Love Song (5 page)

And Marceline understood. In that moment, Marceline’s arms wrapped around Song’s back as she flipped them both over, landing on top of her on the bed. Song’s arms fell to her sides, her hands by either of her shoulders as she stared up at Marceline with watering eyes.

Marceline stared into them a moment more as her hands held her up in her hovering position. Slowly, she leaned in, one shoulder giving way to the lean, and lowering its forearm to rest beside Song’s head.

The space they shared shrunk until Marceline’s lips were able to graze hers. She applied a generous pressure, her other forearm giving way to her new position as she took Song for her own. Song returned the kiss with a gentle offer, and Marceline couldn’t help but smile, a giggle bubbling up against her lips.

She couldn’t have imagined that this was how this day was going to turn out. That Song would not only read for herself her most inner and private thoughts about her, but
accept
and
return
them.

She smiled into the kiss, and she could feel Song doing the same. She pulled back to look down at her now more-than-friend, who was looking up at her with dancing eyes. They both understood what this meant, and what had just changed.

The next thing they knew they were laughing. Song couldn’t help but let the foreign sounds take over her muted voice as she laughed with Marceline, their foreheads resting against one another’s. 

Song was hers.

And she was Song’s.

And they’d never been more confused and overjoyed.

7

              “What are you smiling about, Marc?” Greg asked Marceline as they sat in their shared class.

It was nearing the end, and he was almost certain that she hadn’t been paying attention to one thing their teacher had been saying. Marceline sat leaning over her desk with her cheek in her palm and her head in the clouds.

She’d been like this all day, but only Greg had had the opportunity to see it. Todd had skipped the morning along with Jess – no surprise there. And now they were a period away from lunch and Greg couldn’t help but be curious.

“
Marc
,” he said a bit louder, this time grabbing her attention – and the teachers.

Instinctively, they looked away from one another when the teacher looked in their direction, and waited at least twelve seconds before continuing.

“I said, what are you smiling about? What’s got you so happy?”

Marceline’s smile immediately vanished. She hadn’t realized. Had she been that obvious? She couldn’t help it. So much tension had been taken off her shoulders from having to keep everything hidden from Song. And now that everything was out in the open, she couldn’t help but be happy. Happier than she had been for a very long time.

But instead of explaining that, Marceline merely shrugged. She didn’t want to mention anything more than Song being some kid she helped in a park. And not with any disrespect or shame towards Song, but out of fear of judgement from her friends. She wasn’t so much worried about that coming from boy-scout Greg, but she also knew he couldn’t keep a secret.

She couldn’t afford any information about Song getting to either Todd or Jess. She'd never hear the end of it. Marceline glanced away from Greg’s smiling and curious eyes.

“It’s Friday? I’m ready for this week to be over.”

She tried to put on the best grudge-voice she could. But in truth, she was ready for the week to be over, and for the weekend to start. It was the first weekend that they were going to be … more. And even though Marceline wasn’t entirely sure what that more was yet, she was sure as hell eager to find out. She smiled again.

“Doing something special this weekend?” Greg innocently asked, still prying.

Marceline looked back at him in consideration.
Yeah
, she thought. She should do something special. This was special, after all.

But what?

“Well?” Greg pressed, becoming more intrigued each moment his questions were let unanswered.

“I don’t know. Maybe. Isn’t not having school enough to be excited about?”

“It’s just that you usually aren’t so …”

“Happy?” Marceline finished the sentence.

Greg hesitated a moment before being unable to contain his chuckle. The bell for the end of the class went off.

              Walking down the hall with Greg to the cafeteria, Marceline’s mind was still wandering. What could she do for Song to show her how happy she had made her? Her brows pinched and un-pinched as she struggled to come up with something. What could she do in the next twelve hours?

And then it dawned on her.

She had nearly fifty hours.

              “Hey, Song?” Marceline sheepishly called to her traveling companion.

Song’s gaze immediately trailed upwards to Marceline’s eyes as they came to a slow stop in front of the park. Marceline had been debating the entire walk if she should actually bring this up or not, but now that they were half way to Song’s house, she decided it was now or never. Song gave a curious nod, signaling that it was okay to continue. Marceline awkwardly scratched at the back of her head, her scalp slightly damp from the hot day.

“It may be a little stupid to offer, since we already spend almost every day together … But. My mom is usually away for the weekend. And, well. If you’re not doing anything this weekend, I thought maybe we could hang out. Like, maybe … if it’s okay with your folks, you could spend the night or something.”

Marceline couldn’t even bring herself to look at Song. She could feel her cheeks heating up, and her body becoming tenser with each word. Why was this so difficult? It was just spending a weekend together. But she felt like she was going to keel over at any given moment. She cleared her throat, wanting to try again. She was cooler than this.

Suck it up, Marceline.

“I mean. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. We could just … watch a movie or something. Or … Maybe … You know, to like, celebrate –“

Before Marceline could finish firmly planting her foot in her mouth, she was thwacked in the face with Song’s notepad. She blinked hard, jerking her head back from it in somewhat of a shock, her nose stinging slightly from the impact.

Written in big bold letters on the small page was the word,

“YES!”

Song lowered the notepad after she had seen Marceline read it, smiling wide with joy. Marceline’s smile bubbled up to join the hoorah as she laughed.

It would be a weekend neither of them would forget.

              The sound of the doorbell sent Marceline’s heart into overdrive. She had already been pacing the floor of her room, after having cleaned and re-cleaned it four times in her waiting for Song’s arrival. But she was finally here, and the best two days of her life were about to start.

She practically flew down the steps to the door, not even bothering to look through the peep hole to make sure it was Song. The door swung open, and before she could get out her energetic greeting, said energy was stripped when Marceline was met with Song’s chosen attire.

For the first time, Marceline was granted the opportunity to see Song in something other than her school uniform. She didn’t know why she hadn’t expected it, being that it was Saturday, but seeing her standing there now, she couldn’t bring herself to meet her eyes.

From size six café brown oxfords, stretched Song’s slightly bent legs, without the blanket of knee-high socks for the first time. Her milky legs vanished beneath a bold red pleated skirt, only about half an inch shorter than her uniform. Half tucked in to said skirt, was a slightly oversized loosely-stitched white sweater. Beneath it was a white tank top which was fully tucked.

It was also the first time she’d seen Song’s hair down. Looking at it, it looked like it had been curled. Marceline felt the corners of her lips curling upwards as she realized how much effort Song had put into her appearance. And here she was wearing jeans and a white tee.

“Hey,” Marceline finally greeted after the awkward pause she had taken to study her attire. “You look ... nice. Your hair looks really good down. I didn’t know it was that long.”

Even curled, though loosely, it fell well past her shoulders. Song gave a nod, her pale cheeks beginning to show signs of life – particularly embarrassment. Or maybe it was joy. She had obviously gone out of her way to put this look together, she must have felt
some
joy when having it noticed.

Song smiled, unable to smoothly play off how she excited she was. Not even bothering to wait for Marceline to move out of the way, or invite her in, she bounced forward, wrapping her arms under Marceline’s and around her back. Marceline laughed, made to take a step back from the impact, and brought an arm to rest against Song’s back as well, partially exposed by the oversized sweater.

“Aren’t you hot in that, Song? It’s like, almost 80 degrees outside,” Marceline asked, gesturing to the sweater as Song took a seat on the sofa.

Song shook her head as she flattened her skirt under her thighs before sitting. She pulled at various sections of the sweater, looking down at it. Marceline gave a nod of consideration, arching a brow.

“Yeah, I guess it
is
stitched pretty loosely.”

Song nodded, pointing to the sweater, and then her skin.

“Because it’s white? I thought that whole wearing white to stay cooler was a myth. Wearing black really makes you hot?”

Song nodded, leaning back on the sofa, taking a look around the room. She hadn’t really had the chance to do so before. When Marceline had rushed her into the house, she immediately wanted to be as devious as possible, so she went in search of Marceline’s room.

But now, sitting on the living room’s sofa, she was able to appreciate the décor. And when her eyes fell upon the photos of Marceline as a child sitting on one of the shelves that were mounted onto the wall, Song practically sprung up.

Marceline stepped out of the way, smirking as Song tip-toed to the shelf, her cutely frog-patterned socks somewhat sliding against the wood flooring.

Her finger tips delicately grazed over one of the frames before picking it up to hold in both hands. The photo was of Marceline when she was maybe six years old. Her hair was much shorter, and in low pigtails. Her eyes were almost shut she was smiling so hard for the camera, the Band-Aid on her left cheek threatening to pop off.

Song smiled, glancing over at Marceline and holding up the picture in comparison. She snorted, unable to help the laughter. Marceline scoffed, taking the frame from her with a challenging nod.

“Yeah? Where are your baby pictures? We’ll see who’s laughing, then.”

Song shook her head, waving her hand dismissively.

“What? I don’t believe it.
No
baby pictures? You’re so lying.”

Song smiled, giving what she thought was an innocent shrug, when in fact, it convicted her. Marceline gave half a frown. Putting the frame back on the shelf, she suddenly found herself nervous.

What now?

Although she was beyond excited to spend over 24 hours with Song all at once, she hadn’t exactly thought through what they were going to
do
. In fact every other thought she had come up with had involved touching Song inappropriately. And while they had come very close to crossing that line on Thursday, now that the atmosphere for that had passed, she wasn’t exactly sure how to get it back – or if Song
wanted
it back.

She glanced at the ticking clock that sat in the middle of the shelf. It was only 11:27am. Barely even noon, and she had no idea what they could do besides each other. She scoffed in a scolding manner at herself.
And just what did that entail?
She’d never even
thought
about being with a girl, let alone what to
do
with one. Her mind tapped out at kissing, but that alone had seemed to be enough to occupy her mind for endless amounts of time. But she was almost sure it could only occupy Song’s but for so long. 

Before Marceline’s mind could go any further down the theoretical gutter, Song waved a hand in front of her face, dragging her back into the present. Song’s black brow was arched, her expression showing the beginning signs of worry. She was trying to figure out what she was thinking.

And then it came to Marceline, making her smile.

“I know what we can do.”

Song’s brows arched in unified curiosity as Marceline stepped away from the shelf. Song spun on her heel to watch her sudden increase in energy, smirking with wonder as she stood in the middle of the living room. Marceline spread her arms out as If to present herself.

“Charades.”

Song gawked for a moment before frowning. She didn’t like being mocked. Her head shook in protest, but Marceline went on to explain, having figured that to be Song’s immediate reaction.

“Come on. I’m
always
having to guess what it is you’re trying to say to me. Let’s see if
you
can do it.”

Song rolled her eyes, walking over to the sofa to retrieve her small bag. She pulled out the notepad Marceline had given it to her, and gestured towards it with an annoyed face.

“Yeah, I know, but you only use that if I can’t guess it.”

Again, Song shook her head. Marceline crossed her arms with a challenging smirk.

“What, you scared that you can’t?” Song paused, catching the challenging tone. “I know there’s no way you could be as good as
me
, but …”

Song’s brows furrowed as she tossed her bag and notepad aside. She plopped on the sofa with crossed arms, looking up at Marceline. Marceline raised a brow, and smiled when Song gave a gesturing nod for her to start.

Marceline thought for a moment for the first thing she should imitate, looking around the room for inspiration.

Deciding to start with something simple, she straightened her posture before making a sitting gesture and extending her arms, hands level with her shoulders. She cranked her hands back repeatedly, tapping her foot on the floor with squinted eyes. Song arched a brow in momentary confusion before scribbling away on her notepad. Lifting it up to show her guess of, ‘motorcycle’.

“Lucky guess,” Marceline complimented, standing straight again.

Song scoffed as if to say ‘too easy’, and Marceline nodded challengingly.

“Alright then. I was
going
to go easy on you.”