His Beating Heart

Part 2

The Rest of that day was spent in half-dread, half-excitement.
Exciting half: I get to hang out with Marco and see his place!Yaaaay!
Dreadful half: I have to watch a  movie.God fucking dammit. Why does it feel like for every bit of happiness I get, there's three times more of something awful?
But I couldn't just back out. If I backed out of this, I'd probably make the guy feel bad, and  whatever chance we had at becoming friends. And hadn't I said that Idid not want to risk losing this potential friendship? I'd meant it.

Hanging out in my room that afternoon, I'd attempted to do ,but found that I was far too stressed to even focus... the clock was distracting as fuck. I kept glancing at it, watching as the minutes ticked away, knowing I'd soon have to go pick up food for Marco.
I Considered taking a small nap beforehand, since I was one hundred percent positive that I would get no sleep that night, loud roommates or not, but judging from my jittery nerves, I knew that such an attempt would be pointless.
Soon enough, seven o' clock rolled around, and I headed off to Panera. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was strolling straight towards my own personal guillotine,even though I clearly knew that I was only headed in the direction ofa cozy little restaurant that specialized in bread products. I ignore the anxiety I was feeling and went on my way.

"Knock Knock!" I called.
I was standing in Sina, outside room 323, withtwo bags of Panera's soup and bread products in hand. Both my handswere full, so I didn't even bother with the hassle of attempting to physically knock on his door, and opted to instead scream from the other side. Several doors along the hallway flew ,residents peeking out from their rooms to see what all the noise was about or if they had a visitor, and several of them glared pointedly at me.
Like I fucking cared. They were lucky I had my hands filled with wheat and wheat by-products, otherwise I wouldn't have hesitated to flip them off. With both my hands. Fuckers.

When the door still hadn't opened, I this time yelled, "Did you die already?"
The Sounds of creaking floorboards and a mysterious hissing noise from within informed me that no, Marco had not died, and that he was verymuch alive.
Finally, his door swung open to reveal what I will begrudgingly call one of the cutest sights I'd been given the honour of seeing. Now, at that point in time, I would have never admitted to thinking of Marco as cute,but let's get actual here: he was fucking adorable.

He was in nothing but a plain black t-shirt and dark blue boxers, his feetbare and his toes wriggling against the floor as he tried to maintain his balance. His eyes, normally wide and bright and generally childish-looking, were now squinting at me, almost shut, and he brought a fist up to rub his knuckle against one eye. The Sickness had taken its toll on him, judging from his bright red nose and pale complexion, but that only seemed to contribute to his generally helpless-and-innocent appearance. I could only smirk when my gaze landed on his hair, no longer parted, but mussed up from sleep.

"Nice bed head," I commented.

He blinked rapidly then, eyes still not focusing, and a wave of guilt hit me when I remembered how much I'd been dreading coming to see him. Looking at him right then, he made me feel like I needed to take care of him. Talk About a sense of misplaced obligation, I Thought dryly.

"I... uh. That looks like more than just soup," he said, his eyes settling on the food in my hands.
"Well,yeah," I said. "Because you haven't eaten a thing today, have you?"
Marco's stomach decided to make a grand entrance into our conversation by emitting a low, guttural rumble that sounded better suited to a demon attempting to claw its way out of the depths of hell than to a gastric intestine. I glanced at it warily, feeling as though Satan himself would burst out of Marco's midriff at any possible moment. "Sounds like it's pissed off," I observed.

He Merely clutched at his stomach and nodded slowly before stepping aside and turning his lights on. I followed him into the room,letting the door swing shut behind me, then quickly set the food on the only vacant surface in the room, which happened to be an empty desk by the window.
An Empty desk..?
I glanced around the room, doing a quick visual sweep, and found that Marco's room seemed to be only half occupied. The top bunk was bare, there was an empty desk, and if I had to make a guess, I'd say that one of the two wardrobes in the room was void of any scrap of clothing. (I don't know what the hell was up with the fucking blanket-curtains hiding his bottom bunk,but if Marco wanted to sleep like a goddamn princess, then so be it.Whatever helped him sleep at night, I guess.)
"You have your own room?" I asked, incredulous.
"Yeah," he sighed, almost wistfully. "The roommate I'd been assigned transferred out on the first day, so now I've got this room to myself."
"Lucky,"I said. You lucky, lucky son of a bitch. I'd be lying if I said that the green-eyed monster wasn't paying me a visit right then. I was jealous as fuck.