mind be thinking about?

Star finally came skipping down the stairs with a big green blanket that she struggled to carry. I took the blanket from her threw it on the couch.

"What took you so long, Star?", Jackie asked finally speaking.

"Marco has like, eight-hundred blankets in his closet for some reason, and it took me forever to fine the green one", Star explained.

"First of all", I said re-entering the dining room, "There's only seventeen blankets in there. Second, if you were stuck in a house with no heat during the winter, than you'd want as many blankets you could get your hands on. And thirdly, why did you specifically want the green one?"

"Because it matches my dress. Duh!", Star said as she twirled around in her beautiful green dress.

"Okay", I said as I softly face palmed, "You do look gorgeous, and it does make you look even better, but what you have to understand is, no one else cares."

Star pouted while Jackie laughed. Her laugh was filled with joy and it was refreshing to hear after having such rough conversations with her.

Star suddenly stopped pouting and smiled, "Did you just say I look gorgeous?"

I ignored her and sat down on the couch. Even though I ignored her, she was still smiling like a fool. An adorable little fool.

William's POV

King and Queen Butterfly were quite annoyed when I returned to Mewni without Star. I told them that I could find no sight of their daughter, and understandably, their stress levels went through the roof. Of course, they were mostly worried about the fact that they had no one to rule the thrown after they died rather than the fact that their daughter was still missing.

I can tell I did the right thing by lying to them, even if it was a moral sin and an illegal crime to lie to royalty. There was no way they could prove that I fibbed, and there was no way in hell I was going to tell them.

When I left the castle that evening, I felt like a huge weight had been placed on my shoulders for some reason. I didn't know the reason for my new found fear, for while I did have something to hide, there's no way anyone could find out, yet for some reason, there was fear in my stomach.

As I reached my house though, the fear was lifted off of me. After a day full of dimension hopping and lies, I'd finally be at home and I could relax. I could see my daughters. I could see my gorgeous wife.

When I entered the house, a pleasant scent that I recognize as boiled Somatic Carableus (Bee Honey) entered my nose. "Abadaga?", I called, "Why are you fixing dinner so early?"

I got no response.

I made my way into the kitchen and saw that it was empty. My wife was no where to be seen. I turned my attention to the stove and saw that there wasn't even anything on it.

"What on earth?", I thought.

I started to make my way down the hallway while still calling out my wife's name. "Abadaga? Sweetie?", I called. Still no answer. I looked in my daughters' room and saw that not only were they not there, but everything in their room had been destroyed. I was appalled and confused by what I saw.

I know my daughters wouldn't do this to their own room, so I know someone must've done this. My heart rate began to accelerate as I came to the conclusion that my family might've been robbed. I ran into my wife and I's room and saw that it was also destroyed. Everything was destroyed. The prized jewelry I brought my wife, the pictures of us at our wedding, our bed, even our walls, it was all destroyed.

My mind went blank and I became weak in my legs. I got down on my knees and tried to make sense of what was going on. My family was gone, and all our personal belongings were destroyed. My mind immediately went to thinking about who would do something like this to me and my family. I had no enemies, to my knowledge, so no one came to mind.

And then suddenly, the long forgotten smell of the Somatic Carableus returned to my nose and a chill went down my spine. I still had no clue where that smell was coming from, but I didn't care. I stood up and with my hands now in fist, I began to walk to the front door and report what happened here to the Jibbers (police), but when I entered my living room, I was met with a horrible sight.

Tom, the demon king, was standing in the middle of my living room. He was holding a bag that obviously had something in it, for it was moving slightly. His expression seemed to be one of annoyance, as if my appearance had slightly miffed him.

"I didn't expect you to be home so early", he said with a hint of discomfort in his voice. He lazily attempted to hide the bag, even though it was pretty much pointless now.

"What the hell are you doing here?", I asked becoming enraged. I could tell that he could sense the anger in my voice. He started to back up a bit, but I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and forced him to look at me.

"I am a powerful demon", Tom said while trying to hide his fear, "Do you really want to do this?"

"Where the fuck is my family, you awful creature?", I demanded. I never cursed unless I felt it was necessary, and now seemed like a better time than any to splur my rage fueled profanity.

"They are safe. Don't worry", the demon said calmly, "But I can't promise the same for you."

In a quick swift motion, Tom nailed me in the head with the bag and its contents nearly knocked me on conscious. I fell to the ground due to the impact of the bag, and before I could comprehend what even happened, Tom began to wail me with the bag as hard as he could.

I wouldn't stay down though, so Tom threw a ball of fire in my face. I screamed in pain as I suffered through what had to be third degree burns. I couldn't see anything due to being temporarily blinded at the moment, but I could hear Tom menacingly say, "You will not keep me away from Star. You will not!"

Something hit me on the back of the head, and I slowly slipped opinion unconsciousness.

Hope's POV

"I swear, one of these days I'm gonna go up to that school and give that principal a piece of my mind", my father mumbled as he poked on his chicken.

My mother rolled her eyes and said, "Oh get over it already, Mick."

"I can't", my father said, "You saw the same disturbing sight I did when we dropped Hope off at school! How can you not be annoyed by that?"

"Because I already see it everywhere", my mother said taking a bite of her corn, "I don't like it, but I just don't give a shit anymore."

"Well, I still give a shit", my father said sounding a little offended, "I don't want my daughter to be around that."

"Relax", my mother said as she wiped her mouth, "Hope is never gonna turn out like those abominations."

"I fucking hope not", my father said looking back at his food.

It felt like my heart had shrunk and disappeared. My parents were talking about a gay couple they saw outside of my school. They were both disgusted and appalled by what they saw, and they still couldn't shut up about it. Most of the time, my parents were really relaxed people, but whenever they saw something they didn't like or agree with, they would complain about it at dinner time.

The worse part about it is that they would completely ignore me. They wouldn't even ask my opinion on what petty thing they were talking about. Sometimes they didn't even acknowledge my existence. Mother would just hand me my plate, sometimes without even looking at me.

But atleast with those other times, they weren't talking about a group that I was secretly apart of, but today, they just had to focus on gay people. Why? Just why? I would've excused myself a while ago, but my parents don't let me leave the table until all my food is gone from my plate. Even if I have to pee.

So I was stuck there, forced to listen to their speeches of hatred that seemed like it would never end. I finally finished my food and excuse myself to my room. My parents were too busy talking to each other that they didn't even notice me. I'm not sure what I was expecting. I made my way to my room and once I made it there, I locked the door behind me and breathed a short sigh of relief.

It was only then when I realized that I had been crying. I looked in my mirror and saw that I had dried lines of tears on my face. I was sitting at a table, with my parents, I was crying, and my parents didn't even notice.

For some reason, I wasn't surprised that this had happened.

After I wiped the embarrassing tears off my face, I changed into my pajamas and tried to forget about all the hateful things my parents said. When that didn't work, I turned on the television and relaxed a bit. I just listened while I covered my face with a pillow. And with that, my weekend night routine started.

My weekend nights aren't special. They usually just consist of me sitting in my room watching reruns of old 90's sitcoms, and whenever they went to commercial, I would fantasize about Leah. It wasn't the most eventful night, but it's how I preferred it.

The most eventful I've ever had was the sleepover at Marco's house. Even though the boy himself probably would've preferred it if we weren't there, it was actually kind of a blast. Especially sense it was the first time Leah and I could act like a couple in public. It felt so good to actually do that.

I'm extremely grateful that Marco gave me that odd little pep talk. Without it, I have never had the courage to be openly gay. I still haven't told my parents of course, I'm not ready to confess to them yet, but I am completely comfortable with other people knowing about my lifestyle. Not having to hide myself is great, and I still don't think I've thanked Marco enough.

As the show I was watching came to a commercial, I lied down on my back and began to fantasize about my aforementioned girlfriend. I was staring up at the ceiling, but in my mind, I was looking up at Leah's beautiful smirking face. She winked at me and began to slowly unzip my pants.

I mentally slapped myself in the face when I realized that I was replaying the events of Marco's sleepover. The short half hour when Leah and I were alone and we...attempted something. It was enjoyable, but I'm certain that we didn't do it right. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be screaming in pain that much when you're doing that weird act. I wish we hadn't woke Marco up that way, even though it was fun to joke about behind his back later on.

A weird noise coming from my window snapped me out of my thoughts, and I turned my head to it. I could faintly see a hand knocking against the glass of my window and my heart stopped. I was just about to run out of my room and call for help when I heard a voice go, "Hope? You in there?"

I recognized the voice as Janna and sighed in annoyance. I opened my window and Janna slowly made her way inside my room. For some reason, she had a rope around her skinny waist.

"What the h-", I started, but Janna interrupted me.

"Hold on light weight", Janna said as turned away from me and started pulling on the rope. Within seconds, Leah poked her head through the window and smirked at me. It felt like my heart had actually stopped beating when I saw her, then it resumed beating, only a thousand times faster.

Once Leah was fully in the room, I got a glimpse of what she was wearing, and I blushed darkly. She was wearing black jeans shorts that revealed her long legs and a hand cut shirt that revealed her tone belly.

Leah's smirk turned into a frown when she looked at my hair. "Why is your hair brown again?", she asked.

I nervously responded, "My parents would've made me died it back anyway."

Leah and Janna rolled their eyes as they jumped onto my bed. "Why are you watching 'friends'? What are you a nineties hipster?", Janna said with a chuckle.

I rolled my eyes, "Don't judge me. What are you two doing here?"

Leah lazily threw a pillow at me and sarcastically asked, "Is it so wrong for a girl to visit her girlfriend and see how she's doing?"

"No", I responded, "But you would normally call me if you wanted to check up on me."

Leah smirk returned, "So smart. The real reason we're here is because Janna is pissed off at a teacher that gave her an F. Because of that F, Janna's mother took her cheap ass flip phone away."

"Hey", Janna said punching Leah in the arm, "It might just be a cheap ass flip phone, but it's my cheap ass flip phone."

Leah rolled her eyes and faced me again, "Basically, we are going to egg the old fuck's house. And you're coming with us."

My eyes went wide with panic and disbelief when she said this. "Excuse me?", I asked looking at her like she had lost her mind, "What makes you think I'm going with you."

"Because if you do, I'll give you a kiss", Leah said with an award winning smile.

"You kiss me all the time", I said with an annoyed groan.

Leah stood up and put a hand through my hair, "True, but you like it, don't you?"

I lightly pushed her away, slightly blushing and annoyed, "Of course I do, but it's gonna take a lot more than a kiss from my partner to get me to help you two fools vandalize an innocent man's house."

Janna groaned and leisurely rolled onto her side to face me, "You suck."

"Well than stop complaining and get off my bed", I said as I attempted to pull her off my bed, and failed.

"All we need you to do is keep watch, okay Withered Hope?", Janna said.

Leah chuckled, "Withered Hope? Cute."

I blushed and ignored her, "But what if he sees me? And what if my parents find out that I'm gone?"

"First, you and and I both know that your parents never check on you. Second, I'm not gonna let you get in trouble, if you get caught, I'll do and say anything to make sure that you don't get in trouble because of something I did. So, what do you say?"

I groaned and pinched my nose as I finally gave in. "Fine. I'll go", I said feeling a little deflated, "But before we go, I have to put on a fresh pair of cl-"

Janna interrupted me by throwing one of my shirts at my face, followed by a pair of my jeans. "Hurry up Withered Hope", Janna said as she exited the room through the same window she came in through.

"Don't keep us waiting, okay?", Leah said as she followed Janna.

I quickly put on the new set of clothes, turn off my television and lights, and positioned my pillows to make it look like I was sleeping in bed. I cautiously exited my window and made sure that it remained slightly opened so I could get back in.

"Hurry up!", Janna yelled. I mumbled a swear word under my breath and slowly made my way down the roof. Luckily, my house isn't that big at all, so jumping down was easy.

"Took you long enough", Janna said as soon as my feet touched the ground.

"Will you stop bullying her?", Leah asked, "You're starting to annoy me."

Janna rolled her eyes, "I'm not bullying her. I'm just showing her some tough love."

"Can we please just go?", I said as my stress levels began to go through the roof, "I really don't want to risk getting in trouble with my parents."

"His house is just two blocks away", Leah said as we began to walk, "You have the eggs, right Janna?"

To my horror, Janna stuck a hand in her pants and pulled out a carton of eggs.

"Why would you keep it in your pants?", I asked, "Just, why?"

"I was climbing up to your window!", Janna exclaimed, "I needed a free hand didn't I?"

"What happened to just throwing stones at windows like normal people?", I asked.

"I like manual labor okay?", Janna said defensively.

Before either of us could say anything else, Leah put her arm out in front of us and stopped us from walking. At first I thought it was because she wanted us to stop talking, but then I noticed that she was looking off to the side.

I looked at where she was looking and I saw the silhouette of someone walking on the sidewalk. I couldn't make out the face of the person for they had a black hood on.

"What is it?", Janna asked.

Leah didn't respond. All she did was eye the stranger a little pit before finally saying, "Marco? Is that you?"

Marco's POV

I stopped in my tracks as my body tensed up. I turn to my right and saw Janna, Leah, and Hope on the other side of the street. They started to walk to me. My eyes went wide and I silently prayed that they didn't ask why I was out so late at night.

Once they all made it over, Hope immediately asked, "Why are you out so late?"

Fuck my life. "I could ask you the same thing", I answered back.

"We were just going throw eggs at a teacher that gave me a failing grade", Janna answered sounding a little annoyed, "Although it seems like we're never going to do it now."

"You never answered Hope", Leah said, "What are you doing outside so late? And without Star no less."

"What am I? Star's keeper?", I asked rhetorically.

"Yes", Leah said with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes and said, "Alright fine, I couldn't get to sleep, so I decided to go for a walk."

Well, it wasn't a total lie.

"Well, would you like to accompany us in vandalizing Mr. Rick's house?", Leah asked, "I'm sure you have a good arm."

I stiffened up a bit and said, "I would, but I don't wanna get in trouble. My mother would skin me alive."

Janna rolled her eyes, "Jesus, you and Hope are such pussies."

As much as I didn't like being called a female body part, I had something important to take care of, so I ignored the comment and lazily waved goodbye to the girls. I began to go on my way. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief when I heard Hope ask, "Are you hiding something from us?"

I turned back and kept my cool, "No? Why would you think that?"

"Well", Hope began, "You are wearing a black hoodie when you usually where a red one. It's like you're trying to blend in and be unnoticed. Also, you seem to be hiding something in your hoodie", she said pointing in my hoodie pockets.

She had picked up on the fact that I hadn't taken my hands out my pocket for the duration of our short conversation. Clever girl.

"I'm not hiding anything in here", I said feigning innocence, "My hands are just really cold."

"It's seventy degrees out here", Hope said obviously seeing through my pathetic attempt at a lie, "How are your hands cold?"

"I just have cold hands, okay?", I said. Well, that didn't fucking help. While I was getting ready to run away, Janna forcefully pulled my arm out of my hoodie, resulting in the items I had falling to the ground.

The girls gasped as they saw the items. It was a small bottle of gasoline and a box of matches. Leah picked up the items and asked, "Were you going to set something on fire?"

I rolled my eyes, "No Leah, I was going to fix a fucking jelly donut."

Leah was about to retort back with something, but Hope beat her to the punch, "So you admit that you were gonna set something on fire. Do you know how serious of an offense arson is?! Not even Janna is that crazy!"

"Well actually-"

"Shut up Janna!", everyone said silencing her. Janna turned away and mumbled swear words under her breath.

Hope turned back to me, she was more serious than I had ever seen her, "You are not leaving until you explain yourself."

"What exactly is their to explain Hope?", I said becoming more annoyed, "I was gonna burn some shit and laugh while I did it. What about that don't you understand?"

"What were you gonna burn?", Hope asked.

"None of your damn business", I responded.

"Hey", Leah said getting in between the two of us, "She asked you a question, now fucking answer it."

"I did answer it", I said getting in her face, "And my answer was, 'None of your mother fucking God damn business!"

Leah forcefully grabbed me by my shirt collar and looked me dead in the eye, "I don't know what the hell your problem is Diaz, but I will not hesitate to beat the living shit out if you."

As I looked into her eyes, I could see that she wasn't as made as she sounded, but she seemed to be worried and annoyed at best. "Listen, what I do in my free time is my business and my business alone. I don't have to tell you anything", I said pushing her away from me.

"Hello?"

We all turned to Hope and saw that she was on her phone. "Oh what?", I said annoyed, "You're calling my mom now?

"Hi Jackie, I didn't mean to wake you, I just wanted to tell you that we found Marco outside by himself and he had gasoline and matches with him", Hope said into the phone.

My eyes went wide and my heart stopped once again as Hope stopped talking and listened to whatever Jackie was saying. If there's anyone I didn't want to be angry with me, other than my mother of course, it was Star or Jackie.

Hope handed the phone to me, "She wants to speak to you."

I snatched the phone away from her and groaned, "What?"

"Come home", Jackie deadpanned.

"Jackie-"

"No!", she said a lot more forcefully, "I know what you're trying to do and it's stupid and dangerous. Just let them escort you home. Please."

I wanted to use all the power in my lungs to scream some sense into her, I wanted to get down on my knees and beg Jackie to let me help her, but I was too tired and worn out. "Fine", I said before hanging up the phone.

I sighed before turning to Hope and in the most deflated voice possible I said, "She wants you to walk me home."

Author's Note: I hope this chapter was worth the wait. I'm sorry it took so long, but school is a pain in the ass.