(wooooo it's late for me to be posting but i've been gone for so long that i needed to get this one out. this is most certainly unedited. will fix in the morning. missed y'all! it's so good to be back!) -mags
✧✧✧

"YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE what came in the mail today," Marley said into her phone, cradling it between her shoulder and her ear as she unlocked the front door of her house. "Go on and guess."

She could hear Jess' sigh loud and clear over the speaker. "Do I even want to know?"

"The hell kind of question is that? Of course you do."

"The last time you asked me to guess what had come in the mail for you it was a box of just packing peanuts that had been accidentally shipped to you."

"And that wasn't worth asking about?"

"You really want me to answer that?"

Marley scoffed at him, walking from the kitchen to her room with a big envelope addressed to her gripped between her fingers. She threw her backpack at the foot of her bed and fell back on her mattress, holding up the package of papers. "Can you tell Todd that I want him to wake up and kick your ass because I'm not there to do it?" she asked, referring to Jess' roommate whose favorite activities were sleeping until three in the afternoon and watching Cheers reruns.

Jess chuckled, and the sound of him shutting a cabinet echoed softly through the phone. "What did you get in the mail, Acosta?" he asked. His voice was too light to sound begrudging.

"So glad you asked," she said. "It's something from Wesleyan."

Jess had stopped moving and the line went silent. "Big or small envelope?"

Marley grinned, sitting up and dropping the letter on her bed. "Big."

"Congrats," he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice. "You're going to college. Never thought it would happen."

"I got into UConn last month, I was already going to college. Now I have two options."

"Don't count Penn out just yet."

Marley rolled her eyes as she put Jess on speaker and began to open the envelope. "For realism's sake, I have two options," she said. "Two options that I actually really like. I'm visiting Jacob this weekend, so I'll get to see UConn again before decision day."

"How the hell did you get Luke to give you the weekend off?" he asked.

"Because Luke likes me and doesn't think that I'm a threat to humanity when unsupervised."

"Says the girl who almost burnt down the diner trying to work the deep-fryer."

Marley gasped at his words, sliding out the papers from the envelope. "That was a very scary day and it wasn't my fault," she said. "And besides, you weren't even there, so you don't get to give me shit for that."

She could see him raising his brows just by the tone of his voice. "Oh, is that the rule now?"

"Yes, it is. Tough shit if you don't like it."

"Huh," Jess mused. "So it looks like the thing with me and the swan is off limits, then."

Marley stopped reading the Wesleyan brochure that had come in the envelope. "Now, hold on—"

"And I guess the scream therapy story back at my dad's place can't be used against me either."

"Okay, wait—"

"Oh, and apparently you can't use—"

Marley promptly cut him off with an exasperated, "Shut up, you've made your point." She sighed as she heard Jess laughing into his phone. "I hate the deep-fryer story."

"I know you do," Jess replied.

"I could have died."

"And it's a tragedy that you didn't."

Marley scoffed into the phone has Jess continued to laugh at himself. "Todd!" she yelled, fully knowing that the man couldn't hear her. "Kick his ass for real now!"

The laugh she heard from the other end of the line wasn't boisterous or loud, but it was something soft and joyous, something so uniquely Jess that Marley had gotten to know pretty well in the four or so months they'd been calling each other since that one night he'd dropped in unannounced. Jess hadn't said goodbye as he'd promised, but he had a pretty decent reason, as he had explained to Marley. Telling his ex-girlfriend he loved her and not giving her any time to respond was good enough to warrant an abrupt departure, Marley decided.

Things were a bit less lonely now that she and Jess had instant-ish access to one another. Marley still had Courtney coming over practically every day, but Marley had known there was something missing from her days, and it only confirmed it further, the more she spoke to Jess. She needed someone to annoy, argue and talk with and sadly, Luke just wasn't cutting it for her anymore.

She heard Jess sigh on the other end, breaking her from her thoughts. "He's been asleep for eighteen hours, I'm not sure he's getting up to kick my ass any time soon," Jess told her.

"Well, he obviously hasn't met me and doesn't know the hellfire I bring when someone wrongs me."

Jess snorted. "Yeah. That was totally effective with me."

"You were different," she told him, furrowing her brow as she heard her doorbell ring. She got up from her bed and walked through her living room to get to the door. "You actually matched my level of bullshit. It's hard to do."

"It is impossible for someone to match your level of bullshit."

Marley rolled her eyes as she opened the door, only becoming more confused as she saw Kirk in his mail carrier uniform standing at her door. "Impossible's a drastic word for someone like you," she said to Jess, still keeping her eyes on Kirk.

Kirk dug through his bag, holding out a large envelope to her. He avoided eye contact with her, just as he had when he'd neglected to give her Jess' letter months ago. He apologized, telling her that this had come in yesterday, before running away and out of her yard.

"Please. You really think the reason we get along is because of that?" he asked.

Marley was frozen in her spot. Anything Jess was saying became static. She could only tell that he was still talking. "Oh, my God," she said, eyes never leaving the envelope in her hands.

Jess kept talking. "The reason we get along is because I learned to put up with your—"

"Jess," she said, nearly breathless.

At the sound of his first name, his mouth closed immediately. "Marley?"

"Jess," she repeated. Her hands were shaking. "You'll never guess what just came in the mail."

Marley could predict the confusion before he even started talking. "What came in the mail, Acosta?"

Finally, a broad smile broke out onto her face, and she could feel throat starting to tighten. "So glad you asked," she said, finding it a little hard to speak at the moment. "It's something from Penn."

The line went silent again, just as it had when she'd said the same thing just minutes ago for the Wesleyan news. However, there was a different energy in the air. There was more tension to it, yet it was also happy. God, was it happy. She could hear the grin in Jess' voice when he asked, "Big or small envelope?"

Marley let out a tearful laugh, then began to giggle in a way Jess had only heard when Ryan (fucking) Moreau had come into the diner to ask her out. "It's big," she said, cupping a shaking hand over her mouth in shock. "Holy fucking shit, Jess. I got in. I fucking got in."

"Holy shit," he said, sounding just as excited as she did.

"Like in, in. Like they want me to go there, type in."

"I fully understand what getting in means, Acosta." There was no sarcasm behind his words. If there was, it was hidden behind the elation in his voice.

"I'm going to Penn," she breathed.

Jess chuckled. "You're going to Penn."

This type of conversation continued for way longer than either of them would ever care to admit to, as they simply repeated each other's words and tried not to annoy their respective neighbors as they screamed back and forth over the phone. She had the chance to go to her dream school. It was actually happening.

It had all paid off.

✧

TWO DAYS, MULTIPLE phone calls to family and friends, and one celebration dinner later, Marley sat in her room late one night after a Friday night of work, catching up on a series she'd read earlier that summer, prepared to stay up until the early hours of the morning, as she'd canceled the trip to UConn to see her brother in the midst of her excitement. Jacob hadn't been upset when she'd canceled on him in the middle of dinner. He had actually made plans with a girl he had been talking to for a couple of weeks named Emily. Jacob had received an endless amount of questions from his mother and sister after he'd let that one slip.

It still hadn't set in with Marley that she was in. She didn't even know if she could afford to go there. She hadn't gotten her financial aid letter yet. She knew her chances weren't great getting off the waitlist, but a girl could dream. And dream she did.

Even though she'd made a good amount of money working at Lukes, there was no way in hell she'd be able to afford Penn without financial aid. Wesleyan had given her enough money to make it worth her while, and UConn was a definite yes. Her stomach churned at the idea of not being able to swing it because of money.

Sure, there were loans, but understandably, Marley's mother didn't want her daughter taking out thousands upon thousands of dollars in loans that Marley would have to pay back well into her adult years. Not if she had other options.

But she wasn't allowing herself to think like that. She'd gotten in. That was all that had mattered.

Jess had gone on about that ad nauseum. That was all that mattered, he'd reminded her. That was all that mattered right now. Focus on the good, Acosta.

She nearly believed that that was what he was calling her about right now. She glanced down at her cell phone, flipping it open to reveal his contact. She sighed, pressing the answer button and bringing her phone to her ear. "Yes, dear?"

Marley could tell he'd rolled his eyes. "What are you doing right now?" he asked.

"Trying to finish a series I should have finished last summer," she answered, flipping to the next page in her book. "Why? You're not going to ask me to do you a favor or something, are you?"

"I am, actually," he said. "Can you go out onto your front porch for me?"

Marley froze, mouth dropping slightly as she looked at her open bedroom door. "You fucking didn't," she whispered into the phone, getting off of her bed and walking to the door. "If I find you on my porch and I find out you drove from New York to see me, I really, actually might kick your ass."

She heard Jess huff a laugh as she opened her door, revealing him with his phone on his ear and a smirk on his face. "I'll take my chances," he told her, looking her directly in the eye.

Marley's eyebrows pulled together as she smiled at him, a meaningful sort of look on her face. She leaned against the doorframe, crossing her arms over her chest as she closed her phone. "What the hell are you doing here?" she asked softly.

Jess shrugged, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets. "Friends don't celebrate big things like getting into an Ivy League over the phone," he replied. He said it as if it were simple.

Marley raised her brows. "Oh, is that a new rule?"

"What, you get to make rules and I don't?"

"Never said that," Marley said, the grin on her face only getting wider as she spoke. "Just didn't think you'd make a rule that involved driving two and a half hours just to say congrats."

His smile wasn't as wide as hers but it was evident. "I didn't drive two and a half hours to be mocked, Acosta."

"I'm not mocking you," she said. "I just can't believe you're actually here."

"Well, believe it," he replied, glancing behind him to the old clunker barely running in front of Marley's house. "I've got a pizza in my car and I don't feel like eating it cold, so let's go."

"Pizza?" she questioned.

Jess looked at her blankly. "It's a universal law that Friday nights are pizza nights," he said, repeating the exact words she'd used as an explanation to Luke when they'd ordered pizza to the diner. There was a boyish smile on his face when he saw Marley's expression turn soft. "Keep up."

She couldn't believe him. She genuinely couldn't believe him. If you had told Marley two and a half years ago that Jess Mariano was going to one day drive up to Connecticut to celebrate her getting into her dream school with a pizza in his car, she wouldn't have known what to say. She was as speechless now as she would have been in that situation.

Marley sighed, moving to throw her arms around him, finding that he was much more receptive to this hug than he was with the first. She felt him laugh into her hair. Marley shook her head against her chest.

"Thank you," she whispered. "You really didn't have come all the way up here."

Jess brushed off as if it were nothing. "Please. It's not that bad of a drive. I'm not working this weekend. It's not a big deal."

"Still," she said, pulling away and glancing up at him. "Thank you."

Jess' smile shrunk slightly, but there was a bit more behind it this time. "'Course."

They stood on the porch for a moment before Marley glanced toward his car. "So, when you said 'let's go', you meant..."

"Get in the car and let's go."

"So I'm going to say this as nicely as I possibly can," she said, turning to him only to be met with an amused expression. "I'm not getting in that car."

Jess stifled a laugh and looked at her as if he were clueless as to what she meant by that. "Of course you are."

"I am not getting in that box on wheels."

"And why not?"

"Because that thing is going to fall apart the second I sit in it."

"I just drove a hundred miles in it. You're going to be fine."

Marley looked at him wearily. "The last time I saw you in this car half the town was pushing it."

"Oh, don't start with that," Jess groaned.

"Just grab the pizza and come inside," Marley told him, opening the door wider and stepping back into her house. "My mom's working tonight. It's cold out. And I doubt that thing has heat."

Jess narrowed his eyes at her before letting out a heavy sigh. "Fine," he muttered. "You're such a pain in the ass, you know that?"

"We both do. I don't know why you're saying it like it's new information," she replied, leaving the door open for Jess as she watched him walk down the porch stairs.

There was a smile that kept growing upon her lips as she walked through her house and into her room to bookmark her book and turn off her lights. He'd driven all this way just to eat pizza with her. She chuckled to herself.

The book could wait for now.

✧

THE PIZZA THEY shared was finished in less than a half an hour. Marley often found herself completely forgetting everything that wasn't whatever she was focused on and that included feeding herself. She didn't realize how long it had been since she had eaten. She received an eye roll from Jess as she explained why she was scarfing down piece after piece.

"I'm sorry," she said, swallowing before she continued speaking. "It's dangerous for me when I'm not working. My schedules are insane but they keep me from starving."

"Is Luke working alone right now?" Jess asked.

Marley shook her head. "He hired Lane Kim a month or two ago. She's got all my shifts this weekend."

Jess raised his brows. Luke didn't always adjust to new help very well. "How's Luke doing?"

"He nearly had an aneurysm her first week," Marley snorted. "He's so used to you and I practically sleepwalking through the job because we know it so well. She's perky. And good. Luke still thinks she's too good at it."

"Where does she go to school?"

"She doesn't. She was at a Seventh-day Adventist college, got into a fight with her mom, and dropped out. She lives two of the guys in her band."

"Dave?"

"No Dave. Dave's in college. She likes the Zach guy but won't admit it."

Jess looked at her. "How do you know that?"

"She told me. She talks a lot. Apparently, I'm very easy to talk to."

"Is that what you are?" Jess' tone was teasing.

"So she says," Marley said. Her eyes flashed to the remainder of the pizza on her plate. "I think she thinks that part of the job is just talking to me constantly because of how much we did." She met his gaze. "She hasn't got your dumbass opinions or your arguing abilities, so it's a bit less exciting. Good music taste, though. She's not playing Tom Waits at closing or anything."

Jess watched her as she spoke, a sudden feeling of guilt creeping up on him. He didn't know why or where it came from, but he didn't like it. He swallowed, ignoring the feeling before shaking his head at her. "Can't help the closed-minded," he said.

"Don't let Lane hear you call her that," she told him. "She'd list about three hundred different bands she likes to prove you wrong."

Jess nodded but said nothing to disagree with her. They both knew how un-closed minded Lane actually was when it came to music. Marley, on the other hand, was a very different story. It took a lot for her to stray from her favorite couple of genres.

He watched Marley as she leaned back against the couch she sat in front of, the empty pizza box now going ignored as she shut her eyes. Something she had said stuck with him in a way he wasn't anticipating. Marley actually was very easy to talk to, at least in his case. And if he were being honest, there was something he wanted to talk to her about. Two things, actually, but he knew it'd be best to keep the other one to himself for a while.

"Liz is getting married," he said after a moment.

Marley's eyes shot open. "What? When? To who?"

Jess ran a hand down his face. "Two weeks. The guy TJ I talked about in the letters. I met him at Lukes when Liz called me about my car."

"Does he seem okay?"

"As okay as anyone she's ever dated," Jess muttered, shrugging.

"Did she ask you to go?" When Jess nodded, she asked, "Are you? Going to go?"

"Why the hell would I?" He shrugged. "I'll just catch the next one. It's not like there won't be others."

Marley frowned at this, but she was able to understand where he was coming from. Jess hadn't ever said how many 'husbands' his mother had actually had but there was no reason for him not to expect there to be another one. From the stories he had told her about his mother, she  certainly wouldn't have gone if she were in his position.

But there was something that told her to question his decision (at least just once). This was a wedding for his mother, and yeah, if it had happened time after time maybe it wouldn't be worth it to go, but if this one lasted, if this was the person Liz was supposed to be with, then maybe Jess would regret not being there. Maybe.

"What if there aren't?" she asked quietly. Jess' eyes flashed to hers immediately. "What if this is the last one?"

"It won't be."

"But what if it is?" Marley sighed, before continuing, "I'm not saying you should or have to go, but I am saying that if this one sticks, you might regret not going. In the future, at least."

Jess looked at her for a long while. He didn't say anything, and for a second, Marley thought she may have overstepped some sort of line.

However, when he looked as though he were going to respond, there was an abrupt knock on the door that made the both of them jump. Marley shot him an apologetic look before jumping up and opening the door, revealing an unbelievably intoxicated Courtney Burke.

Courtney gasped as soon as she saw her best friend. "Oh, thank God you're home," she said. Courtney grabbed Marley's arm as she walked in to the house. "I have to pee. So bad. And there was no way I was using the bathroom at the party it was so gross. And I just—" She cut herself off as soon as she saw Jess sitting in the living room. He sent her a wave and the stupid little smirk Courtney knew appeared on his face. "Marley."

"Yes?"

"Why is Jess in your living room?"

Marley chuckled. "Because he's an idiot and decided to drive from New York to celebrate Penn with me."

Courtney turned to her. "Wait, seriously?" she asked before glancing back towards Jess with a wide smile, one that told him just how drunk she was. Courtney 'aww'ed at him. "You guys are like, legit friends! I really wasn't so sure about this whole friendship thing between the two of you because, like, you guys know your history and whatever, but between this and Marley's essay and everything else, it's just like... wow." Courtney's did sloppy jazz hands. "Friendship."

Jess' looked at Marley, whose hand was hiding her face, then raised his brows at Courtney. "Marley's essay?" he asked.

Courtney widened her eyes, sitting down across from Jess. "You don't know about her essay? Her college one? She never told you about it?" When he shook his head, Courtney gasped for the second time since arriving. "Oh, Jess. It was so good. At least, I thought it was good. It was all about you and you guys and your friendship and shit, it was so cute. I mean, it's fine that she didn't write about me, I'm completely over it because of how much—"

"Courtney," Marley said suddenly. Courtney turned to face her with a smile and glazed over eyes. "Didn't you have to pee, or something?"

Courtney pointed at her. "You're right. I still do. Be out in a second!" she said as she ran to the bathroom, leaving Marley and Jess alone once again.

Jess' smirk had returned, but there was some vulnerability behind it. Marley wanted to smack it right off him. She wasn't ready to have this conversation.

"You wrote your essay about me?" he asked.

Marley pressed her hands to her face again. "The prompt was to write about someone who'd impacted your life," she said, words muffled by her hands. "I didn't want to make the admissions counselors depressed and write about my dad, and every person who picked this prompt probably wrote about their mom, so... you were the next best option, I guess."

"The next best option?"

"Yes. We have an unconventional-ish story, too. Colleges like unconventional."

"Well, do I get to read this essay?"

Marley shook her head. "Absolutely not."

"Why not?"

"Because your ego does not need to be inflated any larger," she said. "That, and I hate when people read my writing."

"You let Courtney read it," he countered.

"That's because Courtney has known me since I was seven. She used to hype up the limericks I'd write in third grade English. She's seen everything. The first thing you read of mine will not be an essay about you."

Jess looked at her blankly. "You realize that makes no sense, right?"

"I most certainly do."

"Marley's weird about her writing," Courtney suddenly piped in as she stumbled out of the bathroom, beelining for the couch so she could go and talk to Jess. "She writes all these things but she doesn't let anybody read them. Weird."

"Courtney. Shut up."

The girl shrugged at Marley's grimace. "What? We're all friends here." She glanced over at Jess. "We're friends, right?"

"Oh, yeah," Jess said. "Best friends, Court."

"See? It's all love here, Marley. All love." Courtney yawned and laid down on Marley's couch, whispering the words, "all love" once more before falling asleep.

Marley sighed, pulling her phone out of her pocket and flipping it up. "Can you grab her a blanket from the closet? I need to text her sister and tell her she's gonna stay the night."

Jess nodded and stood up from his spot around the coffee table. "Does this happen a lot?" he asked.

"Her sleeping over? All the time. She's not always this drunk, though."

Before Jess made it to the closet, he stopped in front of Marley. She glanced up at him from behind her phone. He smiled, and this time it was real. There was no trace of mocking or teasing; it was genuine. "You really wrote your college essay about me?"

Marley sent the text and put her phone down, crossing her arms over her chest. "I did."

"Why?" he asked.

"I already told you--"

"No," he said. "The actual reason."

Marley tore her gaze away from his, sighing heavily. She stared at her feet as she attempted to put her answer into words. Fuck it. As he'd said all those months ago, they had nothing to lose by telling each other things.

"Because the prompt said to write about someone's who's impacted your life," she said. Her voice was quiet. "And whether I wanted to admit it or not, you've impacted my life way more than I ever expected in the best way possible." Marley looked at him. "I felt that warranted an essay."

Jess nodded slowly, smile turning smaller, the way it had when she had thanked him for coming to Connecticut. "Fair enough," he said, volume matching hers. 

Marley chuckled. "Good. Now go get the blanket for Courtney. You can put it on her too. Seeing as you're best friends and all." She heard him huff a laugh as she walked away. He opened the closet as Marley made it into her room.

After he had laid the blanket on Courtney, he walked into Marley's room and found her on her bed with a book in her hands. She glanced up as she saw him enter and reached over to her bedside table. Jess was surprised when she threw a very large paperback at him.

"First book in the series," she said, tapping on the book she was reading. "Read it."

"How do you know I haven't yet?" he asked.

She looked at him blankly as he reached behind her head for one of the pillows she was laying on. "Because it's fantasy." Jess scrunched up his nose. Marley pointed at him. "Don't knock it until you've tried it. George R.R Martin knows what he's doing."

Jess sighed. "Is there magic in it?"

Marley didn't have to say yes to answer his question. "Weren't you just yelling at me for being closed-minded?"

"Fine," he muttered, putting the pillow behind his head and flopping down at the other end of the bed, so that his feet were in Marley's face.

"Your feet fucking reek," she complained.

"Cry about it."

"I will."

"Read your book and shut up."

Marley scowled at him, but her eyes said differently. She turned back to the bookmarked page she was on and read a few lines before looking at him once again.

Jess could feel her gaze on him. He moved to book up to see her. "What?"

She gave him a soft smile. "Thank you for driving up here."

"You've already thanked me," he said, putting his book back in his face.

"Yeah, but I'm doing it again."

"You don't have to."

"But I did." She glanced back at her book. "Seriously. Thank you."

Jess' shoulders dropped and he nodded at her. "I wanted to do it. It's not everyday you get into the school you didn't shut up about for the three years I've known you." He finally broke into a quiet smile. "You deserve it."

Marley tilted her head to the side slightly, face scrunching up as she smiled. "Thank you. Double thank you, now."

They didn't speak for the rest of the night. The only thing that could be heard from the Acosta house was the flipping of pages and the occasional run to the bathroom from Courtney. All was quiet.

It was still quiet in the morning when Marley's mom arrived home from work, confused as to why there was a random car parked outside of her house. She chuckled as she saw her daughter's best friend passed out on her couch, cuddled into the blanket that was on top of her.

It was still quiet when she walked into her daughter's room and found her and Jess Mariano asleep on her bed. There was a book resting on top of Marley's face and one laying next to Jess' who had fallen asleep in a leather jacket. Though she was still questioning the sight, she smiled nonetheless, piecing everything together now.

It was quiet then. Neither of them were prepared for how loud it was to become.

✧✧✧

author's note: hello! i've been promising this chapter for ages, but for whatever reason this was an actual pain in the ass to write, so i'm hoping it's something decent.

this also would have been out yesterday, but my birthday was yesterday, so my friends and family had different plans for me. thank you to those who wished me a happy birthday!! love u all!

i'll be back with a chapter much sooner than last time. love you all tons!
-mags