Capítulo 2: Chapter 2
Marcus blinks, working hard to keep his memories locked away in the recesses of his brain, where they belong. This isn’t Boston. This is a fresh start. This will be different. “That’s cool, though. That you made it work.”
“Yeah,” Blair agrees, “we do make it work, I guess. I mean don’t get me wrong, Ajay is still a shithead a lot of the time, but like…the good kind of shithead.”
Marcus laughs softly. “I get it. Most people are shitheads, I guess. Nice job snagging one of the decent ones.”
Blair looks over at him, one eyebrow raised. “What about you? You have a shithead of your own stashed somewhere?”
I’m sorry, Marcus. Fuck, I’m so sorry. I panicked, I…but I’ll fix it, just don’t say anything, don’t answer their questions, okay? Just give me some time, okay? Don’t…just keep quiet for now. I’ll take care of everything. Don’t worry.
“Marcus?”
Marcus lets out a breath that he didn’t know he’d been holding, the air rushing from his lungs shakily. He realizes that they’ve stopped walking, and Blair is staring at him with pursed lips and a furrowed brow.
He takes a deep breath, forces a chuckle, and shakes his head. “Sorry, I’m…I was…no. I’m not seeing anyone. I had a…someone back in Mass, but it’s over.”
Blair reaches out and gives his arm a squeeze. “Look I don’t mean to pry, but if you’re trying to avoid saying the word boyfriend,don’t bother. We’re a pretty diverse community here. I’m actually a member of the GSA, and I’m head of the Pride committee this year.”
She grins as she holds up her wrist, which is adorned with a braided pink, lavender, and blue yarn bracelet. “I’m surprised you didn’t notice, I never shut up about it usually. It’s like I’m professionally bisexual, or something.”
Marcus grins back, shifting his messenger bag so that his own bi pride pins are visible. “Sames. The pay’s shitty, but the perks aren’t bad.” He wriggles his eyebrows suggestively, relaxing as Blair laughs and starts walking again. If Blair wants to assume that his freak-out was because of the queer thing, then he’s more than happy to roll with that.
As they enter the stadium and head over towards the end zone where the team is practicing, Marcus watches the players on the field doing some sort of exercises, running around a series of cones, crouching and standing and jumping with more energy than should be humanly possible. Marcus feels tired just watching them. It’s such a humid day out, and Marcus is already overly warm in his t-shirt. The thought of exercising in this heat is completely unappealing, though he does appreciate the fact that several of the players have taken off their shirts, so maybe the heat’s not so bad, all things considered.
Blair holds a hand up to her eyes to shield them from the sun as she starts to scan the field, but before she can so much as turn her head, Marcus spots a tall guy with tan skin and messy hair waving as he runs over to them.
“Hey, babe!” The guy wraps an arm around Blair’s shoulders, kissing the top of her head and grinning widely. “What’s up? Come to check up on us, make sure we aren’t slacking off?”
“Ugh, you’re sweating like a pig,” Blair says, though she tilts her face upwards for another quick kiss. “Besides, you’ve never slacked off in your life. You don’t have enough chill to slack off.”
“It’s not a lack of chill, it’s an excess of awesomeness.” The tall guy winks at Blair, his grin widening as she rolls her eyes with a smile.
“Sure, that’s definitely it,” Blair says teasingly. “Marcus, I’d like you to meet my excessively awesome boyfriend, Ajay. Ajay, this is Marcus, my excessively awesome snare drummer.”
“Marcus! Nice to finally meet you, man!” Ajay reaches out to clap Marcus on the shoulder with one hand, and shake Marcus’ hand enthusiastically with the other. “Blair’s told me all about you. Raved about your skills. Drumming’s fucking hard; I tried it in middle school but I can’t follow a beat for shit. Blair says you’re the best though, and she really knows her shit. You ever play outside of school? Like in a regular band or something? You’ve got that nerdy rocker look going on, I bet you’d kill it.”
“Well I hear you’re the resident expert on nerds, so I guess you’d know.” Marcus is starting to feel a little overwhelmed with how fast Ajay is firing comments at him, but Ajay looks so earnest that Marcus can’t help but like him.
“Fair enough.” Ajay laughs. “I’m just saying, you look like if Drake went through a hipster phase, but like, in a good way. You’re new in town, right? Have you been downtown at all yet? Do you drink? Even if you don’t, you’ve gotta come to the team parties. We’re a fun group, I swear. You’re from Boston, right? Why don’t you have an accent? I mean, I’m not complaining,Bahston accents ah the fahken wahrst,right?”
The anxiety that Marcus feels building in his chest drains away as he bursts into laughter at Ajay’s cringeworthy-yet-accurate imitation. “Shit man, don’t do that! My ears have still got PTSD from the two years I spent up there. I’m from upstate New York originally. Right outside of Buffalo.”
Ajay snickers. “Ah, nice! Great wings, I assume.”
“Wow, never heard that one before,” Marcus says in a deadpan tone. “I can see why Blair fell for you. Your sparkling wit.”
“Ha! Nice one!” Ajay pats Marcus’ shoulder again before resting his arm around Blair’s shoulders. Marcus notices that she leans her head against his sweat-soaked shirt without complaint. “I like him, B. He’s good people.”
“Obviously. I have excellent taste,” Blair says, smiling. “And since Marcus is good people, I’m sure you won’t mind using some of your excessive awesomenessto make sure he doesn’t fail Intro to Chem.”
“What? You’re in chem? Nice!” Ajay holds out his hand for a fist bump, which Marcus cautiously reciprocates. “Aw, man, do you have Dr. Mitchell? He’s a fucking mess, but he’s cool if you know how to get on his good side.”
“Mitchie doesn’t have a good side. He’s a stuck-up fossil who’s too busy ass-kissing for grant money to teach anyone anything.”
Startled by the unfamiliar voice, Marcus turns quickly towards its source. When his eyes meet the newcomer’s, however, he inhales sharply, cursing himself as he struggles to keep his jaw from dropping.
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