"Where am I going?" He put his car in drive waiting for me to pull up GPS.
"I'll tell you how to get there, we will have to walk to it though."
He nodded and the entire way there was silent. He didn't say anything and I didn't either.
I watched Marshall running through everything in his mind. His jaw was clenched and then it would unclench. His eyes were going a mile a minute across the road.
"Stop here, we will have to walk," I said and he put the car in park.
We walked side by side and he was messing with his hands like he was anxious, I have never seen Marshall be so fidgety like this before. I could feel his anxiety next to me and I felt so bad.
"Don't freak out okay," I prefaced before the force field came down and Marshall looked confused. I realized he couldn't see it, he didn't have access to be here.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him in with me and he made a gasp looking everywhere.
He spun around slowly taking everything in, "What is this place?"
"My real parents house and land I guess. It's mine, come on," I dragged him inside the house and into the living room and sat him down. "You must have questions."
His eyes finally met mine, "I have a lot."
"Okay go," I sat next to him and he slowly turned next to me.
"How long have you been?" he trailed off like he couldn't finish the sentence.
"Well my whole life obviously, but my powers since the night I said I dropped my phone in the lake, Odessa attacked me and my powers kind of kicked in."
His eyes lit up, "I told Asher you looked different!"
"Thank you for noticing, next?" I dismissed what he had said. He noticed how I looked and it was weird.
"You are Guardian and Atlas was an alien. You were hiding this the entire time?"
"You knew though," I pointed out.
"I had a guess, now it's very real," he was still sorting through everything in his head.
I held my hands in my lap, "Do you view me differently?"
Marshall's head quickly turned and his eyes were wandering all over me, "You still the Leah I know?"
I hesitated, "Yeah?"
"Then no. If you are the Leah who risked her own friendships to save the world, then yes. If you are still you then I don't care. It's just weird that it's true. I thought maybe I was crazy."
His hands hesitated to reach out to mine and he noticed something in the corner, "Is that my hoodie?"
I turned my head and realized I forgot to give it back to Marshall and I got up and picked it up and handed it to him.
He didn't take it and pushed it back, "Keep it, might need it for next time," he smiled.
I held it in my arms and turned around and felt myself smiling.
"You heal fast?" Marshall asked and I turned back around leaving my smile behind.
I held out my wrist, "Kind of? Depends, if it's human inflicted no, heals right away but if it's alien related it depends. I had burn cream and it helped speed it up."
I lifted up my shirt a little and showed him my sides. They had from Multiplex and he leaned in looking. His hand almost went to touch it but he didn't.
"Where did these come from?" his hands ran through his hair with worry.
I moved my shirt back down, "Multiplex."
"Leah-"
"I'm fine, but not all things heal quickly is what I meant. Come downstairs," I said and motioned him to follow me.
He followed quickly behind and he let out a small wow at the sight of it all and the console came online. Marshall immediately ran to it and was infatuated with it.
"I asked you for advice about how to fix this, if you can manage to find a manual in this room you can have at it," I offered.
He turned around with light in his eyes, "Really? I can come back?"
I nodded and laughed, "If you want to come you will have to tell me, I'm the only one who has a key. I'll have to figure out something but of course. I mean you know now..."
"Thank you," He said and stepped forward to me.
I felt my cheeks heat up, "Thank you for not saying anything. It meant a lot."
"One more question?" He slyly said and I nodded, turning around to pretend to look at something.
Marshall has never made me feel so nervous before. I always thought he was the annoying brother's best friend who was always at our house. Now I was spending so much time with Marshall and I decided to show him this part of my life.
And he is letting me keep the sweatshirt. He gave me his sweatshirt. He gave me his sweatshirt. HE. GAVE. ME. HIS. SWEATSHIRT?!??!?!?!?!
No, I was overthinking it.
He was always worried about me. He always asked about me.
No. Not going to even think about it all.
"What made you sick in my house? And is Asher an alien too?"
"I'm the only alien, my parents are actually my Aunt Lily and Uncle Liam. And I have no idea. Could you check and see what it might be? Or maybe we could figure it out from there. The only reason I think it's alien related is because it affected me, not you."
Marshall moved next to me, "I'll see what I can find. How am I not... affecting you considering I live there?"
I scoffed, "Marshall, when are you ever home?"
His face turned blank as though he regretted asking me, "Fair. Where am I going to stay? I don't want to make you sick."
He was thinking about me. He didn't want to affect me. I was overthinking things and I need to stop.
I can't like Marshall.
But I can.
He is such a good guy, one of the best actually. He kept my secret, always asked if I was okay, never pushed me about my secret, he held me as I cried, didn't say anything about me crying in his arms.
I liked Marshall, I showed him this place, I went to him when I needed him. I never said no to hanging out with him.
I liked Marshall, and I was going to give him the key to this house so he could stay.
I took off the necklace and I grabbed his hand and placed it into his, "You can stay here."
He held it in his hand and was examining it and clasped the necklace around his neck. He fixed it by turning it around. "Why are you giving this to me?"
It felt weird not having it on, "I trust you and I still need to be able to hang out with you, right?"
I hate that I said that out loud, his ego was going to go through the roof.
He smiled like a little kid, "You want to hang out with me?"
He bumped my shoulder and I bumped him back, "Whatever."
I started to walk away from him and go back upstairs until he stopped me before the entrance of the stairs, "You like having me around?"
I scoffed, "Never exactly said that just that I need to hang out with you because we have to figure out all this stuff. Move please or I will make you"
He leaned his head back, "Sure North, whatever you keep telling yourself."
I powered on my powers and picked Marshall up by the arms and moved him to the side and walked up the stairs.
"She really wasn't kidding," Marshall whispered to himself and marched up the stairs right after me.
I think I was going to like having Marshall around, but I missed Atlas. Not that anyone could ever replace him but I missed having someone know my secret.