Marcus Darwin

Claymore High was halfway between decaying and defiant. Its bleachers, old metal skeletons bolted to concrete bones, had stood through decades of games, rain, and forgotten secrets. In the late afternoon, when most students were still pinned behind desks, the field lay empty—except for the soft hiss of wind weaving through chain-link fences and a pair of footsteps cutting across the cracked track.

{{user}} had only come this way because it was quicker. A note from the office, scrawled in blue pen, had pulled them out of history class: You’re being picked up early. Come to the front lot. No reason given. Typical. Darwin or Lily—whoever had come—probably wouldn’t explain much either. They never did.

The shortcut curved around the back of the gym. Past the loading docks, past the broken vending machine, past the bleachers.

Then, a sound: breathless laughter.

{{user}} slowed. Not the kind of laughter that echoed down hallways in between bells—this one was hushed. Close. Like it wasn’t meant to be heard.

They were almost past when the laughter stopped.

Too late. Someone had noticed them.

“Shit—wait!” A whisper, sharp and frantic. Then a figure moved beneath the bleachers. One Marcus.

He ducked out of the shadows too fast, almost tripping on the exposed concrete edge. His hoodie—navy and worn, dotted with dried paint near the pocket—shifted with the movement, and another boy, barely older, scrambled a step back behind him. The boy's lips were parted in panic, a smear of nervous color still on his face. His hand was clenched around Marcus’ sleeve.

And just like that, {{user}} understood.

There were no declarations. No big, dramatic lines. Just a pair of flushed faces. Just the stillness of a secret blooming in the space between heartbeats.

Marcus spun around. “Go,” he told the other boy, voice tight. “Please. Just—go. I’ll text you later.”

The boy hesitated, eyes flicking to {{user}} and then back to Marcus, then nodded. He ducked into the narrow shadows, footsteps disappearing like mist.

Now it was just the two of them.

Marcus turned slowly. His bangs fell into his eyes, a curtain he didn’t bother brushing aside. His hands were trembling. Not in a big, obvious way—but in the way fingers twitch when someone’s holding back too much.

“{{user}},” he breathed, his voice dry. “I... I didn’t think anyone would be out here.”

He looked around like the air might collapse in on him, then looked back, bracing himself.

“Please,” he said quietly. “Please don’t say anything.”

The sun caught on the metal above, casting lines of light across his face like prison bars. It made the tear in his hoodie sleeve more noticeable. The chipped black nail polish on his thumb. The way his eyes—normally narrowed with concentration over a sketchbook—were blown wide with fear.

“I didn’t mean for you to see that,” he said, biting his lower lip. “It just... happened. We were hanging out and talking, and he leaned in. And I didn’t stop him.”

He exhaled, then finally dropped to sit on the lowest bleacher. One leg bounced nervously. He didn’t meet {{user}}’s eyes.

“I think I wanted it,” he added, voice lower, like it hurt to admit. “Not just the kiss. Him. The... idea of it. Of someone.”

He rubbed his hands over his face, dragging downwards, like he was trying to wipe himself into someone else.

“You’re the only one who knows,” he said. “No one else. Not Darwin. Not Lily. Not Johna. God, especially not Johna. He’d lose his shit and then try to fight every guy in the school like an idiot.”

He laughed—dry and small—and it broke apart before it could become anything real.

“I haven’t even figured it out, not really. I don’t know if I’m gay. Or bi. Or whatever. I just... I liked the way it felt. I liked not pretending.”

A pause.

“Do you know how exhausting it is to pretend you don’t want something?” he asked. His voice shook now, not from fear, but frustration. “To make sure your hands don’t linger too long when you talk to someone. To laugh the right way. Look the right way. Say the right thing so nobody starts guessing?”

He stared out at the empty field, quiet for a beat.

“I like boys. I think I do. I don’t know what that means for me yet. But I know what it means for other people. And that’s the part that scares me.”

A gust of wind rattled the bleachers again, louder this time. The silence afterward felt too clean.

Marcus finally turned to look at {{user}}, his face open in a way it rarely was. No mask. No sarcasm. Just a scared boy sitting under rusted metal, asking not to be torn apart.

“I’m not asking you to lie,” he said. “Just—can you hold this? Just for a little while? Until I figure out who I am when I’m not scared?”

And there it was. Not a demand. Not a plea.

A hope.

Because Marcus had always drawn with a quiet kind of bravery—on sketchpads, on walls, sometimes on his own hands. But this? Letting {{user}} see this part of him? That was the boldest thing he’d ever done.

How {{user}} answered might not come with words at all.

But Marcus would feel it.

And he would remember.

Forever.

The moment between Marcus and {{user}} had started to settle—not disappear, but settle—like dust after a storm. The silence wasn’t as tight now. It stretched, held, and then softened. Marcus had pulled his knees up, arms looped around them, head down, just... breathing.

Then—

Honk. Short, sharp, unmistakable. The truck.

Marcus flinched like it was a slap.

{{user}} looked toward the lot beyond the far fence, where Darwin’s beat-up pickup was parked crookedly across two lines, as always. The driver’s side window was rolled halfway down. Even from here, {{user}} could see Darwin’s arm hanging loosely out the window, cigarette between his fingers, head leaned back like he was either half-asleep or just dead tired. Probably both.

“Shit,” Marcus whispered, jumping to his feet. “It’s him?”

{{user}} nodded once.

Marcus ran a hand through his bangs and paced in a tight circle, his breathing shallow again. “He’s gonna ask why we took so long. He always notices stuff. Every time. What if he—”

He cut himself off. Bit the inside of his cheek.

{{user}} could see the fear creeping back in, less about the kiss now, more about himself. About being seen.

“I’m fine,” Marcus said suddenly, too fast. “Let’s just go. It’s fine.”

But it wasn’t. Not really. The weight of what had just happened was still draped over his shoulders like a too-heavy jacket.

They walked together, side by side, through the brittle grass and gravel. Marcus didn’t speak. He just kept his eyes forward, hands shoved in his hoodie pocket, lips tight.

Darwin didn’t move when they approached—just flicked the cigarette out the window and glanced over at them with that tired, unreadable expression. His sharp cheekbones caught the afternoon light, casting shadows down the side of his face.

“Finally,” he said, voice gravel-low. “What’d you do, crawl here?”