MASK ON | GINNY AND GEORGIA

25

"You don't treat me like shit," Marcus complained and Alex nodded.

"I do. And you know it. You know I treat you like shit. I treat you no better than Kaden treats me. It's toxic. Both the relationships I'm in are toxic because I'm toxic. You know this. You know I'm toxic. I lie, I cheat, I steal, I intentionally hurt people. I'm an altogether bad person and even though you try to tell me I'm not, you know I'm not a good person. So why, Marcus? If you know I'm a leech just like Kaden and why do you still keep coming back?"

Because I'm in love with you, Marcus wanted to say. His lips parted and he was preparing to say the words, only to watch Max come over.

"What are you still doing here, Marcus? Didn't Padma leave, like, twenty minutes ago? You've been standing here, talking to Alex the whole time," She complained and turned to Alex with an annoyed look on her face, "Is he bothering you, Alex? 'Cause I'll gladly beat him up for you."

"Beat me up?" Marcus asked his sister and scoffed loudly, "The hell did I do?"

"You were born," Max retorted and Marcus found himself rolling his eyes.

"He wanted to see if I'd sneak him a bottle of chardonnay and some other shit," Alex suddenly spoke up, causing Marcus to turn to her in surprise, "He wanted to set up this picnic tomorrow for him and Padma at the park."

Marcus and Max gave her a weird look, knowing Marcus would never do something like that.

"It was my idea," Alex confessed and Max smiled slightly, "I'm sick of hearing Padma and her friends complaining that Marcus is taking way too long to ask her out. So I'm giving him a little push. And there's no way I'm letting my best friend's twin brother make a fool of himself by asking her out over text."

"That is something he'd do, isn't it?" Max remarked, causing Alex to nod while Marcus looked offended, "Don't look at us like that, Marcus. Alex is right. You need to hurry up and ask Padma out. She'd love a picnic. Maybe it'll convince her you're not the heartless asshole you actually are and she won't ditch you for taking so long to ask her out."

"Exactly!" Alex exclaimed, smiling widely, "What are Padma's favorite foods, Marcus? I'll make sure they're all prepped and ready for you tomorrow."

"Uh..." Marcus trailed off and Alex gave him an annoyed look since he didn't even know the girl's favorite foods. But he knew Alex's.

She liked to go to Mcdonald's and get a medium fries with an ice cream sundae. She liked to dip the fries in the ice cream and as gross as it sounded, Marcus once tried it after she told him about and he found it to actually be good, especially when he was high.

Now, he always did it, earning annoyed looks from his whole family and his friends.

He knew her least favorite food was steak since supposedly as a little girl, she lost her first tooth biting into some steak her mom had made her and it had traumatized her for life.

He knew she tried her first cup of alcohol at nine-years-old when she took a sip of her mother's cup of Jack and Coke when Georgia wasn't looking and since then, it had been her favorite alcoholic drink, even after growing older and trying numerous other types of drinks.

Marcus slowly turned to Alex, both of them feeling uneasy. The fact that Alex had only been in Wellsbury a few months and he knew random stuff like that about her but couldn't seem to even remember Padma's favorite food was concerning.

"Maybe you should break up with her," Max suddenly suggested, causing Alex to turn to the girl with an alarmed look, "If you can't even name her favorite food, how do you expect to have a relationship with her?"