Sold #1 - The Secret Keeper

Chapter 10

No-one could believe it when Marcus and Darcy walked into the café of the museum laughing and talking together, bringing a soft hush over not only the surprised girls but the shocked teachers, who knew more of the shared troubles between them than they were willing to let the girls find out. And it wasn't just that they were getting along, but that Marcus had his arm around her shoulders as they walked in and neither of them looked to know why everyone was so quiet or shocked as they sat down at the table together, in front of a curious Lewis and Jonas. Neither of them wanted to admit it, but they knew that things would never really be normal between them again, they would never be able to be alone together without forcing themselves to put on a false pretence that everything was sunshine and daisies. For a little while though, at least for the rest of the day and the next day, they could pretend that nothing had ever happened to put a gap between them and that they were still the same close friends as they had been before he'd made a physical admission of his feelings for her. "What's up with everyone?" Marcus asked Jonas, avoiding the thoughts that were swimming through his head. He was dying to touch Darcy, not to hold her hand or put his arm around her shoulders, but in a different way, a very different way. But he knew he shouldn't, couldn't go back to things being as they had been not two hours ago. The awkward silence had been killing him, but he also knew that he was still very much in love with her and every moment that he had to spend with her, pretending that it didn't feel as though she was his girlfriend as they walked around the museum talking and laughing together, it was driving a knife into his heart which only rotated with every laugh and every smile she gave him. But only as a friend...and that was what killed him inside.

"Since when have you two been best buddies?" Jonas piped up in reply, the harsh smack on the arm he got from Lewis doing little to quieten him as both Darcy and Marcus looked at each other with fallen smiles. Neither of them wanted to answer him and neither of them wanted to ignore him either, knowing he would only go on and make it worse. "I mean, yesterday, she was a little bitch and this morning she didn't exist...so what? We all know you didn't kiss and make up." He sneered heartlessly, Darcy letting out a deep sigh as Marcus suddenly got up from the table and walked out of the room, a saddened Morgan keeping her feelings to herself, however much she wanted to go after him and make sure he was alright. There was something going on deeper than the surface, deeper than he was willing to let anyone know and that was what made Darcy want to forgive him for the things he'd said in jealousy and the way he couldn't fight what he felt. She knew he shouldn't have to fight it, but she wanted to be there for him. She felt it was her place to be there for him since she was the one making him so sad and hurting him so much, much deeper than he'd hurt her.

"Well done. You couldn't leave it, could you?" She sighed, angry with Jonas as she got up from her seat and rendered him silent again. No-one could believe how quickly things had changed, but both she and Marcus were really trying to make things right between them again, at least for a day or two and it wasn't their fault if everyone stopped them from doing that. "He's trying so hard to ignore how he feels and pretend that we can all be friends in this shiny little world, but inside...inside he knows that's not what he wants, but he's pretending because it's what everyone wants him to do. And now that he is doing that, you're laughing at him for it? That's really mature." She complained, turning on her heel, able to see Marcus crouched down to the floor just outside the café, holding his head in his hands. He looked so sad, and she felt that it was her responsibility to making feel better, though at the same time knowing that she would never do the things he wanted her to do in order to make him feel better. She just didn't have it in her to pretend to be attracted to someone, for however long, that she wasn't attracted to.

*****

When Darcy reached Marcus and found him crying to himself, she didn't know what to do with herself. He seemed so sad and so confused about what to do and feel that she felt guilty for having to be the one to deny him or what he wanted. But what else was she to do when she didn't have the feelings for him that he wanted her to have and that he had for her. It didn't seem fair and she almost wished, as she crouched down beside him, that she did feel something and could take away all his tears with a deep, lingering kiss that they would both enjoy, but she knew that she never would enjoy any kiss with him. And Darcy realised then, that perhaps Marcus knew that and that was his reason for being so upset. "Marcus...are you alright?" She asked softly, sitting on her knees in front of him, the look of pain and desperation in his eyes as he looked up at her something she wished she never had to see. They were once good friends, the closest they could be without stepping over that 'relationship' boundary...what had happened to that? What happened to the laughter and the jokes they used to share? What happened to all those late nights they used to stay up at the boarding house making hot chocolate and sitting talking seriously in the kitchen...the times they used to dance together so she could get practice for her dance classes, he had been her best friend in the entire world and now, to look at them over the past few days, they seemed more like enemies.