Nothing like him

Part 37

    One week into January Dean and I decided to grab a coffee at my favourite cafe. The one I liked to write at. I had spent New years with him and his family, but since we are not dating there was no new years kiss. Dean and I were doing good at being friends. I fought the urge to constantly ask him how he was feeling and he was happy that things seemed "normal" between us. I met Dean at the cafe because he had an appointment to get to. I ordered a coffee and worked on my story while I waited for him.
Recently my laptop has been coming everywhere with me. The bookshop, the cafe, the bench I sit at occasionally with Dean and even the grocery store. I wanted to be prepared for any spark of inspiration that hit at any minute. And yes of course I could be normal and take a small notebook with me everywhere instead of my laptop, but that takes the fun out of being different.
As I sat in the cafe waiting for Dean I overheard a group of teenagers sitting at the table next to me, talking about very odd things.
"Jeromme and Liah did it at a playground last night. Like what the fuck are they thinking?" some boy who's voice is still cracking from puberty announced.
"God they are so immature. Kids play there. Grown ones not sperm cells" a girl with a lot of attitude said. If i knew her in highschool I probably would have smacked her.
"Okay guys, we don't have to talk about other people's problems. We don't want to be drama starters" another girl said. I liked her, she had a decent head on her shoulders.
"Just cause you aint getting it doesn't mean you have to be bitchy about other people who are getting it" voice cracking boy said.
"You know how many guys would want to sleep with you Emily? I'm surprised you don't have the football team lining up to get in between your legs" A new boy's voice said. I scoffed a bit at him. Who the fuck would say that?
"Well at least I can get it. You have no choice but to fuck a sock in your moms basement while watching compilations of pretty cartoon girls." Emily snapped back. I wanted to turn around and give her a high five but I figured that'd be weird. I smiled while sipping my coffee and looking up to see Dean walk in. I waved at him before noticing he was dragging something behind him. I looked at his face to see he had oxygen blowing in his nose through a tube.
"Don't worry I'm fine. Just struggling to breathe a bit. I'm okay. It was bound to happen at some point" Dean said as he sat across from me. Ge grabbed my coffee and took a couple of sips out of it.
"So you have to drag around an oxygen tank now?" I said in a concerned tone.
"Yup. Anything to help me right?" he said putting my coffee down. I nodded and looked at him with the tube under his nose. A new look I had to adjust to. "What are we working on here?" He said as he turned the laptop to face him.
"My story, pretty cool right?"
"Very cool" he smiled at me. I smiled back. He started to read more of it, making edits as he read like he usually did.
***
Dean's POV:
    I like this new relationship I have with Mia. Don't get me wrong I much rather have her as my girlfriend, but I feel like her dating me is her dating the cancer and she has more things to worry about. I loved reading her story now that there was more to read. I love how invested she is getting into it, it's something she is passionate about and always has been. She is a writer, she will deny it multiple times. But she knows that she is a writer.
My cancer is defeating me. I know it, she knows it, doctors know it. It's just the way it's going to be. I want to prepare her for that. I want her to find love in a man who treats her well. Who listens to her, motivates her and unconditionally loves her like there is nothing else. I want a man to love her like it's his oxygen. If I can't, someone has to.
I don't want to be with her when it happens. When my body falls apart and my heart beat slowens. I want Mariana to be far from me. Do not see me like that. She loved me too much and I don't want her to break.
I have time. Not much but it's going to have to do. My mission is to make sure Mariana is okay for me to leave. I'll leave her so she is not alone, has what she wants and could maintain herself. I love her and she deserves the world, even if I'm not in it with her.
"Come on, let's go to the bench," I said.
"Do we need to discuss something?" she said, sipping her coffee. Her hair flopped out of her face as she tilted her head up to get the last little drops out of the cup.
"No I just want to go for a walk"
"You ok walking with that? Hazel grace lancaster made it seem really heavy" she smiled at me with that know-it-all face.
"Get your ass up" I laughed at her. "I'm strong" I flexed my muscles that were surprisingly still there.
"Hey Mia" a voice called from the other side of the cafe. I looked at Marina who was smiling and waving back. Before I knew it there was a person standing next to me looking at Mariana. A person. A man. A man who was smiling at Mariana. Love interest?
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Mariana said. His answer was something about having spare time-boring- so I took the time to analyze him.
He was tall, shorter than me but taller than Mariana. Looked fit. blonde hair and blue eyes-typical. Straight teeth. Good posture. Decent smile. Muscles. He was pretty good. He wore a suit that looked nice on him, despite the fact that there was a small hole in the sleeve but I'll let it slide. His hair flopped in a pretty handsome way, he wasn't a gel freak. From the looks of it he probably lived in a shitty apartment and didn't get paid as much but still tried to love his life. He looked respectful while he talked to Mariana. And then he was looking at me. He said something. Shit, he's talking to me.
"Hey. I'm Marcus, an old friend of Mariana's" he said. Marcus, he looked like one.
"Nice to meet you Marcus, I'm Dean, also a friend of Mariana's" I put my hand out to shake him. He shook my hand firmy and had a pretty good grip on it. By the looks of his suit he probably did this a lot. He wasn't a boy, he was a man. A man that I found interesting for Mariana.
"Dean and I were just going to head out for a walk," Mariana said.
"Uh- care to Join us Marcus? We could grab some coffees to keep us warm and get to know each other more" I smiled. I saw Mariana's jaw drop a bit as she looked at me with a 'what the fuck are you doing' face. I smiled.
"That would be lovely, '' Marcus accepted. "Coffee's on me" he said as he walked to the front desk to order.
"What are you doing?" Mariana asked me one Marcus was far enough to where he cannot hear us.
"Being friendly,duh." I said. I put my hands on her and started fixing her hair and jacket. I unzipped her sweater a bit and she slapped my hand away.
"Now what are you doing?" she snapped at me.
"Fixing you up. You have to look decent for our new friend" I said, winking at her. She rolled her eyes and shook her head at me. "He likes you, Mariana," I said.
"What? No. Dean. he and I are just friends. He does not like me. Why would you even say that?" she said as she looked over at him, laughing a bit and fixing her hair. I think she liked him too. It was my matchmaking time.
"It's obvious. He stands tall, talks with an extra manly voice and even formally introduced himself to your guy friend who thinks he likes you" I laughed.
"Dean, you're crazy," he said, brushing me off.
"He's getting coffee for us, offered to pay, has money" I said just to bug her.
"Shut up" she laughed and playfully slapped my arm.I liked seeing her like this. Being on this side of a girl was fun. I played the friend in this situation. I got to see what she was like when it came to a guy, give her advice. I could be one of the girls. Right?"
"Here you go Mia and Dean" Marcus said as he handed us our coffees. Mia?  Marcus? Marco. Was this the guy from Mariana's journal? The one who gave her the nickname of Mia?
"Thank you" , Mariana smiled into his eyes and sipped the coffee.
"Thanks man. Hey Marcus, what's your last name?" I said as we all walked outside of the cafe. Mariana almost spat coffee out at my question. She was catching on.
"Larusso," he answered. I looked at her and raised my eyes brown. This made it more interesting. Marcus larusso was in fact the guy from the diary entry. He gave Mariana the name of "Mia" and she gave him the name of "Marco". It was a first love situation with him. I walked next to Mariana and had Marcus on the other side of her.
"Marcus larusso" I said in a whisper so only Mariana could hear me before sipping my coffee. She slapped me playfully again and I tried to not laugh.

Mariana's POV:
God help me. I knew what Dean was doing. He was trying to set me up with Marcus. He knew that he was Marcus from the past, and he did not seem to care. We walked around for an hour before Dean needed to tap out, so we went to grab dinner together since it was now 5:30. Dean got up to go to the bathroom leaving Marcus and I alone at our table.
"So, Dean's a cool guy," Marcus smiled.
"I'm sorry about him. He just got excited and wanted to get to know you," I laughed a bit. He shook his head and laughed with me.
"Don't worry about it. I'm glad that I get to meet him and spend time with you too\' he smiled into my eyes and placed his hand on my thigh, slowly moving his hand up and lightly running his fingers along my inner thigh. I smiled back into his eyes.
"It's really nice to see you again Marcus,"I said as I moved closer, assuring him that I do not want his hand to leave my body. "I hope I can see you more often," I said with a giggle. What has gotten into me? I need to calm down before Dean comes back. He moved closer to me, his eyes fell to my lips then met my eyes once again. He smiled a bit.
"I'd love to see you around more" his hand moved higher into my thigh as if he was about to put his fingers inside of me.
"I'd like to see you around more too" Dean's voice caused us to jump. I looked over at him and nervously laughed as he took a seat shaking his head and laughing too. Marcus's hand was still on my thigh all throughout dinner. I'm glad Dean didn't make it awkward and just wet on with his day like he hadn't seen anything. It seemed weird to see how chill he was about all this.
Marcus offered to pay for dinner but Dean quickly objected, reminding Marcus of how he had already bought us coffees and that dinner was Dean's duty. I felt really spoiled today, it was weird. I went to the bathroom before we left and once I came back I saw Dean's serious face. Marcus looked down and didn't look up as much, as if he was in shame of something. I was confused. Dean's face changed immediately after I was at the table.
"Ready to go?" he said with a cheerful excited tone.
"Yeah," I said, confused. I looked at Marcus who didn't look in the mood to talk anymore.
"Hey, I think I'm going to head home, I have a busy day at the office tomorrow" Marcus announced as he got up and put on his jacket.
"Alright. Well, it was great meeting you man" Dean held his hand out to Marcus. Marcus shook his lazily before walking off. "Damn what's his problem?" Dean said after Marcus was gone. I shot him a look before going after Marcus. What did Dean do?