chapter twelve – reunions and ballroom dancing

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Marc, staring at me with an evil smile.

"What?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"I need to give you something" Marc glanced over to where our parents were standing at the grill. They weren't looking.

"What is it?" I asked curiously.

Marc leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine.

"Ew! Marc" I pushed Marc away from me and he started laughing. "That was my first kiss!"

"I know" He grinned. "Now you'll never be able to forget about me"

I hate him so much!

I taped the balloons to the fence while Dad and Wyatt were getting the food ready for the barbeque.

"Tee, can you hurry up?" Wyatt called over to me and I could hear his annoyance.

"Why do you care?" I playfully glare at my brother.

Wyatt just scoffed and went back to putting the food out on the table.

"I think he invited a girl" Dad whispers to me and I bark out a laugh.

"Wyatt doesn't talk to girls, Dad" I roll my brown eyes.

"He asked to invite someone" Dad shrugged. "I think it's about time he brings a girl over. Especially since you've been bringing that Preston boy around a lot more"

My cheeks flush at the mention of Marc. His words from the party 2 weeks ago still are at the forefront of my mind. I know that I knew that he loved me but I had never heard him say it. And it confused me because I was feeling things that I have never felt before with Marc. The hate that bubbled in my stomach when he would speak turned into fluttering. The thoughts of hating him turned into thoughts of how amazing he was. The feeling of just wishing he would disappear turned into wishing that he would never leave. The relief I would feel when he would go away turned into missing him.

My hate was turning into something else and that scared me.

And the fact that he doesn't remember telling me he loved me makes things worse. Because I don't know if I should be relieved or disappointed.

** Eastview High, 2 weeks ago**

"Hey Thick Thea" My heart jumped as Marc snuck up on me.

"Hey Marc" I mumble, ignoring the fluttering in my tummy.

Marc's eyebrows raised in surprise. "What? No, yelling at me for calling you that?"

My cheeks flushed as I realized that I hadn't even noticed. Too distracted by my panic of coming in contact with him today. I haven't seen him since the party.

"I didn't realize" I shrug, grabbing my bag and making my way down the hallway.

"So about the party" Marc fell into step with me. My eyes snapped to his before he continued. "I'm sorry if I pissed you off. You barely let me come near you"

"Marc-" I stopped myself. Why was I trying to remind him?

"I drank a lot. I barely remember getting home" Marc laughed and I forced out a laugh with him, ignoring the lump that was forming in my throat. Why was I upset? This should be a good thing. "Can things go back to normal now? I'm kind of running out of insults to throw at Kevin"

****

I guess things went back to normal after that. Marc and I continued our home ec project and his constant teasing, which for some reason didn't annoy me as much anymore. And Kevin stopped obsessing over me. He even had a new girl sitting with him at lunch. Thank god.

Though I had hung out with the triplets a few times. One of those times were forced since Marc had gotten us all detention because he didn't feel like going to class and dragged us around the hallways with him. The other time, I was at the Preston home, working on my home ec project with Marc when Kevin and Devin decided that they would join us.

I honesty missed this. Hanging out with Kevin and Devin without all of the weird rivalry stuff. And hanging out with Marc without hating him was fun too.

Though I have caught Kevin and Marc shooting glares at Devin when they would catch us hanging out or talking in the hallways. We've gotten closer since I walked in on him, Mike and Reggie. Which is weird since Devin and I were never the closest of the bunch. It was always Kevin and I considered the closest.

"Wendall!" I frowned at that voice.

"Adam!" Dad greeted Dr. Preston as he came through our back gate, followed by the tribe that was the Preston family.

Along side Dr. Preston was Mrs. Preston, holding a pie.

Behind them were the oldest of their children and their families. Eric Preston, Mrs. Gomez, the cute little girl from the football game, the little boy that Marc had been holding and a newborn baby in a car seat. Alongside them was Summer Preston and Anthony Walton.

Behind them were Matt and Brielle with their son, River. Brielle looked even bigger than the last time I saw her which was crazy since it was only a few weeks ago. Marc had mentioned that she's pregnant with twins.

Behind them were May Preston and her girlfriend, Piper. Along with Sage Preston and... Mick!

"Mick!" I screamed before running forward to tackle him in a hug. "You didn't tell anyone you were visiting"

"I did not know until last night" Mick laughed. "Sage invited me"

I noticed that behind him were the triplets and Marc was holding hands with Sky and another little girl.

"Myrna! Myrna! This is Thea!" Sky tore herself away from Marc to pull me into a hug.

"Hi Sky" I laughed. "Hello, Myrna" I waved at the little girl that I assume was Sky's best friend.

"I didn't know you were bringing the whole family" Dad laughed at the large group of people that showed up. There's about 19 people here already. "I don't think there's gonna be enough food"

"Oh don't worry! I made a lot of extra food" Mrs. Preston waved her hand.

"We helped!" Sky announced proudly. "Marc helped too!"

Kevin and Devin laughed and started poking fun at Marc, in turn he just glared at them.

"It's all in the car, Marc can you go grab the trays" Dr. Preston asked and Marc just nodded and made his way back to the gate.

"Oh, Thea! Can you help him? There's a lot" Mrs. Gomez smiled but honestly it looked like a smirk.

"Sure" I shrugged, following him out.

"I didn't know you and Mick were friends" Marc commented as we made our way to the car.

"Yeah, he started hanging with us after your sisters graduated" I explained, ignoring the blush that was forming because of the way he kept glancing at me.

"Cool" Marc nodded, unlocking the car door.

"So you helped cook all of this?" I teased as we pulled out at least eight trays of food. And their were still at least 5 more.

"Well, I kind of just watched and asked questions" Marc explained, his cheeks tinting red slightly.

"Why?" I wondered.

"I want to be able to help out on our project without burning anything" Marc shrugged and my heart fluttered. How sweet.

Before I could reply, another voice spoke up. "Yeah, this kid is clueless. Almost burned down my restaurant"

I turned towards Matt Preston who was grinning at his younger brother. Matt didn't look much older. Though I could see stress lines and bags under his eyes. But they were not nearly as bad as they were when we were kids.

"You mean Brielle's restaurant?" Marc raises his eyebrows.

"Shut up" Matt ruffles Marc's hair like he used to do when we were kids but now it looked weird as they were the same height. "How have you been, Thea?"

"I'm good" I smile politely. "How are you?"

"Getting through it" Matt nods. "When did you start hanging out with this loser again?" That comment earns him a shove from Marc.

"He started stalking me when he came back" I joked earning an eye roll from Marc.

"Makes sense" Matt smirked at Marc. "Well I just came out to grab the rest of the trays"

**The Preston Home, 7 years ago**

I sat cross-legged on the floor, watching football with the rest of the Preston family. Minus the older twins since they were off at college.

"Look, you see how good that play was?" Kevin shook my shoulders and I nodded, despite not really knowing what he was talking about.

"You'll be making moves like that one day, son" Dr. Preston commented from the couch.

"Really?" Kevin stared up at his father with a huge grin.

My attention turned to the kitchen where Matt and Marc were. They were talking about something and they kept looking in here. I took note of the panicked look on Marc's face. I wonder what they're talking about.

"Go" Matt spoke at a normal volume and pushed him out of the kitchen.

A few minutes later, Marc sat next to me on the floor.

"What do you want?" Kevin asked his brother.

"I just wanna w-watch football s-stupid" Marc snapped at his triplet, earning a glare from Kevin.

I turned my attention back towards the tv and it was focused on a very old, ugly looking man. I think he was a coach or something.

"T-Tee?" I glanced over at Marc who had called my name. He looked nervous.

"Yeah?" I raised my eyebrows. He didn't usually call me by my nickname. It made me blush.

Marc's eyes flashed to the tv screen and an evil smirk twisted on his lips.

"That's your twin"

****

The barbeque was in full swing now. At least a hundred people are here. Which isn't strange since Dad invited the whole congregation. Including some of my friends and Wyatt's. I wonder if he had actually brought a girl home.

I decided to find him and see if it was true. It only took me a few minutes to find him sitting by the pool with a group of guys. Mike, Reggie and Devin.

"Hey big bro" I slinked my way over to him, in a dramatic fashion.

"Yes little sis?" Wyatt snorted at my weird walk.

"Dad thinks you invited a girl home" I comment, making his eyebrows go up. Reggie laughs a little at that comment.

"A girl?" Wyatt asks and I nod. "I don't commit"

"Well Dad's going to be disappointed" I roll my eyes and he just shakes his head.

"Dad just has to deal with the fact that I don't bring girls home" Wyatt shrugs and I decide to drop it.

Wyatt will never let his player ways die.

"Thea!" I look up and see two familiar girls waving me over to them.

"See you guys later" I bid my farewell to the guys as I make my way over to Cristine and Kianna.

"Hey" I smile at them and they automatically pull me into a hug.

"We need, need, need to hang out sometime!" Cristine cried dramatically.

"Girl, we are hanging out right now" Kianna rolls her eyes.

"I mean like plan something" Cristine bickers with her friend.

****

I spent a while hanging out with Cristine and Kianna until Charlie, Laurel and Millie showed up.

"Guys!!! Look!" I squeal, shaking Mick who was standing next to me.

"Mickie!" Millie squeals along with Laurel who run forward to hug him.

"Move!" Charlie bum rushes past them and straight into Mick's extended arms. "My best friend!"

"Hello to you too Charlie" Mick laughs at Charlie's dramatics.

"God you left me alone with them" Charlie cries out. "They're such girls! At least Sage and Piper were basically guys"

"Okay, offensive" Another voice popped up and I snorted as Charlie whipped his head towards it.

"Pipes! May!" Charlie ripped himself from Mick and tackled Piper and May into a huge hug. "I missed you guys so much"

"We missed you too, Charlie" May laughed.

"No love for me?" Another voice spoke and for a second I thought it was May but I then realized that it was Sage.

Charlie glanced over at Sage and if you didn't know him, you would think he hated her. But we all knew that Charlie was acting because he's a dramatic nerd.

"No love for the grinch" Charlie waves her off, earning a glare from Sage.

"Come here, stupid" Sage opens her arms, and Charlie laughs walking into them.

"How are you holding up since, you know?" Charlie smiles sadly at her and her eyes turn sad for a few seconds. They're talking about her break up with Benjamin Prescott.

It felt weird seeing them interact like that. Sometimes I forget that Charlie broke off from our group in middle school and got close with Sage and May. But I thought it was adorable how much he missed them.

"Oh! I have something for you!" I smack Mick's arm, remembering the gift I was planning on sending to him for his birthday, next week. It was the hockey puck from his first hockey game at Eastview, which I very much stole from the sports department. "It's in my room! I'll be right back!"

I ran myself into my house and up the stairs to my bedroom. But the door was open and I groaned. Someone's kids are probably in my room making a mess.

I push the door open, ready to meet the sight of my room destroyed but I meet something else entirely.

Marc was standing in my room, staring at some of the paintings I had hanging up. Some of my mom, some of me, Charlie, Millie and Laurel some of the triplets and I.

"S-Sorry" Marc jumps when he realizes I'm in my room. "I was looking for the bathroom and I got distracted by your work"

"It's okay" I shuffle on my feet. I didn't let a lot of people see my paintings.. at least the ones that I worked hard on.

"You're talented" Marc smiled at me and I blushed. "I'm surprised you included me in that one"

The one he was referring to was of Marc and I, probably 6 years old, at the dance classes we took back then.

"My mom loved that we used to dance" I smile.

"I remember" Marc grinned at the memory of my Mom forcing Marc and I to actually hold each other as we learned to ballroom dance. "Do you still remember how to dance?"

"Not really" I snort, remembering the one time at homecoming when I stepped on my dates feet the whole time.

"Want me to teach you?" Marc raised his eyebrows and I laughed. "I'm serious. Come here"

I stared at Marc's outstretched hand before giving in.

What was Marc Preston doing to me?