He's Just a Kid

Losing Control

Marcus was acting a bit weirder than normal. I mean, I haven't known him for that long, but I can definitely tell something's up. He won't look at me. Like, at all.

Chase, Marcus, and I were standing next to each other with Adam in the back still munching on his ice cream cones, his hands getting messier by the minute. I will always be astonished by how messy and nonchalant Adam can get. Not including the fact that he inhaled the ice cream. All three of them

"What do you want to have?" Marcus asked me, looking into my eyes for a moment before glancing down.

I looked at him suspiciously. "You okay?"

He cleared his throat. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good." He offered me a smile and I responded likewise.

I told him I wanted strawberry and went to sit down, Chase following me. I cringed. Look, Chase is a really good friend, but at this point he's kinda third-wheeling. Like, bro, this is for me and Marcus, back off.

He looked at me from across the table, clearly having no intention of going away. I mentally rolled my eyes. This was going to be even more awkward than originally thought.

"Are you cool with being here with Marcus, with the whole Leo thing?" Chase asked suddenly.

I started, looking at him confusedly. What was he talking about? Surely the whole guitar thing was already settled . . .

Apparently the look on my face conveyed what I was feeling.

"Not with the whole thing with the guitar," Chase clarified.

"Oh. What do you mean, then?" I inquired.

"He thinks Marcus is evil."

"He thinks who is evil?"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Leo gets the responsibility for one problem shoved onto his shoulders and then he decides to make the victim of the situation look like the bad guy? Unbelievable. I didn't want to believe it. Leo? This was almost as crazy as finding out he broke Marcus's guitar.

No. It was crazier.

Marcus was at the table with our ice cream in his hands. He sat down next to me and handed me my cone, but I was vaguely aware of him even being there. My mind was reeling with Leo's accusation. How could he? Marcus was not that kind of person! He was sweet enough to ask me out, so that had to amount to something at least.

I was definitely going to strangle Leo the next time I saw him.

Where is this anger coming from?

No, that's too nice.

What is happening to me?

I'm going to---

"Hey, are you okay, Abby?"

Marcus's voice jolted me back to reality. I blinked multiple times and found Marcus and Chase both staring at me with wide eyes. Heck, even Adam, who was across the room, was giving me a weird look. Uh oh. Had I started to shift? Here? This was not good.

I cleared my throat in a futile attempt to regain control of myself. "Yes, I'm fine. Why?"

Marcus furrowed his brow. "You just look really mad, is all."

"Do I?"

My ears started to tingle and my panic started rising. It was happening. I was shifting in the ice cream shop. No, no no, hammer it down, hammer it down, not here, not now, you can do it, no no no no . . .