The Colors You Gave Me TOMCO

Anxiety

C.V: This is a short little filler to transition to my next chapter because of how long I've left this inactive. There will be a real chapter in the next few days

Star knew Marco. She knew that he was nervous when it came to most things, and that he was very specific in the few things he was confident in. She knew people made him nervous, specifically people larger and stronger than him, so she knew that Tom's outburst would have some kind of affect on him.

This was more than she expected though. Marco had always cared about how he looked, to an extent. He liked his hoodie, t-shirt, and jeans, but it went past that. His hair was always cut and brushed to look the exact same way, his clothes were always properly ironed, and his nails were cut and filed to the perfect shape.

Wrinkles. She noticed those first when Marco came down from his room, because his parents had of course invited Star in for breakfast. His jeans and gray sweater had enough wrinkles to be noticeable to someone who knew the way Marco was. He had combed his hair, but it was still a bit of a mess. Marco had sat down for breakfast, staring listlessly at the wall. He didn't even look in her direction. He looked exhausted.

"Marco?"

Star didn't get a response. The Latino just shoveled overly sugared cereal into his mouth. Had one run in with her jerk of an ex really caused this?

Soon it was time for them to leave, and Star had to drag Marco out of the house. That was a first. Every time they had agreed to meet with someone the summer before, Marco had been the one dragging her around. River was driving again, so they would thankfully be on time. If Star had tried to walk to school with Marco they would be late and the Latino would end up complaining about his perfect attendance. When he finally started acting like himself anyway.

At school Marco was cautious and paranoid, jumpy at best. She knew that he was trying to avoid Tom, and for good reason.

Tom was angry. Absolutely livid really. How dare some random new kid act like Star didn't belong to him. That's why Tom was working on his anger, and he had been so close to graduating his anger management. Until yesterday. Somehow it had gotten back to Brian that he had an outburst, and now Tom was back to square one.

Just the thought of the Latino had Tom's blood boiling, and his anger building. He had been pacing down the hallway during a break to let off some steam when Tom saw the very cause of his anger. The other boy seemed smaller than he did the day before. Tom almost felt bad, but then he saw the other male talking to Star, and any pity he had went away.

So he spent the week terrorizing the teen. Who obviously didn't tell Star because she didn't run to his defense, no matter how many times Tom screamed, shoved, or punched the kid. The only thing that really made Tom question what he was doing was when the kid would look at him with big sad eyes, the deep brown making his breath catch in his throat. It was like Tom was abusing a small animal. The Marco kid reminded him of a rabbit the way he cowered.