"Duncan! You have to!" Courtney shrieked, her chocolate eyes burning with anger.
"Sorry Princess, but that ain't gonna happen." Duncan replied with a hint of amusement at his girlfriend's anger.
"You HAVE to wear pink Duncan!" Courtney snapped again.
"Look Princess, I'll come, I'll even run if you want me to, but there is no way in hell I'm wearing pink. I have a rep to protect ya know." Duncan crossed his muscular arms in front of his chest and gave Courtney a smirk. Courtney glared daggers at him.
Courtney had organized a "Walk for the Cure" 5k that was happening that weekend. It was going to be a huge event with hundreds of runners, all wearing pink. They were going to run or walk the 5k, and then there was a whole fair set up to raise more money. All the proceeds were going to breast cancer research.
Duncan remembered how happy Courtney was when she found out her idea for the event had been approved. Courtney had been thrilled, and the fact that her excitement had gotten Duncan a great and enthusiastic make out session made him pretty happy too.
After the great making out, Courtney had been working nonstop. Organizing and promoting for the event. She even called up all the contestants from Total Drama Island, to see if they would come to help get more people interested in joining up. Everyone except Heather had agreed to come, Heather said she would donate money, but had no interest in seeing anyone from Total Drama Island ever again.
Duncan knew this event meant a lot to Courtney, so he had agreed to help out. He had helped promote with her, called up some newspapers, and sponsors, helped get all the right permits. He was even going to run in the 5k, he just didn't understand why Courtney was so obsessed with him wearing pink.
"I don't see what the big deal is. What's the point of wearing pink" Duncan voiced his thoughts with a shrug.
"The point is," Courtney began, venom in her voice as she spoke, "it shows support. It shows you care!"
"Running the 5k and giving money isn't enough?" Duncan asked starting to get annoyed.
"No!" snapped Courtney.
"Well, too bad" Duncan said in a tone meant to mean he was done talking about this and he had made his mind up.
Courtney gave him the angriest glare she ever had, which considering their relationship is saying a lot.
"YOU ARE SUCH A JERK!" she screamed in his face. Then she marched out of the room slamming the door behind her. Duncan stood frozen and wide-eyed
'Woah, didn't see that reaction coming' he thought to himself. He let out a frustrated huff "what's her problem anyway" he muttered as he sulked over to the couch.
The next day, Duncan was at a record store looking for something new to listen to. It was late afternoon and he hadn't seen or heard from Courtney since she stormed out of his apartment the day before. 'It's not like it's that big of a deal' he tried to defend himself against his own guilt. He turned away from the stack of CDs he was looking through and walked to the next aisle, he stopped short when he saw a flyer he had put up for Courtney's event. She had nagged him until he put a flyer everywhere he ever frequented, including some pretty rough bars. She had been insistent that they reach out to as many people as they could.
"Breast cancer affects all kinds of people Duncan" she had lectured.
Duncan sighed as he stared at the flyer, the event was tomorrow, he wondered if he'd hear from Courtney before then. He turned toward the door, he was no longer in the mood to look through CDs.
'All she wanted was for you to wear a stupid pink shirt, you jerk' a small voice in the back of his head snapped at him. 'But my rep!' he defended. 'You're willing to lose the best thing that has ever happened to you, because you're afraid wearing a pink shirt will ruin your stupid delinquent reputation?!' the voice asked incredulously. Duncan sighed again.
As Duncan walked back to his apartment a soft questioning voice called out, "Duncan?" Duncan turned to the voice and was meant with friendly gold eyes.
"Bridgette" Duncan said surprised to see the girl.
Bridgette grinned, "hey! I knew it was you. Don't see a lot of guys with green faux hawks." she laughed. Duncan nodded and gave her a small smile back.
"When did you get here?" he asked.
"Late last night" Bridgette replied. There was a short silence. Bridgette started to fidget until she broke the silence "so yeah… I'm staying with Courtney." She examined Duncan's reaction cautiously, but Duncan kept his face clear of any reaction of hearing Courtney's name.
Instead he simply nodded and asked "so, when's Geoff getting here?"
Bridgette automatically smiled at the mention of her boyfriend, "a couple hours, I think."
Another silence overtook the pair, and once again Bridgette was the one to break it. "We're going to run the race together" she blurted.
Duncan fought the urge to roll his eyes. "You don't say" he said sarcastically. There was no reason to bring up the run; Duncan knew why they were there. And obviously they would run together.
Bridgette blushed a little before clearing her throat and asking, "Are you going to be there tomorrow?"
Duncan froze, "why do you ask?" he tried to hide the worry in his voice. 'Does Courtney not want me there anymore? I was planning on going still, but I guess the only reason I was going was for Courtney and we are fighting. I don't want to ruin the event for her by showing up and pissing her off.' 'You could go and just wear a damn pink shirt, then she wouldn't be pissed off' that little voice popped up again. His subconscious chastising him again pissed Duncan off. 'Screw that! I'm not some whipped square that does whatever his preppy little girlfriend tells him to do!' 'Idiot' his subconscious seemed to sigh.
"-can, -uncan, Duncan!" Bridgette called Duncan out of his racing thoughts.
"Huh?" he looked at her more focused now that she had gotten his attention.
"Duncan," Bridgette began again giving him a wary look. "What exactly did you do to Courtney?" Duncan's eyes widened in shock at the bluntness of her question. "I know it's not any of my business, but she seems really upset. Like depressed or something."
Duncan felt a stabbing sensation in his chest. 'Great job, jerk' the voice said. Duncan didn't argue with himself this time. Duncan loved to tease Courtney and get her all riled up, but he never wanted to depress her, especially not before such an important day for her. He looked at Bridgette, his emotions still guarded behind his signature scowl.
"I didn't do anything to little Miss. Perfect" he snapped, he was more frustrated with himself than anything, but that was none of Bridgette's business. "I helped her plan this stupid thing, I helped set it up and get the right permits, I helped promote the crap out of it, I was even going to run in the stupid race. But she had to have a huge fit that I refused to wear pink!"
"Oh…" Bridgette mumbled in response to Duncan's outburst.
"Yeah!" Duncan exclaimed. "Didn't she totally overreact?!"
"Well…" Bridgette began slowly, "I mean yeah usually that would be a total overreaction. But you know this is really really important to her.
Duncan rolled his eyes, "all of Princess' projects are important to her."
"Yeah, but this one is special and you know it" Bridgette responded her voice on the edge of annoyance, which was unusual for the chill surfer chick.
Her annoyance is what clued Duncan in that something was up. "What do you mean?" he asked his confusion clear.
Bridgette returned Duncan's confused look with one of her own. "You know Courtney's mom died of breast cancer… right?"
Duncan paled at Bridgette's words. He knew Courtney's mom had died when Courtney was 8, but he never asked how she died. He always assumed Courtney didn't want to think about it, let alone talk about it.
'You suck' he thought to himself. 'No wonder she was so obsessive with this event.'
"No" he said quietly, "I didn't know."
Bridgette was shocked. "Oh, well…" and for a third time they stood in silence.
This time the silence was broken by Bridgette's phone going off. She apologized as she pulled it out and read the text she had just received. Her eyes brightened and a smile grew on her face as she read the message. "I've got to go," she said to Duncan as she slipped her phone back into her pocket. "Geoff got here early and I'm going to go meet him." She explained.
"Alright," Duncan said with a nod "I'll catch you later."
Bridgette stared at him a moment before she blurted "I'll see you tomorrow at the 5k right?"
Duncan smirked, "yeah I'll be there, bright and early." Bridgette grinned as she waved goodbye and left to go meet Geoff.
The next morning around 9:35 Courtney ran through the finish line, panting and sweating. 'Not bad' Courtney thought to herself as she checked her time, the race had begun at 9. She wore a bright pink tank top and light pink shorts, she even brought a pink towel to dry her sweat off with. She looked around at all the other runners who had finished. There had been an amazing outcome of people to participate in the run. They had reached 1,000 runners registered by the time the race officially began. And family and friends of the runners had shown up to support them and to take part in the fair. And as far as Courtney could see, just about everybody was wearing pink.
As Courtney looked around, she saw Geoff and Bridgette had finished before her. They were sitting off to the side, talking happily and drinking water.
'Geoff wore pink' Courtney thought angrily 'but not Duncan, he's to cool and bad for that!'
'Then again' she thought trying to calm down, 'Geoff always wears pink, so I guess it's not fair to compare them.'
Courtney continued to look around. She saw Eva to one side, in a pink jogging suit. Then she saw Justin, who was sporting a tight pink shirt, he was surrounded by girls, of course. Everyone from Total Drama Island had shown up, except Heather, even Chris and Chef had come. And all of them were wearing pink, even Gwen.
'If Gwen and everyone else can wear pink how come he can't?!' she asked herself still peeved with her boyfriend. 'Maybe I'm overreacting a little' she tried to reason with herself. 'No!' was her first thought, but then she took a deep breath and thought '…maybe a little.' 'But still, he's being overdramatic too! He won't even wear pink for me! Is that really so much to ask?!'
Before Courtney could continue to argue with herself she heard someone call out.
"Hey Princess!"
She looked around, but couldn't find Duncan in the crowd around her.
'Great,' she thought sulkily 'now I'm hearing things.'
She turned to walk to the booth to get an update on their numbers. As she turned around she froze.
"Hey Princess, what took you so long?" Duncan teased smirking down at his girlfriend. "I've been waiting forever, I thought you were faster than that." he added with a wink.
Courtney looked at him, completely stunned. "D-Duncan?" she stuttered not believing her eyes.
"The one and only, babe" he replied cockily. Courtney just continued to stare, stunned.
Duncan was wearing white sneakers with pink laces, and socks. Pink and black basketball shorts and a light pink t-shirt. But what really had Courtney stunned was that his once bright green hair was now bright pink.
"Yo-y-your hair" Courtney stuttered again.
"Yeah" Duncan said running his hand though his hair. "I know it doesn't fit me as well as the green did. But I think I'm going to keep it for a while, I'm thinking until the end of October. And then I'll go back the green." Courtney continued to stare at Duncan's pink hair. Duncan smirked, "If you like it that much Princess I can dye your hair pink too." He offered.
In response, Courtney lunged herself at him and caught his lips in a heated kiss. Now, Duncan stood stunned for a moment, but only a moment. He quickly recovered from his shock, and wrapped his arms around Courtney's waist, pulling her into him as much as he could, and deepening their kiss. When they finally pulled apart Courtney grinned up at Duncan, still in his arms. "Thank you" she said.
"Anything for you Princess."