Copyright Danny Antonucci and produced by a.k.a. Cartoon. All band names and lyrics Copyright of their respective owners.
Double D woke up a few seconds before Marie.
"Good morning" Double D smiled.
"Good morning. Uh….about yesterday… I… I'm sorry you had to see that. I should have been more careful and locked the door." Marie apologized for leaving the door open last night.
"No, you shouldn't have had to go to your room. You went there because I failed to satisfy you myself." Double D's calming voice distracted Marie from noticing his hand very slowly creeping up her thigh.
"Well, I decided I was going to back off of always forcing you into it. Because that's what lead to us going rock climbing. I had thought I lost you. I felt horrible." Marie told him why she didn't just continue to press on yesterday.
"I felt bad when you went to your room yesterday because I went out to prove I could do more than blush at dirty comments, but in the end failed in that endeavor." Double D's hand was up to her hip now, slowly starting to creep into her shirt.
"When you came in yesterday, and I realized you were behind me, I finally felt what I made you feel; I couldn't move and I could barely think or talk." Marie described her side of him walking in on her.
"When I saw that video on your screen and heard the humming, I knew I had failed as a provider." Double D described his side of him walking in on her; he saw her blush and knew she realized his hand was on her.
"Uh… I'm going to go get breakfast ready" Marie chirped nervously and disappeared into the kitchen. [Marie? Shying away from my hands? What fresh hell is this?] Double D lay in bed for a few minutes, stunned by what happened. He got up and got dressed, then headed to the kitchen. He very quietly walked up behind Marie and slowly slid his hands up her shirt.
"You're not wearing a bra?" Double D noticed as his hands touched skin and not cloth as he was expecting.
"Ah... Please... I... I need to get breakfast *soft gasp* ready." Marie was blushing again as she moaned softly.
"Uh... I..." Double D felt his face getting hot. Marie gently pushed his hands down and out of her shirt.
"You were in such a hurry to start breakfast, you didn't even put pants on." Double D noticed that she wasn't wearing pants; for a few seconds he thought she wasn't wearing underwear either until he saw a thin green line going around her waist.
"Eep! Don't look!" She chirped and vanished into the bedroom. She came out a few minutes later and finished preparing breakfast.
"I hope you like it. It's been a while since I've made an omelet." Marie said in a slightly nervous tone.
"Ok, you've got to tell me what's going on. You're starting to act like me when I first met you." Double D asked, curious about the sudden change of roles.
"I was so used to you being submissive, that when you started making your own decisions and started being less shy around me, I got a little scared." Marie explained her weird behavior over the past 20 hours.
"Oh. Hm. Makes sense. I was always shy and skittish so when I suddenly changed, it scared you." Double D thought about his usual behavior around her before yesterday.
"I'm a little confused though. Isn't this what you wanted me to be like originally?" Double D asked.
"Yeah, but now that you Are open like this, I realize I liked it better the other way. I mean, I don't mind you touching me openly, but it's kind of intimidating." Marie admitted.
"I don't think I can go back to the old me. The cliff experience snapped something in me." Double D cautioned her.
"Well, if it did, I will have to get use to it." Marie sighed; she really kind of enjoyed controlling Double D with her body, but now it seems the tables have turned and he is controlling her.
"You haven't said much all day so far. Is it really that big of a change, even though it's what you have been striving for since we started talking to each other again?" Double D noticed Marie was unusually quiet today; both talking and music-wise. Marie looked like she was lost in her sketchbook, and said nothing. He decided to look at what she was drawing that she was concentrating on so intensely. Double D was a vampire standing in the doorway of an old bedroom, his shadow looming over the bed. [Vampires don't have shadows. Even I know that.] Double D thought to himself as he further examined the picture. Marie was in the shadow-covered bed, paralyzed with fear. [He he, I've got a terrible idea.] He thought as he kissed the side of her neck. A couple seconds later, he felt something sharp stab into his right shoulder; followed by Marie whirling around in her chair and kicking him towards the door. He reeled from the impact of her foot and crashed into the doorframe; sliding down it to settle on the floor.
"Marie, I…" Double D mumbled weakly before losing consciousness; his mind was going so fast that there were no visibly separate thoughts anymore, just a sickening blur of chatter.
"What have I done…?" Marie whispered when she realized what happened. She looked down and saw that her pencil had blood on it. [No…. no, this isn't happening.] Marie thought in horror as her eyes widened. She rushed over to Double D and started looking for an entry wound; barely finding it because, after all, it was only a pencil. She took his shirt off to get a better look at the wound but it didn't really look serious at all; he was bleeding, but there was no gaping cut or hole in his shoulder. She cleaned him up and put him on her bed; she knew she couldn't stay with him if he was going to live past 19. [Now I've gone and done it. I directly drew blood and then kicked him. I have to leave him before I hurt him even more seriously; things have escalated this far, I don't want to know what the next step is.] She thought as she started writing a good-bye note; she couldn't just disappear, she loved him too much and knew that would devastate him, not that he wouldn't take this hard either.
"Dear Double D,
I've had more fun being with you these last couple of months than I have in the last 3 years, which is why it is very hard for me to tell you what I'm about to. I can't be with you anymore if you're going to live past 19. You may have gone rock climbing and explored a girl's body after taking hardcore drugs, but there is still so much more to life you haven't experienced. And I want you to have that experience. So that is why I must leave. I know it will be hard at first, but try to think about our good times together and smile.
I hope you have a good life filled with great people :)
I'm sorry I could not provide or be same.
Love, your exiled permanent, Marie Kanker"
She picked up his shirt and went to Lee's room. She knew he was going to go home eventually so she was going to make his injury look like an accident; she was completely forgetting it was only a pencil stab, which is barely if at all visible if you are further than two feet from it. She got the gun from Lee's dresser and went outside; she knew Double D's parents wouldn't ask questions if there was a bullet hole in his shirt, and he came in wearing it. She knew it didn't make sense, but knowing his parents, it did. She walked outside and started looking for a place to hang up the shirt.
Double D finally came to, and found himself looking at the ceiling as usual. [I really shouldn't have done that…but I didn't know she would flip out like that] He thought as he got up. He noticed there was complete silence in the house, and there was a note on the table.
"Dear Double D… fun being with you…can't be with you… past 19…" Double D mumbled as he read.
"What? No! She can't-" Double D's protest was interrupted by a gunshot, which sent a painful chill down his spine.
"Marie!?" Double D shouted and ran outside. He ran behind the mobile home to where he heard the gunshot from and saw Marie standing there with a gun, aiming at his shirt that was hung on a tree. [She's gone completely nuts! I better go before I share the fate of my shirt.] He thought as he quietly turned around and crept back behind the mobile home. [No. there has to be a logical explanation for all this. She may have been a bit weird at times, ok maybe a lot of weird, but this is out character for her. I should talk to her and find out what's going on. After I find a bulletproof vest maybe.] Double D thought as he was trying to make sense of what he just saw. About this time, Marie was coming around the corner of the mobile home to put Double D's shirt back on him; she didn't know he was already up and sitting outside. [Double D! he's sitting outside. What's he doing out here? Why hasn't he left? Is he still considering staying here?] Marie's mind raced. A random cough escaped her throat, alerting Double D to her presence. Double D turned to see that it was her and got up to run, but didn't actually start running just yet; his shirt was covering the gun, making Marie appear less threatening.
"Please don't go… I'm sorry I tried to change you… I didn't know it would end like this." She reached out to him, but with her gun hand by accident; the shirt shifted and fell off her arm, revealing the gun. Double D took off running; it may be an empty park, but she still wouldn't risk shooting towards the cul-de-sac.
"Double D if you leave now, I swear I will kill us both!" Marie shouted. [Did I really just say that? What is wrong with me? Is this what happens when you are losing grip on something you were never supposed to have in the first place?] Marie started to seriously question her sanity. Double D froze in place; if she was going to kill both him and herself, it wouldn't matter what she risked. Marie slowly walked up to him and put down the gun.
"Please, let me explain. I got completely lost in drawing. So then when you kissed my neck, it almost felt like you bit me and I thought you were a vampire. I know doesn't make any kind of sense, but that's what happened. I knew you had to go home eventually so I wanted to make the hole on your shirt look like an accident; if you showed up wearing a shirt with a bullet hole, I know your parents wouldn't ask questions. Because if you walk in wearing it, and you don't show any signs of distress, they will assume you're fine and go on about their day." Marie explained how his vampire prank spiraled out of control. Double D kicked the gun away from her and dashed to pick it up.
"You're crazy! You would kill us both just because I left? Just let me go. I can't live like this. I really tried but you are seriously getting to be too much for me." He said as he aimed at her; he knew he could never actually pull the trigger, but he knew he could get out alive if he could just bluff and convince her that he could pull the trigger.
"Oh, please. I don't believe for a second that you would actually shoot me. Climbing out of a sinking car is one thing. Taking a human life unlike anything else in the world. Most people hope they never have to. If you have actually been forced to end another person's life, you have truly been broken." Marie scoffed at Double D's bluff as she started slowly walking towards him.
"Marie, please don't make me do this. I'm begging you. I'll never be able to forgive myself. Please. Just let me go. At least for a little while so I can recover." Double D pleaded with her, but she kept getting closer.
"Yeah, you'll come back just like you returned my underwear." Marie teased him; she dropped into a running stance and quickly stole two running steps, leaping towards Double D.
"I hate you!" Double D's body tightened as his eyes shut and he pulled the trigger. The gunshot stole his hearing for a few seconds and left him with a ringing sound in his ears, drowning out Marie's pained yelp. She crashed into him from the momentum of her leap and knocked him on the ground.
[Oh no… I…. I actually…. No… this is just a nightmare. That's what it is. I just got really drunk at Marie's house and passed out on her bed, and now I'm here] He thought; he refused to believe that he had just killed the one girl that truly loved him.
"Just kidding, those are blanks" Marie looked at him with a smirk on her face.
"Oh... You're alive!" Double D sighed with relief.
"You're one hell of a roller coaster, you know that?" he added.
"So ride me already." Marie teased.
"Uh... My mother is calling, so maybe later" Double D laughed nervously.
"Your cell phone is broken. And your mother wouldn't just call some random number to talk to you. Too much effort. As long as you're not gay, you've got free reign to do whatever. That is the impression I got from you and from the conversation I heard between you and her." Marie scoffed at his terrible attempt at an excuse to change the subject; she decided to let it go, however, and got up to go inside. Double D picked his shirt up and followed her.
"You're going to have to tell me about your parents' reaction to the bullet hole in your shirt." Marie said as she poured herself a glass of water and went to sit on the couch.
"Hopefully they will stop thinking I'm gay. Not sure what they will say when they notice it goes all the way through." Double would be completely fine if all they reacted with was "well, I guess you're not gay, so carry on."
Double D poured himself a glass of water and sat next to Marie. As he sat down on the couch, he accidentally sat on the remote, turning on the TV.
"Due to gross negligence at Beleren Pharmaceutical, a large amount of prescription anti-psychotics and other non-prescription medications have gotten into the city water supply. Do not drink the tap water if you live in the Peach Creek area. I repeat, DO NOT drink the tap water if you live in the Peach Creek area."
"So we have been drinking all these medications for at least a few days now. " Marie looked down at her glass.
"What will happen to me now? Taking a pill to experiment is one thing, but drinking an entire pharmacy for several days?" Double D wondered out loud.
"I'm going to die..." Double D mumbled. He sat there for a few minutes, milling over this recent development. "I feel light-headed. Like I blew up several balloons in a row." he whispered to himself as the hum of the refrigerator took on a very slight ethereal quality.
[I've done nothing but hurt and reject Marie. I should leave but I know she won't let me. I should leave permanently. She can drag you back from your house, but can she drag you back from the dead?] A random thought popped into his head. [Oh, Marie is looking especially hot today. The way she's sitting, and the way her clothes hug her body... Oof, I would hit that out of the park. While we are in the park] followed not even a second after his first thought. [It's been a while since I've been this happy. It's the weekend and I'm sitting at Marie's house. I thought I would only see this in my dreams.] Double D was starting to get scared. He went from having suicidal thoughts, to highly aroused, to grinning like an idiot in the span of five seconds. [How dare she pull a gun on me and then gamble on her life? What are we having for lunch? I'm starving.] Double D's thoughts started to run together. [Marie is going through a tough time right now, and I need to make sure I'm there for and that picture in my room is crooked.] Double D decided he was going to leave before his mind got any worse.
"Marie, I think the pills are starting to take potato. I better leave before it gets worse." Double D told her.
"You just said that in a growl, while crying and pitching a tent. You're really scaring me, now." Marie told him what she saw and heard. Double D put his glass on the counter and walked towards the door.
"I hope to see you again when this is all over." He said as he walked out and closed the door behind him.
Double D got home, and went to his room; he didn't want his parents to think he's possessed or started doing drugs. He was sitting on his computer deciding what to do, when he heard his mother's voice.
"Edd, dinner is - oh my word, is that a bullet wound?" Double D's mother was about to call him to dinner when she noticed the bullet hole in his short and the stab wound from the pencil; it looked like a gunshot wound through the small hole on his shirt.
"Yeah, me and a friend were mistaken for deer when we went rock climbing. I'm fine now though." Double D lied.
"And you just walked into the house like nothing happened. You're so calm about it. You've grown into a fine young man." Double D's said in a proud voice.
"Your father and I couldn't be more proud. We have really outdone ourselves raising you." Double D's mother smiled.
"Son, you've made me proud beyond words. You've grown from 'possibly gay' to 'nerves of steel'. I am proud to call you my son." Double D's father said as he entered the room.
"Your father and I were planning to move out and give you the house when you turned 21, but after this, we think you're ready now." Double D's mother told him of her plan.
"I officially present to you the keys to the house. Keep making us proud." His father said as he gave him the keys.
"We have already put in a call for the car replacement. To celebrate the start of your adult life. We will miss you and call often. " He added. [Now I can really see how much water they drink daily] he thought as they walked out if his room. Double D sat and thought, for a few minutes, about this development and how his parents reacted beyond what Marie predicted.
"I hope they fix the water soon. Everything else will slowly fix itself afterwards. "Double D sighed and went to bed.
