Forbidden Fruits

Chapter 12: Faith

 It's been two days since the failure of a party, and I've spent the weekend recovering, curled up in bed and staring at Marcus's jacket hung on my desk chair. I've been so nervous to text him and tell him I still have it, unsure of where we stand after all the weirdness on Friday, but now that it's Monday and I actually have to get up and be a functioning member of society, I felt it was only right to reach out and arrange a way to return it.

Not to mention I needed to get it out of the dorm before Trixie started increasing her regular interrogations over it. Saturday after we both woke up, it's safe to say she had a lot of questions about the jacket and its owner. I had been purposefully vague about the details, not wanting to turn anything into a bigger deal than it had to be. I told her about Noah and everything he did, obviously, which had prompted her to threaten him in immense detail and offer her services to me to go enact those threats, but I wasn't quite ready to share anything about Marcus yet.

I couldn't say why, but for some reason I just want him to be my little secret, just for the time being.

I sat on my bed, staring at my phone, and the draft of a text message I keep deleting and rewriting to send to Marcus. I seriously have no experience talking to anybody like him, and I'm just not sure how to approach this. Finally, I just hit send on the message, needing to get it over with.

Hey Marcus! It's Faith (from the pool and the party lol), I just wanted to let you know that I have your jacket still, and I was wondering how you wanted me to get it back to you. I could meet you somewhere? Just let me know!

I stared at the text for a minute more, and before I could think better, sent another few in succession, realizing there were things I left out.

Oh and I didn't want to risk ruining it so I didn't wash it, sorry!!! If it needs to be dry cleaned though just let me know how much it'll cost and I'll pay you back.

Thank you, btw, for letting me borrow it!

And for the ride home, and the help and everything.

I took my fingers off the keypad and closed the messaging app, regretting the word vomit I just sent him. For extra measure, I tossed my phone onto the bed next to me. I groaned, knowing that if Trixie saw me texting a man as gorgeous as Marcus like this she would slap me into orbit. Honestly, I would probably deserve it. Ugh.

I wasn't left to wallow and overthink for long, though, because my phone quickly buzzed with a notification. I scrambled over myself to grab it, seeing a couple Message notifications chime in quick succession, all from Marcus. I opened them immediately.

Hey Faith (don't worry, I remember you)

I have a class at 11, I can meet you afterwards though at The Burrow if you're free

Don't worry abt the jacket being clean, it's gone through far worse than a pretty girl wearing it home I promise

I couldn't stop the furious blush that spread across my cheeks at his words. All I could see on the screen was him calling me pretty, which set the butterflies in my stomach on the loose. I mean, I know he's probably just saying it to be nice, but still. Let a girl dream.

I realized I was taking too long to respond, and after a quick glance at the clock, I responded.