Friday Night Courage
Marco tiptoed down the stairs to the kitchen, trying desperately not to alert his parents of his presence. His black locks disheveled, deep bags under his eyes from terrible insomnia that had plagued him for the past couple years, and a black eye he had tried best to cover up with some of his sisters concealer. He tried best he could to get his hair to stay down, but at this point it didn't matter anymore, he didn't care. Ignoring his growling stomach, the young teen managed to slip past his parents and younger siblings gathered around the dining room table in the next room, but it wasn't anything new, he had a lot of practice trying to avert attention from himself. He tied his converse and threw his backpack over both shoulders, setting off on the way to school. Marco loved the walk to school. It was the only time just to himself, he could think about things and talk to himself, and nobody could tell him otherwise. Not his parents, not his bullies, just himself. It was a gap between the hell of home and the hell of school where he could just be Marco and not worry about names being called, or plates being thrown. In mid October, the air had already begun to frost over and chill, enough so that he could see his breath as he walked, hands shoved deep into his navy pull-over. The world had been cruel to him, and at just fifteen years of age he had already contemplated the future, and if it was worth living in. He shook his head, trying to keep the thoughts of the near future behind him until he got to school.
It was the same thing every day. First, he passed the church on 56th, and then he pet Ms. Ral's cat that stood on the edge of her yard every morning, then he would walk up the hill leading to school, Shiganshina High. He tells himself sometimes that maybe if it were just him attending Shiganshina, he would love it. The courtyards were beautiful, the library had the largest selection of books in all of the schools in Maria County, but their hardback copy of How To Kill A Mockingbird did not make up for the dreadful students. He didn't know why, but the basketball team seemed to have it out for him, and the volleyball team, and the preps, and the student council members, pretty much everybody. It wasn't all bad, though. Other than the violent beatings from some of the county's largest soccer players, there were many people he did like. His English Literature teacher, Mr. Ackerman, was wonderful. He was brutal to everybody, his face like stone, his heart seemed very cold, but Marco and him immediately bonded, and he was always there for him when he needed it. Marco also was there when Mr. Ackerman, or Levi as he called him outside of class, had decided to propose to his boyfriend. Levi had been off all day, very jittery, not as snappy and quick witted as usual, and when Marco confronted him after school, he pulled out the most beautiful ring Marco had every seen. He hugged Levi and smiled "Eren is going to love it, Mr. A, he will definitely say yes!" and sure enough, Marco was right. Lunch was his favourite time of day apart from English Lit because he got to see his friends, who somewhat protected him but there was only so much they could do. There was Connie and Sasha, the theatre kids, Ymir and Krista, the artists, and Armin, the punk.
He arrived at the large white building, sighing loudly as he passed a couple kids from the Volleyball who sneered, "Hey Margot, whats it like to suck so much?" Marco pulled his sweater farther in front of his face, "You look like a boy, Margot. Why do you dress like that?" another snickered at him, "If I saw you, I would think you were a boy. You really ought to wear some makeup or something." he rubbed his eyes, head hung low, staring straight at the ground. He somewhat liked the fact that they did think he looked male, even if the compliments were somewhat back-handed, at least it wasn't the kid who had socked him in the face the day before. He walked to his locker, and waved to Armin sitting on the benches on the end of the hallway. He walked over to Marco and leaned on the locker adjacent to his. "Hey, Marco. How's life treating you?" Marco tried not to let Armin see his eye, but he did. "Marco! Who hit you?" he ran his thumb across the taller boys bottom eyelid "Annie Leonhart."
"Ymir is going to kill her." Marco slammed his locker, "Not if you don't tell her!" Armin shook his head, "Buddy, no offence, but that is the worst concealing job I've ever seen in my life." he gave the raven haired boy a half-smile and led him to the washroom. "A-Armin I can't-"
"Marco, get in the bathroom. I will personally beat anybody who says anything about you." Marco reluctantly followed him in, and gladly, nobody came in. He fixed Marco's hair and fixed his eye up to make it a little neater and less noticeable. He took a step back from the counter Marco was sitting on and took a once-over on his handy work. "I'm sorry about your hair," he smiled again, "Connie and I have never cut anybody's hair before. How did your parents react?" Marco shook his head, and slung an arm over Armin's shoulders, "You did your best, and I really appreciate it. You know, the usual. 'You're a girl, Margot, now people are going to think you're a lesbian.' 'Do you really want to be stared at like a freak for the rest of your life? Maybe these friends of yours need to have a sit down with us.' But I didn't tell them who did it." Armin giggled "I'm glad you like it, lets head to Bio."
~~~
Every Friday night after school, the group had gotten into the tradition of attending the school football game, and hanging out at Connie's house after. Connie and Ymir came for the Football, like most people, Armin and Sasha came for the food, and Krista came because thats what all of her friends and her girlfriend were doing, and she knew she didn't have anything better to do. Marco came for different reasons though, the star quarter-back. Jean Kirchstein, babe magnet, 170lbs of pure muscle and, also, extremely straight. The funny thing was, Marco had never had a problem with the football team. Every time somebody got a little too rough with him or somebody made a comment that was a little too rude, one of the other team members would step in. Truth is, Marco being 5'7" and growing, still weighed a little over 100lbs, easy pickings for anybody one the team, which made it all the more strange that nobody had ever given him a hard time.
As he sat down in his front row seat, right next to the gate, he handed a plate of deep fried pickles down to Armin and Sasha, who's mouths were too full to reply vocally, so they gave a nod of recognition and began to dig in. He sat down next to Krista and showed her the nachos he had bought to share with her. Connie and Ymir were discussing the previous play that had just taken place, what Bertholt could've done differently, how Reiner would make a better fullback than Oluo, things that Marco would never understand, but he just went with it. "So, Connie is grounded." she said between bites "So we're going to Trost Diner after the game." he nodded to the short blonde. He really didn't mind where they went as long as he could be included, he wasn't always in the past. He took a sip of his drink and waved to Levi sat a couple rows up, getting ready for the next down.
~~~
"Okay, Ymir, riddle me this. Would you rather...." Sasha put a finger to her lips, thinking, and then shoved a spoonful of pie in her mouth. "Fail school and marry Krista, or pass school with flying colours and have to break up with Krista forever." Ymir snickered, "Yeah right! I would fail school." She said kissing Krista on the cheek, "Duh." Krista gasped, "Ymir, shut up! You need to get your priorities straight, I would want you to put school over me." Ymir just hugged her a little tighter and reassured her that she is still going to try in school wether they got married or not. "Armin,"
"Shoot."
"Would you rather, Mr. Smith or Hanji." Armin scoffed like the question was obvious, "Easily Mr. Smith. I get it, Hanji is pretty hot too, but c'mon, who wouldn't go for Captain America?" the last comment made everybody laugh. Right as Armin started questioning Sasha, the football team walked in, Jean Kirchstein following close behind. They walked in loudly, hooting in celebration of their 34-12 win. A couple people cheered, high fives were shared, it had become a party in the small diner. So Marco wouldn't think that anybody would notice when he slipped a quiet "G-Good job today, Jean." into the loud blanket covering every bodies conversations, but apparently it was just loud enough for Jean to hear, "Oh, thanks! Sorry, whats your name? We've never talked before." Marco just stammered, mouth open slightly ajar until he was snapped back into reality by his seniors smooth, low voice "You okay, bud? You look a little flustered." it seemed that everybody else at Marco's table hadn't picked up on the side conversation that Jean and Marco were having but Marco was slightly glad, as he probably looked like a fish out of water at that moment, "I-I'm sorry, its Marco, you're just..." he rubbed the back of his neck "Really, really cute..." he kept his eyes trained at the ground but he was forced to look up for a moment when Jean slapped him on the back "You're not too bad yourself, Marco. Have a good night, maybe see you on Monday?" Marco just shook his head and gave a smile, turning around slowly as Jean walked away. He couldn't believe it, what had just happened? His heart was beating a million miles an hour, his hands were clammy. He just rested his head on the table, drowning out the voices all around him.
'What just happened?!"