Of all the places to have a "Beach Day", what better place than the Beach Dimension?



Marco found the place on a map he'd borrowed from Heckapoo when they were closing Star's portals together. An entire plane of reality that was nothing but sun-bathed sandy shores as far as the eye could see. A place where the sun never set, the water was always cool, and the girls were-



"-the hottest this side of the universe?" Star read off the billboard when they first arrived. The board depicted a stunning, four-eyed, red-skinned she-devil with braided white hair, a suggestive smile, and swimwear that was absolutely scandalous. Marco blushed when he saw this; everyone was giving him weird looks, being that he'd been the one to choose this spot for their Beach Day.



It seemed that the whole day was doomed from the start to be one, big, awkward mess. It was bad enough when Tom and Marco blindly stumbled into the nude section of the beach, where Tom had an embarrassing run-in with a female lifeguard who looked just like the one on the billboard... sans swimwear. She was 300 years his senior with the body of a woman in her 20s; she seemed unaware of how old Tom was, given that she made some very suggestive remarks in his direction before Tom suddenly decided that he needed to use the bathroom.



That little incident had Marco laughing himself silly for the better part of an hour... but by the time they got back to Star and Kelly, neither of them were laughing.



The first sign that something was wrong came when Star wouldn't allow Tom to put on her suntan lotion. Kelly asked Marco to do the same with her, but he too wasn't comfortable with it. Something was nagging him in the back of his mind all day, a feeling that something was... missing, out of place. Star's Beach Day photo from Father Time had shown just the two of them, holding a beach ball, and apparently having a good time. Tom was already insecure over the fact that he wasn't in the photo, and now Kelly had caught on too, having seen the picture before they left Mewni.



For Star and Marco, the fun was only to start after they got away from their respective partners.



Star took Marco by the hand and out into the water, where she spent an hour showing him how to surf. They shared a few laughs after Marco wiped out the first few times. Eventually, Marco was able to find his balance on the board and stay on it long enough to ride his first wave. For a couple of hours, the awkwardness was gone, and neither of them thought about Kelly or Tom... they were too busy just having fun together, as friends, like they used to. Before Jackie, or Tom, or Kelly, or the Blood Moon. For the first time in a long time, they felt like they could just be, and not worry about anything.



Things changed when they returned to shore, and the awkwardness returned. For what it was worth, Tom and Kelly managed to have fun playing volleyball while Star and Marco were surfing. Tom sported a black eye from when Kelly had hit the ball a little too hard and spiked it right in the middle of his forehead.



When Star and Marco joined in, the mewman lifeguard who'd intervened in the wake of that mishap insisted that Tom and Kelly be on the same team, putting Star and Marco on the opposing team for the next match. This didn’t help matters at all. First, Kelly aimed another spike at Star’s head... thankfully, she missed, but Marco couldn’t help but notice how deliberate the move had been. Even more noticeable was when Tom similarly sent another ball, engulfed in flames, in Marco’s direction. Marco just barely managed to jump out of the way before the ball hit the sand, exploding with the force of a hand grenade.



That was enough for the lifeguard to call a time-out and put Kelly and Tom in beach jail for a half hour for roughhousing. It was after this that Star suddenly decided that she needed to go to the changing rooms, without saying why. Marco, sensing something was wrong, decided to go after her.



“Star? Are you in here?” He asked as he peaked inside. He found Star huddled against the wall, looking depressed.



“Star? You okay?” He asked.



“No. This day... it’s not at all what I thought it would be,” she said. “this day was supposed to be fun, but every time Tom and Kelly are around, things just feel so...”



“Awkward?” Marco finished for her.



“Exactly!” Star exclaimed. “I don’t get it; I thought breaking the Blood Moon Curse would fix things, but...”



“You said it yourself,” Marco retorted. “It was never the Blood Moon. Maybe a little, but... there was always more to it than that, wasn’t there?”



Star hung her head to try and hide her blush as Marco took a seat beside her.



“This isn’t working, is it?” Star asked, looking up at him.



“No,” said Marco. “I can’t keep going on pretending I’m okay with the way things are. I like Kelly, but... it’s not the same as being with you.”



For a while, neither of them said anything. Star and Marco both knew what they had to do. They’d been avoiding it for nearly a year now. Marco remembered what Jackie said to him before they broke up; ‘if you’re staying here just to make me happy, we’ll both end up miserable!’



It was the same deal with Tom and Kelly. Star was afraid to break up with Tom because she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Marco was afraid to break up with Kelly for the same reason.



“So what are we supposed to do?” Star asked. “Just go out there and tell Tom and Kelly ‘yeah, we’re breaking up with you guys so that the two of us can be together’? Tom deserves better than that, and so does Kelly!”



“Maybe it is that simple,” Marco suggested. “Rip the band-aid off? Let’s just go out there, and tell them the truth, and maybe if we let them down gently they won’t hate us forever?”



Star sighed in defeat. “I so don’t wanna do this... but you’re right,” she said. “Let’s just get it over with.”



Star and Marco never got a chance to figure out what they were going to say to Tom and Kelly. When they got back outside, the pair were no longer in beach jail. They were sitting under their umbrella, together... and they were kissing.



“Tom!?!”



“KELLY!?!”



Tom and Kelly quickly broke it off, both of them turning redder than the Blood Moon.



“What the-? When did this happen!?!” Star stammered out.



“Uh...” Tom and Kelly said simultaneously.



“I think all of us need to talk,” Marco suggested. So he took Kelly aside, while Star had a private conversation with Tom.



“Why?” Marco asked Kelly.



“I just...” Kelly began. “You were hanging out with Star all day, and you kinda left me and Tom all alone. One thing led to another, and then... yeah.”



For a while, Marco said nothing. He wasn’t sure how to respond to this. He wasn’t angry, just a little confused. Then he realized that Kelly was right; he had been spending more time with Star. Not just today, but every day since they’d broken the Blood Moon curse. Marco and Star were always together; when it was just the tow of them, things were fine. But when Tom or Kelly came into the picture, things got awkward. Kelly knew he had feelings for Star, and Tom knew Star had feelings for Marco. Marco couldn’t expect Kelly to remain faithful to him when his eye was constantly drifting in Star’s direction.



“Look... Marco,” Kelly began. “I’m not blind. I see the way you look at Star. I wanted this- us- to work, but I can’t keep pretending I’m okay with that.”



“You’re right,” said Marco. “I’m sorry if I ever-”



“Don’t,” Kelly interrupted. “I get it, okay? You and Star are meant for each other.”



“So this is it?” Marco asked.



“Yep,” Kelly answered. “For what it’s worth, it was cool while it lasted... right?”



“Yeah,” Marco agreed. “It was.”



“Are you two done yet?”



Marco looked up, and saw Tom was waiting on them along with Star, the latter looking rather flustered.



“Yeah, everything’s cool!” Kelly affirmed, and she went over to Tom’s side, the two of them joining hands. For a moment, Marco felt a pang of heartbreak... then he felt Star interlace her fingers with his, and looked into her eyes. She was grinning from ear to ear, her cheeks turning slightly red, and in that moment Marco realized that everything was going to be alright.



“Hey, Tom?’ Marco called out as Tom and Kelly turned to leave. Tom turned back around to face Marco, who had his other hand outstretched.



“No hard feelings?” Marco asked.



Tom contemplated Marco’s outstretched hand for a moment... then shook. “Yeah. No hard feelings, bro.”



And like that, it was over. Tom and Kelly walked along the beach hand-in-hand, both looking happier than they’d been in months. The awkwardness, the conflicting feelings, it was all gone.



“So... what do we do now?” Star asked Marco.



“I’m not sure,” Marco replied. He noticed a beach ball lying at their feet, and then saw that they were only a short distance away from the volleyball net.



“Maybe another round of volleyball?” Marco suggested as he picked up the ball. Star smiled as he handed it to her-



-and then, there was flash of light. Star and Marco looked around for a moment before they noticed a lifeguard; the same she-devil lifeguard he and Tom had bumped into earlier (thankfully she was wearing her bathing suit now) holding a camera.



“Sorry!” She said. “Just wanted to get a picture of the other new couple on the beach today!”

She handed Marco the photo, who immediately held it up to compare it to Star’s. The pictures were identical.



“Oh, and give this one to your friends!” Said the lifeguard, handing them a second photo. Star took it, and saw that it was almost identical to her Beach Day photo... only this one showed Tom and Kelly instead of herself and Marco. She held all three photos in her hands, contemplating them for a moment... and then smiled.



Everything is as it should be, Star thought to herself. An immense feeling of relief swept over her. It was good to know that she and Marco could finally be together, but it was even better knowing that after everything that’d happened, their friends had found happiness too.



A few hours later found Star and Marco sitting underneath the umbrella, their hands intertwined as they looked out across the endless ocean with lidded eyes. The day was almost over, but the sun hadn’t yet begun to set; probably because the sun never set in the beach dimension. Tom and Kelly had gone off on their own, leaving Star and Marco all to themselves.



Marco looked once more into Star’s eyes. It was funny... since first meeting her, he’d been so focused on his crush on Jackie that he never noticed how beautiful Star really was.



No more words were exchanged between them as they leaned in, their lips meeting in a kiss.



At long last, everything was as it should be.