A Boy Named Marcus C8

Chapter Eight



  Betty was back in school the next day so you expected Natalie, Sam and Marcus especially would all ignore you. You were wrong.

  You were walking from Latin to the dining hall at lunch time. You were with Sally Thast, a deeply unattractive girl but really quite amusing once you got through the shy exterior, when Marcus came up behind you. He snaked a powerful muscular arm around your waist. He didn’t turn to face you, merely speaking in the direction he was going.

  “I’ve been thinking, if you can’t repay my kind offer yesterday, this Saturday, how about next Saturday, or, any day next week!”

  “What do you mean yesterday?” You were very confused. Also slightly embarrassed that he had his arm around you during school,

  “Ah, you might not remember! I bought you lunch!”

  “Oh yeah!” It was all coming back to you now. Well, some bits were still a bit foggy but you certainly remembered you and Natalie stumbling into your French classroom ten minutes late and laughing at everyone’s stupefied expressions. You giggled a little.

  “I’m thinking next Friday night.”

  “Umm,” You blushed bright scarlet, you were very confused, why would anyone want to date you? You were a boring little nerd. You were plain and skinny. “I don’t know,” You brought him to one side and Sally walked off in a huff,

  “Why not?” He smiled suggestively, “It's nice to have time with friends!”

  You were so bloody stupid! You were an idiot! How could you have thought he would ask you on a date. He was gorgeous and nice! Those things don’t often come together in a guy and no one as rare as he would waste themselves on you. You were so so so STUPID! He wanted to be friends! Obviously you couldn’t help but like him, he was funny and smart and very confident. He was charming and sweet at the same time, and had the air of a guy who could really take care of a girl. But he just wanted to be FRIENDS! And, speaking of friends, you had plenty of them now!

  “Hey Dalia, come in here!” You looked round,

  “What?”

  “Come in quickly! Before she sees!” You dived into the lunch queue after the pair of hands that were beckoning you. It was Natalie, she was with Betty who was smiling sweetly at you.

  “Oh my God! Dalia! We were just talking about you!”

  “You were?” So they were just pretending to be friends, well you could do that too. You had plenty of friends before, just cos they weren’t as popular didn’t mean they weren’t as good.

  “Yeah,” She continued, “We were saying, you know Marcus, well, he’s always talking about you! He says you’re really cool!” The world was immediately shining again,

  “He did?”

  “Yeah, he’s like always talking about you, well, he was to me today, about when you went into town yesterday!”

  “Yeah,” You nodded, “That was good!”

  “You pushed in! Get to the back now!” A booming voice interrupted your thoughts. You were about to move away,

  “No,” Betty protested, “She’s always been here!” She batted her eyelashes and smiled. She looked so innocent. The stern faced teacher walked away, you grinned at Betty,

  “Aww, thanks!”

  “Don’t mention it!” Both Betty and Natalie smiled at you. It was the start of the best days of your life.

  That lunch time you went into town for twenty minutes. You saw sixth formers that knew Natalie and Betty. They waved and smiled at you too. You bought a lollipop and joined in the chatting and bitching with the two girls. When you arrived back at school you went into the playground and joined Sadie, Poppy and loads of other girls and you sunbathed and listened to iPods. You were infinitely happy, you never expected that one trip into town, one ride on a motor bike and a small amount of alcohol would take you, in a matter of days, from being a nerdy no one to hanging around with the coolest girls in the year. It would probably all change by Monday, you knew how fast school matters moved along, but today had to be enjoyed for all it was worth.

  After school you went into town with all the popular girls, you had ice creams cos of the weather and met up with some of the boys. You kind of loitered, this was unusual to you so you followed Natalie and Betty around like a sheep. You did piggyback races through the high street, the passersby looked on quite fondly, you were having such fun. You slid off Will Vamon's back as you crossed the finish line, you were victorious! And you saw Marcus; he had his school blazer slung over his shoulder and long dark brown hair tied up in a pony tail. He was on the phone. You didn’t want to be nosey but you couldn’t help over hearing what he was saying;

  “No, babe, i can’t do that...Exactly, you know I’ve got something on!...Yes...Yes, I’d love to but-...it’s the Chastic Romedo Frequency thingy...You haven’t?...it’s on Forgon, have you got a place there...thought not,” He saw you and smiled, “I’ll talk to you when i get home, K?...sure...K...bye babes,” as the boys and girls saw him they all greeted him fondly, swamping him with hugs and kisses like they hadn’t seen him in years, or was that just the popular way of doing things. He pulled you off to one side, away from all the loving attention; “Hey, I was just going but I was wondering, a very very direct trip home? As you can’t come on Saturday?” You thought about it long and hard,

  “Okay then!” Nothing could dampen your mood today, not even a phone call to someone he called ‘babes’, it was the best day you’d ever had. “But a very direct route!” You laughed. It was like when you’d had a bit to drink, you felt more confident, more bubbly when you were around more interesting people.

  “Oh my god, are you going Dalia?” Natalie said. The other girls and boys came over. You hugged everyone. Male or female, didn’t matter, but it was everyone. And you could now say from experience that Sadie Clemens had rock hard boobs.

  “Piggy back?” Marcus offered.

  He ran through town with you on his back. You saw Emily Baxe and Fiona Harte walking through town in the opposite direction, they looked up at you and you couldn’t help yourself smiling. You’d just experienced a new feeling: Cool.

  True to his word, Marcus dropped you off at home, he took the most direct route and you arrived home fifteen minutes earlier than you would’ve if you’d got a bus. And, no doubt about it, you much preferred a motor bike.

  You did several things that night;

  You hacked several inches off your skirt so, instead of it being down by your knees, it was halfway up your thigh.

  You put fake tan on. Your mum had an old bottle somewhere. It didn’t make much difference but certainly didn’t make you orange which was what you had feared.

  You made a facebook profile and added just about everyone you knew from school. You put on some makeup and a low cut top before posing for some homemade facebook snaps. You uploaded them. Changed your status to ‘Dalia Porter is craving another piggyback ride’ you commented on most of the pics Elouise Smith had put on there from after school. Not many of them were you, but you had still been there!

  Finally, you sorted out your blazer pockets, you filled them with makeup and hair stuff and you stuck some heart stickers on the lapel. It was all perfect.