SVTFOE: As Long as I Want You Ch. 22

Written by WriteFriend
Edited by an EditAnon


Marco continued to hold a Star as she cried. He was still unsure what to make of all that had happened. He held up her lacerated hand to make sure that the bleeding had stopped. How did any of this happen? Marco thought to himself, she couldn't have hurt herself intentionally…Marco pushed that thought out of his head. He didn't even want to consider that as an option, his guess was that Jackie got in contact and insulted her or something, it would explain the crying and the urge to just leave Earth, but not the blood. Marco held Star and began to walk her to the bathroom, his first aid kit was there and he could fix her up. He almost made it to the door with her in his arms when he stopped as his father entered the room.

Rafael Diaz rubbed his eyes, still in a drowsy state. "What are you kids up to on here? All I heard were loud," he opened his eyes and took in the scene in front of him. Door off its hinges, blood on the floor and Marco holding onto a crying, bleeding Star Butterfly inches in front of him.

"What in the holy hell happened?!" He shouted in shock.

"Dad, please step out of the way, I'll explain after I patch her up," Marco said moving past his dad. He was practically carrying Star now. Hopefully by the time he expects an answer he will actually have something for him. Mr. Diaz stepped out of Marco’s way; he picked up the door from the ground and set it against the wall. At least that explains the loud bangs he heard a few minutes ago. He looked down at the blood, of which there was a lot, to him it seemed to be mixed with parts of a smashed smartphone. If Star crumbled that thing with her bare hand she must have been furious. Marco's father pitied the person on the receiving end of her fury; except he had a feeling the person in question wasn't some monster.

"Oh, Marco, I sure hope you know what you're doing," he mumbled to himself. Perhaps it's time for him to have a father-to-son talk with Marco, Mr. Diaz thought to himself. Things are clearly escalating and not for the better.


Inside the bathroom, Marco had to sit Star on bathroom sink so he could clean her hand. Star had not said anything or even budged since he had pulled her out of the portal. All she's done is cry and mumble things to her self, forcing Marco to do much of the physical labor in getting her to the bathroom. And considering how much his body hurt from battering down the door, it was not easy as Star weighed a ton when she's in her "stunned" state or whatever is happening to her.  He brought out his first aid kit from a cabinet and got it ready, he turned on the faucet so cold water poured out and began to gently wash away the blood on Star's hand. The cold water must have knocked her back to reality as she finally came out of her sad daze.

"Marco?" Star asked.

"I'm right here, Star," Marco answered. She sounded like she didn't know where she was.

"I'm sorry for what I did," she replied.

"It's okay, I'm not even sure what you did, all I know is that you’re bleeding and you almost ditched me because of Jackie. At least, I assume it's because of Jackie," Marco said as he cleaned Stars hand. "Did she text you or something?"

"Yeah, your mom put up a picture of us sleeping on the couch online, Jackie saw it and she didn't take too kindly to it," Star quietly replied.

Marco looked up at Star, drawing his attention away from the sink. His mom was fiddling with her phone when he woke up. Marco couldn't believe she would post something like that to social media, and how did Jackie even find out? He knows for a fact that Jackie and his mother don't follow each other on facebook or anything. To top it all off, now he had to worry about Jackie’s reaction to the picture, if she went after Star like she had, what was in store for him? It seemed perfectly innocent at first but clearly he crossed a line, Marco returned his attention to Stars wounded hand without saying anything.

"She's not mad at you, just mad at me" Star replied, somehow knowing what he was thinking.

"Oh, I wasn't really worried about-"

"Don't lie, Marco, not to me," Star said cutting him off.

"She was right as always, last night, Marco...I lied about it being just a way to say sorry for not appreciating you. I, um, meant it more as a date, just the two of us," Star spoke to Marco but she wasn't making eye contact with him or anything.

"Oh, you don't say? So all the food, and the movies...the dinner by candlelight that wasn't just your way of having a platonic dinner with a friend?" Marco asked with a hint of sarcasm, he was trying to make Star laugh by being witty.

Star sorta smiled. "If you knew all along then why did you go along with it?"

Marco knew she had a good point. "Well, I already told you how I feel, I didn't want to make you cry again. And I did promise to spend more time with you and I didn't think we were hurting anyone at the time."

Marco finished cleaning all the blood of her hand and reached for a bottle of disinfecting alcohol. "I figured if it made you happy and no one gets hurt, then why say anything, ya know? Just enjoy our time together."

Star did smile now, a tiny bit. "But now, you think you shouldn't have done any of it?"

Marco sighed. "Well, if I knew my mom was going to post those pictures online I probably wouldn't have let you fall asleep on me like that."

"Oh, I guess that's fair," Star said weakly.

Marco took hold off Star’s other hand and he got ready to pour some alcohol on the cuts. "Squeeze my hand okay? This is going to sting, but it's for your own good," Marco told her; he felt a sense of déjà vu as if he's been in a similar situation before.

Star nodded and squeezed his hand. "I trust you, Marco, do what you need to do."

Marco poured the alcohol on her cuts and Star began to cry out in pain, she even whimpered a little as her hand felt like it was on fire.

"Just keep squeezing my hand, it's okay I can take it, don't look at your cuts don't even think about it, the pain will pass and the healing can begin," Marco said in his best reassuring tone.

After a short while, Marco had finished fixing up her hand. He wrapped gauze around it tightly to stop any further bleeding and closed up the first aid kit. Star looked at her bandaged hand and then back at Marco, actually looked him in the eye before turning away. This act was not lost on Marco who looked confused.

"So, what did she tell you? Jackie, I mean," Marco asked as he put away the first aide kit.

"Just things, about how she knows what I'm doing and how I should know that I lost, typical mean stuff you would expect. I said stuff too, but she had the upper hand." Star spoke softly, she wasn't going to mention the picture it's just too embarrassing. Bad enough that that image of her and Marco making out is now and forever burned into her mind. Whenever she closes her eyes she sees that picture.

"I got a little too mad and I crushed my phone," Star pointed to her wounded hand. 'And that's how that happened."

"Star, look, you and Jackie..."

"It's fine Marco, it's on me I get it. And don't worry about the door and the blood I'll clean that up with magic," Star added.

Marco went over and patted her back. "C'mon, breakfast is getting cold, we can talk more about this later," Marco said reassuringly, for now he just wanted to push the thought of Star bleeding out of his mind. He and Star headed downstairs; he knew he's going to have to explain everything to his parents…another awkward morning at the Diaz residence. Marco suddenly remembered something he was going to do.

"Go on without me, I'm going to change shoes real quick," Marco told her as he headed back upstairs.

"Okay, I'll meet you in the kitchen," Star replied, again without looking at Marco and continued on without him.

Marco ran back to Stars room and picked up the dimensional scissors that Star had dropped. He went to his bedroom and tossed them under his bed, Marco didn't want to risk her leaving again. Lot's of exchange student's have come and gone, but losing Star so soon would hurt in more ways than one. Especially as something as silly as this, Marco had to hope things would get better but even he was beginning to doubt that. He checked his phone and saw no new texts from Jackie. If she were indeed mad at him he'd hear from her by now, so at least that's some good news for now. Marco stared at his phone wallpaper, it was a picture of him and Jackie on one of their date nights re-enacting the spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp. It made Marco feel all warm and fuzzy every time he saw it. Marco then shifted his gaze slightly to the left and saw his framed picture of him and Star from that photo booth at the Interdimensional dance lounge. It also made him feel warm and fuzzy, he picked up the frame and held it next to his phone and just stared at both pictures.

Marco has two girls that love him and that he loves back in a myriad of different ways, he should be the happiest guy on Earth.

But he's not happy, not happy at all.