The Long Road of Redemption: By Luna Mrow

Chapter Eight: A hangover or something like it

~X~X~X~

My eyes fluttered open but immediately shut again from the impounding headache. It was like with every blink and heartbeat I did a hammer pounded inside my head. I'm so going to need an aspirin. For a minute I kept my eyes shut and just focused on breathing. Seconds passed. Was it me or was it incredibly hot in here? Wait a minute… where's here? Where am I?

Repeating my first stupid mistake I quickly opened my eyes and groaned at the repercussions from my head. "Damn it," I hissed. I had no choice but to keep my eyes closed, the throbbing in my head kept my prisoner. Damn it was like I was having a hangover or something like it. I didn't even drink alcohol the whole point of a hangover!

Focus Courtney. Where are you? My hands moved up and down beneath me. Okay as far as I could tell I was on a bed with surprisingly soft sheets. Soft sheets? The bed sheets back at my motel were as scratchy as sandpaper. So I'm not at my motel. Wait… what was the last thing I did before waking up? Think!

I was at a carnival… Justin bought me cotton candy… suddenly he was kidnapped… I ran after them to try and get him back… one of the kidnappers shoved me… I fell off of the story tall stairs. Then what? Then what happened? I can't be dead if I hit the ground I'd be flat as a pancake. Someone caught me. Someone… caught… Duncan!

"You're okay, Princess. You're alright, I've got you."

"You scared me Courtney; don't ever put yourself in danger like that again."

"Yes, I care about you."

Duncan. How could I be so stupid? Duncan caught me. He saved my life. The rate at my heartbeat might as well triple. He saved my life. He saved my life. But that still didn't answer my question, where was I?

This time my eyes opened carefully and slowly. My hand went to my forehead and applied pressure as I sat up straight. Well my first initial conclusion was right I was certainly on a bed. But the fact that there were piles of black rocker t-shirts, ripped up jeans, boxers, smelly socks and red converses spread across the floor told me two things;

I'm either having a hallucination and I'm imagining myself inside Duncan's hotel room

or

I'm actually in Duncan's hotel room because he brought me here.

As much as I want to be hallucinating right now I'm pretty sure he brought me back to his hotel room. The only way I could be hallucinating is if I saw something crazy like pink elephants.

Now the only question was where's Duncan? "Hello?" I asked softly, not trying to speak too loudly because of my fragile head. My eyes shut again from the pain.

"Do you need an Excedrin?"

My eyes opened again. He was sitting on a chair in the back corner of the room, his feet up on the furniture, his arms crossed, and his gaze looking right at me. I should've known he was in this room. "Creep, were you watching me the whole time?" Damn it. That wasn't what I wanted to say but that's what came out. What I should be really doing is thanking him over and over again for saving my life. "I mean… yeah, an Excedrin would be great," I said lamely. I gave myself a mental smack.

He rolled his eyes and got up from his seat, walked into the bathroom and then I heard the rattling of pills in a bottle. I noticed he decided to not wear a shirt and tried not to look at his upper torso. Duncan may not be Mr. Personality, but damn he was Mr. Hot Body. It's too bad a Mr. Personality is what girls should look for, not the other one.

"Here," he said, finally coming out of the bathroom with two little green pills on one hand and a glass of water in the other. I hesitated. Duncan smirked, "What?"

"These are… legal over the counter pills right?"

He chuckled, obviously catching my drift. "Yes, you can look at my Walgreen's receipt if you're so worried."

"No, I believe you." I took the pills and popped them in my mouth, hurrying and taking a gulp to swallow. Duncan set the glass down on the counter and leaned his elbow on it.

Here it is; the uncomfortable tension that could be cut with a knife. We were both silent. His eyes seemed to be somewhere in space and mine went to the floor where all his clothes were scattered. Underneath his pair of ripped hobo jeans (at least only a hobo would wear them in my opinion) I saw a long sleeved dark gray shirt with white sowings, white buttons, and a small side pocket. "You kept the shirt I bought you?" I suddenly asked, breaking the long silence between us.

His eyes followed mine to the shirt. "Oh. Yeah, I did," he answered. During the interlude between TDA and TDWT I bought Duncan that when we were going to a dinner party my parents were hosting, and because he didn't have anything fancy I bought him that as a surprise. He ended up spilling shrimp and tricking the bar tender into giving him six margaritas on it but we had a blast at the party. "Surprised?" he then asked me.

My thoughts were off the past. "Surprised by what?"

"That I kept the shirt."

"Oh. Well you know, I just guessed after world tour you didn't want anything to do with me or anything that would remind you of me."

That god awful silence happened again.

"Did you save anything I gave you?" he asked.

"You mean did I save the 25 cent bracelet you got me in a vending machine at the movie theater, a pack of strident gum you bought because it was buy one get one free, and a sheet of fake skull and crossbone tattoos you left at my house on accident? No, I'm pretty sure I threw away the bracelet, ate the gum, and gave the tattoos to some neighborhood kids."

Duncan rolled his eyes but smirked in amusement. "I'm not sure what amazes me more, the fact you remember what I gave you or the fact you remember when I gave to you and what you did with it." I laughed slightly as well. "Hey wait… that's not all I gave you."

"What did I miss?"

"I seem to remember carving you a small wooden skull back on Total Drama Island? Remember?" My smile disappeared. I nodded, almost guiltily. "Did you keep it?" he asked quietly, as if he could sense my sudden mood change.

Unexpectedly I couldn't look at him. My eyes went to my feet. "No," I murmured. "I… threw it out the car window while driving."

He seemed either hurt or shocked I wasn't sure which. "Why?"

"Because… I was mad at you… it was right after I was thrown off the plane on TDWT, I was just so angry with you and… I regretted it the minute I threw it." After I said that I stood up from his bed and crossed the room near the front door.

"Where are you going?" he then questioned.

"I have to… I want to… I…" —sigh— "I can't stay here." I still couldn't look at him. It was like a sudden shame washed over me for throwing his skull. But it wasn't just that… it was getting really hard to stay focused and not be confused. Right now I was downright confused. I didn't come here to rekindle my romance for Duncan, did I? No. I came to move on. I came to settle old scores. All that comes from being with Duncan is heartbreak, right? Didn't I learn that the first time? Isn't that what I got last time? Heartbreak?

The door opened but a hand slammed it back shut. My eyes followed the hand to the arm and saw Duncan standing right next to me. He was staring at me intently with no traces of humor or amusement on his face as far as I could tell. "Don't leave," he said, but his tone was more commanding than anything. His hand was placed firmly on the door with his body weight on it, I couldn't go out without using force.

"Duncan, I—"

He cut me off. "Do you know how out of my mind I was when I thought you were dead? How could you let me think you were dead?"

His sudden interrogations threw me off. "Excuse me?" I asked with just a bit of bite. "I seem to remember you hating me last time I saw you. Didn't you hate me? You acted like you did. You treated me like I was the biggest bitch and Gwen was an absolute saint. So excuse me if you weren't at the top of my priority list!"

"Gawddamnit Courtney!" he hissed angrily. (A/N purposely misspelled that) "Why do you think I hate you?"

"My first initial clue was you cheated on me." Duncan wasn't giving me much breathing space between him and the door. Sandwiched again. "Why is it when you came back on the plane you suddenly lost interest in me? You suddenly hated me? You'd have to have hated me by the way you treated me."

"You hated me right back!" Duncan yelled. "It was like you became possessed with hatred and rage, damn, I thought for sure you would have killed me in my sleep."

I scowled. "I never hated… I…" the anger inside me was making it hard for me to speak. "I hated that Gwen was made to be the good guy," I seethed. "I hated how I suddenly became the villain, the crazy one, the bitch, the user. I hated that Gwen was suddenly the person you could understand, the girl you could relate to and the girl you didn't fight with every single second. I hated that you two were friends, that you two got along so well, that you could laugh and share common interests with her."

Talking suddenly became hard for me to do but I continued. "I hated how I became so obsessed with winning that I plotted and schemed behind people's backs, I hated that I thought I was so important I didn't need friends on Total Drama, I hated that I made a freaking list of all the things I could do to change you, I hated that I wasn't nice, I hated that I was bitchy, I hated that somewhere along the way… we fell apart." I took a new breath in. "So excuse me for wanting to start over, but I changed for you."

Duncan didn't say anything. He eventually let his hand go off the door and took a few steps back. "New or old you still manage to drive me insane," he hissed under his breath. His hands were in fists.

"I'll take that as a compliment, even though it wasn't meant as one," I replied dryly. I just vented all my frustrations out to him and that's all he can say to me? I drive him insane! I'm on the brink of freaking tears and that's all he has to say about it?

"You should go to the cops; they'll want to question you about Justin's kidnapping. They're still down at the carnival, I texted Bridgette and told her you'd go down as soon as you woke up."

"I left my car at the carnival," I said apathetically. Right now I swear I could punch him straight in the face.

"Then I'll drive you."

My brows furrowed in anger. "Don't you have anything to say about what I just nearly cried to you about? What are you, a freaking robot with no emotions! Doesn't what I just told you have any impact, any meaning?"

In a matter of milliseconds Duncan was right in front of me, his hands were forcefully but at the same time carefully on my shoulders and his piercing eyes were straight into mine. Before I could yell at him to get off of me, or even punch him like I had originally intended to do, he kissed me for a second time. In one quick swoop his lips were on mine roughly. FML, I thought as I kissed him back. He smirked against my lips, giving a breathless laugh, until I bit his bottom lip as hard as I could with my teeth.

He broke it off. "Ow!"

I stuck my tongue out at him. "That's for being an asshole!"

"Damn, you drew blood." His index finger went to his bottom lip. "I guess I deserved that."

"As much as I deserve an answer."

He sighed. "I don't want to be your life long enemy Courtney. Can't we have a treaty or something? Look, I'm sorry. Okay? I don't want to fight you. You always win anyway."

I laughed slightly when he said that. Was this my chance to finally be friends with Duncan? Something I regretted when I thought I was going to die? I always have regretted not being friends with him. Was fate giving me a second chance? "Alright, we'll have a treaty. But no more surprise smooches from these lips, got it?"

He laughed. "Whatever. It's not like you didn't enjoy it."

I rolled my eyes. "Still as cocky as ever." Standing on my toes, I leaned in and pecked a quick kiss on his cheek. He looked at me with a confused expression. "That was for saving my life," I said simply. "Now come on, you're driving me to the carnival so the cops can question us."

"Us? Newsflash Princess, you were the one who was with Justin when he was kidnapped."

"But you were one of the witnesses at the scene. The cops will want to talk to you too."

Duncan sighed inwardly. "Great," he growled. "A criminal's least favorite type of people."

Author's Note:

Hi there. *dodges bullets* I know, I KNOW! It's been awhile since I've updated, hasn't it? Well okay, not really, maybe a week and a half, but that's no excuse is it? Sorry about that. :/

This chapter was… difficult for me to write. I was halfway through it and then I thought, 'but this should happen instead!' so I had to delete HALF OF MY WORK and then re-write. But that's entirely my fault :D Writing kissing/make out scenes makes me turn red as a tomato. Why can't they be as comfortable as writing kick butt ninja scenes of awesomeness? Why? WHY? I don't know why. Cursed romance.

If you guys are kind of, 'wtf Duncan' then I understand. Sorry if he was OOC. But this is three years later and a lot of shit has gone down. All I can say about Duncan is I haven't figured him out. I've figured out Courtney when I write her, but Duncan is another story. I will never figure Izzy out. She's insane. ;D

So please review, thank you for reading, I'm sorry I haven't updated, yes ninjas are awesome, no I don't own a pony, and yes, I will try to update soon. Any of that make sense? No? Good ;D