"What the hell where you thinking of doing?" hissed Five, materializing in the middle of the room with a crackle. As recently had become her habit, Marben jolted but otherwise showed no sign of surprise; her gaze was impassive when it shifted on the boy, and Five immediately knew she had been waiting for him.
"Oh, hello to you too, dear! You look good!".
"Cut the crap, Marben, and answer my question!". Marben turned her head slightly but kept her eyes fixed on him, in a gesture that Five had often seen her do when, if verbally attacked, she wanted her opponent to become doubtful of their own thoughts and words.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, without losing her composure.
"You know!" the boy hissed back.
"I saw it right, then, you want to talk about how your father humiliated a kid in front of the crowd, today, and how you did nothing to stop him from doing so". That was exactly what had happened but hearing Marben's voice load up with so much disapproval to phrase it, albeit calmly and without judgment, made the whole affair sound shameful, Five thought, his determination dimming a little. "To answer you question, my sweetest love, I was thinking what hasn't gone through your mind at all: that that boy was in serious trouble and needed someone to help him".
"Did you challenge my Father to teach me a lesson, then?".
"What the heck, exactly, do you have to do with it, if I challenge your father?".
"STOP PLAYING DUMB!" roared Five at that point. The girl's gaze turned icy, but he was too angry to feel guilty about screaming and went on. "That shitty old maniac, the very stuff of which your nightmares are made if I'm not mistaken, is gonna make you endure torture if you'll do something wrong in front of him. You think you're being smart, with your caustic glances and playing good samaritan?".
"Don't take it out on me, if you lack the guts to raise your head and do the right thing" Marben accused him, while everything about her remained motionless but her unnaturally calm voice and her wide eyes spoke of overwhelming anger. Her words hurt Five, but what hurt him most was to realize that she was right.
"Look. I'm sorry for disappointing you. Really" somberly said the boy then, "But now be reasonable and acknowledge you've been a fool, please". Marben choose instead to sneer at him.
"Why, because you say so?".
"BECAUSE IT'S EVIDENT!".
"YOU BET YOUR ARSE IT IS!" the girl came out with, finally losing her temper "And I know it by myself, so come down from your high horse, you've got nothing to teach me!".
"I'll ask again, then. Why the fuck did you feel the need to publicly point out that my Father is a jerk?".
"Because. It was right. To do. So" barked the girl, instilling in each word all the frustration Five's reticence to understand that very simple concept was causing her. "And I don't give a damn about your blasted father. Believe it or not, none of this consisted in doing him a wrong, I just wanted to help the boy".
"The old man's dangerous. You should continue keeping a low profile" complained her boyfriend which, by contrast, seemed to be getting increasingly anxious; he loosened his tie and started pacing back and forth in front of the window like a lost soul.
"And for how long, yet? I'm getting fed up".
"Only until the end of the school year". Marben laughed, bitterly so.
"Of course, how lucky I am! It's just gonna be another eight months!".
"It's for your own safety!" stressed Five, ceasing his wandering to look at her. As an answer, the blonde girl waved him off.
"I'll take care of my own safety like I've always done, thank you very much".
"I want to help!" Five hissed through clenched teeth.
"How? Like you did with that kid today?" bitingly replied Marben, dripping with scorn.
This time the accusation felt like a slap in the face, to Five: finding his girlfriend's bitter gaze unbearable he lowered his own, and when a desolating sense of defeat kicked in, his cheeks started to burn and his eyes to prickle. He realized he had been a real coward at the parade, and that Marben had not only been disappointed by him, but now even seemed to despise him. Five also understood that he deserved her contempt, that there was nothing he could do to make her change her mind, and that love was unfair because it was causing him pain even though he was sincerely repentant.
A new, searing wave of anger broke loose in his chest, right after his moment of self-pity, spreading fast along the rest of his body. He loathed himself for being a coward, he loathed himself for being so oppressed by Marben's displeasure. The truth was that there were no excuses for him, just like for his Father, and he hated that too.
"You know what?" the boy asked after a long moment of silence in which both of them had thought the air had seemed crossed by small electric shocks, "I think you're talking like that because you let that childish bullshit of a brawl get to your head and now you think you're invincible. I'm sorry to break it to you, but my Father is far worse than some cheap drunkard".
"You're obsessed with that. Don't worry, I don't have the God Complex, that's an Umbrella Kid kind of thing" derisively replied Marben, shaking her head. It was Five's turn to sneer.
"Don't pull us in, sweetie: you've been looking for trouble everywhere since that evening, and...".
"You don't try to make me feel guilty about what happened today, arsehole!" Marben forcefully interrupted him, jumping off the bed and standing in front of him, even if far away. "I'm so pissed, so...revolted by what you Hargreeves did! And you still have the gall to come here to reprimand me as if what I did was wrong?!".
"Okay then. I'd better go, since today I seem to make you feel like puking" Five conceded, giving up and turning to open the window. He wasn't in the right state of mind to make a successful jump.
"Yes, it would be a great opportunity to do at least one sensible thing in the span of the whole day!" the girl reproached form the other side of the dorm; throwing her a furtive glance, the boy saw she was pulling at the bedsheets.
"Enough, Marben. Calm down, I'm leaving".
"Do please hurry up, so maybe I can get some sleep" was all Marben apparently had to say. Five hesitated for a moment, torn between going without saying anything else and trying to sweeten the departure a little. He didn't want to go and leave things that way between them.
"I don't think it would be wise, for me, to come here tomorrow night..." he finally decided to mutter, tentatively. The girl, however, kept showing him her back, unbuttoning her blouse as if he wasn't even there.
"Do whatever the fuck you want, Five Hargreeves. See if I care".
"Stop calling me like that. It's not my name".
"Right" Marben bitterly laughed after a moment of pause, "Because apparently I don't even know that, about you".
.oO°Oo.
"Hey, Marben. There's a girl, over there, who wants to talk to you" said the girl with the braids, thin lips and almond-shaped eyes. Marben looked at her as if they were seeing each other for the first time, but she actually had a vague idea of who the girl was (aspiring First Chair of the School's orchestra, a year younger than her and the Girls, talented, ambitious, shy); the girl, conversely, seemed to know very well who Marben was, because not only had she spotted her without making mistakes, but she also kept looking at her in amazement, constantly adjusting her own uniform with the hand that wasn't currently pointing at the perimeter wall.
"Uh...t-thanks. Thanks...".
"Helen!" the girl readily prompted, with a dazzling, eager smile. Marben smiled back, getting up from the bench, and briefly squeezed her shoulder.
"Hello Helen. Thanks again".
As she walked away from her lunch, momentarily abandoned on the table, Marben managed to catch a fragment of Lear and Myery's exchange ("Guess who's the girl everyone likes? It's not friggin' fair!" - "'Everyone'? Does it mean you're sweet on my cousin too?"), but the curiosity to find out who the mysterious girl beyond the wall was made her dismiss it immediately. Vanya didn't usually come to look for her during lunch break to cancel a lesson, and all of her closest friends were already in the School's backyard...what if it was Turandot?
"Hello? Who's there?" the blonde girl called out when she reached the perimeter wall, while with suspicious eyes she searched the multitude of girls who crowded the lawn, looking for Helen.
"Hi, it's...Allison". Marben immediately regretted the mystery, and didn't hesitate to let it be understood.
"Oh. Yay".
"Sorry, what?".
"Nothing. What are you doing, here? Did your brother send you?" the blonde girl listlessly asked, leaning her back against the wall and mulishly crossing her arms on her chest.
"Which one?".
"Alright, I'm leaving".
"No, wait!".
"Whaaaaaaaaaat doooooo yooooouuu waaaaaaaaannt?" brayed Marben at that point, lengthening the syllables to excess so that it was unequivocal how much it was annoying her to sacrifice her lunch break in order to blather empty chatter.
"To know how you're doing" resolutely replied Allison from the other side of the wall. Marben boggled.
"...why?".
"Must there be a reason?".
"Allison, are you hitting on me?".
"NO! I just wanna make sure you're alright!".
"Why on Earth...wait, it was Five, wasn't he? He really did send you".
"...kind of. No, that's not true. He'd probably kill me if he knew I came here to tell you how miserable he is".
"Then?" the blonde girl snorted, more and more annoyed.
"Like I said, he's been insufferable the past two days, and something about the argument you two had leaked out, so...".
"So did you worry about him? Or me?" Marben laughed, incredulous.
"Believe it or not" Allison shrugged. "Listen, I know we've been unnecessarily cruel to that boy at the parade and that it really upset you. Five knows it too. And if you saw how guilty it's making him feel, you wouldn't doubt it".
Marben didn't doubt it at all, she knew that Five was a kind-hearted boy, but she didn't want to tell that to his sister. After all, mere apologies, however sincere they were, couldn't heal disappointment or give freedom back to the kid from the parade.
"Fine, so?".
"Just...try to be understanding with him if you can, okay? It's not easy for us, to tell what is right and what is wrong. We can only do what our Father orders us to, the way he wants us to do it" Allison ruefully said.
"I know it's tough for you guys. But I'm still very disappointed with Five".
"Can you at least try to forgive him?".
"Of course I can".
"Are you ok?" Allison asked, after a brief pause.
"What difference does it make? And sorry, but if it wasn't Five to sent you to ask me, what do you care?".
"I want you to be fine. Are you?" Allison reiterated, tiredly but also patiently.
"I am. I mean, so and so. But mainly yes".
"Great. I'll be going, then...".
"Right. Thanks. Bye".