Chapter Four

Starr opened up her bedroom door and was pleasantly surprised to see Markko. He had become her best friend and she honestly didn't know how she would have gotten through Cole's betrayal if it wasn't for Markko. There were days Starr could barely function let alone provide explanations of how she was doing and feeling. Markko just let her exist, no explanations needed, but more than anything she didn't have to put how she feels into words because he already understood.

"Markko, I'm so glad that your here," Starr said as she gave him a hug.

Markko pulled away from the hug and walked into Starr's room. He was so nervous and thought about walking away, but this was something he needed to do. He needed to tell Starr how much she had come to mean to him.

"What's wrong?" Starr asked.

"There's something that I need to talk to you about."

"You can tell me anything," Starr said as she grabbed Markko's hand and gave it a friendly squeeze of encouragement.

"Starr, I like you."

"I like you too Markko, you've been a really good friend to me."

"Starr, I'm not explaining this right. I have feelings for you. I don't just want friendship with you, you mean so much more to me than just a friend. I want to be your everything." Markko said as he pulled her into a kiss.

Starr had never thought of Markko as more than a friend before, all she knew was in this moment, when Markko kissed her she felt a tingling sensation all over and she didn't want it to end. It felt right and simple to kiss Markko. Things with Cole had always been so complicated, things with Markko, on the other hand had always been easy, like they were a perfect fit.

Markko pulled away from the kiss, "I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that. If you don't feel the same way about me, that's okay, I'll accept it. I just don't want to lose you."

" I don't want to lose you either and honestly I've never thought of you as more than a friend, but when you kissed me just now, I didn't want it to stop, so please don't be sorry cause I'm not. Starr leaned into him closer and pulled him in for another kiss.

"Starr, Cole's..." Blair stopped mid- sentence as she and Cole stared at Starr kissing Markko, "I'm sorry, I should have knocked," Blair stated.

Starr pulled away from Markko and looked at Cole. "What do you want?" Starr asked.

"I wanted to talk to you about our daughter."

"You mean the daughter you're trying to take from me?" Starr sarcastically asked.

"I'm going to leave you kids to talk," Blair said as she turned around and left.

"I got to get going as well, I'll call you later Starr," Markko said as he headed for the door.

"Wait Markko, you should stay. You're part of the reason I'm here."

"He is?" Starr asked.

"Yeah he came by earlier and helped me to see what a Jackass I've been to you. I'm sorry Starr, about everything. I'm not going to take Hope from you."

"You're dropping the custody suit?"

"Not exactly."

"What does that mean?" Starr asked.

"It means that I'm filing for joint custody. I think that Hope needs both her parents.

"I can live with that arrangement. Thank you Cole for coming by, I'll call you later and we can discuss Hope's schedule."

"Bye Starr, Markko," Cole said as he closed the bedroom door behind him.

"You're a miracle worker. Thank you so much, how can I ever repay you?"

"You can let me take you to dinner."

"Deal," Starr said and then she took Markko's hand and left. It was the first time since Cole betrayed her that she had felt genuinely happy and Starr knew that her happiness was because of Markko.

The End