MASK ON | GINNY AND GEORGIA

12

"Shit," Alex spoke up, laughing humorlessly as she ran her hair through her damp hair, "The stuff that goes through my mind sometimes even scares me."

"What is going through your mind?" Marcus asked, smiling slightly as he crawled closer to her until he was right in front of her.

"Things that shouldn't be going through there," Alex admitted softly as she shook her head and stared deeply into his eyes, "I'm not a good person."

"From what I've seen, you are a good person," He assured her, causing her to laugh as she watched him sit back against the wall.

"You know more than most but if you knew everything, you would regret ever thinking I was a good person," Alex told her, causing Marcus to smile in response, "You'd run straight for the hills."

"Let me be the judge of that," he retorted as they both smiled, "Yeah, I get it. Wellsbury sucks."

"No, not really," Alex replied, shaking her head, "It's actually not bad. I've lived in a lot of places and this town doesn't completely suck as some other places have. This is literally the first place I've been where it's cool to be smart, and they want you to succeed."

Marcus sighed as he stared at Alex. It was only a few days ago where she was claiming she had hated Wellsbury. What made that change?

"They want you to fit into a neat, little, predetermined box," He complained as Alex sighed in response, "If you don't take seven AP classes, they label you a problem, put you on Adderall and Klonopin until you join the ski team."

"Ski team, huh?" She asked him as she smiled in amusement, "Well, from what I can see you have a mom and dad that love you very much, a nice house in a nice neighborhood, and the chance to achieve your greatest dreams. Check your privilege, dude, and be grateful. Not everyone has that. I've had to fight for everything I have and I've known what it is to share a single room with my sister and my mother, not knowing when my next meal would be. If your biggest problem is the ski team—"

"So you're saying since I live in Wellsbury, I don't have any valid problems?" Marcus asked, giving her a puzzled look.

"I never said that," Alex argued, shaking her head.

"You basically did," He retorted and Alex sighed in response. There was a moment of silence between them and after a moment, Marcus finally brought himself to look Alex in the eyes.

Alex stared at him closely, noticing the tears threatening to spill from his eyes. Did she say something to hurt him? She hadn't meant to.

"My, uh...best friend died last year," He admitted, causing Alex's eyes to widen in shock, "He uh...He got cancer."

"I'm sorry," She told him, feeling guilty about what she had said just moments before. She didn't know what the hell was wrong with her. When did she become the judgemental type? Her mother taught her better than that.

"It's fine," He told her, looking as though he was about to cry.

"It doesn't sound fine and you don't look fine, either," She replied and Marcus shrugged his shoulders.

"The two of us and Kaden were best friends but when things got tough, Kaden ditched us and I was left to deal with it all alone. When he died, I had to grieve alone too. It was shitty and while Kaden likes to act like what he did wasn't wrong, I won't. It was screwed up and I'll never forgive him for that. Our friend needed us and Kaden left," He explained and Alex sighed at the mention of Kaden. He sighed sadly, quick to wipe his tear, "But whatever. Everyone has shit, right? Some more than others."