He's Just a Kid (Marcus Davenport X OC Book 1)

Waiting

It was almost noon on Saturday and I was standing outside of the ice cream shop next to Mission Creek High, Abby nowhere to be seen.

To be fair, when I called her house out of the phone book, her mom didn't seem to happy when she picked up and heard me talk. I actually remembered yelling before she hung up on me. I had no idea what that was about.

"Hey, Marcus! What's up?"

I whirled around at the calling of my name. Walking up to me was Adam and Chase. I straightened my back and tried my best to look as least annoyed as possible.

I really didn't like them at all.

"Hey, guys! What are you doing here?" I asked, raising my eyebrow.

Chase slowed to a stop before me, straightening his shirt. It was a good thing be believed me instead of Leo about the whole "breaking my guitar" thing. Before you get really confused, yes. Yes, I broke it and blamed it on Leo. So what? He totally deserved it. The kid was so annoying and always getting in my way with what I needed to do.

I needed to capture Adam, Bree, and Chase.

Why, you may ask? Honestly, no clue. All I know is that's what my dad wanted me to do. No explanation, just "here, Marcus, a new mission! Kidnap your bionic siblings and we'll all be fine, sound good?"

And of course I can't say no to him, as much as I didn't like this mission. After all, Adam, Bree, and Chase are my family. I can't just throw that away.

"Mr. Davenport has an idea for Monday," Chase continued, looking at me excitedly.

I raised my eyebrow again. "I'm listening."

"He invented this new thing called a 'concert in a can', or whatever," he explained. "He said he thought it would be cool if we would play a few songs as a band with it for a demonstration at school."

I smiled. "That sounds awesome! Except, you know . . . Leo."

Adam looked down at me and frowned. "Bro, Mr. Davenport could just buy you another one, no big deal."

We stood and talked for a while, and I couldn't help my mind wandering back to Abby and where she could be. I could see her shining blue eyes floating around in my vision, the look of both shock and pure joy on her face when I asked her to go out with me. I caught myself smiling at the thought and shook myself, hoping that Adam and Chase didn't notice.

They didn't. They're so stupid.

". . . So, what I was thinking was that we could play something by a really cool band everyone knows, since we haven't actually written anything ourselves yet," Chase was saying.

"We could just improvise," I suggested.

Chase's face paled. "I . . . don't know how to improvise."

"That's bullcrap, and you know it," I said. "You improvised on the guitar like a pro the first time I saw you play."

Chase was a terrible liar. It was a wonder that so many people hadn't guessed what was going on with him and his siblings. It was so obvious.

Now, the one person I couldn't place was Abby. There was something off about her. I just didn't know what.

I was probably overthinking things again. It was super easy to do that with the dad I had. You could never tell if he was going to yell at you or compliment you.

Adam came waltzing out of the ice cream shop with three cones in his massive hands. He had what looked like two chocolate and one strawberry cone, and was devouring them quickly. He smiled with ice cream smeared all over his face.

"Man, this stuff is good!" Adam exclaimed. "I've never had any ice cream this delicious before. Is this why you wanted to take Abby here, Marcus?"

My mind stopped working for a second before I responded. "Uh . . . yeah. I just wanted to introduce her to the quality of it. It's one of the best ice cream shops in town, from what I've heard."

Chase gave me a look. I didn't want to admit to them why I actually asked her to come with me to this shop. That would be super embarrassing. Like, how on earth would I get them to stop pestering me about her from then on out? It's ridiculous how little social experience all of them have. Absolutely pathetic.

Unfortunately, Chase was quick to guess what was actually going on.

"Do you like her?" he asked me.

I clenched my jaw, unsure of what to say. I didn't know what these feelings for her were. I mean, I didn't process any type of emotion well. I guess you could say I'm a sociopath, but I've talked to kids at school whose parents are therapists and they said I didn't present a normal case of someone who would be a sociopath. Not to their knowledge, at least.

But still. I didn't know why I couldn't feel things like normal people could. But there was some kind of feeling I got whenever I was around Abby. It was fuzzy, uncomfortable, but in some ways it was pleasant. I didn't know how to describe it.

Finally, I looked at Chase. "I don't know," I admitted. "I never really thought about it."

Something that looked like relief passed over Chase's features for a brief moment before he masked it again. "Alright, well . . . I guess you'll know eventually."

"Hey, Marcus!"

My head whipped around to search for the familiar voice that called my name. I spotted a blond head making its way toward me.

What? How did she . . .

Abby was by my side before I could dwell on it, slipping her arm over my shoulders in a friendly hug. Feeling her hand on me made time stop, even for a brief moment. I had no idea what to say.

She actually came. She really, actually, genuinely came. How?

I felt myself smiling before I responded to her. "Hey! You made it! I was wondering if you would show up after that weird phone call with your mom."

"Hey, Abby!" Chase put in.

"Hey, Chase!" She responded cheerily before turning her attention back to me. She rolled her bright eyes in response to my statement, the sun catching in her glasses. I was a little upset at myself that I noticed that.

"Don't get me started on Mom," she groaned. "The amount of ice cream shops I had to go into to find you was insane." She fixed her glasses and jerked her head toward the entrance to the shop. "Shall we?"

I followed her with my eyes as she walked into the shop without me. I was glued to where I stood. My breathing was shallow, my mouth still opened slightly. What was happening?

"To answer your question, Chase," I said to him, still looking straight ahead, "I think I do like her."