Helping Others Out

Chapter 8

Ahh, I'm so sorry I took forever to get this out. I really don't know what happened. All I know is that I lost a ton of motivation to do anything over the summer, and then I've been super busy with school.

Also, I apologize for making Hanji a little bit of an ass. Eir doesn't really intend to be, e's just really nosey and stuff. Like, overly nosey.

Summary: Marco ignores his friends. That's pretty much all you need to know. Also note that I use gender neutral pronouns and titles for Hanji in this chapter (e, em, eir, eirs, emself, and Mre. (pronounced mystery)) and will be going back to change any other times I've referred to Hanji to those pronouns.

Trigger warnings: cursing. I'm pretty sure that's it.

~O~O~O~O~O~

The next day, Marco left his house a little earlier than usual in order to avoid Jean. Of course, he knew he'd have to face him during advisory, but that was something he'd deal with when he got there.

Then, he realized another problem: all of his other friends. He hadn't said anything to them to calm their concerns from yesterday, and he didn't really want to talk about it.

Oh, well, he thought. I'll just have to find a way to avoid all their questions.

Once he was in his advisory, he texted Margaret to ask if he could eat lunch with her and her friends instead of his own group of friends.

Her reply (an of course you can!) came as Jean sat down in his normal seat—right next to Marco.

"Hey, man. Are you okay? I'm sorry I didn't check up on you yesterday, I was a little ... busy." As Jean spoke, Marco snapped on his best smile.

"Yeah, I'm-I'm fine." Marco chuckled a little bit. "I completely understand." Literally everyone else tried to make sure I was okay. Even my mom tried to comfort me a little.

"Can I just ask . . . What exactly, um, happened yesterday?"

"Oh, yeah, um," more chuckles, these ones a little more nervous sounding. "I realized I still had to put the finishing touches on a project that was due today. Sorry I just kind of ran without an explanation." Nice save, Marco. That's definitely something you'd do. Not.

"Ah, okay," Jean said. And thus, an awkward silence ensued for the rest of advisory.

After Jean and Marco parted ways, Marco let his facade drop a little.

Damn, pretending to be happy when you're hurting this badly really takes a lot out of you. There has to be some other emotion that I can fake that won't be so tiring.

And so, He decided to pretend to be slightly irritated for the rest of the day.

~O~O~O~O~O~

 "Hey, Marco," Reiner greeted. Not getting any sort of response, he asked, "Are you okay? W-what happened yesterday?"

The last question struck something in Marco, making him want to cry. Instead, he glared at Reiner with a brief side-glance as he sat down in his seat.

 "Hey, hey, what's going on? I just asked you a simple question," Reiner defended. "No need to get mad at me for that."

Marco continued to ignore Reiner until the bell rang, despite the concerned look he was given from Reiner.