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"MARIANO, GET THE hell out of my face."

"I think I'm good right here."

"Seriously. I'll get Courtney to come over here and kick your ass."

Jess looked surprised. "Courtney's shorter than you are."

"Yeah. And she's got a year of fight pent-up in her. The only thing coming between her foot and your ass is me."

"It's a simple question," he said, shrugging.

"A simple question I don't have to answer," she countered.

"It's a simple question you have to answer unless you want me to tell Luke about the ice machine." Marley grinned at him, making Jess roll his eyes. "What?"

"That happened a month ago," she said. Marley leaned up against her locker as she shut it, reveling in the scowl on Jess' face. "You really don't have anything to use against me, do you?"

Jess didn't answer. Marley's smile only got wider. "Shut up," he finally said.

Marley chuckled. "It's so nice that your blackmail is as stale as your music taste."

"The girl who likes Franz Ferdinand did not just try to call my music taste stale."

She gaped at him, eyes narrowed. "You like Tom Waits. I don't know anybody who likes Tom Waits other than my mom."

A smirk graced his features. "Well, then obviously, taste didn't get passed down."

Marley sent him a glare, looking away soon after as the bell rang. She moved from the lockers as everyone around her began to walk to their homeroom classes, eyes scanning the hall as if she were looking for someone. If she were alone, she would have scoffed at herself. As if. She was looking for someone. She'd been looking for the same person for over a year.

Jess seemed to notice this as he watched his coworker. He felt the teasing words build upon his tongue, but, much to his chagrin, he was unable to say them, as a yell interrupted him.

"MARLEY!" The voice came from down the hall. Marley's head whipped around, startled by the volume of it. She recognized it to be Courtney's immediately, panic spiking as she watched her best friend sprint down the hall, weaving through her classmates to meet her. Courtney was out of breath as she approached Marley, seeming to completely disregard Jess. He knew this was the case because Courtney hadn't stopped to insult him.

"Is everything okay?" Marley asked as she searched Courtney's face.

Courtney inhaled (rather dramatically, Jess decided) then began jumping up and down. "Guess who I just talked to?"

Realizing that this was nothing serious, that nobody had died, nor had Smashing Pumpkins reconvened, Marley sighed, fingers pinching her nose. "Who, Courtney?"

"Ryan."

This piqued her interest. "About what?"

Courtney squealed, grabbing onto Marley's arm. "You!" she said. Marley's eyes widened. "I was walking into school and he was talking with Dan and Patrick and all of a sudden he's like, 'Courtney, come here'. So, I'm like, 'what's up?' and he goes, 'You're friends with Marley, right?'. So, of course, I'm like, 'Uh, duh. She's my best friend' and—" It was then that Courtney observed the area around her and saw that Jess was right in front of her. All excitement left her face and she frowned at him. "You need something?"

The smirk had returned to Jess' face as he looked at Marley, who came to the realization the Courtney had just answered the question he'd been peppering her with for a week. "Nope," he said. "I have everything I need."

Marley scowled, pointing a finger in his direction. "One word about this and I tell Luke about your double-life at Wal-Mart."

Jess didn't pay any mind to her threat. He simply just walked away, a thin smile stretching across his face. "You don't scare me, Acosta."

"I should. Remember what I said about Courtney."

Jess spared Courtney a glance. "I'll take my chances."

He then gave her a wave, turning to walk down the hall. Marley shut her eyes and shook her head, turning back to Courtney as she remembered what she had been talking about. There were more important things than Jess Mariano being annoying at hand.

"What did you say about me?" she asked, brow furrowed.

"Just that you've wanted to Mike Tyson his ass for a year and I'm the only one stopping that from happening."

A look of pride washed over her. "Good," she said, smiling. She grabbed Marley's arm again, this time turning her around so they could walk to homeroom. "Anyway. Ryan basically asked if you were seeing anybody and I told him no, and he was like, 'Do you think she would want to see somebody?'"

Marley stopped her in the middle of the hall. "Are you serious?" she asked, voice low.

"Yes!" Courtney nearly screeched. "Marley!"

Marley couldn't keep the smile off of her face even if she wanted to. Ryan fucking Moreau. Ryan Moreau was actually admitting that he was interested. After a year of side-stepping around one another and ignoring the slight tension between them, it was finally happening. She couldn't believe it.

She squeezed her friend's arm tightly, not wanting to make as big of a scene as Courtney was. "Oh, my god," she whispered. Ryan fucking Moreau.

"I know!" Courtney stopped jumping, suddenly looking very serious. "What are you going to do?"

Marley turned to her, feeling rather queasy. "I..." She paused, face going pale. "I don't know."

Courtney shook her head, guiding Marley into homeroom. "Okay, let's sit you down," she said, maneuvering her friend around the desks until they reached Marley's.

"Do I wait for him to make the first move?" Marley asked, putting her face in her hands. "Do I ask him out?"

"I don't see why you can't," Courtney said. "It's the twenty-first century. All power to all women everywhere, baby."

"Don't let Confederate Connor hear you say that," Marley replied, glancing over to said boy sitting in the corner of the room looking as though he were ready to shoot up the place. "He'll put you on his hit list. I'm already on it."

Courtney didn't hide her confusion. "For what?"

"He overheard me telling Jess that my dad being a conservative gave me even more reason to despise him."

"Oh no," Courtney winced.

"Yeah. Didn't go over well. I was told that I was going to hell multiple times," Marley said.

"Did Jess say anything?"

Marley snorted. "He called him General Lee and told him to go fuck his cousin."

Courtney blinked at her. Marley thought she was dreaming when she saw a small smile appear on Courtney's face. "I think this is the first time I've ever liked Jess Mariano," she said, shaking her head.

Marley chuckled. "He's not all bad," she mumbled.

It was quiet between them for a moment. Courtney was still looking at Marley, but Marley's gaze was stuck on the floor, mind obviously elsewhere. Courtney swallowed, voice soft as she spoke. "I still can't believe that you told him about your dad," she said.

Marley sighed. "I can't either," she said. She really couldn't. Marley thought about that night frequently, the way the words seemed to come pouring out of her, the anger, the frustration she felt toward the world spilling into the air for Jess to do what he would with them. Marley hardly let herself be vulnerable with her own family, let alone the coworker she had been less than fond of. "I don't even know what happened that night. I just started talking and I couldn't stop. I guess I just needed to get it out of my system to somebody who wasn't you."

There was a fond little smile playing upon Courtney's lips as she listened to Marley. "Well, I'm really happy you found another person that you were able to talk to about that stuff," she told her. Her voice was genuine. "But can I ask you something?" Marley nodded. "Why him?"

"Because he's been through some of the same shit I have," she said. Marley had surprised herself by how quickly she'd replied. There wasn't any hesitation behind her words, there wasn't a need to ask herself why, why him? The answer was simple to her. It was because she and Jess understood each other. Now, the things they fought about they didn't understand, but the real stuff, the important stuff. That was what they understood about one another. That was all the push Marley needed to be able to take Jess up on his offer of maybe, one day, confiding in him again. "He understands a lot of it. That's all."

Courtney smiled again, and while it wasn't as large as the one she wore when she told Marley the news about Ryan, it was all the more meaningful. It didn't matter that she didn't really like Jess, what mattered was that Marley was happy and stable, even with him in it (maybe, even at times, because he was in it). That was good enough for her.

"Okay," Courtney said, nodding. "Good."

Marley reached out and kicked her shin softly. "Good."

"Now," Courtney began, "let's figure out what we're going to do about Ryan. Because I want you to talk to him before the end of the day. This is a year in the making, Marley."

Marley slumped into a pile on her desk, head making its home on her arms. She groaned, shutting her eyes, attempting to construct a plan in her head.

Ryan fucking Moreau.

✧

JESS HAD BEEN all smiles at work the week he'd found out about Marley's slight infatuation with the pitcher of the school's baseball team, and Marley now truly understood how insufferable she'd been to him. She only regretted it a little bit. Not enough to stop doing it herself.

The teasing had gotten so bad that Marley actually had Luke on her side this time. Recently, when Jess would find a way to weasel Ryan into their conversations, she'd found her boss jumping to her defense, giving his nephew shit about Rory, almost shutting Jess up. Almost. She'd found that getting Jess Mariano to be quiet when he had something to say was a nearly impossible task.

Today was no different, especially because Ryan Moreau had just come by Luke's (asking who else but Jess) for Marley. Her heart had dropped as soon as Jess practically skipped to the back room to retrieve her.

"Acosta," he said, leaning on the doorframe. "Romeo's here."

Marley cursed him out, then cursed herself, bit the inside of her cheek and then sighed heavily, looking into a jar of pickles. She glowered at Jess as she walked past him, the look dropping completely as she saw Ryan leaning up against the counter waiting for her.

Her smile was shy and sweet as she approached him, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. She could do this. Yeah. She could.

"Hey," she said softly. "How are you?"

He grinned at her, and Jesus, Marley thought she could have melted. "Better, now that I see that you're working." It was cheesy, and had it been anybody else, she would have laughed in their face. She wasn't one for 'cheese' unless it came from the right person.

Marley giggled, actually giggled, Jess noted as he watched them, and she looked down bashfully at the counter, fingers tracing shapes into it.

Jess didn't know what to do with himself. He'd never seen Marley like this, ever. She was never nervous, never quiet, never giggly. The girl he'd gotten to know was sharp, she was confident, and she never, ever laughed like that.

Then again, Jess figured, he'd never seen her around somebody that she was interested in.

"So, are you here for anything?" she asked Ryan. She looked back up to meet his gaze and she swore she saw all the flecks of gold in the brown of his eyes. "Coffee? Food? We have some pie in the case over there."

Ryan's brows raised. "What flavor?"

"Apple." Marley ignored the urge to yell at Jess who was watching her from the corner of the room.

Ryan hummed quietly but shook his head. "As tempting as that sounds, I'm afraid that's not what I came here for."

She could feel her heart beating in her chest. She could have sworn that Ryan could hear it. "Well," Marley began, "then what are you here for?"

He chuckled. "I'm here to ask you out in the lamest way possible." His voice was confident.

Marley could have sworn she stopped breathing. Her eyes widened, a smile breaking out on her face. She attempted to contain it by pressing her lips together, but that didn't seem to do the trick. She ducked her head. This was happening. This was happening now.

Her eyes shifted to Jess who hadn't moved from the spot he was in, looking at her, eyes like saucers. Marley's smile grew slightly.

She glanced back at Ryan, who she then realized was waiting for her to say something. "It's not that lame," she replied, attempting to shrug casually.

"So I'm not doing too bad?" he asked.

Marley laughed that same laugh that was so foreign to Jess. "I'd say you're doing pretty well," she said.

Ryan smiled, lips twisting in a way that was almost cocky. "When's your next day off?" he asked her, gaze flicking around the diner.

"Well, I'm off Saturday night," Marley said. She hoped she didn't sound too eager.

"Perfect," Ryan responded. "I'll pick you up at eight."

Her heartbeat hadn't gotten any slower. This was happening. It was real. "Okay," she said quietly, practically beaming at this point. "Eight."

"I'll see you tomorrow, Marley," he told her, sending her one last smile before walking out of the diner and hopping into his car that he'd parked in front of it. Marley had to grip the counter to stable herself.

Ryan had asked her out. Ryan fucking Moreau. She couldn't believe it. It had finally happened.

She couldn't stop smiling even if she wanted to. She didn't stop as Caesar yelled at her to deliver an order, she didn't stop as Taylor requested more coffee (even though he'd been sitting at the table for an hour and hadn't ordered any food yet), and she definitely didn't stop smiling when she saw Jess Mariano blocking her from entering the area behind the counter. While she didn't like the look on his face, her mind was way too occupied to completely process it.

"Did he just ask you out?" Jess asked. "That wasn't some fever dream we both had?"

Marley pushed past him, laughing to herself. "It happened," she answered. She bit the inside of her cheek, gaze far off. "It happened."

"This isn't going to be one of those days where you space out for hours until I find you in the back staring at the flour like you want to jump its bones, is it?"

This comment seemed to sober Marley slightly as her eyes finally lost the dreamy look and returned to the daggers Jess was more familiar with. "How's Rory, Mariano?" she countered.

Jess scowled at her but said nothing in response. He simply shook his head, moving her to the slide as he went to go grab a plate Caesar had just put up.

The smile returned to her lips and she wasn't sure if it'd go away until Saturday.

It would go away, Marley found out, later that night. Jess had been playing the CD he'd brought in a little while ago again and Marley couldn't help but want to open the stereo and break the CD.

"We been listening to the same twelve songs for the last three weeks," Marley whined, shutting her eyes as she leaned back on the counter. She heard Jess scoff as he moved past her. "I'm serious. I'm so sick of XTC I could die."

"Nobody's stopping you from doing that."

Jess received a sugar packet thrown at his head for that comment.

"Your life would be so much less exciting without me in it," Marley said.

He looked back at her. "I'm not sure exciting's the word I'd use."

"Then what?" Before he could speak, Marley stopped him. "Nevermind, don't answer that."

A small smile appeared on his face. "Good choice," he told her. "And if you're so pissed about the music then burn your own CD."

"Perfect. ABBA, Matchbox Twenty, and Hootie are all very excited to see you."

"Over my dead body."

"No Doubt, Dave Matthews and Santana too."

Jess whipped around to face, disgust written across his features. Marley bit back a smile as he paused, as if he were taking a moment to process the bands that she'd just listed off. "I'm starting to remember why we started fighting."

"Oh, shut up," Marley chuckled. "I'll bring in something acceptable."

"I'll believe it when I see it," he muttered.

"Promise. Scout's Honor."

"That means absolutely nothing to me when I know for a fact you've never been a Scout."

"I've eaten enough of those damn Thin Mints for me to be considered an honorary Scout for life. That should be good enough for you."

Jess shook his head, smiling softly as he approached the other side of the counter, placing the extra napkins he had from refilling the dispensers in front of her. "I'm personally a Samoa guy myself," he said.

Marley rolled her eyes. "Of course you are. You would pick the worst one."

"We're not getting into a fight about fuckin' Girl Scout cookies."

"What do Samoas even offer? Besides the pain of knowing you could be eating anything else other than this waste of coconut?"

Jess pointed his finger at her. "No, you're not baiting me. We're not fighting. I have to do shit tonight."

Marley nodded as if she understood. "Oh, right. Is making a defense for the world's greatest sleeper cookie on the agenda?"

He sent her a glare, but there was no fire behind it. The flame had been getting dimmer and dimmer with each passing day and Marley would have been lying if she said she didn't make her feel just a little bit proud.

"No, I just..." he trailed off, avoiding her eyes. After a brief pause, he sighed. "I've got this idea that I just need to get onto paper."

All cookie arguments were washed from Marley's view. The only thing she was now focused on was what Jess was saying. "For the book?"

She didn't understand why Jess looked squeamish. There was no reason to be uncomfortable. They'd been talking about this in their notes for a while. "Yeah," he said. "So, can we like, move—"

"Speaking of," Marley interrupted, eyes lighting up. Jess watched her run to her backpack in the corner, his curiosity only growing as she returned with a notebook. She plopped it on the table in between them, then began to flip through the pages until she got to the back. "I was bored out of my mind in History today, so I started making some notes about it. Just random things, y'know? Random thoughts I had, possible scenarios, things to think about." When she looked up to see the bewildered look Jess was giving her, she immediately got shy. "If you want them, I mean. I completely understand if you don't. This is your thing. I just got bored." She added a laugh to the end of her words, one that sounded forced even to her.

Jess' expression hardly changed as she rambled on. She'd made notes? She'd thought about his ideas that he'd haphazardly spit out in their passing letters enough to make notes about it? No matter how many times he asked himself a version of that question, it still didn't give him an answer that made sense.

He blinked slowly, placing his hand down on the notebook, shutting Marley up immediately. "You what?" he asked as if he hadn't heard her the first time.

Marley hugged her arms to her chest, looking anywhere but Jess. "I just wrote some shit down. They're stupid little things. Really. They don't matter. I was just bored."

The diner fell silent again. Jess kept staring at Marley, Marley kept her eyes on the notebook she was now regretting bringing out in the first place.

"Can—" Jess cut himself off quickly, clearing his throat as his voice came out gruff. "Would you walk me through it?"

Marley finally met his eyes, mouth parting slightly. The two of them stared at each other for a second longer before Marley seemed to snap out of whatever that was. She swallowed, nodding quickly.

"Yeah," she said, continuing to nod. The corners of her mouth had quirked upward. "Yeah, of course."

Jess didn't know what to say as Marley read each of her notes aloud. He would look at her when she spoke, then tilt his head down to the paper when she pointed at it, as if it were routine. He still couldn't believe she'd even thought about this let alone dissect it.

Marley was passionate as she spoke, laughing through some of her sentences, sometimes failing to explain what she meant in the way she wanted it to. She would them stop, point at him, correct herself, then continue to talk. All Jess could do was listen. What else could he do?

He struggled to find words as Marley finished up. She placed her hands on the edge of the counter, looking at him expectantly, a glint of excitement in her eye. "Well?" she asked.

Jess kept quiet. He couldn't look away from her even if he wanted to.

As Marley seemed to get more skeptical, he realized he needed to say something. "Marley," he began softly. Marley was taken back by the use of her first name. "Why... Why did you do this?"

She tilted her head to the side, unsure of the way to properly answer his question. "I told you. I was bored." She then shrugged, admitting the next part a little quieter, "And I think that you really might have something here."

That familiar silence came back to greet them. Marley didn't understand why Jess seemed so rattled by the fact she'd made a couple of stupid little notes about the book. He could do what he would with them. It wasn't like she had any say in how his book actually went.

"I, uh--" He rubbed at his mouth, brows drawing together. The notebook was staring him dead in the eye. "Thank you." Though she had heard them before, the words still shocked her coming out of his mouth.

Jess wasn't sure what he was thanking her for. Was it for the compliment? Was it for the notes? Was it both? He knew somewhere deep down that it was both. It was for both. He just couldn't seem to say it.

Marley made sure to brush him off immediately. "You know you have something here, too. You wouldn't be pursuing it otherwise."

"You're right," Jess replied, finally seeming to regain his voice. "But thanks, anyway."

It was then that he smiled at her. It was real, it was genuine, and it took Marley by true surprise for the first time today, even with Ryan Moreau coming into Luke's to ask her out. It took her a second, but slowly, Marley returned it.

"You're welcome," she said gently.

Jess broke the silence as soon as it came, pointing down to the notebook to one of her last notes. There was an expression written into his face that Marley couldn't quite read. "Tell me more about Katherine," he said, seeming more relaxed than he'd been all day. "What else about her?"

Jess Mariano and Marley Acosta stayed in that diner until well after midnight, going back and forth about ideas and opinions, mapping out characters and plot, running circles around theme, and attempting to build a setting. They only left when they were forced to, when Luke had come down to scold them for being too loud as they laughed about whatever was funny to them at one-thirty in the morning.

Jess had the first draft of the first chapter done by morning.

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author's note: i've had an itch to write this story this entire week so that's why you're getting an update at almost one in the morning sorry

side note: ryan fucking moreau isn't going to be playing to big of a role in this story so that's why i'm not touching on his character too much. this is a jess and marley prequel. he's only relevent in this story when it's called for. now that's what i call lazy writing!

ALSO!!! WHAT I ENVISION TO BE THE SUBSECT IS BASED ON TRUNCHEON PRESS'S TAKE ON WHAT THEY THINK THE SUBSECT WOULD BE LIKE (it's where i got the j and the blue names from!!) ITS A STUNNING PIECE OF WORK ON THE WEBSITE "MEDIUM" IF I COULD LINK IT I WOULD HOLY FUCK GO READ IT ITS BEAUTIFUL

anyway, thank you so much for reading. i'm hoping you're still enjoying this story. thank you so much for your feedback and love. y'all are amazing i don't deserve

love you all tons!

-mags