Enjoy.
As Marie walked down the street from school, the realization dawned on her, I'm spending more time at D's than at home…
…
As the past months flew by, Marie found herself spending more and more time with Edd.
First, when Edd was just released from the hospital, her mom stayed with him in order to help him to readjust to living at home again. So Marie would come to Edd's house to eat with him dinner and to hang out for a bit before going home. This sucked in Marie's opinion, because she wanted to hang out with her best friend, but her mom being there sucked all of the fun (and mischief) out of it.
Over the following weeks, Ann would mainly cook for Edd and drive him to and from his checkups and physical therapy. Ann was reluctant to leaving him entirely alone, so she would pop in his house randomly, to check up on him. Soon, as in a week into the new arrangement, Edd made everyone clear that he, in no way, needs a baby sitter. So, just like that, other than driving him around, he refused to get any help from Ann. He hated the thought of being dependent on someone else.
This suited Marie just perfect, because now she practically lived there. She most days came back to Edd's house from school and would be there until her mom will either tell her to come home and do homework or clean her room, or until Edd would leave for one of his checkups, which for the most part were at the mornings, which was pretty cool in her opinion. For her mom to arrange it like that, that is. On the days Edd didn't do anything outside the house nor her mom will pest her to come sleep at home, Marie stayed at Edd's. His guest room, unofficially, became her room.
Pretty quickly Edd started to learn how to drive, which is where Marie assumed he was when she entered the empty house. Usually, when Edd was home, music could be heard playing. Being it either him playing his guitar, or the one playing from his computer.
Marie took off her shoes and walked to her room to throw her bag on the bed, as usual. It was still pretty cold, for mid-February, so she turned the air conditioned on her way to her room.
After taking off the jacked she was wearing and jeans, Marie put her paint covered Painting Pants on and walked to the little painting station she put up a week or so ago. She was in a middle of painting this beautiful pink-orange sunset with oil paints.
Being home alone didn't suck as much as it used to be. Watching reruns of Friends that always played at this time of day was getting way too boring, she could pretty much dictate their dialogs by heart, by now.
She put her iPhone on the speaker dock and opened the music player app. As Requiem For A Dream started playing, she stared at her new creation, thinking how to improve it. It was almost two days since she last made changes to the painting, so the painting and paint palette were partially dry by now, making new developments difficult to accomplish.
"Still staring at that thing?"
"Crap! D! How long were you standing behind me?!" Marie yelled at the smirking Edd.
"Like five minutes. I'm getting pretty sick of this song looping, too. Just an FYI."
"You were the one who downloaded it, Double Dipshit." Marie retorted. She was getting sick of Edd scaring the living shit out of her. "Can you, please, stop spooking me? It's like you're materializing from thin air. It's creepy."
"Hungry?" He asked as he walked to the kitchen.
"Fucking starving. What are you making me eat today, mhm…?" Marie asked as she paused the music and put down the dried brush, thinking maybe she is done with this painting. Plus, the house really smells like an oil shop or something.
"What would you like to eat?" He asked.
"It's like you're my wife, how could I miss all of these years of you making me food? That makes me sad." She said as she skipped towards the kitchen.
"Your wife? Really Marie?" He asked with a raised brow. "You know what? I'm retracting the question, I'm making fried rice and chicken breast. And you can go fuck yourself."
"Oh! Double Dipshit, how you wound me." She said while fanning herself.
"I hate you." He deadpanned.
"Oh, I know you mean love." She nudged his shoulder. "Let's watch Requiem For A Dream again, while eating."
"We just watched that movie a week and a half ago." He said.
"Your point is?"
"Marie…" Edd sighed. "Can we not get you all depressed today?" He asked the quickly retreating Marie.
Dropping onto the couch,"I've got no idea what you're talking about.~" she sang song.
Leaving the subject at that, Edd turned around and started cooking.
After spending the past six months with the short blue haired girl, Edd got an idea of her personality and certain traits. Whenever he started a conversation about her mental state, she retreated. Whether it was a mental retreat in which she closed off herself and refused to continue any talk, or a physical retreat where she literally walked out the room, sometimes even out of the house to her home, in order to avoid any discussion. It was disheartening.
When the food was done, Edd and Marie took their plates of food to the living room and set down to watch the movie.
As the movie started playing Edd noticed that it wasn't the original movie Marie wanted to watch. "Spider-Man?" He asked.
"Mhm…" She voiced as she started eating. After swallowing she said "Wow, that's tasty as fuck."
"Obviously." Edd smirked her way.
"When did you became this little arrogant prick?" Marie asked, grinning.
"Logically, right after puberty hit."
"I see what you did there, smart ass." She snorted.
"More like a sweaty ass. Why the fuck am I burning?" He asked while putting down his plate on the wooden table and removing his sweater.
"It was cold?" The blunette said.
"Are you asking?" Edd asked.
"It was. Definitely."
"Whatever" He said, shaking his head. "I was so bored today, and was thinking… I think I'm going to join a gym. I barely go out of the house, and when I do, I don't actually move much, so-"
Marie interrupted him, saying "Yes! You do that."
"Didn't expect you to be this enthusiastic about it." He chuckled.
"No, I mean yeah, it'd be great for you. Not that I'm not into your cute little bubble butt and glad you aren't as scrawny as you used to be, but getting a bit more muscle on you would be fucking amazing."
"Did you just called me fat?" He asked with a raised brow.
"Where did you hear that?"
"It's all your mother's fault, you know." He shrugged and took a bite of his chicken.
"Right, right, mister chocolate-is-basically-a-salad…Uh! Talking about fat people, I'm pretty sure Lee is pregnant. Won't she look awfully funny all wobbly and shit?" Marie said, having the largest grin on her face.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a bad thing?"
"Yeah, yeah, awful. But she might let me take over her weed stash, we'd have so much fun, you and I." She said dramatically.
"How many times do I need to inform you that I do not wish to take drugs? I had enough of those at the hospital, I felt like I'm floating half the time. It was annoying."
"Only you can take the fun outta getting high, ya know? Anyway, I was thinking more in the lines of subsiding the pain and shit. It sucks seeing you in so much pain, Edd." She said sincerely.
"I told you I can deal with it by myself. And I think going to the gym will help."
…
Going to the gym didn't help. Working out only increased the pain Edd was having since he stopped taking the pain killers he was prescribed.
As the weeks went by things didn't change much. Soon enough Lee did came out with her pregnancy to her family, subsequently having the worst fight with her mom and moving out to live with her dad. Lee did leave mostly all of her stuff at Ann's house, making Marie's plan of taking her weed inventory all too easy.
It was mid spring when Edd and Marie lied on her bed together and smoked weed for probably the eight time in the last few days.
"And to think you were still in pain a few months ago. I told you I know best, you should listen to me more often, babe." Marie said as she bumped her elbow to Edd's ribs.
"It's really hard to filter the one smart sentence you make every hundred incredibly irrational ones. And 'babe'? It's probably the tenth time this week you've mistaken my name for that idiot's. If I didn't know better, I'd think you like him more than you do me."
"Oh, shit. Sorry." She said, getting a slight blush. "I don't really like him, though. You know that."
"You keep saying that you're dating him to keep up with Nazz and her new one, but when you tell me how much fun you guys having, I doubt it." He looked at her.
"Um…I don't know…" She didn't meet his gaze.
"You're allowed to like girls and boys, you know. You're not stupid."
"I know, I know. It's just weird. I'm sixteen and I was so sure I only like girls and it took me everything to tell mom and my sisters and… And I had this mind set… I don't know, I feel so weird, like I don't know myself at all. I feel like my mind is all over the place and I can't control shit. 'Cause apparently I like guys. What's next? I turn out to be this girly ass-wipe of a person and swoon after everyone?"
In the few weeks Edd started joining Marie's smoking/gaming sessions, he found out she gets pretty opened up and talkative. So as the smoking helped him with the increasing pain, it helped Marie to open up to him and talk about things she soberly cannot handle discussing.
"Do I look to you like an ass-wipe swoon-ish person?" He asked hesitantly.
Marie snapped her eyes open, realizing she closed them half way through her sentence, "You're bi?! Wait, wait, you're into people?!" She asked wide eyed and set up on the bed, looking down at a slightly nodding Edd, she said "Like, before, when you were all tiny and quiet…well you still are quiet af, which is creepy, mind you, but back then I thought you were way too innocent to like like anyone. You looked so small and weak, I kind of assumed you to be gay sometimes, too, which is stereotypical as fuck, I know. But now, that I really know you, I kind of assumed you don't like people at all and all asexual and shit. Which that is a shame, 'cause... have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? Those abs and that ass, girl, I just-" Marie got into a frenzy of amazement of the new development.
"Dude, Marie, calm your tits down, I still hate everyone but you and have no plans sticking my dick anywhere in the near future."
"You cannot tell me to calm down when you break these kinds of news to me." Marie said, annoyed at her clearly amused best friend.
Ignoring what Marie said, Edd smirked and said "'Those abs and that ass', huh? I thought you said I didn't make any progress working out and should continue to try."
"Ugh…I…" Marie tried to think up something to save herself.
As she turned completely, neck to ears, red, Edd provided "Give up?" With a smirk.
"Yup." She spat as she fell backwards to lie on the bed next to Edd. She crossed her arms and said, a bit annoyed "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" She said quietly. She could feel two strong arms going beneath her shoulders and embracing her into a warm hug.
"Didn't thought it was that important." He said uncharacteristically sweetly, "Don't be upset, you know I suck balls at this friendship stuff, too used to being alone and shit." He said with a low voice.
Too hypnotized by Edd's spice mixed with pool chlorine smell and his steady heartbeat, she stuttered "I-It's fine, I guess." Marie's heart was beating so fast, she was afraid Edd could hear it. "So, you like girls and boys…" She said as she snuggled a bit closer to his chest.
In the past year, Edd stretched from his meager height to a respective 5'9" (1.75 m) that could engulf the petite size of Marie, towering barely at 5'3" (1.60 m). As Edd continued to gain more body mass from his frequent swims at the gym's pool and working out in general, combined with puberty and the continual height growth, it seemed like every pound the beanie clad boy gained, made Marie look even smaller compared to him.
"I still hate everyone's guts, but yours and Ann's." He reminded.
As they hugged for a few minutes, Marie closed her eyes and relaxed her arms between her's and Edd's chest. She could feel the taut muscle beneath her palms, which made her belly get filled butterflies.
As the past months went on, Marie did realize she is attracted to boys, yet the small fact she never mentioned to Edd was that her subject of affection was never the douche Nazz made her go out with in order to slow down things with her own new boyfriend.
"It's past two a.m., we should go to sleep. You've got school tomorrow and I have that job interview in the morning." Edd said and cut her peaceful train of thought.
"I don't have to go to school…And you really don't have to go to that job interview. I mean, your folks are loaded." She said and nudged Edd's chest with her head, as she lowered herself to have her head beside his heart. She could feel his arms tightening around her in response, she let out a happy sigh.
Edd could feel Marie smiling against his chest, which made him grin in return. He liked making his best friend less of a depressed mess, even though he hated hugs and basically any type of physical interaction with a passion, he would man up to it and hug her for as long as she would let him.
"I told you I hate the idea of getting your beautiful art tattooed on me with their ugly money. I think this stuff is fucking up your memory more than it should." He said to her.
You're fucking me up more that you should, she thought, and not in the good way. "Can you drive me to school tomorrow, then?" She asked hopefully.
"To the parallel street's corner, yes." He said.
Since Edd got his driving license, Marie will sometimes ask him to drive her to school or to the mall to meet up with Nazz. Edd drove her quite a bit around town for the last few months, yet he was reluctant to see any of their class mates or even drive near the school. Even though Edd gained quite a bit of body mass and went to a few self-defense classes in the gym, to say he wasn't afraid will be a lie.
Whenever he will drive past the school, or think he saw someone he knows from school, his heart will start beating fast and all sense of control Edd thought he had, will start to feel like it's slipping through his fingers again.
It got better as the months went by, and yet a sense of disgust will stemmer from his presence near the school. All in all, he believed he was doing pretty well at the whole PTSD department.
"Nazz really wants to see you, D. She wants to make sure you're all right, she doesn't believe a word that comes out of my mouth about you." Marie said.
Making a bit of space between them, Marie looked up to Edd when he started talking, "She should mind her own fucking business. I do not need her pity or whatever the fuck. She and her idiot of a friend can both go fuck themselves on a lamp post. Like I don't see them ogling my car through the shaded windows whenever I get out of the house." He pursed his lips and shook his head slightly.
"Don't be a dick, Edd. They're just curious, I guess." She shrugged. "She told me Kevin still thinks it was his fault."
"Couldn't care less what that retard thinks, and the freak show exhibit was over the minute I stepped out of that hell hole." He spat the words as if they were venom in his mouth.
"Sorry…" She murmured into his chest as she lowered her head to avoid Edd's death stare. "He's not that stupid ya know, he's almost in all my advanced classes this semester. Wears glasses and everything now, A level dork." She tried to joke.
"Whatever…" He softened his tone, "You should really get some sleep, Kitty." He added.
A few months back, he realized Marie will act very much like a cat the moment he'll hug, touch or pet her, the nickname neutrally slipped out of his mouth one night, and ever since it stuck.
Hearing the pet name, Marie's breath hitched. Her chest filled with affection for the unaware teen. "You should really loose the beanie if you plan on spending the night here." She joked.
"Nah, I think I'll go sleep in my beanie alone." He joked back. "Kidding aside, you're like a furnace. And with that, I cannot handle." He said as he stood up from the bed and move towards the door.
Marie immediately felt the loss of warmth around her and got under the covers.
Looking back, Edd said, "Good night." And closed the door behind him.
Closing her eyes, Marie let out a sight and thought, dress me up in a red napkin and call me Pamela 'cause I'm fucking screwed. BAD.
A/N: Hey guys, I am so fucking sorry for not updating my beloved fic for a month. I'm a bad writer lady .
In a few days I'll update again with a new chapter, I promise.
Mid-terms were a bitch this year.