Double update of 17&18. Go back a chapter if your notification took you here!
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One Week, Three Days Later
"This doesn't make any fucking sense, blondie."
"Yes it does, Leo. You're just not absorbing it."
"Because it's bullshit! Why the fuck do we need to know about bacteria anyway? It's bacteria. It doesn't exist."
"Yes, it does!"
"Show me then."
"Under a microscope, I can-"
"Government BS, it's all fake. If I can't see it with my own eyes, then I don't believe it."
"Guys," Marley pleaded, resting her forehead on her open textbook, "please be quiet. I have about twenty five more questions to get through and I already have a headache."
"How'd you finish ten already?" Tristan demanded from beside her, while Leo grunted across the metal table from her, Gabby beginning to go back to tutoring him.
"Honestly?" Marley gestured to Leo and Gabby's rowdiness in front of her, her expression tired and defeated, "I have no idea. Can it just be Friday?"
"Only five more days. Plus, we're doing yoga on Friday so that will help. According to Cosmo, it's supposed to increase libido, and Brendan is all over that."
Marley blushed, thankful that Tristan couldn't see it from where her face was still buried in her textbook, "Is there nothing that Cosmo hasn't covered yet? And I don't understand you two."
"Hey, at least we're not Kelly and Ryan. We all have witnessed those two scream at each other and then they're in Ryan's room for a few hours directly after the argument."
Marley lifted her head and rolled her eyes when Kelly looked up from her laptop, shooting Tristan a sharp look with narrowed brown eyes, "You and Brendan are, and I quote, exclusive but not officially dating but also technically together, and you're calling us dysfunctional?"
"Bree and Jason seem to be the only relationship that makes sense right now," Sarah sighed from Kelly's left, "Gabby and Ethan are weird, Tristan and Brendan aren't even dating, I'm single which is shitty, Kelly and Ryan are fighting like...always, and Marley and Aiden-"
"Don't," she cut Sarah off brutally, making the entire table atmosphere go tense and cold, "Just don't, Sarah."
Her blue eyes turned soft with guilt when they locked with Marley's hazel ones, "I'm sorr-"
"Just...it's fine. Can we work, please?"
Gabby's head shot up from across Marley, "I can tell Aid-you've done your half already. You're wearing yourself-"
Marley slammed her textbook shut, her eyes burning with rage at how everyone was looking at her, waiting for her to explode like they had been for the last two weeks - walking on careful feet as if she was a landmine with more and more gentleness every passing day.
She put her reading glasses on her head and stood from the bench.
Because Marley had enough.
"I'm done. I put up with you guys treating me like glass for long enough."
"Marley-" Tristan grabbed her arm but she shook her friend off, already grabbing her textbooks and papers in a frenzy.
"Can you all just leave it alone?" She pleaded, before she was turning on her heel and storming from the school building huffing with rage, that was nothing more than a cover for grief.
With shaking hands she shoved the right door open with her body, taking the steps out of the brick building two at a time. Her peers stepped out of the way from her rampage, whispering as soon as her back was turned. It only made her feel more powerless. More out of control.
Instead of heading back to the girls cabin, she took another path on behind the school, where the forest was more dense. Even though it was only 2:00pm and the sun was still shining, it had been getting colder and walking beneath the tree cover, darker now too.
Like most parts of her days lately.
She shifted her books to her left arm and tugged her phone out of her back pocket, dialling a number she now knew by heart. After a couple rings, he answered.
"Hey, Marley. How's the homework going?"
"Ian. Uh, okay. I guess. I just want an update on you. How's Dylan's new job?"
She heard Ian sigh into the phone, but he didn't say anything other than what she asked of him to.
"A factory isn't the best situation to begin with, but with his plans to go to college next year he needs the money, and it pays well."
"That's good," she squeaked, feeling a familiar, sore burning in her throat that she forced herself to stop thinking about, "how about school? And the star gazing group? You told me yesterday that you guys are going on a retreat or something this weekend?"
Marley found herself in the first empty clearing that she came across, dropping her books on a large rock, sliding down to sit against it and playing with the grass.
"School is school. There's a new girl that I've been sitting with a lunch. She's genuine, we have the same interests-"
Marley jumped on the spot, her smile wide, "Ian that's great! I'm glad that you've got someone at school to hang out with, and I bet Aid-" she cut herself off quickly, rushing to fill the silence and cover up her slip, "-bet she'd be interested in joining that star group. Did you ask her?"
Marley curled her knees up to her chest, swallowing harshly.
Ian cleared his throat so loudly she heard it, "Yeah. I did. She's coming on the retreat with us this weekend. It's a park for a viewing of the meteorite passing by this Sunday. How about you, what has been going on at camp?"
"Not much. That I know of, anyway."
"Marley you can't just do homework in your room all the time. It's not healthy."
Marley had been seconds away from telling Ian that she'd been researching extensively about astronomy the last few sleepless nights, but knew that Ian's first response wouldn't be excitement but rather disapproval. It's not healthy to hole up in her room and shove more knowledge into her brain to drown out more unpleasant thoughts. But it's all she knows how to do anymore.
Drown them out.
Marley flinched, ripping at the grass harshly, "I just wish people would stop treating me differently. I left my friends because of this exact lecture you're diving into with me, too. I don't want to talk about it. Why is that so hard for people to understand?"
"It's not," he sighed, "and I'm sorry. I won't bring it up again. How's your father? Did they end up rushing his trial date?"
"No. It's still not until August of next year. They were going to, but you know that fight he got in with his cell mate basically messed that up for him."
"I'm not disappointed he's still in jail, Marley. Not by a long shot. By that time next year, he'll do time regardless and you'll be at Brown and long gone."
She smiled softly at that small ray of sunshine, at that hope that she doesn't have to be around him again, "Yeah. It feels...lighter, I guess? To know that I'm done with him. That he can't hurt me anymore."
"You beat him, Marley, and your past. You won. That glowing recommendation letter Mrs. Underwood gave you last week, the early acceptance to an Ivy. That's no small feat to accomplish. The acceptance rate is what..."
"Nine percent," she replied with a little grin, it felt good to smile again, "Nine percent. I mean, I've been getting my early acceptances by email from state colleges. So has Gabby but like her with Yale...Brown is just. It's always been the only school."
"Jesus," Ian laughed, and it wasn't the same as his laugh, but it was close enough to make her need to take deep breaths and close her eyes, push away the pain until she was okay again.
"Oh! Um..did you get that kitchen job? The one you spoke to Jay about?"
Marley nodded until she realized he couldn't see it, "Yeah. I won't be in the open, I'll just be working in the back, minimum wage. I need to start paying Bryan back while I can."
"Just don't push yourself too hard-"
"What about you? Starbucks wonder how they survived without Ian Matthews all this time?"
"Well they said they're going to call me in the next few days. It was a group interview, but I think it went well. Dylan's suggestion that I play up my 'gayness' worked I think. Starbucks is all indie and Tumblr, so minority's are their demographic."
She laughed out loud, and heard him laughing too, from the other end of the line, "Tell me what you wore, oh my gods."
-
Marley's average is at ninety-eight percent. Any assignment, any test, she's studying meticulously and more than she needs to. With lab partner rotations just around the corner, Marley couldn't decide whether to be relived or disappointed.
It's all she got. Her only chance to see him. Her only chance to feel him close to her.
She hadn't been going out as much as she used to the past week. Gabby was with her in solidarity for a while, but after a few days she was heading out with the girls during the days and doing the camp activities.
Because by giving all her time to Marley, Ethan and her slipped through the cracks. They don't talk so much anymore, and she blames herself terribly for that.
She blames herself for everything lately.
"-Secret Santa."
Marley looked up from her shoes, knocked out of her stupor and into what the girls were talking about that Monday morning.
"Secret Santa?" She echoed quietly.
"Yup. Conner announced it during dinner at the mess hall a couple days ago," Bree explained, rubbing her bare hands together.
"Can we choose not to participate?" Marley pleaded, earning a sharp look from all five girls in the circle.
"Okay Mrs. The Grinch Stole Christmas, might as well knock the tree down on decorating day and vacuum up our hopes and dreams."
Kelly whacked Sarah in the arm for her typical dramatics, rolling her eyes.
"It's a twenty dollar gift, Marley. You can buy candy or something if you're uncertain," her best friend pointed out from beside her, nudging her with her elbow.
Marley's stomach clenched with unease, turning her head to lock eyes with Gabby's green ones for a small, indiscernible second. Long enough for her to figure it out.
"Oh, I mean come on, Marley. That's not going to happen. The chances are what? Like-"
"99.4% of getting someone else. Anyone else," she exhaled, already having calculated it in her head as soon as she heard the words 'Secret Santa'.
"Basically impossible, Marley. Now Sarah's right, you can't be the Grinch who stole Christmas at Camp Where The Hell Are We."
Marley turned to Gabby, giving her a small smile of submission. Still, she felt like she was being weighed down - like she always did nowadays.
And that 0.006% was crushing her big time.
"Hey."
Marley jolted at the male voice behind her, turning around to see a dark haired, muscled guy, who was unfamiliar to her. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, but his expression was friendly enough.
"Um, hi?"
Beside her, Gabby studied this guy too, just as confused and thrown off guard. He was attractive, but Marley only thought that from a detached, impersonal standpoint.
No one matched up to him. No one came close.
"Sorry," he smiled at her sheepishly, rocking back on his heels, "I've just seen you around before and wanted to introduce myself, I guess."
Marley then saw the way he was looking at her, this hopeful gleam in his eyes, and took a small step backwards, "Oh, well it's nice to meet you," she muttered, looking down at her shoes.
"I don't mean to make you uncomfortable, I'm just the kind of guy to go for it. I'm Noah."
Marley felt bad for being so standoffish and rude, so she lifted her head and spared him a small smile, "Marley," she greeted.
He gave her a wide smile, "I was also curious about your shirt," he gestured to the graphic tee she was wearing.
"I'd tell you a joke about noble gases, but I wouldn't get a reaction."
She grinned at the hilarity of it — she and Gabby have matching ones, "Noble gases are odorless, colorless, nonflammable, and monotonic gases that have low chemical reactivity. They're basically happy the way they are. So they have little to no reactions with other elements on the periodic table."
Noah's eyebrows shot to the sky, "I didn't catch any of that. Is this your thing? These t-shirts?"
She shrugged, "Kind of. Yesterday, I was wearing a shirt that said E = hv, let there be light."
When Noah frowned, she quickly elaborated, "It's the Planck–Einstein relation, which states that the energy of a photon, E, known as photon energy, is proportional to its frequency, v. H signifies the Planck constant. It is basically an equation about light and its nature. If I tried to explain it further: the Planck constant, or the photoelectric effect, Planck's law of black body radiation...it'd kind of take a while."
Noah looked flabbergasted at everything she just said. Gabby was snickering from beside her, the only one who understood what she meant. In their free time they like learning, especially about scientific and mathematical theories.
"Wow. You're like, a genius, Marley," he said in awe.
In the back of her head, a warning alarm sounded, so she quickly looked back down at her shoes, "It's just research and learning. Like the photoelectric effect is just what happens as a result of the transfer of energy from light to an electron."
"Over my head, again. It's crazy to me how you're beautiful, smart, genuine, and funny. I can see what he saw in you now."
Marley's heart rate spiked, anxiety stilling her immediately.
"You're not going to see anything but my fist if you don't get the fuck away from her."
***
!! SOMEONE'S BACK ❤️ !!
Next update, 19!!