Don't Tell A Soul

I waited for Max after my third period because after this class was apparently lunch. Once I catch up with him he says, "Why were you waiting for me in the hall Mars?"

"I was wanting to know if you had the same lunch as me." I shrug, walking with him anyways.

"Well I don't, babe. I'm sorry." He apologizes and wraps his arm around my waist in a comforting manner.

I smile some. "Will you walk me to the café? I don't know where it's at."

"Where's your map? I've got to get to my class, I can't be late."

I gesture to my back pocket and nod. "Alright. I'll see you after school." I peck his cheek and decide maybe I would just walk around school and get a good grip of everything so that Max doesn't have to help me anymore, since he clearly doesn't want to.

"Lunch is this way." I hear the familiar voice of the boy I met earlier, but for some reason I couldn't remember his name. He let's out a sigh of annoyance and stands there tapping his toes on the floor.

"I wasn't planning on eating. I'm probably just going to walk around and get a feel of this place myself." I tell him.

"Suit yourself, but you'll get in trouble for it." He shrugs and continues walking in the other direction.

I've never fled so fast to someone's side before. I didn't want to get in trouble my first day here. "So what's for lunch?" I ask him.

Then he starts uncontrollably laughing. Laughing so hard the tears we're forming in the rim of his eyes. "You, Marley, are one funny girl."

Honestly I was so confused. I had no idea what I did to make him loose control, but at the same time I wanted to do it again. I enjoyed making people laugh. "What's so funny?" I giggle.

He finally stops and looks at me with a smirk. "You're just funny. I like your laugh."

My cheeks turn a bright red and I bite my lip to keep from giggling again. "Hey Michael!" A tall curly headed boy, with tattoos on his skin as well, clasps-now as I remember-Michael's back. "Who are you?" Then his voice turns kind of rude.

"I-I'm Marley." I stutter, becoming nervous.

"Marley?" He ask and snickers some. "I'm Ashton."

"What's wrong with my name?" I question him.

"It sounds kind of funny. I've never heard that name before. Chill out, child."

I swallow the lump in my throat and look at the ground as I follow Ashton and Michael through the line. Once we get our food, we sit at a deserted table that consisted of two guys that I assume were the rest of Michael's friends. "Marley this is Calum-" Michael points to a dark haired boy that kind of looked foreign. "-and that's Luke." He points to a blonde pretty boy with a really high fringe.

"Hi." I awkwardly wave, and sit next to Michael and across from Ashton.

"Your name is Marley, huh?" The guy that I know as Luke questions, rolling up his sleeves to show his tattoos. Before I answer, I look to the Calum guy and wonder if everyone sitting at the table has tattoos as well.

"Yeah. I'm Marley." I nod, and give a reassuring smile.

Luke puts a toothpick between his teeth and give me a smug look, turning back to Calum who looks bothered by the fact that I'm even here. "Don't mind them, they're regular dicks. They'll come around once you get to know them." Ashton confirms.

"Okay." I reply.

"Tell Ashton that joke that you told me. The one that made me laugh so hard." Michael says, nudging my side. I knew what he was talking about, but I really didn't tell a joke.

"It-it wasn't a joke.." I slightly laugh at myself, feeling dumb.

Then Michael laughs again, and I look around awkwardly, not really knowing how to respond.
"Dude are you on drugs? Are you high?" Ashton questions, looking just as freaked out as me.

"No, no." He fans himself with his hands, catching his breath. "It's the dry humor. It's killing me."

I giggle again, finding it funny that I'm funny without even begin funny-if that makes sense. I wonder if that would've made him laugh? "Anyways..." Ashton speaks again. "Where'd you come from?"

"Um.. I'm from Perth."

"How come you moved here? Isn't Perth like 4 days away from here?"

"Yeah, but I stayed in hotels and stuff so that it only took me about 2 hours to get here instead." I say, they nod. "I moved here because, uhm, my-my mum is sick and we had to move closer to help her."

"I'm sorry.." Ashton drags out.

Because I'm learning Michael has no filter, he says, "So your parents are divorced then?"

Ashton's face falls, but it doesn't really bother me. "Yeah. My mum is from here, so she moved back to be with her parents, but they uh.. died, so she lives on her own."

"Marley that's really bad." Michael states the obvious, sighing sadly.

"Yep." I laugh, popping the 'p'. "I mean it's not that bad. She's not really as bad as I thought she would be, and I'm making new friends, and I'm finally closer to my boyfriend."

"We're your friends?" Ashton asks.

"I assumed. If you don't want me to be I won't." I shrug, not wanting to be a bother.

"You're definitely our friend, Marley." Michael chuckles. Then the bell rings and we all make out way down to our next class.

~*~*~*~

"So was your day so bad after all?" Max's voice sounds, as he places his arms around my waist.

"Well it wasn't bad.. but some help would've been nice." I truthfully say, embracing him anyways.

"If I helped you, you wouldn't have known anything now right?" He wriggles his eyebrows, "Right?"

I then laugh and remember why I fell for him in the first place. "Right." Max leans down a kisses my lips for a second.

"See you tomorrow, Marley." Michael waves me bye. I didn't even know that he was there.
"Bye, Michael." I wave to him.

"Who was that?" Max furrows his eyebrows.

"Um well while you weren't helping me, that nice guy showed me around and even let me meet the rest of his friends." I explain.

"Him and his friends are nice?" Max wonders as we start walking out into the parking lot. "I mean didn't you notice the tattoos?"

"Of course, Max." I chuckle. "Those were the first things I noticed."

"So I'll go pull the car up. Wait here." He tells me. I nod and stand on the sidewalk for his car.
In the meantime, a black expensive looking mustang pulls up beside me and when the window rolls down I see Michael smiling at me, with a disappointed Luke in the passenger side. "Did your boyfriend make you find the parking lot too?"

"No, he's pulling the car up." I shake my head, pointing in the direction. "Nice car."

"You like it?"

"I just complimented it." I sarcastically joke.

"Let me know sometime and I might just give you a ride." He winks and pulls off just as Max pulls up to me.

~*~*~*~

"Hey Anna." I smile feeling some sense of comfort in her voice.

"Marls! I miss you so much! How is it down there?"

"Eh, I mean it's not as bad as I thought. Mum isn't doing to bad and I've made some new friends already."

"I'm happy for you, dear." I can hear he smile through the phone. "When do you think you could come and see me?"

"Oh I don't know. I've got a lot of stuff to do here before I start working on my social life." I sigh, shifting positions on the rollaway bed since my bed hadn't actually gotten here.

"Well let me know when you can because I miss my baby." Anna pouts.

"I miss you too."

"How are you and Max? I bet it's nice being able to see him more."

"Yeah." I clear my throat. "I don't know. He wouldn't help me today at school. He made me do everything on my own. Should I be upset about it, or should I appreciate it?"

"It's your first day, Marley. He should've helped you out in the slightest. I'm surprised he wasn't all over you, so that the guys would know to keep their hands off of you."

"Same." I laugh. "He just kind of told me that he couldn't be late and left. Do you think he actually thinks that? That'd I cheat?"

"No honey, I was just saying. You're such a pretty girl and anyone would be lucky to be with you. I'm sure they'd go to any extreme to do so." Anna talks.

"Well speaking of guys, I met this guy named Michael today. He let me meet his friends and it was great. Actually I haven't even met any girls yet."

"I'm sure you will. Like I said it's only your first day. Who's Michael? "

"A friend. Anna, he has tattoos. And his friends."

"Marley that's crazy!" Anna freaks. "Watch out they could be a gang. Sydney's very popular with gang activity."

"Shut up. That's dumb, they're too nice to be in a gang." I shove that thought completely away, yawning. "It's getting late, and I have to go to school tomorrow so I'll talk to you later."

"Okay. I'd better be going too. Goodnight Marls. Love you."

"Love you too, Anna." I say and the line clicks.

I lay there for a while and toss and turn until I can't stay still anymore. I unravel myself from the small blanket and slip on my shoes. I exit the house and jog down the block to Max's home. I tap on his window, knowing where it is from being here before and he comes to the window. "What are you doing, Marley? It's late."

"Well yeah, but I couldn't sleep, so what's the harm?" I shrug stepping in. "Plus you said that I could sneak over."

"I didn't think you'd actually do it." He rubs his eyes and lays on his bed.

"I can go if you want me to."

"Come over here, Marley." He gestures for me instead. I walk over and he pulls me on his lap, and he kisses me hard. "I've been waiting to do that all day. "

"I've been here. You could've." I giggle, kissing him back.

"It's rude to do that in front of people. The best relationship is when you wait and give it your all without anyone's approval."

"I agree." I lie, and kiss him back again, and he pins me to the bed. "I love you."

"I love you." I say to him.

"You should probably go though. It's really late. Come over tomorrow after school and we can pick up where we left off, yeah?"

"Okay." I nod and climb out, and down his window knowing that nothing would be picked up.

Notes