chapter twenty-six – forever and always

"Thea! Baby! It's been so long! Really? Hannah Montana? Well look at you, you look like you should be in one of those Disney after-school specials" Marc teased as he made his way towards me.

"Well, Marc. You look like you should be arguing with your parents outside of Hot Topic because this-" You gestured to his attire. "isn't a phase"

Marc's eyebrows went straight up at my response. I bet he wasn't expecting that to come out of my mouth. Last time he saw me I was a chubby, timid 13-year-old girl who couldn't think straight around him.

"Still drawing I see! What is this? Some sort of dinosaur?" Marc snatched my sketch book out of my hands. "You always liked dinosaurs"

I glared at him for poking fun at my irrational childhood fear of dinosaurs. Obviously, that had gone away but it still annoyed me.

"Leave her alone Marc" Kevin sighed.

"Shut up, Kevin. You didn't even recognize her until I said her name" Marc flipped through my sketch book. "Can you answer that thick Thea? Hannah Montana isn't really my jam"

"Don't call me that" I hissed as I picked up my phone. "What do you want Wyatt?"

"Snappy much? I'm outside to pick you up like the great older brother I am and you're not here" Wyatt sassed.

"God I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you I had-"

"Is that my man Wyatt? Let me say Hi" Marc tried to grab my phone and I pulled away. I did not want to be that close to Marc Preston.

"Is that Marc Preston? Are you with Marc Preston right now? I always knew you two were going to hook up-"

"I just don't understand why they did a school wide schedule change the last month of school." Charlie complained as we made our way down the hall.

Yep! It is now June and the party that changed all of us happened back in March. I haven't even spoken to Marc since the beginning of April. My voicemail was left unanswered and at first that both scared and hurt me.

But now... Now I'm content with how my life is going.

I'm graduating this month and I'm going off to college. Dad introduced us to his girlfriend last week and I couldn't be happier for him. Wyatt's been going on and on about this new person he's been seeing. I've also took note how he hasn't once referred to this person as she or her. Charlie and Laurel are going strong. They're going off to the same college as Sage and Mick. So they're excited.

Two weeks ago, Kevin found his way over to our lunch table along with Devin. Right after a very public break up with Mikayla. I didn't miss the look in his eyes when he tried to talk to Millie and she was her usual annoyed self. She's usually very sweet but when Kevin's around... She is a mean one. But it reminded me of the way I acted towards Marc when he first came back. And that brought a smile to my face. Kevin and Millie would make a cute couple if Kevin was actually serious. And that means if Millie decided to give him a chance, I need to make sure he's serious.

I took the way Kevin and Devin gradually were returning to their old selves as a good sign that Marc was recovering well. But Marc was never brought up anymore. Because everyone was afraid of setting me off into my depression again.

"It's not really a schedule change. We still have all the same classes and teachers. Just different time slots." I laughed at Charlie's dramatic self.

"Shut up." Charlie crossed his arms. "Where's Kevin?"

"I don't know. Maybe he forgot they changed our Home Ec class to the morning?" I shrugged.

"Or maybe he's torturing Millie by walking her to class." Charlie snorted.

"That's a possibility." I grinned.

"You're okay with that?" Charlie asked.

"Right now, Millie hates him. If that changes then we would have to make sure Kevin's serious about his little crush." I shrugged once again. "People change, Charlie."

"That's true." Charlie nodded. "You ready for finals?"

"Hell yeah! I practiced my recipe like four times last night. It's perfect." I smiled confidently. "Plus we get out of two classes now since Mrs. Thompson's giving us 2 hours for this."

"Yeah that's pretty cool. Now I get out of Math and Science!" Charlie grinned.

We finally got to Home Ec and went to our workstations. We all listened to Mrs. Thompson explain the rules and safety regulations. Then finally we were allowed to start. I opened the notebook Marc had gotten for us to use and sighed at the familiar messy handwriting.

20 minutes after class started, I heard a crash and a familiar voice.

"I c-could have did t-t-this myself without c--crashing into the g-g-g-garbage."

"Sorry bro." Kevin laughed.

"Oh, Marc! You're back!" Mrs. Thompson gushed.

I refused to give in and look up. I just continued to work on the final. The recipe that we had designed together...

A few minutes later, Marc came to our station. He didn't say anything to me and I don't think he looked at me but he did grab the notebook an start to work with me. That was until 40 minutes later.

"Ow!" I gasped as something hit the back of my legs and I jolted into the counter.

"I'm sorry, T-T-Thea"

That's when I finally looked at him.

He was paler than usual and his hair was short. Like it was buzzed a while ago. His bruises were gone but their were some scars forming. His lips were chapped and their were bags under his eyes. But his eyes weren't cold and they weren't angry.

"I-I haven't g-got-t-t" Marc squeezed his eyes shut. Obviously frustrated with the return of his stutter. "gotten u-used to the c-chair."

"It's okay, Marc." I smiled at him and he actually gave me a small smile back.

We continued to work silently for the remaining hour and we finished 5 minutes early. So we sat silently waiting for Mrs. Thompson to start calling up presenters.

"I'm going to let you two go up first, since you finished first." Mrs. Thompson smiled at us before making her way to the front of the class.

My eyes widened when Marc grabbed my hand.

My eyes met his and he refused to meet my gaze.

"I-I was a-a-angry."

"I know, Marc." I squeezed his hand.

"I-It wasn't y-y-your fault." Marc gulped. "I-I'm sorry. F-for e-e-everything."

"So am I." I smiled at him.

"Marc, Thea! Please come up to present your project."