Life Changes » Marcus Armstrong

Twentytwo.

"Yes, Sam just found out about it."

"Jesus Christ, do they think we have enough time to do all of this?"

"I know..." Susie sighed. "About whom did you write it? No, wait, who did you fix for this?"

"Marcus Armstrong. You?"

"The F2 rookie?" Susie impressively asked. "How did you do that?"

Jane closed her notebook. "I know him and it had to be someone famous, so there you go."

"Wow..." Susie placed her bag on the table and made a bun in her hair. "I had Maria from the pizzeria, everybody knows her. Famous under the people."

"I didn't think of her." Jane put her laptop on the laptop cover. "She's indeed famous among the people here." She put all her stuff in her bag and sniffed. "Well, I hope the feedback will be there soon."

Susie nodded. "Can I sit here? I have been walking around here for fifteen minutes for a free spot, but it's so busy."

"I'm about to leave," Jane mentioned and put on her hoodie. She wasn't waiting for a conversation; she had to act nice and all, but she didn't have the energy for it. "Good luck with studying," she ended the chat.

"Thank you," Susie relievedly said and looked grateful at Jane. "Feel better soon," she mentioned and gave Jane a friendly smile while unpacking her bag.

Jane walked away. The tears filled her eyes again; why is it so hard to keep positive and motivated while everything just sucks? She put on the hood and left the building. Her jaw clenched and she swallowed hard. Jane was tired. She bit her lip and looked down; all she wanted was to go home.

»

"Buon pomeriggio," Cate politely greeted the bus driver and walked into the bus. It was a long day at the university for her, so the smile disappeared right away from her face. She scanned the people on the bus, but she was also searching for a free spot. Close to the second exit, there was a free spot. Cate walked over to the free seat and looked at the person who already sat on one of the two seats. "Hey," she was slightly surprised.

A shock went through Jane's body and she gasped for air when she looked up. Fear spread out over her face.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Cate showed a warm smile, but it was so hard to see Jane scared... Like she was constantly looking around her, hoping he would not be there.

Jane forced a smile on her face, it is just Cate. "Hey, yes, sure," she smiled.

"Thanks," Cate breathed and sat down. "What a day... How are you doing?" She placed her bag on her lap and looked questionably at Jane.

"I'm fine. You?"

Cate nodded. "Tired. A very long, boring morning at the uni, 8 to 12... And the delays... I didn't expect you on this bus. Is your uni here too?" She looked around, and the bus started to move.

"Nope. Our library is closed for a couple of days and the library here is the closest to our campus, so we all moved here," Jane explained, hoping not to share her irritated feelings. "I left the library at 11, still not home..."

"My goodness, girl," Cate yawned. "That is awful. I heard the system got shut down or something?"

"Yep, the system shut down and the entire public transport service failed. The bus, train, metro."

"Damn, they really need to fix this." Cate ran her hand through her hair. "But how are you, like... How are you?" Their eyes locked; Cate realised Jane didn't look good at all.

"Barely holding it together today," Jane mumbled and sighed. "But it is what it is."

"What's up?"

Jane looked away; she was at that stage if someone would say 'boo', she would lose her shit and have a mental breakdown. "I..." She sighed. "It's just the 'how are you' sentence that makes me so crazy. I was at the library and seven people came up to me to ask me how I was doing. Like, it's fine, but it makes me so emotional to talk about it and to make up a false explanation. And the delays... Bad nights... You can sweep me off the floor."

"Oh, no, babe." Cate pressed her lips into a thin line and looked down, she could understand that. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay. I would ask someone if they're fine too if I saw they had a blue cheek. We can't change the delays and the bad nights." Jane pressed her jaws on each other when she felt she had to yawn, yawning just hurt. "But thanks for the tip, that officer really helped me. How do you know he's a good cop?" She looked at Cate.

"My best friend had to deal with Lorenzo, Leonardo's brother, and a friend of mine knows Alessandro, who helped my best friend." Cate scanned Jane's face. "Your face really looks bad, I'm sorry, Jane." It was blue, purple and really swollen.

"I know." Jane looked down. "It freaking hurts." Her eyes fell on her phone, the screen lightened up. Marcus had sent her a message, saying he would call her on his way home from the factory. She quickly replied it was alright and wished him luck. They have been trying to call each other all day long, but they missed each other every time. "But your day was long?"

"Yeah, filled with lectures. And don't get me wrong, it can be interesting, but after two hours I am completely done with everything," Cate shared, those were basically the words of every student. "And it happened to be the three most boring lectures." She shrugged. "But Jane, do you have the photos of Saturday? Like the group photos? Sorry, this is a completely different topic."

A weak smile rested on Jane's face, but it quickly changed into panic. "Oh, crap, I forgot to send it to you. Let me do that right away." She unlocked her phone and sent the photos in the group chat.

"It's okay," Cate smirked. "I'm going to post one on Insta, yeh?"

"Sure, but don't post the ugly one," Jane dramatically said.

"Now I have to..."

They both started to laugh, but for Jane it was painful, so she stopped laughing. But she was glad she bumped into Cate, she was the only one who didn't keep talking about her face or the situation.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Cate giggled. She looked at her phone and posted a group photo on Instagram. "Anyway, you and Marcus. How is that going?" A grin grew on her face when she looked back at Jane.

Jane looked down, curving a shy smile on her face. Her cheeks started to heat up. "We're doing fine."

"Hmm-hmm," Cate hummed. "You're fine... Girlfriend - boyfriend?" Her eyebrows raised, she was fishing for information.

"No, not yet... I mean, we're taking things easy and I don't know."

"But do you want it?"

"I really like him, so yes." Jane looked up, finding Cate's eyes.

Cate nodded and widely smiled. "A question: when a guy comes up to you now and asks for your number, what would you say?" She was curious, but teasing at the same time.

"It happened to me on Friday and I blurted, I don't know why and I didn't even think about it, but I literally said: no, I've a boyfriend." Jane giggled. "I just realised it after I said it. The first thought I had was: Marcus."

"I swear, you two are the cutest people."

Jane smirked and looked around her. The bus stopped, it was the second to last stop before Jane's stop. It was busy, more and more people entered the bus. She gasped for air when a man entered the bus. She padded Cate's knee, letting her know something was wrong.

"What?"

"Lorenzo," Jane whispered and nodded in front of her. Jane never met Leonardo's family properly, but everybody knew who they were. And apparently Lorenzo knew who Jane was.

Cate looked up and her face straightened. When Lorenzo passed them, he looked at the two girls. Jane's eyebrows lowered. Cate grabbed Jane's hand and squeezed in it.

"If looks could kill," Jane mumbled under her breath and noticed her heartbeat started to rise.