It was just another Friday afternoon – you were sitting in your English class, listening to your teacher go on and on about yet another project. Truthfully, you weren't really paying attention, knowing the handout Mr. Goldstein was going to give you would have everything you needed to know anyway. However, when he mentioned the word partner, you perked up slightly.
You breathed a small sigh of relief when he announced that he would be assigning the groups – you didn't have any friends and you knew that when anyone asked you to be your partner, it was only because they knew they wouldn't actually be doing any work.
"Miss Y/L/N," your teacher said, taking your attention away from your thoughts, "You'll be working with Mr. Traver." You let out the breath you didn't realize you were holding.
You heard everyone groan quietly at hearing they weren't paired with you, but in the midst of those groans, you could hear laughing as well. You looked over your shoulder and saw Marshall's friends poking fun at him, making you sigh lightly. You turned back to face the front of the room – not even noticing the way Marshall was watching you – and sunk down in your seat.
Marshall Traver was high school royalty – practically destined to receive the title of prom king. There was never a moment when girls weren't hanging all over him in the hallways. Not that you minded, of course. If the attention on Marshall kept people away from putting attention on you, you certainly weren't going to complain.
You'd always been the target for bullies – you had been ever since freshman year. You thought that as time went on, they would get tired of picking on you and move on to someone else, but they never did. When you weren't being pushed around by the jocks, you were being verbally tormented by the popular girls. It was a never-ending cycle of shoves into walls and "Did Mommy let you dress yourself this morning?"
When the bell finally rung to signal the end of another school day, you quickly gathered up your books and hurried out the door – you tried not to stick around for very long after school because that was when people liked to pick on you the most. While you were standing at your locker, packing up your homework, you heard someone approach you and lean against the locker next to yours.
They didn't make a bit of noise, but it still made you flinch, thinking it was another bully. Your head snapped up and you found Marshall looking at you with a curious expression on his face, obviously wondering why you had jumped. You both looked at each other for a moment before he said anything.
"So," Marshall chirped, crossing his arms over his stomach, "Since Mr. Goldstein only gave us two weeks to do our project, I figured we should probably go ahead and get started tomorrow."
"W-We?" you murmured, your voice so low that you didn't think he heard it.
"Yeah, we," he replied, "We're partners, Y/N. Did you think I was gonna make you do it by yourself?" You swallowed lightly when he said your name.
"I don't know... I just thought..." you trailed off.
"Well, I'm not," he told you, "So tomorrow?" You nodded your head slowly. "Cool," he smiled, "Do you want to come over to my house or should I go to yours? Or we could go to the library or something if you're more comfortable with that."
"Won't people see us if we go to the library?" you asked quietly, wondering why he would want to be seen with you outside of school.
"Come on, Y/N," he said, "Who goes to the library anymore?" You couldn't help but giggle, making him smile.
"Your house is fine," you said.
"Alright," he nodded, "Do you know where it is?" You shook your head no and he pulled out his phone. "Here," he said after creating a new contact and holding it out for you to take, "Put your number in. I'll text you tomorrow when you can come over." You did as he asked, blushing slightly when your hands touched as you gave the phone back to him. "I'll see you tomorrow, Y/N," he smiled, stuffing his phone back into his pocket and waving as he walked away.
~
Early the next afternoon, Marshall texted you with his address, telling you to come over whenever you were ready. You had been up all morning, getting an early start on your project. You didn't think he'd actually text you, to be quite honest, figuring he just said he wasn't going to make you do the work alone so you didn't feel as bad about having to be his partner.
You thought about it for a moment before getting up to change out of your pajamas. Since he texted you, you felt that you should go to his place anyway.
Reading the directions Google maps gave you, you learned that Marshall only lived a couple blocks away, so you decided to walk. It was a bit chilly that day, but you didn't mind – you simply pulled a sweater over your head and put on your jeans before slipping on a pair of shoes. You put everything you would need into your backpack and headed out the door after letting your parents know where you were going.
Once you arrived at Marshall's house, you knocked on the door and patiently waited for someone to answer. It took a few moments, but Marshall finally got there, cheerfully greeting you and moving out of the way so you could come inside. He led you to the dining room where he already had his books lying on the table.
"My parents aren't home right now," he told you, "I hope that's okay."
You nodded, sitting down and beginning to take your books out of your bag. You had put your notebook in your textbook so you didn't lose your place and when you put it on the table, you heard Marshall sigh.
"Did you get started already?" he asked, making you look up at him. You nodded sheepishly, sinking down in your chair. "Y/N," he smiled slightly, not wanting you to think he was actually upset with you, "I told you; We're gonna work on this together, so you don't need to do any extra work."
"Sorry," you whispered, looking down at your hands.
"You know, Y/N," Marshall said softly, "You really need to stop letting people take advantage of you."
"Easy for you to say," you muttered, "People won't do anything if you tell them no."
You dug your pen out of your bag and opened your textbook, hoping Marshall would get the hint that you didn't want to talk about it anymore. Fortunately, he did, simply sighing again and opening his own book.
~
A little over half an hour later, you and Marshall were still working. It had been mostly silent, only a few instances of "Do you think we should include this?" thrown around here and there.
But as time went on, you could feel Marshall beginning to pay more attention to you than to the words in front of him. You finally looked up at him to see if he was actually staring and he was, his head barely tilted to the right.
"Do you need help with something?" you asked him. He cocked an eyebrow as if to ask what you meant. "You keep staring at me," you answered the unspoken question, "Figured you wanted something."
"I do," he said confidently, "A someone though, not a something."
"Well, you can go get them after we're done here then."
"Don't think she'll want much to do with me after we're done here."
"Why?" you raised an eyebrow, "She getting tired of waiting? We can go ahead and call it a day if you want."
"She's doesn't seem very interested actually," he shrugged.
You scoffed lightly, "I doubt that."
"Why do you doubt it?" he asked, closing his book. You rolled your eyes.
"Because boys are clueless," you answered, looking back down at your book, "Never notices when a girl likes them."
You were reading the material, jotting down notes every now and then, and you could still feel Marshall's stare. You sighed lightly, but continued trying to ignore it.
When another few minutes passed and he still hadn't so much as glanced at the book in front of him, you finally spoke up.
"Marshall," you looked at him again, "Seriously. Why do you keep staring at me?"
"Because you're fascinating," he chuckled, "I like to look at fascinating things."
"I'm fascinating?" you gave him a somewhat sarcastic laugh, "Okay, I'll play along. What's so fascinating about me that you can't manage to look away for two seconds?"
"Everything," he answered simply, "But right now, it's the way you're reading that book. You're chewing on your lip and twirling the same strand of hair around your finger over and over. You seem so lost in the words you're reading – like if you stopped and thought about something else even for a second, everything you read would just disappear. I could write a book about how fascinating I find you, you know. Kinda makes me wonder how you would act if you were as into a person as you are the things you read." You stared at him for a moment before looking back down at your book.
You never thought someone could be captivated by the way you read, and to now know that that someone was Marshall made your heart flutter. It confused you as to why he would pay so much attention to you when he could have literally any girl he wanted, but you would be lying if you said you didn't enjoy it.
"We have to do this project, Marshall," you swallowed, not really sure what else to do.
Marshall stood up, moving around the table and taking new residence on the chair next to you. He took the pen out of your hand and set it down, then wrapped his thumb, index, and middle fingers around your chin. Your heart skipped a beat as he lifted your head back up so he could look into your eyes.
"What do I have to do to get you to look at me like that?" he whispered. You didn't know where the comment came from, but once the first word left your mouth, you didn't bother stopping the rest.
"Maybe try to not be so clueless," you told him. You saw the corner of his mouth twitch into a smirk.
"Would I be crazy if I asked to kiss you right now?" he asked.
"Completely," you stated, leaning forward and pressing your lips to his.
~
so this was originally going to be a luke thing but then i got an anon on tumblr that wanted more marshall and now here we are
inspiration: http://fivesaucekisses.tumblr.com/post/128519877759/what-i-questioned-looking-up-from-my-book-and