Asterism

28. tough crowd

"YOU two are looking at us right now like we fucked or something." Leo was the first one to break the silence, with his usual amount of crudeness.

Gabby went from a lowered head and biting on her fingernails apprehensively, to stiff shoulders and a glare at the camera, colour coating her pale complexion. "Could you be any less respectful, Leo? Honestly. As if you haven't already said enough tonight to prove to me that you haven't changed at all. Our best friends know us better than anyone, so there is no way they'd be looking at us like that because there is NO WAY IN HELL they could think we would..."

"Fuck?" Leo supplied dryly, scratching his armpit. Marley looked back to Aiden again, but he was busy studying his best friends' little box on the screen with an unreadable expression.

Did he think that there's a chance...even a little chance they could have done that, too?

Gabby winced, adjusting her glasses."We've been over this before. Can you try to form a sentence without a swear word involved, Leo? At least if you're speaking to me?"

He tugged his bong back in the frame and flicked his lighter, eyeing Gabby with an emotion Marley couldn't read. "It just slipped out." He was about to take a hit when she folded her arms over her chest, clearing her throat, her lips thinned into a straight line. Leo stilled, and they were locked in a stare-down for a few seconds before he rolled his eyes, and dropped the lighter back on the table, shoving the bong out of view. He threw his arms back behind his head and sagged into the couch, eyes slowly closing. "Happy now, blondie?"

"That you're not damaging your lungs in front of my face? Yeah, actually, I am," she retorted, closing the textbook in front of her and lowering her forest green eyes for a few seconds. When they lifted, her expression had softened in resignation, and this time she was staring at Marley and Aiden's quiet corner of the screen. "We owe you guys an explanation. And before I do explain, I can promise it's not what Leo insinuated."

Marley chewed the inside of her cheek and stared down at her hands, tugging on the sleeves of her onesie until they were completely covered. Aiden's eyes were on her now, and she knew he was concerned without having to see the look on his face for confirmation.

He saw how torn up she was after finding out Gabby had kept her new friends and Jamie a secret, and here was yet another situation where Marley was in the dark about her own best friends' life.

But right now she didn't want to make this about how hurt she was, how afraid she was of the distance between herself and her best friend that wasn't because of college, after all. Marley had managed to convince herself that the lack of honest communication between she and Gabby was because of the hours of distance between their colleges, and the adjustment of their first years apart. That was something she could wrap her head around, a concept she could grasp without blaming herself because this transition was inevitable and nobody's fault.

But the fact that Gabby kept something important from her the night of prom meant that college was never the reason for any of this.

Marley had become a terrible best friend long before they graduated.

"You don't owe me any explanation, Gabby. You don't owe me anything," Marley said quietly, shrinking a little, struggling to inhale a deep enough breath as her thoughts spiralled. In her peripheral, Aiden's stare on her became more intense, and his jaw ticked.

"No, Mar, I wanted to tell you!" Gabby rushed out pleadingly. "I swear! It's just-it's just a long story and it's complicated and I didn't want-"

Aiden's fists balled on the countertop. "Gabby I'm going to stop that bullshit explanation right there because I doubt you even know how that sentence was going to end," he snapped.