Anonymous

31

Bonnie loved summer. Late May slash early June was always her favourite part; studying outside for upcoming exams was lovely. She found that she enjoyed it even more over here, where it was significantly warmer than back home. It was like she was killing two birds with one stone – studying and getting a bit of a summer tan.

She was reviewing some German work with Keila when someone else dropped down next to her. She expected Marceline; Keila had mentioned that Marceline was going off campus to grab McDonald's and Bonnie had texted her to ask for a cheeseburger and whatever McFlurry she thought was best, so she figured she was back with the food. Instead, it was Marshall.

He smiled at her, and Bonnie remembered Lady's little warning. "Hey, Bonnie, Keila. What are you guys doing?"

"German," Keila scowled down at her notebook, "stupid case system and stupid word endings and word genders and words."

Bonnie laughed, "Dramatic, much?"

"I have a right to be dramatic when this language is confusing as hell," Keila retorted, "can't I just make up the endings as I go along? Nobody will notice."

"Our German teacher might," Bonnie reminded her, "there are little tricks to remembering the word's gender like the way the word ends, so as long as you memorise the table and have a good idea of which words are masculine, feminine or neuter, you'll generally be correct."

Keila looked back at the table Bonnie had drawn for her, but shut her notebook and said, "Nope, my brain is out of order. I need food before I can continue, so Marce better hurry her ass up."

Keila flopped back onto the grass and grabbed her phone, scrolling mindlessly through some kind of feed or timeline. Bonnie rolled her eyes but shut her own notebook too. There was no harm in taking a short break. It wasn't like exams were extremely close. She looked back at Marshall and flashed him a smile, and that was when he decided to jump in.

"So, Bonnie, I know it didn't exactly go well the first time, but you'd just moved and everything, so," he paused, sucked in a breath, and looked up at her with a question in his eyes, "I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go to prom. You know, with me."

Bonnie thought back to Marceline's advice again. You're young, and now is the time to explore and discover yourself. And as she met Marshall's gaze, her mouth formed the word, "Yes," and by the time she realised she'd said it out loud, it was too late. The guilt weighed heavy in her stomach when Marshall grinned, and she tried to excuse it. So what if she was maybe ninety percent sure she was just gay? Maybe she would realise she was bisexual if she gave a nice guy a chance.

"Awesome," Marshall said, "and you know, no pressure for anything else. Or even for that, you know, if you don't want anything serious. I'm glad you said yes. Otherwise Marceline would've roped me into helping out with the band."

Bonnie's heart beat a little quicker upon hearing Marceline's name. "Helping out with the band?"

Keila, who hadn't been shy about listening in, answered for Marshall. Usually, Bonnie had an aversion to gossips and people who listened to others' business, but the way Keila was so unapologetically nice and genuine made it okay. Keila wouldn't use what she heard against people or go around telling others. Someone like Elle or Melissa, though... that was where Bonnie had a problem with it.

"Yep, Citron is letting us play at prom," Keila grinned, "I annoyed him into it. My unrelenting pleading and the fact that paying us to play is cheaper than hiring a professional DJ finally swayed him. I had to promise we wouldn't use any unacceptable language, but I crossed my fingers. And Marceline would ignore that completely, anyway."