Skin Deep - A Marcel/One Direction Fanfic (IN PROGRESS)

Part Three

“Um hi, Marcel, right?”

I instantly felt stupid. His eyebrows rose, and a blush spread over his cheeks, making him seem flustered. “Im L-“

“Leia, I know. Your friends make fun of me.” Ouch. It was my turn to blush, more on behalf of my ‘friends’ than anything else. I took a step closer to him, feeling his accusation filling up the space between us. There was still an arms length between us, but he stepped backwards. Unfortunately for him, he stepped back into his desk, sending his precariously balanced books diving for the floor. He followed them down, seeming happy for an excuse to get further away from me. Great. I rolled my eyes at the ceiling. Just my luck. Clumsy and uncool. Cursing my friends, I crouched down to help him. His papers seemed to have fluttered a phenomenally large distance, so while he rounded them up I started collecting his assortment of books, some schoolbooks and other not. Who even reads, nowadays? He definitely was living in the wrong decade. Chucking them back onto his desk one at a time, I watched him scramble around some more after his elusive sheets of paper. I grabbed the last book as he was grabbing his last bit of paper, and we stood up at the same time.

“I’m going to be late.” He stated the fact like it meant something to me.

“So? It’s not like the teachers ca-“ I stopped. He was looking at me like I was something that had crawled from a swamp. “I mean, me too. Wouldn’t wanna miss maths, after all.” I laughed awkwardly, trailing off into silence while I waited for him to speak.

“Let’s go then.”

I looked at him dumbly. “Go?”

“Look, I know you and your group have more fun things to do than learn basic sentence structure, but really its not that hard. You have maths, so do I. Let’s go.”

God, I could see why he didn’t have friends. Choking down a bitchy reply, I smiled at him. “Lets go.”

Despite his worries, we weren’t late. The corridors were still a moving tide of students, paths crossing and weaving in amongst each other. We walked together, not talking to each other, both lost in our thoughts. His satchel swung by his side, still bulging with books. He fluffed his hair with his free hand, pushing the straight brown mess back from where it had flopped over his glasses. “Look-” he began, at the same time I started to say “You know-“ Shit. “You go.” I muttered, frustrated at his timing. “Nothing.” He muttered something incoherent, which I took to mean it hadn’t been important. Fine by me. The less painful conversation we have to make the better. “Just so you know,” I began, letting my voice climb into the tone teachers use on student they don’t particularly like, “I’m not an idiot. My GPA is good, and I’m going to college.” I resisted mentioning that I was borderline honour roll. He wouldn’t care, and I didn’t want to look like I did. I still don’t know why the fact he thought I was stupid annoyed me. I guess I’ve just always hated people thinking I’m something I’m not. I still do.

To my complete horror, as I was finishing my sentence to Marcel, the crowd in front of us parted a little, revealing a crowd of boys pushing and shoving each other. No. Please no. “LEIA!!” Zayn saw me first, his voice echoing down the crowded hall. Liam and Niall parroted him, laughing at each other as they did. “Who’s your new man, Le?” Lou joined in next, pretending to swoon just like Spence and Emer had in history. Except, being Louis, he swooned the entire way back, falling straight into Harry’s waiting arms. Pity, a hard knock to the head would do him good. They levelled with us, laughing and winking at me. Please God, make them all disappear. Their idea of subtlety was firing cannons and streaking through a mall. I cringed, trying to make myself as small as possible and avoid eye contact. They pushed passed us eventually, and with a departing “Slip it in Marcel!” were gone. Phew. At least Liam would report back to Cassie like a good little puppy dog.

I turned to him, once the crowds had thinned out a bit. “I’m so sorry.” I truly was, too. He was being laughed at for a joke he didn’t even know he was a part of. I felt another wave of guilt wash over me. This was all my fault. You were the one that promised whispered a voice in my head, sounding a lot like Cass. “S’okay.” Marcel was talking, unaware of my internal conversations. “I’m used to it.” I glanced at him, just as he looked at me. Great. Already at the awkward eye contact stage of our relationship. He held my gaze, and it was me that dropped my eyes to the lino. I stared at our feet, stepping in time. His too-shiny shoes looked ridiculous next to my converse, and I realised we probably looked equally as oddly matched. The school loser with one of the It Girls. What a joke. I was beginning to see where Cassie was deriving so much amusement from. Thankfully, we reached my class. I turned to him, not sure how to get rid of him without seeming rude.

“This is me!” I chirped, wanting to claw back the cliché line as soon as it left my mouth. We were in a school hallway, for god’s sake, not under a starry sky outside an apartment at night. He nodded, and waved me off with a flick of his hand. Apparently we weren’t at the goodbye stage quite yet. Fine by me. I watched as his vest made its way down the corridor, and then paused near a class not two doors away from mine. “Marcel!” I yelled, knowing he would hear me. “Same tomorrow.” I thought I heard a laugh, low and soft, but it was snatched away by the trickle of students still loitering in the classes. I grimaced, letting all my discomfort twist my lips into a mashed line. He could laugh all he wanted, but I had the sneaking suspicion this was all going to end in tears and screaming. Probably mine. Probably directed at my so-called best friend. Probably soon too. It wasn’t till I sat down at my desk and dumped my bad on the desk that I realised I still had his book. I stared down at the tattered cover of the book, feeling the rips and creases of a much-loved book. It seemed I had no choice but to see Marcel tomorrow, after all. Cassie would be delighted. I tucked the book safely in my bag, out of the way of anything that could damage it. If I was going to go through with this, the least I could do was keep his mangy book safe.

Author's Note

What do you think eh? I had the worst writer's block when writing this, I felt like I had to wrestle every single word out of my brain, so that's why this part is a bit shorter, and a bit more average, than the others!

I still hope you liked it though!

If you did, please leave me a comment!! I love coming home to them after school!

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Lots of love, 

Alexis