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Its only been 18 days since they last talked.
Barely more than 2 weeks but it felt like a lifetime to her. She’s sitting alone in her room, it’s 8:20, pretending to be working on homework. She’s listening to the same stupid song. It was the first song she heard after their “friendship” breakup.
Of course the title had to be something super stupid, “Out Loud”, she wished could take back what she said, or have some sort of redo out loud. Not just in her head like she rehearsed every day.
Every time she saw him it was a chance to make things right, but she couldn’t.
Feelings were never something you shared in her house. She learned to suck it up at a young age. Her mom left to head over seas and emotions other than her fiery confidence were shut down.
It was fine for the time being, life was easy with their little group. And then she met a new person and that was great, they had so much and she threw it all away.
Being scared was one thing, losing your other half was another.
But you know what screw it, she’s going to listen to it again and attempt to cry again. She’s not good at crying, but it’s supposed to help in these kinds of situations.
She can’t really remember the last time she cried. Tears are a physical representation of being upset and she was. It was annoying to her that she couldn’t even force herself to show an emotion.
She had never thought of him romantically before this, their relationship had all the perfect elements. He knew things about her nobody else did and she the same to him. If you were watching them, you might as well assume they had been dating for a while now. They did everything together and were virtually inseparable.
Until they were virtually nothing.
Fake dating is a risk, which could make the other person think you want to be real dating.
Being the person she is, it had never crossed her mind that he would see it this way and assumed he would go along with the act until he wanted it to be real.
And now that she knew she wanted it to be real, it was too late.
The next day at school she waved for him to come over so they could talk, but he ignored her.
And he continued his week like they had never happened.
~
She went through another day at school after a weekend of sleepless nights. She tried her best to look normal, her usual matching outfits and put together self.
Her best friend Andi was standing across the room with Jonah. They were giggling over something he had just said.
She could be doing that with Marty, Buffy thought to herself. If she hadn’t gone and ruined everything.
She walked by quickly; that was not somewhere she wanted to be right now.
Basketball practice didn’t start for another 20 minutes and she needed to find a way to kill time. Cyrus was out of sight, so she decided to trudge to her locker and grab a book, head to the locker room early and wait it out.
She turned the combo on her lock and the door was still jammed shut. She kicked it a few times and the door bust open, spewing napkins everywhere.
She stepped back and watch a load of them spill onto the floor. They were everywhere and she extremely confused. A small group of student had shifted their gazes towards her dilemma.
Finally a small note on a bright yellow sticky note came out as well.
Want some extra napkins with that? Being a bitch can get a little messy.
It was done in some sloppy handwriting and her hands became a little shaky. She could feel her eyes beginning to sting and her stomach tossing and turning.
She crumpled up the note and added it to the stack of paper napkins, sprinting off to the girls bathroom.
~
“Go see what it says, I need to make sure she’s okay.” Andi told Jonah as she headed towards the bathroom.
He walked over and through the crowd of students, who were laughing and exchanging the note between each other. Jonah ripped it out of some kids hand; he was disappointed in whoever did this.
Buffy was independent and didn’t always know how to communicate herself to others in the most effective way, but she wasn’t a bitch and didn’t deserve this for turning down the offer to date her best friend.
Jonah had a feeling she just wasn’t ready at the time, but would come around eventually. They were better at being a couple than any real couple he knew.
It was natural for them to act that way.
Marty just didn’t give her the time to figure out her feelings.
Jonah kicked a pile of napkins away and shut Buffy’s locker, immediately scanning the room for Marty, who happened to be walking up the stairs.
He had spotted one of his friends and did a little head nod to start his way towards him. Cyrus and TJ followed on the stairs a few seconds later.
Cyrus waved at Jonah and he signaled for them to follow. Cyrus eyes darted to the crumpled yellow note. Suddenly, Jonah went up and shoved at Marty.
“What the hell man?” Marty said reaching for the note off the ground.
“I should be asking you the same thing! I get that she rejected you and just wanted to stay friends, but didn’t you think ignoring her was enough. That was a straight up dick move.”
“dick move?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
Marty scanned over the note and his eyes went wide. He looked really upset and angered.
“You think I wrote this!?” Marty said infuriated, “I would never say that.”
“Than who would do this? You’re the only person who knew about the napkins thing.” Jonah remembered it from the virtual reality arcade double.
Cyrus glanced at Jonah to tone it down. He had just talked to Marty about this and didn’t believe this was his way of forgiving Buffy.
“I swear it wasn’t me! I’ve only told like 3 people about stuff with Buffy.”
“Who did you tell?” TJ asked. Cyrus had his eyes fixed on the locker area.
“Some guys on the basketball team. I didn’t want them to give her a hard time or anything, since we aren’t really talking.”
“Okay that sounds reasonable. Who exactly though?” Jonah replied.
“It was Reed.” Cyrus said turning back to the boys.
“What? How do you know that?” Jonah said.
“Well he kinda walked past her locker and fist bump some guy, whilst pointing to the pile.”
“Of course, Reed would pull this shit,” Marty asked.
“Does that mean you’re friends with that jerk?”
“I thought I was,” Marty said with a stern look, “Do you know where Buffy is?”
“She ran off. Andi went to find her.”
“Well I gotta handle Reed first.”
And with that Marty started down the hallway.
~
Buffy pushed the restroom door open and headed into the first stall, locking it shut.
She knew he was mad she rejected him, but this was flat out cruel.
She had wanted to cry, but not at school. And I guess when you’re sad, tears fall when they want to.
Luckily the bathroom was empty, since everyone was either at practice or already had left the school. It was cold and she was tired of feeling this way. Like she was in the way, out of place.
Suddenly the door burst open, revealing a pair of duck tape sneakers.
“Buffy?” She went silent. Andi couldn’t know how she was feeling, it would make her seem weak. And she was weak. At least right now she was.
“Buffy I know you’re in there.” Andi said standing in front of the stall.
“I’m fine. You can go back to Jonah.”
“Buffy, you’re not fine. Open the door.”
“Andi seriously, just go away. I’m,” She swallowed hard to clear her throat. “fine. I’m fine.”
“Either you open the door or I crawl under.” Buffy rolled her eyes and wiped her face on her sleeve, sliding the lock to the open position.
She stood up and walked out.
“See, I’m fin…” She was cut off by Andi engulfing her in a huge hug. It was like that and all the sad decided to come out.
She cried for a moment before Andi said anything more.
“What did it say?”
Buffy took a deep breath.
“It was pretty stupid. Something about me being a bitch and the extra napkins thing. I didn’t even know he told anyone about that.”
“That’s awful. I’m so sorry.”
The two sat slumped against the wall.
“Me too. I wish we didn’t end things like this, but I guess thats what happened,” Buffy put her head in her knees, “I just never thought he would do something like this.”
“Buffy, that doesn’t mean him and his friends can treat you like this.”
“Look, I messed up. I messed up so bad. You and Cyrus have such amazing relationships with Jonah and Tj; I had this! But I just had to mess it up like I always do.”
“This isn’t your fault, we can still fix this.”
“No, we can’t. It’s my problem.”
“Buffy..”
“Look, I’ll clean myself up and then just go home.”
“What about basketball practice?” She had forgotten about that.
“I can text coach that I got sick, I just need a break for today.” A break from Marty for sure.
“Okay, do you want me and Cyrus to come over later?”
“Thanks, but I think I just need to be alone for a little while.”
“You call and we’ll be there asap,” Andi helped Buffy off the floor, “i’m so sorry any of this happened.”
“it’s okay. I guess I kind of deserved this for leading him on.” She started off to leave, “If I hadn’t of been so scared, I wouldn’t be in this mess.”
Andi stood up and grabbed her hands, making sure she paid attention.
“Buffy, this is in no way your fault. Marty should have handled that fact that you would rather stay friends better. I don’t want you thinking you could have prevented this.”
“I’ll be okay, I promise.” Buffy looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were puffy and red and faint mascara lines went down her face.
She reached for paper towels and water to clean up before she had to face the music.
“Will you check the hallway for me?” Buffy asked before Andi went to head out, “I don’t want a run in with anybody who could make this day worse.”
“Of course.”
Andi pulled the door open only to be greeted with the cheering of students yelling “fight, fight, fight!”
~
Marty pushed through students and kicked napkins out of his path. He was pissed to say the least. He had told Reed about what went down with Buffy in private. Marty was upset and didn’t know how he was going to move on.
At Reed’s House…
“Dude, she probably wasn’t even worth it,” Reed said rolling his eyes.
“You don’t understand, you’ve gotten every girl for as long as I’ve known you.” Marty looked up at him.
“I’ve got game! What can I say,” Reed responded, “And you could too. You’re just going for the wrong girls.”
“I am not!”
“I barely even know of this Buffy chic, how hot was she for you to be this upset?”
“Reed, it’s not always about how hot a girl is. Even though she is gorgeous.”
“Quit being a simp,” Reed chuckled, “If you wanted to get laid so bad, I can help you find someone.”
“I wasn’t trying to hook up with her! I really liked her for being, well, for being her. We had an actual connection. I really care about her. We hung out all the time. I would always give her my pickles and she gave me her tomato and I would sneak fries from her when she wasn’t looking, but she would pretend she didn’t see me,” Marty was off in his memories, “And I would go get her extra napkins every time! I don’t even know why she wanted them. She would laugh at me every time and have the biggest smile on her face. And she smelled like strawberries..”
Marty was in deep.
“Oh my god this is just pathetic, it’s obvious she was just using you,” Marty gave a puzzled look, “You did all this dating shit together and she didn’t even wanna be with you dumbass.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“You know what you need Marty?” Reed smirked with delight, “You need to get over her and that starts with revenge.”
“Revenge? I don’t know if that would make me feel better.”
“I promise, you will feel 100x better after this,” Reed patted his friend on the back, “And I’ll even help you find a new girl! She’ll know she missed out when she sees you with a new hottie.”
“I guess it would be good to get over her. Find someone who actually likes me.”
“Well then it’s settled! Trust me on this.”
Marty was nervous what Reed had in store, but never could have expected this.
~
Marty charged forward. This was not the way he wanted to get over Buffy.
TJ, Jonah, and Cyrus followed worried of the scene about to unfold in front of them.
“Reed!” Marty shouted over the crowd. It was like smoke was going to come out of his ears.
Reed turned away from his group, with a grin plastered on his face. He began to waltz over, clearly he thought this was hilarious.
“Aye! Marty what’s poppin.” He reached out for a handshake.
“What the hell is all of this!” Marty grabbed a fistful of napkins from the ground.
“Woah woah calm down bud,” Reed was still unfazed. He lowered his voice, “this was that revenge I was talking about. She got what she deserved right?”
“You thought this was a good idea?” Marty looked at him bewildered, “This is not what you said.”
Eyes began to shift to their conversation.
“Hey, don’t cause a scene, everything is fine.” Reed started to sense the anger.
“Everything is not fine! This is not at all how I wanted to deal with getting over Buffy! What the hell is wrong with you.” Marty gave Reed a push.
You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. A few students had lingered in the halls to watch the scene unfold and the crowd was starting to grow.
“Marty, calm down before you do something you don’t mean, you said I could help you with revenge and this is it. She’s never gonna be into you now so it’s time to move on!”
“I asked for help to move on, not you to hurt the person I care about most. Did you even think about how she feels now? She probably thinks I did this!”
“That’s the point. She has to hate you for you to hate her,” Reed pointed behind him, “Now don’t you wanna meet Hailey,” A pretty blonde cheerleader turned around and waved, “Move on from that loser.”
That was the final straw for Marty.
“Don’t talk about her like that!” Marty shoved Reed as hard he could onto the ground.
It was war. Student began chanting “fight, fight, fight!”
The boys threw punches rolling around on the ground, battling for dominance. Marty was pissed and Reed wouldn’t step down from what he had done.
~
“Umm, Buffy I definitely don’t think now is a good time to leave the bathroom.” Andi said with a shocked look on her face.
“What’s going on?” She peered out from a crack in the door to see two boys rolling around on the ground, a large group of students surrounding them. Who was that? A student moved out of the way and she was able to see their faces. Marty and Reed?
Why would they be fighting? Was Marty only trying to make himself look worse to her.
Suddenly Andi caught the eye of Cyrus and waved him over. He came rushing quickly after letting TJ know where he was disappearing to.
“Buffy!”
“Cyrus you can’t come in the girls bathroom.”
“I don’t care. This is a necessary time to break the rules.” He slipped through the door before anyone could notice.
“What’s going on out there?” Andi asked.
“I have so much to tell you! This is one of the craziest days of my life, and that’s saying a lot. You aren’t going to believe..”
“Cyrus!” Andi and Buffy shouted at the same time.
“Slow down and explain why Marty and Reed are starting a fight club in the hallway.” Cyrus took a moment to breathe.
The two girls stood there in anticipation.
“Well, after Andi came looking for you, Jonah went to confront Marty about the note and terrible prank. TJ and I were just coming up the stairs so we followed. Marty had no clue where it had come from.”
“That’s bull! How can he not know about a note he wrote. It was our inside joke”
Cyrus reached for one of Buffy’s hands.
“Will you just listen to me?” She nodded softly.
“Marty didn’t know about the note because he didn’t write it,” Buffy gave a puzzled expression, “Reed did.”
“Why did Reed do that? This didn’t even involve him.”
“It seems that Reed thought he could help Marty find a way to move on from you. Marty might have been telling him about you because he was upset.”
“It still doesn’t make sense why they ended up fighting.”
“When we figured out Reed pulled this sick prank, Marty was super mad. Like extremely angry. He went to find Reed and confront him and that did not go well. Reed said some things about you that totally crossed the line and Marty freaked out. Moment later, complete fight.”
“Oh my God.” Andi said with her mouth agape.
Buffy couldn’t even get a word out. She couldn’t feel more confused than she did now.
“Buffy, you ok?” Cyrus said.
The pair stared at their friend in wonder.
“I’m so stupid,” Buffy let out a soft laugh, “So very stupid.”
“Buffy, don’t say that.”
“I’ve basically liked him this whole time and of course I don’t figure that out until he’s trying to move on,” She threw her head back with another laugh, “And the karma I get is his friend embarrassing me in front of the whole school.”
“I knew you liked him!” Cyrus shouted.
“I’m pretty sure I figured it out before you.” Andi said giving him a push with her shoulder.
“Okay! I get it I’m the last to know,” Buffy sighed, “And now I’ve lost my chance. He’s not gonna want to date the girl that got him beat up.”
“You didn’t ask him to fight Reed. He did it because he obviously still cares about you.”
“Come on, you’re Buffy Driscoll, do you really give up this fast?”
~
TJ and Jonah jumped in to pull the 2 apart just as the principal came bounding down the hall.
“Break it up now young men!” Metcalf shouted as he headed towards the office, “you’re old enough to handle issues better!”
Tj pried Reed off of Marty before he could throw another punch, ending up with Reed’s elbow decking him in the nose.
“Get off of me.” Reed snarled at him.
“My pleasure,” TJ pushed him off, “I don’t want to hear you messing with my friends again.”
“He threw the first punch.” Reed chuckled, “Good luck getting anyone to believe this was my fault.”
He walked off with his previous posse. Reed clearly wasn’t the person who lost the fight.
Jonah reached for Marty’s arm off the ground. He rubbed his hand on his eye, which was sure to be swollen and bruised the next day.
“You look.. rough,” Jonah said pulling him up from the ground.
“Gee, thanks.” Marty said standing up.
“Should we go to the nurse?” Jonah said.
“No, I don’t want to face that or anybody else.”
And with that Andi, Cyrus, and Buffy exited the girls bathroom.
Their eyes locked immediately and neither of could think of a word to say. It was very evident each of them were pretty battered from the events of the day.
“Cyrus, how did you get in the girl’s bathroom?” Jonah asked, clearly oblivious to the tension.
Andi jabbed him with her elbow; he winced, getting the message now.
Marty opened his mouth to speak, “Buffy I..”
And was sharply cut off.
“Will you walk me home?” She asked softly.
“Of course.” He responded so quickly he was almost out of breath.
And with that two headed off towards the doors.
Their friends stood back watching them walk away, full of complete and utter shock.
~
Marty and Buffy made it out the door and down the street before either of them were able to get a word out.
Or figure out the right words to say.
They were going pretty slow, a decent amount of space between them but it felt like miles.
Buffy was the one to speak first.
“How is your eye?” She said looking up at him for a moment.
“It’s been better.” He was shocked she was willing to talk to him.
“I figured.” She let out a soft sigh.
“Look about today, I didn’t mean for any of that to happen. It was just, I just..” Marty started to ramble off.
“Hey, slow down,” Buffy said reassuringly.
This was probably the first time Marty had heard her this calm.
“Cyrus told me you didn’t do it.”
“I would never do anything to hurt you.”
“I know,” Buffy replied, “But why did Reed? Why did he know about that?”
“I never told him to do anything like that.” Buffy nodded along, “We were hanging out and I was upset because you know.. and he wanted to help me move on. But I don’t think I really was ready for that. I just kept talking about things I had done with you.”
Buffy could feel her cheeks get rosy and it wasn’t even cold outside.
“He really was pushing me to get over you and thought some revenge would help. I was unsure, but he told me it would be best I guess. I shouldn’t have believed him. What he did was horrible.”
“I guess in his own sick way he was trying to be a good friend.”
“No, he was being a jerk and we’re not friends anymore.”
“I figured you don’t usually beat up your friends.” She laughed.
“Only the ones who make my real friends upset.”
“Are we even real friends?” Buffy blurted out, immediately wanting to take it back.
“What?”
“You’ve been ignoring me for like 2 weeks,” Buffy sighed, “Don’t you think that kinda sucked.”
“I know and I’m sorry,” The conversation wasn’t going where Marty wanted, “I just, needed some space.”
“You could have told me that,” she huffed lightly, “It was worse thinking we were never going to talk again.”
“I didn’t mean to make you feel like that,” Marty responded, “It’s just been.. difficult for me.”
“Did you ever stop to think it would be difficult for me too?”
The walking pace had come to a halt.
Marty let out an angry breath.
“Look, I wasn’t trying to make your life horrible by telling you I liked you. I’m sorry you took it that way.”
“Well I did! And my life is horrible thanks to you!” The rage was evident in her voice.
“Buffy, I told you I never asked Reed to do any of that. I thought he was just gonna help me to move on. Never in a million years would I want to do something like that to you.” He wanted to calm her down so bad.
Maybe he really does want to move on, Buffy thought to herself.
“You know what forget it,” the hurt was evident in her eyes, “This clearly is over.” She turned on her heal and started to march off.
Marty had no idea how to react and the words just started to come out.
“You know what Buffy, go ahead run away from this! I’ve told you how much I care about you and feel awful about today, and you can’t even accept that. I’m sorry I ignored you, but being around you makes it so damn hard to get over you!” Marty shouted down the street.
Buffy stopped in her tracks and turned around. It was like her mind had no control over what she said next.
“Well maybe I don’t want you to get over me!”
There was silence.
“What?”
Buffy looked down at her sneakers. She couldn’t even believe what she had just done.
“Maybe in all the time you spent ignoring me,” Buffy kicked some rocks down by her shoes, “I realized that I messed up.”
“Oh.” Marty said completely dumbfounded.
“Oh?” Buffy said starting to get perturbed.
Marty scrambled to respond, “No! No, keep going.”
Buffy let out a sigh. She had no idea where this was going.
“Um, I realized, I was just scared of things changing between us. I don’t really like when things change, even if it’s good,” Buffy looked up to see Marty’s eyes wide open, “I understand it’s a little late for this but I guess I did like you all this time.”
A moment passed by and the knot in Buffy’s stomach grew. There was still several feet of space in between the two of them.
Buffy couldn’t sense what type of reaction he was giving to this news.
“Wow.”
Marty was awestruck by what he was hearing. Buffy didn’t pick up on that.
“Look, I’m really sorry for unloading all of this on you right now. I don’t really know what I was thinking, It’s probably not what you want to hear from the girl who basically got you beat up, but I thought I should tell you. I know it’s too late for this but yeah,” Buffy rambled on, “I’m gonna go now, sorry for wasting your time.”
Her eyes started to get a little misty as she turned around.
Why on earth did I think this was good idea? Buffy thought to herself. Now I just feel worse.
“Buffy wait!” Marty said stepping forward.
He couldn’t let her run away from him.
He couldn’t let her think he could move on from her that fast.
“What?” Buffy was cut off quickly by Marty pulling her towards him and connecting their lips.
Marty had one arm around her waist, the other was gently cupping the side of her face.
Buffy was tense but began to soften into the kiss. She slung her arms around his neck; they were as close as possible in this moment.
It was everything both of them hoped for and so much more.
The two pulled apart and Marty was the first to speak.
“Did you really think it would only take me two weeks to get over you?” He smirked at her.
“Maybe?”
“I think it would actually take my whole life for me to actually be over you.”
“Shut up.” She said looking down, a blush heating up her cheeks.
“I am never going to shut up about this,” Marty let go of her and spread his arms open to the world, “Buffy Driscoll likes me!” He began to shout into the street.
“Marty! Shut up!” Buffy said punching him in the shoulder, “Don’t make me change my mind!”
He continued to yell, making a complete fool of himself, embarrassing Buffy in the process.
She rolled her eyes, there was only one solution.
“Marty.” He turned to look at her and before he could shout again, Buffy placed a gentle kiss on his lips.
They pulled away with shy smiles.
Today had gone better than they both expected.