"My little boy is growing up," Edd awoke to the tantalizing scent of bacon and the sound of an all-too-familiar voice that was almost enough to pull him from his bed. Almost. For some strange reason, the warmth of his bed was far more convincing than anything breakfast could muster.
"Leave the boy alone, Ashley," He heard another voice scold the first. "I never thought I'd see the day he actually brought home a girl though."
"Frank, he did it without our permission, while we weren't home, and he didn't even clean his dishes." The first voice sounded a little frustrated, but had a certain underlay of both curiosity and disbelief. "Not to mention he's late for school."
"Come now, you remember how we acted at that age. Besides, he already took the tests, so I doubt missing a day will be too much of a problem," The second voice argued with the first, which the sound of the bacon hissing again probably meant he just flipped the strips.
"Fine, I suppose, but I don't want this to become a habit, Frank. He's too smart of a kid to be skipping school," The first voice grumbled. Edd knew good and well that his mother couldn't say no to his father, and thankfully his father was the more 'down to earth' of the two.
'Wait, skipped school?' The sleep quickly started to drain from him the moment her words had sunken in, clearing the haze of drowsiness. When he opened his eyes, he noticed the sleeping face of Marie in front of his. Apparently they had shifted in their sleep and Marie was completely laying on top of him now. 'Huh, she doesn't really look near as violent like this,' Edd thought quietly with a slight smirk appearing on his lips before he realized two key facts that made his cheeks heat up: One, his parents were home and he was caught asleep on the sofa with a girl. Two, he realized that he had a certain issue that came as a curse to the male anatomy upon waking up... And Marie was laying right on top of it.
'For the love of Tesla, why me?' Edd slowly tried to wiggle free from Marie, only to completely freeze up the moment she started to stir. Those two blue eyes fluttered open and back closed for a moment before opening again, and once he focused into her vision, the corners of her lips turned upwards.
"So much for only a few movies," She joked and slowly sat up, stretching and sending several pops through her shoulders, neck, and spine. "Cooking bacon for breakfast?" She asked before realizing that he was trapped underneath her, to which she slowly turned her head to see two blurs standing in the kitchen. "Oh, good morning?" She offered an awkward smile and reached blindly for her glasses that slid off into the floor.
"Mornin'," The man replied with a knowing smirk on his lips. "Want some breakfast, you two?"
Edd wore a look of complete and utter horror, but Marie giggled a little and nodded, "Breakfast sounds great, thank you." When he laughed and walked back into the kitchen with his wife, Marie turned to face Edd and poked her tongue out. "You might want to calm down there, Muffin. We're still just friends, so don't get too excited." With that cruel joke and a blatantly intentional application of her weight to a certain area, she stood up and made her way into the kitchen.
'I officially just want to disappear,' Edd couldn't remember the last time he had such an awkward awakening; this even topped that time he woke up with Ed's armpit in his face. It took him until his mother came back out to see if he was awake to actually accrue him enough willpower to start the day.
With a 'good job' from his dad and his mother expressing her disbelief still, Marie and Edd ate with a hint of awkwardness between the two of them, although Marie handled it with humor instead of silence like their son had. "Make sure to head to school whenever you two are done," Edd's mom turned to face the two teenagers before leaving the kitchen and heading upstairs to her room to sleep after her long night at work.
"You two don't have to go to school, just make sure that she doesn't see you skipping, Eddward," His father laughed heartily and gave the two a firm pat on the back. "Good night you two, I need to snooze after working all damned night; we got stuck with overtime so it was a long one."
"'Night," Marie waved halfheartedly before turning his attention back to Edd. "Your parents are pretty chill."
"Yeah, you don't have to live with mother," Edd groaned a little and walked over to the sink to wash off the dishes from last night and their breakfast. "She can't stand to have anything out of order. There's a reason I used to be so neurotic." He shuddered upon remembering how he had to label everything in the house and how he had to be clean at every waking moment.
"I suppose, your dad seems to kind of be the opposite of her though," Marie decided to bring her plate to the sink for Edd, but she sure as hell had no plans to help him out in cleaning.
"Yeah, tell me about it. Not that it's bad though; he's always helped me out when I got into trouble with mother," Edd smiled fondly at a few of the memories that were dug up; namely ones involving failed scams and especially the one where he walked cross-state to find Eddy's brother.
"You, get into trouble?" Marie scoffed at the very notion. "Here I thought you were Mister Perfect."
"Don't you remember all of those scams I used to pull?" Edd twisted his neck to raise a brow at Marie.
"I remember the scams that Eddy used to pull, and I remember how you got dragged along," She laughed. "To this day, I still have no idea how you ever managed to be friends with him."
"Honestly? I'm not even sure sometimes, but I'm glad that we have grown out of that. There were a few times that I honestly thought he was going to wind up in prison." Edd's shoulders drooped at a few of those memories. Especially the one that put him in the hospital because of the car scam Eddy tried to pull. That was the day that Eddy decided he would quit dragging him into his plans, and soon after decided to give up on scamming altogether.
"Well, I'm glad he didn't; I think Lee would kick his ass," Marie giggled and stood back up from her spot at the table. "Hey, can I use your bathroom to freshen up a little?"
"Hm? Oh, of course, it's the third door on the right upstairs; I should also have a spare toothbrush in the top left drawer," Edd informed her, to which Marie laughed.
"Don't worry, I brought my toothbrush," She said and pulled out a little black travel bag from the leg pocket of her cargo pants.
As Edd watched her turn and leave upstairs, he felt his cheeks heat up at the realization that Marie's staying the night was as far flung from an accident as they come. "She's good," He smiled to himself and turned his attention back to the dishes, wanting to finish them before Marie made it back from the restroom.
"Hey, your dad said we couldn't hang around your house, he said nothing about mine," Marie joked and flopped down onto her sofa with a loud, relieved sigh. "God, it's hot as balls outside; this is why I like the winter."
"I do admit that it's a little warm," Edd agreed in a more subtle manner, sitting down at the other end of her sofa, which Marie almost immediately plopped her feet down onto his lap. "You could at least take your shoes off, you know."
"Too lazy," She shook her head, having her glasses pushed up away from her eyes so her arm could lazily lay across it. "We only had four hours of sleep last night before your parents woke me up with bacon and eggs."
"Are you complaining?" Edd joked, to which she let out a groan and shook her head lazily. He couldn't help but laugh a little to himself at how cute her reaction was; not to mention how much it was just her. 'What are you thinking, Eddward?' He scolded himself again for even having those thoughts.
"Edd, take my shoes off," She demanded lazily, kicking her feet up and down against his lap gently with motions akin to a child throwing a tantrum.
"You weren't kidding when you said you were lazy," Edd deadpanned.
"Four hours, Double D, four hours!" She exclaimed before pressing her foot against her other foot's hill, sliding her shoe off halfway and flailing her leg to try and lose the dangling annoyance.
"Fine," Edd chuckled a little, helping her pull off the loose shoe, having her do the same thing with the other before he would help there as well. "For the record though, I'll have you know that I have had just as much sleep and I'm doing perfectly well."
"Good for you," She grumbled and sat her glasses onto the side table with her free hand that wasn't being used to block the sunlight. With a lazy groan, she shifted to get comfortable before informing Edd of her important decision: "I'm going to take a nap, help yourself to the fridge if you get hungry."
"On the couch?" Edd smirked.
"My bed's so far away," She grumbled again. "Besides, it'd be rude to just leave you out here."
'But sleeping is perfectly acceptable?' Edd thought to himself and chuckled a little. "Alright, alright, would you like for me to wake you up?"
"I doubt you could wake me up if you blew up a firecracker right by my head," Marie laughed and visibly relaxed as she tried to drift off to sleep.
'I figured such,' Edd thought and slid out from underneath her feet to grab a drink. When he opened the fridge though, he was appalled by the sheer amount of beer bottles and cans that littered the fridge; some of which were even open. "Good lord." Somehow he figured that's how the Kanker's house would be though; however, when he looked around the kitchen in general, the trailer was actually surprisingly clean. Sure, there were stains or an occasional pile of trash, but it honestly wasn't as trashed as he had expected. Despite being in the trailer several times throughout his childhood, and even recently, he never truly took the time to look at it.
After settling on a can of Mountain Dew, he made his way back to the living room only to find Marie was true to her word, being borderline comatose as she slept. He lifted her legs by the ankles and positioned himself back in his spot on the sofa; although they were a pretty big family, they only had a sofa and one recliner in the living room, which the recliner had a paper taped to it that claimed it as Lee's.
It took him about an hour before he decided that Marie probably wasn't going to wake up anytime soon, and the soda had proved to move right through him, so he slipped back out of the living room in order to find the bathroom. When he stumbled down the hallway, he realized just how much of an anomaly the trailer really was. While he always thought that it looked bigger on the inside, the fact that there was a kitchen, living room, hallway, 3 bedrooms, and a bathroom had proven to be nigh impossible. He walked into the bathroom, which he immediately noticed that the bath, floor, and even the counter was littered with bras, underwear, and clothes.
"You can really tell that five girls are living here," He grimaced and decided to brave what was easily a pervert's dream.
Coming out of the bathroom, he noticed that one door in particular was open slightly, which against his better judgment, had caught his curiosity. Peeking into it was clearly May's room; mostly because she was the only sister that would possibly have stuffed animals littering her bed.
"Having fun?" He felt the chill of the grave roll up his spine when he heard Marie's voice from behind him with a hint of sarcasm and anger.
"O-Oh Marie, I just noticed it was open and-" He was cut off by a swift, but gentle punch to the ribs that caused him to double over.
"Retribution has been served," She said smugly before opening the door. "Come on in, sorry about the mess. I had to make room for the futon when Penny moved in."
Edd stood up, rubbing his bruised ribs and followed her into her lair. The stuffed animals made more sense though, as he could see the clean divide in the center of the room that went from band posters and posters of cars to a futon with bright colored blankets. "Sorry about looking; I suppose it was a little too much." He apologized and took the spot on her bed that she patted out.
"It's fine, you got what you deserved," She shrugged and opened her closet, which was sealed off from the rest of the room by a blanket hanging over the doorway. "Let's see; it's supposed to be warm today, so I doubt my cargo pants are a good idea."
"It's always warm during the summer," Edd commented and leaned back against the wall, looking around the room a little more. Although he half-expected Marie's room to look like this, it did have a certain hint of femininity to it that he couldn't quite place; probably no small part due to Penny, but the fact that Marie had a Diary sitting on her writing desk with her name emblazoned into the leather cover hadn't helped the case.
"True, but I want to wear shorts," She shrugged and pulled out a pair of basketball shorts and a white tank top. "I'll be right back." With that, she made her way into the bathroom to change.
"What happened here?" Edd said to himself when he noticed a lamp broken against the far wall with a shattered light bulb inside of it. While the glass appeared to have been swept up, it still stood out from the piles of clothes that littered the rest of the room. Before he could think too hard on it though, Marie returned with her change of clothes.
"Much better; I love those pants, but they're hot as balls," Marie grumbled and motioned with her hand. "Let's go out and play at the arcade or something; I hate standing around for too long."
Edd thought about it for a moment and nodded, "Walking around the mall sounds fun, so sure."
With that, Edd found himself in Marie's truck, off to enjoy his rebellious day of skipping school; which Marie threatened to hit him if he even thought about going. Although it was a simple day, they spent it browsing a few stores, eating a nice lunch at some new Chinese restaurant in the food court, and getting scolded by security for clearly skipping school; which Edd took rather poorly until Marie punched him again.
Marie smiled as she plopped over onto her bed with her diary in one hand and her pen in her left. After a long, uneventful, but fun day, she was ready to just wind down and relax. She looked over to see Penny relaxing on her futon and reading what was undoubtedly some romance book; not that Marie hated romance novels, but she would never admit to reading them.
"So, how was your day skipping school?" Penny asked casually as the thumbed over to the next page.
"Fun, me and Double D ended up spending time at the mall," She smiled as she fiddled with the lock on her diary to pop it open; she had lost the key a long time ago, so she had to pick the lock each time she wanted to write in it.
"Wait, I thought he never missed school? At least, that's what Lee said," She glanced over at her sister and rested her open book against her lap.
"What can I say? I'm a bad influence," Marie joked and thumbed through her diary to find a clean page to write on.
"I think you're a little crazy, Marie. I mean, you know what he did and yet you're still being friends with him?" Penny started to scold her sister before she noticed the uneasy look on her face. "You are just friends, right?" When Marie didn't answer, Penny just opened her mouth for a moment before standing up and closing the door. "Really, Marie?! You're fucking dating?!"
"I- No, we aren't dating," Marie answered quietly, keeping her gaze away from her sister. "It's just that I'm... Not so sure how I feel about him anymore. Spending time with him just reminded me how smart he is and how funny he can be; well, when he tries. God, he's horrible at taking punches though."
"Marie, no." Penny said flatly and sat back down onto her bed. "I don't care how you feel on this, but you just can't fall for the guy that caused all of this to happen! You need to tell Dr. White tomorrow about this and let him talk sense into you at least."
"All of what? It's not like he made me do anything that wasn't going to happen anyway! Sure, he sped it up, but you know as well as I do that I was eventually going to need to see someone," Marie huffed and slammed her diary shut. "Look, we're still just friends and I'm being careful, but I need you to just support me for once! God, I supported you when you told mom and dad about you wanting to take those hormones."
"The hormone pills didn't scream at me for having feelings for them!" Penny growled. "You're a genius, and yet you can be so stupid sometimes. I mean, being friends is one thing, but if you fall for him again, I don't want to see you get rejected and fall back into depression again."
"Yes, I am a genius, and yet you don't trust my judgment? It's not like I'm making wedding plans or some crap like that, I'm just trying to be friends," Marie growled and jumped up, pulling out her bag from underneath her bed and heading straight for the closet.
"Where are you going?" Penny stared in shock at her sister's abrupt movement.
"I'm going to spend the night at one of my friend's house, because at least they won't scream at me for making more friends," Marie hissed back and walked to her door. "Why do you have to care so fucking much?" She asked with a wry expression that was clearly aimed to try and hide the sorrow in her eyes.
Marie found herself walking back towards Edd's house yet again at ten at night, but it was thankfully Friday this time, so they wouldn't have an awkward awakening from his parents. "God, I love Penny to death, but she's so fucking nosy sometimes."
"Going to Eddward's again?" Marie wasn't even phased this time when she heard him behind her yet again. He seemed to just have this strange power to always show up at the worst times. "That's a bad idea. He's suspicious and you know it."
"Let him be suspicious," Marie grumbled.
"You need to hide the proof," She heard a woman say; yet another person she didn't miss.
"Shut up, maybe he needs to know," Marie shrugged and continued towards the cul-de-sac with a wry frown.
"He's going to yell and you know it, stupid," The man spoke again, laying his hand on Marie's shoulder.
"Just piss off, both of you!" Marie groaned.
"Just hide it, you know you have to or he'll find out!" The woman reiterated her point. "If he knows, then it'll be trouble. Your sisters know too, and they already are causing problems."
"Did you know that Coffee Co. has the number one GPA of all corporations in the coffee industry?" Another man chimed in from in front of Marie, probably hiding behind a bush as usual.
"You all are fucking insane, you know that? Especially you," Marie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose for the oncoming headache. "You know what? Fine, I'll hide the damned thing, just leave me alone you assholes."
"About time, you are always so worthless," The woman groaned as Marie finally caved in.
"I'm not worthless, so fuck off!" Marie half shouted in argument before fishing the box out her bag and heading towards the junkyard to her usual hiding place with the three people tailing along. No matter how many times they insisted it, she was not worthless and she certainly was better than them.
Edd was once again home alone, waiting for the pizza that he ended up ordering to quell his appetite from the lack of dinner. While he had some fun that day, he was just glad to finally wind down after a few hours of work; especially since it was the weekend and he was able to actually spend time with his parents after tonight.
"Still nothing on," Edd groaned as he flipped through the channels to help tide him over until the delivery driver showed up. As if his wish had been granted though, he heard a knock on his door. 'Thank goodness,' Edd put on his best smile and grabbed his wallet, but when he opened the door, he was met once again with the silhouette of a girl he's come to know by heart. "Oh, h-hello Marie."
Although he half-expected her to show up again sometime, he wasn't expecting it to be so soon. When he invited her in, he found himself floored from a tackle-hug that had her face buried into his shirt; one that almost sent him back to their childhood, but this was different. He could feel warmth soak into his shirt; 'Is she crying?!' Edd thought to himself with wide eyes, but he slowly brought his arms around her to try and comfort her. "A-Are you okay?" He asked, but he didn't get a response as she just let out what sounded like a scream of rage and sorrow against his ribs.
Before he could ask the question again, she looked up at him with two blue eyes that glistened from the tears that streaked her cheeks, smearing her eyeliner across her face. To see Marie Kanker in tears was a rarity at best, let alone seeing her cling to someone for comfort. "M-Marie..." Edd frowned and gently petted the back of her head, unsure of what to even say. He was always terrible at comforting someone, and Marie was no exception. Before he could say anything else, his lips were met with the forceful kiss of the Kanker. It wasn't soft or loving, but it was one of desperation and need. It tasted of tears and fresh tobacco, which put Edd into a daze as she clumsily stole his breath.
"Please, Double D... Just... Please," She whispered with a raspy voice before kissing him again harshly, but this time, Edd was a little more prepared and tried his best to return the kiss. It was clumsy on both of their parts, mostly because Edd hadn't kissed anyone since Sarah, so he knew he was a little out of practice.
"Marie..." Edd panted as they both took a moment to catch their breath, but what he saw was something that made him completely freeze up. Marie leaned back and slammed the door shut, but it only took her a moment to pull her tank top over her head and toss it aside. Although he had seen her like this before in the bath house, this was different; it wasn't an accident and it most certainly didn't have the innocence behind it. No, Marie's gaze was seductive and fixated on Edd with an almost predatory appearance to it.
"Shh, just... please..." Marie whispered again, leaning down and kissing him once more with an almost feral force behind it. Edd didn't even notice when his hands drifted up to the sides of the girl on top of him, and as he slowly rubbed her back he felt a fire burn in his chest.
All of the logic had fled what was once his brain and was replaced by hormones, and at that moment, he wanted nothing more than to feel Marie against him. Although he and Sarah hadn't ever done anything more than making out, he tried his best to appease Marie and worked to unhook her bra for a moment before she laughed quietly. "Having trouble?" She joked and sat up, unhooking it, but holding up the front of the bra with a sly grin.
Edd this time took the initiative and sat up; which Marie was slightly taller than him when she sat astride on his lap, but he used it to his advantage and pressed the assault against the Kanker's neck with a slow, gentle, but playful bite that elicited a moan from her.
It only lasted a moment though, before Edd felt the tears patter against the top of his head, and Marie slumped against him with whimpers that he thought impossible to ever hear from her of all people. They weren't tears like they were moments ago, but they were new, as if something broke inside of her that came with her trembling against him. "I'm so sorry, Marie..." Edd murmured, not even sure what she was going through, but wanted to let her know either way. He just slowly wrapped his arms back around her and pulled her close into a hug.
With what was moments ago, passion, it had been replaced by sincere fear and sorrow for the girl in front of him. She didn't come to him for something so physical as sex, but she came to him for comfort, and he felt so stupid for not seeing that sooner. "Shh... I promise it's okay..." He murmured softly, feeling her arms wrap around his head and pull him into her chest, not even caring how it looked as the tears just streamed down her cheeks again.
"I didn't mean to, Edd..." She mumbled and slumped down. "I didn't mean to come here and just push my troubles on you..." Her entire body was trembling from something far more than just the cold air.
"It's okay, just calm down and tell me about it..." Edd offered and gently petted the back of her head as he leaned back to pull her closer into a warm embrace. Although it was a simple gesture, it was enough to let Marie finally fall asleep after an hour of tears and apologies for something he didn't quite understand. Although it wasn't easy, he did thank how heavily Marie could sleep, because he managed to get her up to his room despite the dead weight. 'Last thing I need is mother walking in on us like that,' He joked quietly to himself and tucked her in, pulling out the cot for himself from his closet.
Penny on the other hand had finally gotten out of the shower and fully dressed into her pajamas, and it wasn't until she came back into her room that she noticed the orange pill bottle that sat on Marie's shelf. "God, she knows to take these with her," She groaned before noticing something peculiar about the bottle in specific though, and upon closer examination, she needed to call for her step-sister. "Lee, can you come in here?"
She heard Lee grumble some profanity, but she made her way into the bedroom of her sisters, "Yeah, I was getting' my beauty rest, whadda you want?"
"How long has Marie been out of these?" Penny asked and motioned towards the empty bottle.
"I think she told mom to refill them a while back," Lee said with a concerned frown appearing on her face.
"Well, then we have a problem, because I don't think she's been taking her meds," Penny grimaced and dropped the bottle onto her sister's bed.
"Shit." Lee grumbled and walked towards her mother's room with a wry frown.
Dun dun duuuunnnn. So, yeah, shit's getting a little hectic don't you know? Marie having some of her friend/enemy/gang-thing bug her again, she made the moves on Double D, and she's out of meds. That being said, okay, so I know this chapter had some er... moments in it. After all, it is rated M, but that being said, don't expect in-depth descriptions or hot-and-heavy sex scenes. This is M, not MA.
So yeah, things are starting to hit the fan. Anyway, feel free to like, dislike, comment, critique, scenario, or favorite this story; I do enjoy some constructive criticism, so feel free to give it.