Anonymous

39

this one is just marceline being soft bc i'm a simp for a literal drawing

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Distance was proving itself to be very, very hard.

The first step was making sure her phone was on do not disturb. Not too hard, though the temptation to pick it up and check her texts really was. The second step was locking her front door on the days she was home and staying in her room whenever there was a knock. The third step was ignoring every single instinct in her body and repressing every urge she had to talk to Marceline.

She was successful for a total of eight days. Eight days of zero contact with Marceline. Her heart hurt for it, but she was still slightly angry at the older girl for all of her inappropriate flirting. She knew that Marceline probably hadn't intended to lead her on, but she had, and Bonnie still hurt because of it. She was probably off galivanting with that boy she'd been kissing, and the reminder was enough to keep Bonnie's resolve strong.

But on the ninth day, Bonnie was relaxing in her back garden and doing a little bit of mathematics work when she heard that voice. The most beautiful voice she'd ever heard, so husky yet so soft, and as much as Marceline teased her for her accent, Bonnie thought Marceline's was pretty damn cute too.

"Yo, nerd!" Marceline hopped the back gate and flashed her a grin. "What's up? I haven't seen you in forever. I came over a couple times, but I guess you were out."

"You haven't seen me in eight days," Bonnibel corrected rather curtly, "nearly nine. Hardly forever."

Marceline's smile dropped into a frown, and Bonnie's insides felt heavy. "Uh... everything okay?"

Bonnie maintained her indifferent tone. It was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do. "Everything is fine."

"Uh... okay," Marceline was still frowning, but she accepted Bonnie's answer, "anyway, get up, I've got a surprise for you. But it's kind of a drive to get there. Not really long, only an hour, but I made a cool playlist-"

"I'm busy," Bonnie interrupted, even though she really wanted to go with her, "You should take Keila or that Tom guy or your brother. I've got things I need to do today."

Bonnie felt something suspiciously like guilt in her stomach when Marceline seemed to deflate. "Do you, like... not want to hang with me, or something?"

Dodging the question, Bonnie just said, "I'm just busy."

"I..." Marceline's mouth worked, and Bonnie couldn't bear to look at her. She looked hurt. Really hurt. And if Bonnie looked at her too long, she knew she'd cave. "Well, can I maybe hang here with you, then? While you do your stuff?"

"No, I wouldn't be able to focus on my work," Bonnie stared down at the page, already barely able to focus on it. And just to get her to leave, she muttered, "Maybe if you called first, we could've done something, but you can't expect me to just drop everything because you felt like showing up."

"I... what?" Marceline blinked, and when Bonnie looked up at her, she looked like she'd just been slapped. "I don't- I don't expect anything."

Bonnie bit down on her bottom lip to stop the apology from tumbling out. She stared intently down at her worksheet full of equations and was grateful that she was wearing sunglasses; Marceline wouldn't be able to see the guilt tears. She'd regretted saying what she'd said already. "Just go, Marceline. I don't have time for you right now."

Marceline stayed rooted to the spot, and Bonnie's mind poked her with all sorts of nasty thoughts. You've just blown your whole friendship up, it taunted her, you know how hard it is for her to open up to people, and you're pushing her away for no reason. She had a reason, she reminded herself, but it felt stupid and trivial when she saw the hurt on Marceline's face.