No one spoke. Marco, after staring awkwardly at the two girls for a short time, realized that it would have to be up to him to do something. He looked down at his feet, tried to think of something to say, and eventually just let out a small sigh.

"One second," he muttered. He took his first step down the stairs and tripped. Go figure. He fell, hitting every other stair on his way down and letting out little sounds of discomfort with each hit. By the bottom of the stairway he had taken some nasty bruises, but nothing that wouldn't be gone within a week. They still hurt, though. Quite a lot, in fact.

On the upside, his accelerated journey down the stairs had broken the awkward tension by scaring the heck out of his two friends. "Marco, are you O.K.?" They both exclaimed in very different tones. Star was used to seeing Marco get tossed around and hurt, and thus wasn't as worried as Jackie about the fall.

Marco coughed a bit while standing up. "I'm fine," he wheezed pathetically. Jackie went over to help him but he shook his head. "Really, I'm okay," he responded again, this time with some dignity. They both went over to the couch and sat down, Marco in betwixt the two girls. As he sat down, Marco could start to feel the awkward feelings from before come back. He quickly attempted to keep it away by asking, "So, you uh, um…" Well, fuck, he thought to himself. Attempt failed.

"Uh, yeah," Star replied in a small voice. Marco relaxed to her voice. It had told him two things, that A), he wasn't the only awkward one in the room, and B), Star wasn't as emotionally battered as she had been earlier. Or at least he hoped she wasn't.

Jackie breathed out a short huff of air. "Maybe I should go, let you two-"

"No." Marco's voice had rung out, soft but confident. It surprised everyone in the room including himself. "This affects you as much as it affects me and Star. Besides, you're the one who brought it up."

Jackie stared at Marco, taken aback. Her face changed to shock, then thoughtfulness, and finally to sober agreement. "You're right, I guess."

Marco nodded, saying "Right," as he did. He was about to say something else, but he caught himself. The young, dorky teen was stuck in the middle of a very large social problem. If he didn't think out his next words very carefully, he could hurt the feelings of his friends horribly.

Yet the more he thought about it, the more certain he was that everyone was going to leave that couch upset. Jackie was his girlfriend, and more importantly, a wonderful person. When Marco had first started dating his lifelong crush, he had prepared himself for two terrifying possibilities: One, that Jackie would turn out to be a total bitch and break his heart, or that two, Jackie would turn out to be sweet but not into him, and consequentially break his heart. Neither of those scenarios came true. Jackie turned out to be even better than he had imagined, and surprisingly into him. He couldn't just leave her because Star admitted her feelings to him; Jackie deserved better than that.

But Marco also couldn't tell Star that he wasn't into her. If she really did have a crush on him, then she'd be heartbroken upon hearing that he didn't reciprocate. There was the very likely possibility that it would hurt or even tear their friendship apart. Eight months of wonderful adventures, emotional struggle, and complete respect and honesty would be thrown away in a single evening. The last thing Marco wanted to do was to hurt his friend, especially after she had lost Glossaryck and her book. Marco loved both girls sitting next to him. But at that moment on the couch, he understood how different his love for both of them was. And it would've been a dishonor to their relationships if he didn't tell them the truth.

It was also at this moment that Marco realized that he had been stuck in contemplation for over two whole minutes. Both Star and Jackie were looking at each other's eyes, trying to see if the other had any idea what Marco was doing. "Uh, Marco?" Jackie asked, nervous about his behavior.

"Oh, uh, right, sorry," Marco muttered, his face flushing red. He took some deep breaths to prepare himself for his speech.

"Right then," He said, his dread seeping back in. He looked Star in the eyes before saying, "I love you, Star." Both girls' eyes opened wide, but before they could respond further, Marco put up his hand. Grudgingly, he finished, "But not in the same way that you love me."

Star's heart fell into her stomach. She'd waited patiently, more patiently than ever before in her life, for his answer. She had hoped, in some wild, fantastical place in her mind, that Marco would laugh heartily, kiss her on the lips, and proclaim that he'd been in love with her from the start. And yes, he'd admitted that he loved her, but she knew it wasn't romantic love. Real love.

Marco saw the look on her face and quickly tried to explain himself. "I would call you my best friend, Star, but you aren't. You're something more. I've never met anyone like you, and if for a second I thought I would lose you or if you got hurt, I'd be a total wreck. You're like a sister to me, except that I trust you more than any one in my family with my life. Please, I don't want everything we've done for the past eight months to fall apart because of this."

Star's face looked like she was about to cry. And then it went blank of emotion. "It's alright, Marco," she replied dully.

Marco's heart fell. "Star-"

"No," she said calmly. She spoke with ice in her tone. She was clearly trying to keep her emotions down, but one of them was escaping: anger. Sparks of green electricity sizzled around her. Marco backed off unconsciously. He wished he hadn't. Star's mood only grew worse.

"I'll be upstairs. If you really love me, you won't follow," Her voice sounded heavy, ready to break into anger or tears at any moment. Marco was about to argue, but a familiar hand rested itself upon his shoulder. Jackie didn't say anything but the message was clear: let her go.

And so Marco, against his better judgement, watched Star pout up to her room. The slam of the door was very loud and echoed throughout the house. Marco felt exhausted and depressed. He'd hoped to be able to explain his feelings properly, but now he wished that he hadn't talked at all.

"She needs time to cool off," Jackie reassured him. "And honestly, it'll probably work out better next time if I'm not here."

Marco sighed. "I don't know. She's never been this mad before. And she's done rash things before… Gah, I don't know what I should've done."

Jackie suggested, with a bit of wry in her tone, "Maybe you should've left out the sister line."

Marco gave her a miffed look before responding, "I didn't see you giving any suggestions."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "You know why she's really upset? Because it isn't just that you don't romantically love her."

Marco frowned. "No, I don't."

"It's because she thinks she's been replaced. That you don't care for her at all. That she isn't the most important person in your life anymore. Hell, Marco, you might as well have told her that now that I'm here, she's irrelevant and can leave now."

Marco looked skeptical. "Really?

Jackie shrugged. "At the very least, no matter how much you say that you love her, she's not going to feel that love while you're with me." Jackie looked away from him, tensing up. "Sorry."

Marco shook his head. "No, no, we can't blame you. It's not your fault. I should've picked up on her feelings earlier."

"Marco, you can't-"

"Watch me."

Jackie's' eyebrows raised. "Oh, so you have to take all of the blame?"

Marco shrugged. "Might as well. I'm the one who's going to fix the problem."

Jackie's eyebrows raised again, though this time more seriously. "Wait, what? How?"

Marco nodded confidently. "I need to show that I still care for Star while keeping my relationship with you. The answer's simple." He nodded towards the dimensional scissors Star had left on the coffee table three days ago. "Glossaryck and the book."

Jackie's jaw dropped. "Marco, you can't be serious! Didn't that little green bird try to kill you two?"

"He almost succeeded, too." Marco agreed. "But another talk with Star is, at best, going to make the next few months really awkward. You said it yourself. I need to show that I care."

Jackie was about to argue, but stopped herself. "I'll go with you. Let me use the restroom and we'll go." She left before Marco could argue. By the time she returned, Marco and the scissors were gone. All that was left was a note. It read:

"Sorry Jackie, this mission is too dangerous for you. Both Star and I have had a lot of practice battling Ludo, and you're only got one night under your belt. Don't worry, I'm getting help from Buff Frog (hopefully). I'll be back before you know it. -Marco"