This chapter is heavily dialogue based, and heavily inspired by my friend BlueNeonlightshow, and my own personal experiences. Enjoy.
At the Diaz Household in Echo Creek, Star Butterfly and Marco Diaz sat in the living room. It was close to eight o'clock in the pm.
"Star, I'm not going."
"But Marco, everyone's having fun there, and I don't want to go without you!"
"You can go if you want to, I don't want to get in the way of your fun."
"But it won't be the same if you're not there!"
"Star, I just don't want to go. I know that if I do go there I'll just be bummed out the entire time and ruin everyone's fun."
"But you won't be bummed out! We'll have fun together, with our friends and you can even hang out with Jackie!"
Marco sighed to himself, "Star, if you want to go, then go. I'm not stopping you."
"But you are stopping me from having any fun! Marco, if you don't come then I'll feel guilty the entire time because you're sitting at home while the biggest party in Echo Creek is going on! We were lucky to even be invited, since Brittney's the host."
"Star, we could argue about this all night, but I'll be damned if I go anywhere close to that party."
"But why?! We could go there and have fun together, just dancing the night away with some drinks an-"
"I said no, alright!? And that's final. You can go and have fun with everyone else, but if I go then I'll just bring everything down and make it lame."
"..."
"I know you want me to come with you but I just don't want to get in the way. I've never been good with these kind of parties, and I don't want to be the guy to ruin another one."
"But..."
"*sigh* Please Star... Just go. I'll be here when you get back, and I'll throw on that movie you wanted to see last week."
Silence. It was deafening.
"Well then..." Star said, slamming her fist down onto her hand. "I guess I'll just have to stay back here with you."
"Wait, wha-"
"It's not like I'll be missing much. Most of everyone there will be far too drunk to do anything."
Marco shifted his gaze away, trying to ignore what Star just said.
"Besides, if I had to pick between the night of my life and my best friend, I think it's s pretty dang dumb if I didn't choose you."
That got Marco to smirk. Star took a seat next to him on the couch.
"So whadd'ya wanna do? Make nachos? Watch movies? Remove all illegal immigrants from the US and build a wall?"
"Well, I was hoping we could- wait, what was that last one?"
Star quickly took off her bright red, captioned cap. "I mean... play some Charades!"
"Oh, well I guess we could do that."
"Hehe... Yeah..." Star nervously chuckled.
About eight hours later...
Star and Marco sat together on the couch. They had played practically every board game they had, made a load of nachos that could go into the next Guinness world records book, and even watched the entire Die Hard series in reverse order, since Star thought it would be more interesting.
They lay next to one another on the couch. The house dark with the lights off, and the only illumination being the light from the TV, which was rolling the credits for the original Die Hard. Star yawned and hovered her hand over her mouth.
"Man, that movie is so over-rated. I think that the first on we watched was better."
"I guess you're the kind of person that prefers action over a good plot. No wonder you liked the Resident Evil movies."
"Zombies and psychic powers in a movie are awesome, and you can't deny that!"
"Uh-huh, sure."
"Don't you 'Uh-huh, sure' me, Diaz! I know that you liked watching them too!"
"Keep telling yourself that."
Star poked out her tongue at Marco, which he mimicked with a smile.
"No way that everyone else is having as much fun as we are. We're like those main characters in TV shows that get along super well and have a great time without everyone else."
"I can't argue with you there."
"But it does make you wonder just what's going down at Brittney's..."
"..."
"I wonder if they're having a good time, or if something big happened."
"..."
"Maybe they had some kind of incident, but I don't think that's very likely."
"..."
"You okay Marco?"
"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. I'm fine..."
"Are you sure? You're not very talkative all of a sudden. Something on your mind?"
"Not really... I mean, well, there is... But I just don't want to talk about it."
"What do you mean?"
"It's just not an easy subject for me to get into. I'd rather just leave it be."
"Come on, Marco! You can tell me!"
"Star, please don't. I prefer to let sleeping dogs lie, okay?"
"But it's not like it's going to hurt anyone if it's just me who knows about it, right? I promise that I can keep a secret."
"And I don't doubt that, it's just..."
"Wait, is this why you didn't want to come to the party? Now you have to tell me!"
"Star, no, okay? Please just stop."
"Come ooooon! What's the harm in telling me, Diaz? Name one thing that's stopping you!"
Marco sat in silence with an uncomfortable look on his face. He avoided eye contact and had his arms folded.
"See, you don't have a reason! So give it up and tell me!"
"Star, I said no. Can we please just leave it at that? I don't want to get into another argument tonight."
"If you don't want to fight, then just give it up. I don't know why you're being so stubborn."
"I'm being stubborn? I keep telling you no, but you keep trying to pry at me like there's gold inside."
"No I'm not! I'm it stupid, Marco. I know there isn't gold inside you."
"That's not the point!"
"Then what is the point!?"
"The point is that you're looking for answers to questions you don't need to ask. It's it going to help you or me in anyway if I do tell you, so just drop it!"
"No! I don't know what you're trying to hide from me Diaz, but it's not going to end the world if you just tell me!"
"FINE THEN!"
Star flinched at the sudden rise in Marcos voice.
"You want to know why I didn't want to go? You want to know why I hate parties? Is that it!? Is that what you want!?"
Star didn't answer, clasping her hands over her chest and looking down in slight guilt. She didn't mean to make Marco angry.
"I..."
"Don't."
Marco pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, his eyes furrowed together with hard breath seeping from his teeth.
"I'm sorry I yelled, alright?"
"I... It's fine..."
"Now, I'm going to tell you why I didn't want to go, okay? But I'm only going to say it once, so pay attention."
"Y-you don't have to-"
Marco held his hand up and cut Star off.
"It's fine, alright? Just please don't bring this up ever again."
Star nodded.
"Alright. Good."
A moment of silence passed between the two, thick as steel.
"I don't hate parties... I just hate those parties. The ones where there's drinking and raving."
"But why? It's not like there that different from the regular ones."
"I know, but it's just..."
Marco sighed.
"When people drink at parties, more often than not, they get drunk. That's what I hate about it."
"That's understandable, you know that we shouldn't be drinking at our age."
"There is that... But that's not all. I also hate drinking because of what it does to you. It basically makes you brain dead. You lose any form of moral or justice and just do whatever you want. It lets you believe that you're a god, when in reality you just aren't thinking straight."
"Okay... But what does this have to do with us? You know that I wouldn't drink, and I know that you wouldn't do it either."
"Well, you see its kind of like being the smart guy in a class of dumb people."
"I don't think that's accurate. You make it through the week at school just fine."
"Yeah, I know. But this is a different kind of dumb. People think that alcohol will make things fun, and that they'll ace a great time. But what they don't realize is that they're throwing their lives out of the window. Drinking is addicting, and once you're on the horse, it's tough to get off.
They are probably going to keep drinking throughout their lives, until it completely ruins them as people. They'll become intolerable, immature, and just plain stupid. They'll have trouble finding jobs and paying for food, all because they thought it'd be fun to have a corona on a Friday night. I stay sober in these situations, because I know it's the right thing to do. Watching everyone else though... They might be having fun, but it's depressing to know what this will do to them. It burns me in a bad mood and then I become a buzzkill. I'll leave before the parties over and everyone will boo and throw stuff at me because they think I'm "chicken". It's just so... Aggravating to watch them do this to themselves. So aggravating, that I got into a fist fight with Justin once, because I wouldn't chug a keg with him."
Marco ran his hand through his hair. Star say wide-eyed at all of this. She had no idea about how Marco saw these parties.
"And know that I've told you this, I've planted it into your head and probably ruined every future party you'll get invited to."
Marco hung his head. He crossed his arms over his knees, keeping his eyes focused on the ground. He was surprised when he felt two arms wrap around him, embracing him tightly.
"I'm so sorry Marco..."
Star felt small tears streak down her face.
"I had no idea that you felt that way. I'm sorry that I pushed you so hard to try and come with me... If I had known sooner I would've-"
Marco returned the embrace. He squeezed himself against Star, rubbing her back soothingly.
"It's okay... I shouldn't have been so stubborn. If I had told you before, we wouldn't be in this mess. I'm sorry Star. I promise the next time there's a party or a hangout that you want to go to, I'll come too."
Star nestled her head into Marcos chest.
"...I'd like that..."
And with that, the two enjoyed the moment, hugging until they fell asleep...
Then they woke up and found out that Mr & Mrs Diaz had snapped photos of them cuddling in their sleep.
-The End.
Hey everyone! Sorry if you were expecting part four of Origins, but I'm till working on that and it needs a lot of working on to be had. I'm still not feeling the best, but I'm getting there.
Now, I wrote this one shot because it's why I've been feeling like ass the past few weeks. I've been to two drunk parties in the past three months and its gotten under my skin to the point where its bringing me down and making me a bummer to be around. It's not the Emo kind of depressed, but I've had thoughts on things that I would never think of otherwise.
Now to the reviews!
Finnjr63: Woah? Just woah? Woah what? What is woah? Details man! They are important! But thanks, and you too buddy.
RedHood001: Welp, considering that the show has decided to bring Toffee back and know we are probably going to get an official origin story, its going to be interesting to see if I got close or not! Thanks for reviewing!
Guest Sorta: Thank you m'lady! Have a wonderful day! And keep up the good work yourself, I've been reading your own work and I like it so far!
Exotos135: That being the final part would be like serving half a BLT. Without the bacon. Or the bread. Thanks dude, you too!
Blue Neonlightshow: To be fair, I don't think you even knew I existed before I started reading your fics, so you get a pass. Ah, yes, be warned of them cursings! Hide your children before they see how edgy this story really is! You too bro! Have a great week!
Hey, you guys know the Just Friends episode? Yeah, that one. Just a theory here, but what if, Jackie knew about Star's feelings for Marco? Trying to claim him for her own, eh? I don't know. It's one in the morning.