Aftermath

Mark was a passenger in his own body the next morning, his head screamed from the curse and his lack of sleep since seeing Anastasia and the coffee only served to numb one while making the other worse.

He saw her in the cafeteria and before he could even approach she stormed out the far side, give her space he thought. He looked around the cafeteria, he didn't see Yasmin and he wasn't sure if he should sit with Josie's group given their pending date. Fuck it, he thought and moved towards Josie.

"Hey," she said with a bright smile when she saw him, "are we still on for Saturday?"

"Wouldn't miss it," he said as the girls shared a look.

He took a seat and mostly let their conversation carry on while he tried to concern himself with his classes today.

"You coming?" asked Lily snapping him out of his head.

"Coming?" he asked drawing a giggle from Wei who then looked ashamed to have laughed at that.

"Big back to campus bash tomorrow night," said Lily, "freshman are invite only but you know me and I'm inviting you."

"Sure," he said agreeing to his first party invite since Chuck E. Cheese.

"Good," said Lily, "I'll make sure Josie wears something sexy."

"Lily," gasped Josie turning red.

"That shouldn't be too hard," he said looking her over.

This guy was dangerous, thought Josie as she wondered what exactly he wanted to do to her.

***

Yasmin sat swirling her tea at the cafe, her throat was in fact killing her but still she smiled thinking about Marcus and that cum walk he'd made her do, luckily it was on the girls floor, fortuitously she'd run into Jeremy, one of the RA's who pulled her into the stairwell and added a healthy layer to her face, he wouldn't do more lest he piss off his girlfriend but it had made for quite the selfie for Marcus.

"Girl again?" Came Celia's voice, "same guy?"

"Mhm," said Yasmin sipping her tea, "I was a bad girl."

"Party girl voice and everything," said Celia, "he really did a number on you."

"He knows how to tame my bratty side," said Yasmin, "my pussy is in love."

"Jesus christ," said Celia, "please you've gotta share."

"We'll see," said Yasmin, she didn't want to compete for Marcus' attention, but the thought of slutting out her best friend to him was also tantalizing, "wear something that really shows off your tits tomorrow night, I'll make an introduction."

***

Anastasia sat in the lecture hall of her morning finance glass, the cloud she felt over her seemed to keep anyone from sitting next to her. Evanescence blasted in her earbuds as she let the world move around her waiting for her professor to talk about ratios or whatever.

"If I sit there is that rain cloud over your head gonna soak me?" asked a rather handsome young man.

"Oh," she said fishing her earbuds out, "no, just drama."

"I'm Liam," he said taking a seat.

"Anastasia," she said shaking his hand.

He was cute, definitely her type, athletic, friendly.

"That's a pretty name," he said, "it suits you."

She blushed and brushed some hair out of her face, "you a freshman?"

"Sophmore," he said, "still undecided."

They chatted a little bit about campus and what to avoid in the cafeteria, he was funny, easy to talk to and for the first time at FKC she let herself relax. As the class let out he stayed behind next to her.

"You going to the welcome back party tomorrow night?" he asked.

"I didn't know there was a party," she said.

"Freshman are invite only," he said, "but I'd love to see you there."

***

One lifetime long statistics class later Marcus settled in for Astronomy, Professor Klein seemed her normal dour self as she worked through the lecture to a mostly indifferent class. Marcus watched her work, she seemed to be going through the motions, like nothing in any of this brought her any joy, he got a strange idea and after class he approached her.

"Mr. Vallen," she said with almost a smile, "you looked like you were actually paying attention."

"I was," he said, "I never really cared for science in High School, but space, it's so interesting, so much to learn."

"Quite," she said hands together examining him, trying to solve him.

"I was just wondering, there's supposed to be a meteor shower early Sunday morning and I wanted to know if there were any good viewpoints around here."

Her mouth hung open for a minute, she seemed knocked off kilter by his interest.

"There is a small telescope at the top of the science building," she said, "it's locked to most of the university, but if you wanted to meet me there, 4am?"

"I'll be there," he said, "thanks Professor Klein."

She watched him go and sat back in her chair, something about that boy she wondered.

Marcus tore through his homework, he wanted his weekend free to spend with Josie and Professor Klein. As he made his way to his dorm he passed Anastasia in the staircase, she froze when she saw him and seemed like she was considering going back to her room.

"Stasi," he said, "please, talk to me."

"Talk?" she said, "that was you and that slut were doing?"

"What did I do wrong?" he asked, "we're friends am I not supposed to date?"

"You would never do something like that," said Anastasia firmly, "you're a sweet boy."

Boy, he thought he was really still that scrawny five year old she first met to her.

"How would you know?" he asked, "hell how would I, high school was a nightmare for me even without my mom being sick, I never had time to think about dating or having friends and even if I did everyone at that school looked down on me," he could rattled off pages of insults.

"Not everyone," she said, "I never looked down at you."

"But everyone else did," he said, "all of the girls, all of the guys, especially the guys you dated, you never looked down at me Stasi but did you ever really look at me? I've watched you grow into a beautiful, intelligent young woman and it feels like I'm still that scrawny kid you met when you first moved in."

"Mark," she said after a pause, "I, people weren't that mean to you."

"They were," he said, "not usually in front of you, but they were. But we're here now and I'm finally free to be someone new."

He walked away leaving her in the stairwell. It felt like a weight off his chest, sure they hadn't reconciled but it was a lot he'd wanted to say for a while.

***

Anastasia walked dazed back to her room, he wasn't her Mark anymore. She tried to think back to high school, Mark getting called names, "all in good fun," Jake had told her, but there were the buises, the black eye from something with the wrestling team. She'd heard the talk from the girls too, even the one's who got picked on by the popular girls had never had anything to say about him if they mentioned him at all.

Was she a bad friend? She finally thought, go to him, she thought, give him space is what she settled on. So if Mark was with that girl next door she thought, maybe she saw something in him that Anastasia was blind to. Against her better judgement she walked next door and knocked.

"What do you want?" asked the girl with an eye roll.

"I think you're," she cleared her throat, "dating my friend Mark."

"You're Marcus' friend?" she said, "I wouldn't call what we're doing dating."

"Just," said Anastasia, "be good to him. "

"Honey," said the girl, "I'm very good to him."

Anastasia walked back to her room, that hadn't helped at all.