A Tad Unhinged

Chapter 4: Before

Star

Lunch came quickly that day. Euro, math, APUSH, none of it was exciting in the least. They all seemed to blow by but lunch, lunch seemed to carry on forever. So I stuff pasta in my mouth as my friends surround me, chatting amongst themselves.
"So Star." Janna sits uncomfortably close to me. "Do you still live with Marco?"
"Yeah." I look up to see Marco and Jackie also sitting uncomfortably close and chatting lightly, Jackie munching on Marco's noodles.
I stab my fork into my pasta angrily. My mom had told me not to "rekindle" anything with Marco, that my stay here was no where near permanent and that getting attached would only lead to a scene like last time yadda yadda yadda whatever. But it's like Marco didn't even miss me, like he moved on a little too easily, a little too quickly. I'd like to blame Toffee, but I know I can't.
I just wish I never left, that everything was the way it was. That would nice, perfect actually. This awkwardness would be fixed. Marco and I wouldn't descend into our own rooms after school and awkwardly pass each other in the hall. We could be even be dating...
Suddenly, my ears pick up on something. And by something I mean nothing. I look up to see everyone is gone, all the way down to the lunch monitor. Gone. The tables were clean, like no one had ever been here before.
I stand up and scoot around the table to walk around, looking for someone.
"Hello?" I call as I walk between the circular tables. I drag my fingers across the clean surface, spinning around. "Is anyone here?" I call with a hint of desperation in my voice. Where did everyone go?
Suddenly, there is a rattle behind me. I spin around to see a shape by one of the vending machines. Cautiously, I begin to stalk towards it. I watch as thing, probably inhuman, inserts a dollar, jams the buttons as quickly as it can. Finally, it shoves open the bottom flab and pulls out a bar. Desperately, it pulls it open and eats it savagely. Then it resets itself back to inserting a dollar, jamming the bottoms and gobbling down the treat.
"H-Hello." I grumble at my voice crack and walk as confidently as a timid girl can towards it.
"B.... Before." It mumbles. It's voice is raspy and unused, but clearly feminine.
"Before?" I get closer. "Before what?"
"Be... Fore. Before." It repeats as it jams the buttons harder.
I reach out a shaky hand towards it's - her's?- lumpy shoulder. "Before what?"
My hand lands on some purposely rough fabric and she turned around with several bright pink eyes and a huge mouth, a snake like tongue reaching out towards me. My eyes snap shut tight, screaming. I'm going to die, I know I'm going to.
"STAR!" My brain rattles itself awake and I'm staring at Marco's slightly concerned face.
"Hey." I breathe out. "What's wrong?"
His eyes grow watery. "What are you doing?" He gestures behind me. Curiously, I turn around to see I am indeed at a vending machine and candy after candy is falling down. Feeling my side, not even my bag is there. No wand. Slowly, I reach my hand up to touch the glass and I gently put my hand on it. Upon impact, the glass cracks and I jump back into Marco arms.
Scared, I look up to see him contemplating something in his head. He looks between me and the vending machine.
After squishing his mouth together, he looks at me and smiles loosely. "Okay... Let's go home."

Marco

"You saw no one?" I say as I sit cross legged on Star's bed. She, on the other hand, is lying with her head flopped over the side and plays with the carpet nubs that poke through her hair.
"Yeah." She sighs. "You were all there and then you just weren't. The worst part is I didn't even question where you went."
I rub my neck. "Was it like... I mean did you only see nothing or was there actually no one there?"
"What?"
"Tunnel vision. Was your eyesight restricted?" I picture the cafeteria last year but I don't feel anything when I do. I look back at my scarred hand and then back at Star.
"No." She admits. "Literally no one was there. Except for this one woman, if you can even call her that."
"A monster?"
"She had this huge mane of hair and a wide set hips. Not to mention these huge, twine-like shoulder pad things. She also had this raspy voice, like she hadn't talked in a century."
"She spoke to you."
Star sits up to imitate the thing. After a cough, she says deeply, "Before. Before!"
"Just... Before?"
She nods. My hands clench the covers, I knew something was wrong with Star since she got here two weeks ago and I did nothing. I covered myself in the reassurance that Star was fiiiiiine Star was okayyyy,
That Star was sane.
But she wasn't. She really wasn't. But how was I supposed to know?
"Anything else?" I say. "Anything about her colors? Face?"
"Silhouetted and monstrous." She sighs. "Six eyes like pink Christmas lights and a mouth like a leviathan."
"Ew." I laugh a little. Star sits up and stares at me, wide eyed. I cough, "Yeah?"
"What's the diagnosis, Dr. Marco, PHD?"
I state back at her. "I mean, looking at all the signs I'd say schizophrenia but you're Mewniman, I doubt it's that simple."
"Oh it never is."
"Have you asked Glosseyk? Or your mom?"
Star bites her lip. "Well they're both in Mewni so I don't want to bother them. I'm sure it's fine."
She was definitely guilty of something. But as I open my mouth to question it my phone rings. After a quick bashful smile at Star, I look to see it was Jackie.
"Crap." I mutter.
"What?" She says, her voice was a little too high pitched.
"I was supposed to go with Jackie to the beach after school. But we left. She's probably looking for me."
"It's okay you can go."
I answer the phone with a full plan to leave, even though I know I shouldn't.
"Hey Jackie." I exhale. "Sorry I know I'm late. I'm helping Star."
"Naw it's okay man." Jackie laughs. "It's a Thursday going to the beach would've been stupid."
I laugh and make awkward eye contact with Star. Her eyes were big and sapphire as she watched me talk to Jackie. I'm not an idiot I know you like me, Star. But you can't so stop it.
"Hey would you wanna come over?" I say suddenly. Star's eyes droop a little.
"I mean it's me, Janna, Kai and Peter in the car." Jackie says as the phone suddenly fills with cheers and hoots.
"Yeah. Come over." I say with a smile as I look over at my droopy-eyed friend. "Star and I will order dinner."

YEP
OKAY
WOLFIE