Paper Moon ☓ Hood [ON HOLD]

4%

shooting for the stars

desperately reaching for

something in the dark

pictures of memories

buried in my heart

☾

The bus jolted for the fourth time but Marceline's eyelids hadn't flickered from its closed state as she focused on the soft lyrics coming from her headphones. The bass drum kicked right into her heart and was an easy way to distract her from the boy sitting next to her.

It wasn't that out of the ordinary for Alex to always be put first, she actually didn't mind at all. Whenever she felt upset with her mother she would always just put herself in her mum's shoes and remember that she'd probably pick Alex any day.

"Alex needs this more. He has a much better hope of living a regular life than you and you need to be able to realise that." she'd think to herself. She'd then bite her tongue and put whatever the issue was at the back of her mind, refraining from speaking back to her mother, no matter how much she wanted to.

Her mum would then take this as a good sign and give Marceline a small smile, turning back to the gentle boiling of a pot. Dismissive.

After then, Alex would make his way past her in the hallway, the corners of his mouth permanently weighed down. Straight through the door he would go, swiftly making his way into the backseat of the car and sitting quietly.

"Just turn the stove down in a few minutes, I'm pretty sure it's close to done." her mum would say, and brushing her hands off on her jeans she'd close the door behind her without as much as a 'goodbye'. Silence.

It was almost a routine, their lives were all interconnected, but it was almost ridiculous how far apart they were. It was funny really, how so many others had claimed their families had bonded after a hard time, but it seemed that Marceline's had done the exact opposite. Sometimes she wished it wasn't.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and exhaled a little in exasperation because apparently the large headphones strategically placed over her ears weren't enough of a signal for this boy and his stupid flaming hair.

"Hi Marceline!" he chirped. She smiled politely and felt a little sorry for the fact that he had to deal with her in a bad mood.

"You alright? I heard about what happened this morning, sorry about that." He seemed genuinely sympathetic, but it bothered her a little that everybody knew about that morning, she didn't think it was a very big deal.

She nodded and a moment passed by before he added, "He's better once you get to know him". He tapped his fingers against the books in his lap and she couldn't help but notice a small anchor inked onto the back of his thumb. She didn't know that Calum had any friends outside of the soccer team, but it seemed as if this boy had known him before he came to our school. She racked her brain for his name, she was sure she'd seen him before, she vaguely remembered seeing the same boy but with green hair.

She shook her head slightly, trying to rid the thought of Calum. All of her thoughts eventually seemed to stray towards him, which she didn't understand considering the fact she had only met him that morning. He was an idiot and she scolded herself for wanting to ask the boy next to her about him. She was more annoyed with herself than Calum, she knew that deep inside, but chose to blame his dumb brown eyes and dark hair and arrogant smirk instead.

The bus came to a stop and Marceline stood up abruptly, she felt a little rude to the boy so she turned back to send him a smile goodbye, but was surprised to see he was standing also.

"This is my stop too." He smiled. Her cheeks heated up and she shyly made her way down the isle of the bus. The boy followed behind her and a moment passed while the two of them stood there as the bus drove away.

"Do you ever wish you could turn your 'no talking' thing on and off?" he chuckled, fiddling with the strap of his bag for a bit before his eyes went wide and he threw his hands up to his mouth.

"Shit, that wasn't funny at all oh god, I'm so sorry." he gushed. Marceline only shook her head profusely, she thought about it a lot anyway.

"So I guess I'd better be going now, I mean my house is down that way and yours is this way, uh just because I've seen you heading that way, when you're on the bus sometimes, I mean-" Marcaline let out a small giggle at the way his arms were flailing around in his little gestures, and he finally stopped his rambling.

"I'm Michael by the way. We're in math together." he finished, awkwardly offering his hand to Marcaline. She shook it and gave him a smile in gratitude for his trouble, he was precious.

He waved over his shoulder as he walked away, and Marceline waved back happily.

☾

im sorry that was short and crappy but surprise michaels here and he's adORKABLE

ps yes i did just say adorkable ur welcome for the war flashbacks to 2011