Asterism

13. a deal

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Thank you all for being here, and reading. I sincerely hope you enjoy chapter 13, and if you did, be sure to vote and comment your support, again, it means a lot to me🥰

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"THURSDAYS are the best days in the entire world! No morning classes. No five am squad workouts. I could marry a day of the week right now. I could suck the dick of a day of the week right now-"

"Ellie!" Marley and Ayla scolded at the same time as Marley's cheerleader roommate shoved beside her in the booth at one of the campus breakfast diners that Thursday morning.

Ellie glanced between them. While Ayla had a black hood half over her messy bedhead, nearly falling asleep on the giant textbook in front of her, Marley was nursing a coffee as if it was her lifeblood.

"What's with you two?" She frowned.

"My classes are killing me already," Ayla sighed.

"And I didn't fall asleep until after one in the morning," Marley added, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, her laptop in front of her with an upcoming lab almost finished. "You were up later than I was."

"Oh and speaking of last night," Ayla turned to Marley. "How'd the plan go with Aiden?"

"How do you think?"

Ayla shook her head a little. "For the record, I said it was a bad idea."

"It's not that I don't think there's something wrong. It's not that I don't want to do everything I can to fix it," Marley brushed her thumb on a chip along the rim of her white mug. "Aiden's talented. He is and I know he is because I know football. He's also never one to back down, and he's a natural leader, not a scapegoat follower. It's not fair what's happening to him but we've both had...past demons to deal with and his make him very protective. All that he's putting up with is so Marco leaves his family alone. If his teammates decide to goad him with his family or with me..." Marley trailed off, not wanting or needing to finish that scary thought.

"The whole thing is shit, basically," Ellie raised her hand in a polite wave to grab the attention of an available waiter. "But like I said yesterday, Austin and I are in that space and we're on his side. We'll look out for him."

"I know," Marley smiled lightly, comforted. She wasn't on the team, she wasn't in the squad, she was distanced and even more so because Aiden tends to keep things from her when he needs support the most. It was good to know that her boyfriend wasn't her only source on this.

She wants to be there in any way she can, even if it sometimes means going behind his back.

Their young waiter approached the table with a bright smile and a notepad at the ready. "Good morning ladies. What can I do you for?"

-

After their breakfast plates were in front of them and Marley snapped streaks photos of her beautiful stack of waffles -- earning a grumpy glare, forehead selfie from Gabby in her morning lab at Yale -- the three girls dug in at the quiet diner that wasn't quiet for long enough.

Marley had told her boyfriend where she was when he texted her after practice this morning, but what she wasn't expecting was at least twenty loud, gigantic, rowdy football players to pile into the poor, unsuspecting small business and begin to take up four of their biggest tables with loud chatter and the manic squealing of chairs. They all brought along with them fresh shower smells and gym duffel bags, Austin Johnson's blonde hair undone from his usual bun as he walked in with Marley's boyfriend drinking from his Gatorade bottle, the two of them mid-conversation with a couple of other guys. Marley smiled to herself when Aiden caught her eye, his aura joyful and stress-free. This was what she lived for, seeing him happy with his team. No Marco. No Pay-