chapter six – marc's girl and mikayla's black and blue

"Why did you tell everyone that Thea kissed John Rudolph?" Kevin asked Marc as I hid behind 11 year old Devin.

"Because it was funny" Marc grinned at his brother.

"No it wasn't. Thea cried" Devin stuck up for me.

"Thea cried?!" Marc laughed and I got another lump in my throat.

"Say sorry!" Kevin pushed Marc and Marc just rolled his eyes.

"Or what?!"

"Or I'll tell Mom you made her cry!"

"People are staring at me" I growled as I walked through the parking lot towards the school.

It's Monday and Wyatt just dropped Laurel and I off at school. The party was last Friday and I'm pretty sure that, that bitch Mikayla told the whole school about her little assumption. This exactly what I did not want. Its actually worse than what I didn't want.

I didn't want the school thinking I had a thing with one brother. All three! Ha! At least one wasn't a big deal. Two probably wouldn't have been a big deal either. But all of them? I'm going to have every girl in Eastview after me.

"Nobody's staring at you, Tee" Laurel rolled her eyes. "You're overreacting"

Just as she said that Charlie and Millie met us at the entrance.

"Damn, Tee. Everyone's staring at you" Charlie greeted me.

"I thought nobody was staring, Laur" Sarcasm dripped from my mouth.

"Shut up, Charlie" Laurel glared at him.

"What? It's true" Charlie flinched as Laurel tried to smack his chest.

I ignored my friends banter as we walked into school. I cant deal with this. I don't want to deal with this. I was just trying to get through my senior year without any drama. I was doing pretty damn well up until Marc, The Devil in Disguise, Preston showed back up.

The day went by slow with every person I came in contact with, staring at me. I mean literally everyone. I would walk into a class and bam, everyone staring at me like I just walked into class with no clothes on. Walking the hallways? Girls would stare and whisper.

And then! To make it worse, Kevin made me sit with him and his friends in 2 of the classes I had with him. Like he didn't know what was going on. He even made a joke about it with his friends! Ugh dumb jocks. Then in another class, I showed up late and the only seat empty was next to Devin. At least he spent the class sleeping but I still got suspicious looks from some girls he hangs around.

Thankfully I haven't had any classes with Marc yet because we all know that he thrives off of attention and would definitely bring some my way. God I hate that attention whore.

"Look! You survived it until lunch!" Laurel exclaimed dramatically when I made it to the cafeteria.

"Barely" I grumbled.

"Chill, Tee. This will all blow over when another girl sleeps with the three of them" Charlie said with his mouth full and I rolled my eyes.

"Nobody ever sleeps with the three of them" I growled. "And anyway, I don't want people thinking I did when I didn't"

Out of nowhere, two hands cover my eyes and I feel someone standing behind me.

I swear to god if that's-

"Guess who" I feel Marc's warm breath against my ear and I fight the blush coming to my face. He should not be that close to me. Nobody should.

"Get away from me" I growl and jerk my elbow back so it jabs him in his stomach.

"Chill, Thea" Marc groans, his hands leaving my eyes to grab his stomach. "I don't have as much muscle as my brothers there"

"No you do not" Millie glances over to the table where Kevin and Devin are seated and back at Marc.

"And who are you?" Marc slides in next to me.

Oh I know that voice.

"Off limits, Preston" I glare.

"What?" Marc gives me an innocent look. That lying little-

"She's obviously jealous" My glare switches from Marc to Charlie. "Kidding, kidding"

"I don't want you corrupting my friends" I roll my eyes and start to eat some of the cardboard flavored school pizza.

"Oh, Thick Thea. We all know you just don't like the idea of me having another girl" Marc swings his arm around me and I gag.

"That implies that I'm your girl. And the thought of that makes me want to vomit" I sneer at the blue eyed smiling idiot next to me.

"Come on, Thea. You've been my girl since pre-k" Marc looks at my friends like I'm slow and I shrug his arm off of me.

"In your dreams, Preston" I take another bite of my flavorless pizza.

"Every night, princess"

Before I could reply I heard an especially nasally voice coming from the table across the room.

"Just skip football practice, Kevvy" Mikayla whined. The bruise from where I punched her still appearing despite her thick layer of concealer.

"I can't" Kevin said and then started continuing his conversation with the other football players.

I have to say, despite my hatred for that girl, I feel kind of bad for her. I mean she has had a crush on Kevin since elementary school and he kind of treats her like trash.

"What are you staring at, whore?" Mikayla hisses at me as she stomps past.

"Your hideous attempt at covering that bruise" I shrug not even looking back at her. Maybe I don't feel that bad. She is a bitch.

I heard her stop and gasp. But then her foot steps got harder as she continued her way out of the cafeteria.

The rest of lunch goes by without much happening. Marc stays seated with us and spends the whole time bothering me while Charlie tries flirting with a once again oblivious Laurel and Millie, well she's Millie so she doesn't speak much. Just listens.

Mrs. Miko let's us leave a minute before the first bell rings so now I'm headed to home ec with Marc because he refuses to leave me alone.

"Shouldn't we wait for Kevin?" He asks as I try to speed walk away from him.

"You can. I'm not" I shrug. I don't want to be seen with them. Why won't he understand that?

Well maybe because he's used to me trying to avoid him. He probably doesn't realize that I now have more that my hate for him fueling my attempts to make him leave me the hell alone.

"No, I'll walk with you. I like being with you more than him anyway" Marc shrugs as he continues walking with me and I roll my eyes.

"Ah yes. You can't pick on your big brother" I scoff.

"Hey, I love teasing you but you're actually pretty fun to talk to. Last Friday proves that" Marc wraps his arm around my shoulder again and I roll my eyes but leave it.

"Last Friday was a disaster" I glare at him.

"Why?" Is he stupid?

"Why? Because now Mikayla's telling everyone about how I've 'slept' with all three of the 'Preston Playboys' and the fact that I punched her doesn't help" I growl. Not because I'm angry at him, which is weird because I'm always mad at him, but more because I'm frustrated at myself for letting this happen.

"So?" Marc shrugs and now I may be feeling some anger towards him. I guess he notices because he continues. "I mean, the only people that matter know that you're not lying. Me, my brothers, you, your friends. That's all that matters. Not Mikayla and her gang of wannabes. And punching her was a good call. Don't regret it. She deserved that bruise. If I was okay with hitting girls I would have done it. But you know. I was raised right"

I scoffed at that last part but smiled at him.

"Thanks, Marc"

"Hey. I have a question" Marc looked at me after a second.

"Hm?" I look at him. His black hair falling in front of his eyes.

"What happened?" Marc asked and I furrowed my eyebrows. "Like... while I was gone. I left and you were shy and scared of people. Now you're like. Ya know. Hot"

I stifled a laugh at Marc's comment. I was always hot.

"Life happened, Marc. Life happened"