Asterism

20. clean break

P.S. I can't BELIEVE that Asterism is about to hit sixty thousand reads! Not only that, but a couple days ago Cabin Fever surpassed half a million. Thank you to my readers and re-readers 🥺❤️.

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MARLEY woke up to a dull buzz. It was a buzz she had become close friends with the past several months because having a morning person for a boyfriend means that she's woken up by her phone vibrating all the time. He texts constantly. He calls to talk while he's working out, he calls to talk after he's working out, he calls to give her a ten minute warning before taking her out for breakfast, he calls to say good morning (as if there ever was one), and he just calls in general because unfortunately for everyone in his life, Aiden Matthews is never more talkative and chipper than he is at sunrise.

But this morning in particular was very different as it did not involve her grumpily answering the phone, and demanding waffles with all the fixings as payment for her company at six am. This morning was unlike any other she's ever had, and Marley remembered a few important things about it as soon as she was conscious.

One, that she was sleeping in Caleb Kahn's guest bed - a bed that she was far too warm and comfortable in for it to be occupied by only herself.

Two, that she had gone to a frat party the previous night and it ended with her arrest.

And three, the most important of them all, she wasn't sure if she had a best friend anymore.

Marley blinked the fog from her eyes to numbly watch her cell phone vibrate against the wood of the nightstand for about ten more seconds, until the lit screen darkened, and the buzzing ceased. The wind was warmer as it blew in through the window. Marley could see between the red curtains, that the sun was about halfway up in the sky. She guessed it was mid-morning by now.

"You should call him back," Aiden's deep voice piped up from behind her, his lips tickling the back of her neck. "He's not mad at you."

Marley played with their intertwined fingers. "Maybe not. But Bryan is disappointed in me," she whispered. "He's not the only one."

"He's not disappointed in you, spitfire." Marley rolled onto her back, turning her head to give her boyfriend a disbelieving look. He was laying on his side with a swollen face and messy bedhead, his blue eyes locked on hers with gentle conviction. He helped her brush her flyways from the sides of her face. "He's just worried about you. And in that he is definitely not the only one." He propped himself up on an elbow, the thumb of his right hand brushing softly over her yellowed, bruised knuckles, patiently waiting in the silence.

Marley's eyes searched his face. "She has new friends."

"Gabby?"

She nodded, lowering her saddened eyes to their hands. "They're um...we met up with them at the frat house. And it seemed like she's known them for a while. I never knew they existed."

"Were they nice to you?" Aiden tried to hide the obvious tension on his face and in his body as he focused on her knuckles, but she knows him too well to be fooled.

Marley brushed her fingers through his hair as a quiet reassurance. "Of course, Aiden. I just, I didn't fit in with them. But that's nothing new, is it?" Her hand fell to the mattress unceremoniously, as dejection washed over her. "I've never fit in."

"Marley- "

"Gabby cheated on Ethan last night," she blurted, sinking into her pillow and biting on the end of her thumbnail. Aiden sucked in a surprised breath, but she didn't look his way. "And when I walked in, I thought he had taken advantage of her, so I punched him. And then I acted like Miss. Perfect when I realized it was consensual, like I was so much better than her and she was rightfully offended by it. We got in a huge fight." Marley hid her face fully into her pillow, her next words muffled as her eyes burned with fresh tears. "All because I failed as a best friend. And I didn't even fit in with her new friends in the first place because I'm a stupid goody two shoes who makes everything about my problems and doesn't know how to have fun and is awkward and weird and I hate who I am."