Chapter fourteen: It all goes down

"Move!"

"No."

"I said move!"

"Nope."

"Damn it Libby!" Cindy shoved the girl, gently of course, and began to pace the room.

"Cindy, this is for your own good," Libby tried to reason with her friend. "You need to confront this problem, now."

"What problem?" Cindy groaned. "I don't have a problem, well I didn't before this happened."

Libby put her hands on her hips and gave her a disbelieving look. "Miss Cindy," Vox spoke up. "If you would just listen to what Master has to say-"

"I don't wanna hear what Neutron has to say," she turned to glare at him. "I'm too tired to hear anymore of his bullshit."

"Miss Cindy!" Vox stomped her foot down. "This is not the time for being stupidly stubborn. Talk to him."

Cindy's glare softened slightly as she found herself biting her lip again. "Why should I?"

"Because you need to hear it," Libby informed her. "Jimmy's confessed to you...two?"

"Three."

"Three times," Libby folded her arms. "Now I'm certain that I didn't imagine this, but isn't that what you've wanted for the last seven years? He's all yours, he wants you now, and Lord knows you want him."

"I don't want him the same way he wants me," Cindy clarified. "He's asking for way too much, I just wanted something simple and easy and maybe even something that could happen on a regular occasion."

"What are you talking about?" Libby arched an eyebrow and turned to Jimmy. "Is she talking about..." Jimmy gave her a conformation nod. "Cindy! Is that all you really want from him?"

"Pretty much," Cindy shrugged. "I mean, isn't that what you and Sheen basically have?"

"I love Sheen, you know that."

"Pssh, yeah right." Cindy moved a strand of hair from her face. "Another common statement from someone infected by love. You know what Libs? You're just weak, you're so weak that you have to latch onto someone Sheen just so you can feel good about yourself, same goes for Britney, Betty, and any other person who thinks their in 'love'."

"Miss Cindy..."

"And you, Doll," Cindy pointed toward Vox. "You're nothing but a computer that has a fake body, what the hell do you even know about human emotions? All you're doing is trying to stick by Neutron because you're too weak to do anything on your own. You're gonna keep clinging onto Neutron like a four-year-old for the rest of whatever life you have, if you can even call it that."

"Enough!" Finally, Jimmy's voice was heard in the conversation. "Don't you see they're only trying to help you?!"

"Oh, so now the man of the hour finally wants to speak," Cindy clapped her hands. "Go on, Neutron. I'd really love to hear your input in our little chat."

"Cindy I am sick and tired of you doing this," Jimmy growled. "Every time someone brings up your feelings, you have to lash out at them like their your enemy or something."

He took a few steps forward until he was no less than a yard away from her. "Tell me why." he demanded. "Why won't you admit it? What in Einstien's name is keeping you from telling me the truth?"

"I have been telling the truth," Cindy spat. "I don't know where you're delusions are coming from, but I don't feel that way about you."

"I don't accept that answer."

"Then that's your problem," she shrugged. "You wanna be some creepy stalker that can't take no for an answer, be my guest."

"I'm being serious right now," Jimmy pinched the skin between his eyes. "Stop running away from me."

Cindy arched an eyebrow in confusion. "Bah! Me? Run from you?" She let out a harsh laugh. "Don't be ridiculous, why would I run from a weak little geek boy that can't even lift half his own weight?"

"That's what I want to know." Jimmy took another step forward and looked her in the eye. "Tell me the truth Cindy, please."

"I hate you."

"The truth."

"I despise you."

"The truth!"

"I loathe you!"

"Damn it!" Jimmy threw his hands up in the air.

"Cindy this is really stupid, you're acting like a child right now." Libby interjected. "Actually, you didn't even act this way when you were a kid, at least you were a lot more honest back then. You even admitted to liking him."

"I did not!"

"Well maybe not directly, but the little things pretty much pointed to it," Libby told her. "Remember how you used to swoon every time he touched you? Or the way you'd giggle when he complemented you. And you know the great thing about it? You accepted it and enjoyed it, and all you'd ever tell me was how you couldn't wait until he said that he loved you. Now here we are, him having said those words three times already, and you won't accept them for God knows what reason."

Cindy glared at Libby for all the information that she'd just revealed. Christ, she's absolutely right. Cindy thought. Just what am I doing? It's like my brain and heart have been cut off and my defensive instincts are taking over.

"That was a long time ago," she said through her teeth. "I was a different person back then. Those feelings are no more."

"Lies," now Vox was speaking. "Those feelings you have are still there within you Miss Cindy. Do you not remember the conversation we had before our physical confrontation?"

"Don't you dare..."

"I must, for Master's sake," Vox told her. "You told me how you really felt. How Master changed your life when he moved across the street from you, how you came to hate and love him at the same time."

"Shut up!" Cindy hollered. "Don't say another word or I'll rip out your tongue!"

"Try it," Vox glared at her. "It is just as I said before, you are afraid to get hurt, so you'll respond by hurting everyone else first. Well not this time, Miss Cindy. That defensive mechanism of yours won't work."

Jimmy, who looked genuinely surprised at all this new information revealed to him, turned to face Cindy. "Is this true?" he asked taking a step forward. "Are all those things really true?"

"I...I um..." Cindy started to back away from the advancing boy, her eyes began darting around the room to find an escape of some sorts.

"Cindy look at me," Jimmy pleaded. His hand then reached out and took one of hers, causing her eyes to finally lock onto his. "Tell me the truth, how do you really feel about me?"

Cindy opened her mouth for another sarcastic or cruel response, however nothing came out and she was left standing there with her mouth hanging open. Wait a second, Cindy's eyes turned to the side of her where she saw the window. We're in the Student Council room, that's only on the second floor. Cindy quickly bent down and began to take off her heels.

"Ugh, Cindy what are you doing now?"

She didn't say anything and just got both of her heels off, this weird behavior caused Libby to stare down at the blonde, quickly catching where her eyes were looking toward.

"Jimmy! Grab her, she's trying to make a run for it!"

"Wha?" The genius wasn't quick enough as Cindy had tossed both of her heels with all her might at the window, shattering the glass. Then, in a series of acrobatic movements, Cindy managed to maneuver past the Jimmy and out of the window, landing right on her feet on the ground and sprinting off in the distance.

"Damn it!" Libby growled. "She's getting away."

"Not on my watch," Jimmy said taking off out of the room followed by Libby and Vox. The three of them stopped the moment they got to the parking lot once they saw how hopelessly ahead Cindy was.

"Fuck, she's running barefoot," Libby breathed with her hands on her knees. "Cindy's too fast when she's running without shoes, we'll never catch her at this rate."

"No, we can still do this," Vox seemed extremely out of breath, she wiped a large amount of sweat from her forehead. "If we are somehow able to pinpoint where she would go, we might be able to...to..." She began to wobble slightly.

"Vox, are you okay?" Jimmy caught her before she fell. "You've looked disoriented the entire night."

"I am fine, I may be experiencing my first human illness. It's not important." Vox shrugged him off. "Right now we need to catch Miss Cindy, do you have a plan?"

Jimmy nodded and dug into his pocket pulling out his hypercube. "I guess it really is lucky that I took extra precautions," he looked through the cube and smirked when he found what he was looking for. "Aha! Sometimes it's better to go with the old."

He pulled a brown backpack out of the hypercube and put it on. "Cindy will most likely be at her house, I'll meet you two there." The two girls nodded as Jimmy's jetpack started up, propelling him into into the air and toward the direction Cindy had ran.

"Alright Vox, I'll go get Sheen and-" Libby stopped when she heard a loud thud, she turned to see Vox lying on the ground sweating and breathing profusely.

"Vox?!"

"I apologize for the inconvenience Miss Libby..." Vox breathed heavily giving her a sad smile. "But...I am not feeling fine at the moment..."

"Leaping leptons that girl can really run," Jimmy muttered to himself as he flew around Retroville. Apparently Cindy had not gone to her house leaving Jimmy to search the entire town for her for the past half an hour. "How in Newton's name can someone disappear so quickly?"

He flew to Retroville Park and slowly hovered himself back on the ground. Sighing he sat down on a nearby park bench and buried his large head in his hands. "Why does she have to be so difficult?" he asked himself. "And why am I even trying so hard? I mean, is she even worth all this trouble?" He allowed his head to fall back as he looked up at the dark night sky.

"Maybe I was still asleep when she told me," Jimmy sighed in disappointment. "Maybe I just imagined everything and she really doesn't like me that way, it sure as Einstein makes her current actions more feasible to me." Jimmy suddenly stood up, shoved his hands in his pockets and began glumly walking further into the park.

"If I could only have a minute with her, to show just how much I love that blonde she-devil. Urgh, if only I could find her!" He plopped down on another park bench. "But it seems impossible, she could be any...where..."

Jimmy trailed off as he noticed that he was currently sitting next to someone. A slender female with long blonde hair that went down to her mid-back and was currently wearing a beautiful white prom dress, while stuffing a large double cheeseburger in her mouth. For what seemed like for ever, the two just stared at one another shockingly, neither of them moving an inch. Then, like a frightened field mouse, Cindy bolted upright to take off once again, however this time Jimmy was quicker and literally tackled the five-time junior karate champion into the grass.

"Damn you Nerdtron!" Cindy began to kick and scream as Jimmy, using literally every ounce of his physical strength, pinned her down. "Let me go!"

"So you can take off again? No thanks, Usain Bolt."

"If you don't get off me, I'll scream 'rape'."

Jimmy gave her a low growl and bent down to whisper in her ear. "Cindy just listen to me."

"No." Her struggling seemed to become weaker.

"Please."

Cindy, knowing full well that the boy wasn't going to give up, let out a frustrated sigh. "Okay, fine! Just get off me please, you already got grass stains all over my dress." Jimmy hesitantly released his grip from her, extending a warm hand to help her up to her feet.

"Shall we sit?" Jimmy motioned back toward the bench.

"No," Cindy pointed to the ground where her barely eaten cheeseburger lay. "That was the first food I've had since yesterday morning, you owe me another burger Dweebtron."

Jimmy rolled her eyes and took her hand, much to her protesting, dragging her across the street to the McSpanky's. "Stay. Here." He ordered pointing to a table. "I'll order whatever you want, please don't run away."

"Run from a free lunch? You've gotta be joking," Cindy smirked sitting at the table. "I'll have two burgers please."

"Wha? You only had one!"

"Yeah but you said whatever I wanted, and I'm super hungry," Cindy clutched her growling stomach. "You know what? Add some fries to the mix, oh and a milkshake."

Jimmy fought back the urge to yell at his love and just ordered her obscene amount of food, and paid the obscene price. "You know," Cindy spoke as she stuffed her face. "That was a real dick move, what you did back there I mean."

"Sorry," Jimmy sighed. "I know it probably wasn't a good idea to spring a trap on you like that, I just didn't know any other way to talk to you."

"Maybe I didn't want to talk to you."

"Yeah I figured that one out." Jimmy rubbed the back of his head. "Cindy look, I-"

"Stop," Cindy slurped her milkshake. "Let's just stop it right here, you're only gonna make this worse on yourself okay?"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you know what I think of your 'feelings' for me." she informed him. "You know that I don't like you, or anyone, that way. You know that I never will "love" anyone. And you know that I only want one thing from you, if you can't accept that then that's your problem."

"So that's it? I'm supposed to just accept your claim that you don't love me."

"Exactly."

Jimmy groaned and started rubbing his temples. "Cindy, I was awake.

Cindy's eyes widened as she immediately started to choke on her food.

"Hey! Are you-"

She held her hand up to silence him and began slamming her fist against her chest, swallowing what was caught in her throat until she could breath again. "W-What are you talking about?"

"I...was awake, after the movie." Jimmy admitted. "You had my head in your lap. You were...ahem...stroking my hair and telling me things...truthful things."

"I don't know what you're-"

"There's no escaping this one," Jimmy told her firmly. "I heard you say 'it', right before you kissed me."

Cindy cursed herself, she knew she was in it now. She couldn't believe that he was awake the entire time and didn't say anything while she revealed all of those embarrassing things to him. No, that's not the point. She thought to herself. He knows. He already knows and I'm still denying it.

"Oh God," Cindy buried her red face into her hands. "God, this is just not a good day for me."

"Cindy-"

"I mean seriously!" she slammed her fists on the table and started to laugh. "This has turned comical, no matter what I do I just can't win!"

Her laughter ceased when she felt a strong hand gently grab hers. "You said you would be honest with me and yourself," Jimmy stared into her green eyes. "This is your chance to do that."

"Jimmy you just don't understand it, at all."

"What? Please tell me, what don't I understand?" Jimmy sounded frustrated now. "This is part of the problem, you won't tell me anything. You just expect me to know everything, all of your ins and outs, do's or don'ts. I know we've known each other for nearly ten years, but you keep things from me. You always have."

The blonde shook her head and bit her lip. "No I haven't," she told him. "I've nearly given you everything. Don't you see that?"

Her voice seemed to be breaking slightly as her hand tightened around his. "Ever since you moved here, everything I used to own you took. The attention, the accolades, everything. Hell, you even took me away from myself. Every single day and night for the last eight years, my mind has been on you. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was bad, but I was always thinking about you. I didn't think it was a bad thing at first, in fact I liked it. But I was changing, becoming nearly obsessed with you. Concocting schemes to get close to you, and of course you didn't notice a thing. No, all that was on your mind were your inventions or other girls." She wiped a single tear from her eye. "It hurt, and that's not supposed to happen. Not to me, not Cindy Vortex, I'm a rock, the Ice Queen, if anything I'm the one hurting others. But not when it came to you, you seemed to be one of the few people that knew how to just push the hurtful buttons."

Jimmy, though he could hardly make sense of her rant, felt his face soften. "Cindy, I-I'm sorry," he apologized. "I never meant to hurt you, ever."

"Of course you didn't, I know that," she admitted. "I'm not blaming you, it's my own overwhelming pride that's at fault. You don't know how much I want to tell you the truth. How I really feel about you."

"Then why-"

"I'm afraid."

That nearly made the boy genius fall over. Afraid? Never had he even thought that word would associate with someone like Cindy, much less her admitting to anyone, especially him. But here she was, breaking down to him for perhaps the first time in her life.

"Afraid of what? You know that I..." he hesitated for a second. "That I love you."

"I'm not afraid of that, nor am I afraid of you per say," she continued. "I'm afraid of the power you hold over me. If I tell you how I really feel, you'll have everything from me. That power is truly terrifying Jimmy. No one else could hold such a power, not even Libby or my mother. And it only takes one sentence, just one, and you can destroy me like no one has ever done before." She hung her head. "With a relationship like ours, who knows how long it will last? Two? Five? Ten years? Hell, we'd be lucky to get through a week. If I give you this power, and we don't work out...I just don't know how I can ever recover from anything like that."

Jimmy looked at her hurt face and gently reached up, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye with his thumb. "Cindy, I understand what you're saying. And I understand why you're so afraid, but you seem to be mistaken in believing that I'm the only one who holds power between us. Love is a two way street, anything I have from you, you have from me. I mean, look at me now. These past few weeks, I haven't invented a thing, I haven't done any experiments, and the town has been in perfect shape. Actually, just yesterday Ms. Fowell seemed rather disappointed when I told her I hadn't been working on anything for a while."

"What are you saying?"

Jimmy gave her a warm smile. "The point is, I've been putting off the thing I thought I loved the most, chasing after the one I know I love the most."

Cindy felt her heart soar within her as she covered her mouth. "Jimmy, are you-"

"Awwwwwww." The sound of the many people in the restaurant, who seemed to have been listening in on them the entire time, caught the two teens off guard.

"If that wasn't the sweetest thing I've ever heard."

"And from Jimmy Neutron of all people!"

"Way to go Cindy, you snagged a good one!"

"Why are you being so quiet? Confess to him already!"

The cheers and embarrassing remarks proved to be too much for the two of them, so Jimmy decided to grab Cindy, who remained frozen, and take her out of the restaurant to a more private area. "You..." Cindy's face was bright red. "You are such a moron."

"Hey, I didn't know everyone was eavesdropping," Jimmy, who was also red, shrugged. "And for the record, I'm a genius."

Cindy bit her lip and looked away from him while clutching her arm tightly. That was really sweet. Definitely the sweetest thing he's said in a long time. she thought. Stupid heart, stupid emotions. If only I really were the Ice Queen, then this wouldn't be hard at all. She was torn from her thoughts when she felt Jimmy grab her hand once more and stare into her eyes.

"I'm going to say it once more, feel free to answer how you wish," he began. "But I strongly encourage you to tell me the truth." He stroked the side of her cheek with his hand. "Just let me hear it one time. One time would be enough to get me through the rest of my life." He took in a deep breath, preparing himself and Cindy for his fifth confession to her.

"Cynthia Vortex," he spoke. "I love you."

The moment the words left his mouth, Cindy could have sworn she saw them manifest before her and dig right into her chest. The impact she felt was so swift and strong that she was nearly knocked off her feet, luckily she was a sturdy girl. She waited, one second, five seconds, twenty seconds, prolonging what she knew by now was inevitable. Finally, the an eternal minute had gone by before she locked her eyes onto his, clutched his hand tightly and took in her own deep breath.

"James Neutron," he used her formal name so she decided to return the favor. "I lo...I lov..." She breathed in once more. "I love y-"

"There he is!" The sudden outburst cut off Cindy and caused Jimmy to look away from her and turn around.

"Carl? What are you doing here? I almost-"

"It's Vox, she's not looking too well." Carl said. "It's bad Jimmy, real bad."

"She seemed a bit sick, but it might be nothing more than her first common cold."

"No! Her body...i-it's not right, I don't...ohh..."

"Carl! What's wrong with Vox?"

Carl gave his long time friend a sad and worried look. "It's ripping apart."

A/N: Ohhh so close! And to end it right there, how could I do such a thing? Another late update (I am so pathetic) but the story is nearing it's end sadly, I've come to truly love this piece I've put together. Anyway, until next time.

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