Chapter 13 ~ New Beginnings

Ding Dong, the melodious doorbell rang throughout the Vortex home. Cindy was in the kitchen preparing a diner for one as her Mom was out of town and her dad was working late. Ding Dong, it rang again, Cindy turned down the burners on the stove and headed for the door. If this is Neutron that door is slamming right back in his face before he has a chance to speak. Cindy determined as she made her way to the door. When she opened it, she was happy to see it wasn't Neutron calling, but she wasn't sure who it was. A tall, probably 6', pale skinned, clean shaven, young man was standing there, with dark brown hair combed down neat and tight and bold green eyes. He wore a striking red suit coat with black accents over a grey button up shirt, black pants and dress shoes to match. The handsome figured didn't seem much older than her, but she didn't recognize him from school.

"Cinthia dear, it's so good to see you." He greeted sweetly in a delightful British accent.

Finally, after what seemed like too long of a pause Cindy asked "I'm sorry, but do I know you?"

"I suppose I have changed a bit over the years, but you are still the lovely Cindy Vortex by all comparison." The young man reached for her hand, bowed slightly, and kissed her hand "Although might I say you have become even more of a vision."

Cindy couldn't help but blush a little then thought back to the only boy who'd ever done that, "Eustace Strych?"

"Indeed." He smiled.

"Wow, you really, grew up." She complimented, then part of her remember the boy was more or less an enemy of Jimmy's. She retracted her hand from his and asked bluntly "What'd'ya want Eustace?"

"Do I need to want something to be calling on you Cinthia?"

Why is it that when Aya says my name like that it annoys me, but when he says it with that accent it's so... charming… "Because this is the first time any of us have seen you since Mars."

"Well that'd be because my father saw it fit to send me off to boarding school in England after I nearly got Earth destroyed. Do you mind if I come in? I'd love to catch up."

"Um, sure why not." Cindy honestly couldn't think of a reason why not, and if Neutron did decide to show his face this would just piss him off. So win-win. "I was just making dinner, you want some?" Eustace followed the girl to the kitchen.

"What's on the menu?" He asked then took a seat on one of the island bar stools.

"I'm making beef and broccoli and some white rice." Cindy responded as she tended to the stove.

"Sounds delicious." He smiled.

The pair spent the meal catching up, it seemed weird, but Cindy was appreciating the much needed distraction after her upsetting conversation with Jimmy. "So, why exactly did you come by today? I mean, you said you came back to town a few months ago, you've graduated high school and are working at your father's company, so obviously you're settled. So why come by today?"

"Just happenstance my dear, I happened to be meeting a client at the Candy Bar earlier when I saw you storm out on Neutron. I know you've explained otherwise, but I was under the impression that you and he had cleared the air, and would be a pair by now? Or did that happen already and fall though?"

"No, well I mean we kinda were before he left for that program I mentioned, but 5 years away, feelings change… I guess."

"I'm not so sure they do Cinthia," Cindy looked to the boy confused "You talk about Neutron the same way you always have; even if you're mad at him, you clearly still care for the boy." Cindy blushed at the observation.

"Eustace I told you he has a girlfriend, so were just friends."

"Maybe you can fool your friends and even Jimmy with that dribble, but why are you trying to fool yourself?" he insisted then added "Just because he's unavailable at the moment doesn't mean you've stopped being in love with the boy." Cindy wasn't sure how to respond, cause part of her knew he was right. Then he pushed on to ask one more vital question, "Question is however, does he still care for you?"

Cindy simply shrugged her shoulder and looked to the clock, nearly 8pm. "Wow, Dad really is working late, normally he's home by 7 or so."

"Well I suppose I should be on my way." Eustace stood up "I've got to get to work myself in the morning, no good if the boss doesn't show up." Cindy got up to walk him out. "I really enjoyed catching up my dear."

"Me too Eustace, I mean it was kinda weird, but nice. I needed a distraction from my normal life tonight."

"Well until next time my dear," he grabbed her hand and kissed it like before "Goodnight."

"Night." She replied holding the door open and waving until he loaded into his limo.

The next day at school was a Friday and Cindy could tell Jimmy wanted to apologize but she was still mad at him, and not ready for that conversation. Refusing to talk to him the entire day unless the classwork demanded it, and even then she didn't let them stray from topic. Cindy wasn't about to ride home with Jimmy as usual so she asked Libby for a ride, and knowing full well that there was a juicy story behind their odd behavior that day Carl tagged along too. So of course Cindy proceeded to tell her friends everything that was said after they left the Candy Bar.

"I cannot believe he'd just cave like that girl."

"Well he did and I wasn't sticking around to hear whatever lame excuse he had for going along with it." Cindy grumbled from the front seat.

"I'm sure it just came out wrong, and he didn't mean it like you think." Carl suggested from the backseat.

"No, he meant it, he just didn't want to have to tell me." Cindy clarified.

"That's just messed up," Sheen commented from the back "What ever happened to bro's before hoe's? I mean she's literally a bit of a hoe for what she did with Nick."

"Sheen!" Libby scolded.

"He's ain't wrong Libby. That was her whole half of the deal," Cindy commented "that she wouldn't go trolliping around. Besides that revolting conversation wasn't even the weirdest part of my day. Guess who caught my outburst at the Candy Bar, then stopped by my house."

"Nick wanna get back together?" Libby asked as she pulled in front of Cindy's house, clearly no one was about to get out of the car with the topic at hand so Libby turned it off.

"Nope, someone we haven't seen in quite some time."

"Beautiful Gorgeous!" Libby glared at her boyfriend in the backseat, but listened to Cindy's response.

"No, but it was one of the members of the League of Villians."

"T?" Carl asked hopeful. Cindy shook her head.

"Just tell us girl!" Libby demanded.

Cindy giggled at her anxious friends and replied "Eustace Strych, and he has most definitely grown up."

Shocked faces were shared all around until Sheen chimed in "Um, Cindy, since you were all upset with Jimmy did you perhaps jump the bones of one of his arch enemies?"

"Ughhh! No Sheen, not like that." A sigh of relief swept through the car. "We just talked, it was really nice, and much needed after the shit Neutron pulled."

"Umm," Carl started cautiously "You didn't by chance reveal any information that could get Jimmy into some kind of trouble did you?"

"No, I'm not a kid anymore, I didn't accidentally tell him how to get into Jimmy's lab and he didn't ask me to do anything for him. We just talked."

"Just be careful girl, you know how smooth he can talk." Libby advised.

The rest of the weekend was quiet. Cindy enjoyed the mostly calm weekend, however she was a little anxious that Jimmy would be popping by to try and apologize. By the time Sunday evening rolled around Cindy was sitting at her desk trying to study for her chemistry test. Key word 'trying', as her brain was still wandering between her talk with Jimmy at the Candy Bar as well as the odd yet pleasing company she had later that evening. Staring at the periodic table on her desk she willed herself to focus, and just when she got in the zone there was a knock at her window. She looked up to the noise, stood up, shut her curtains, and sat back down. "Go away Neutron!" she hollered loud enough for him to hear.

"Come'on Cindy, can't we talk?" Neutron had used his hover-shoes to get up on the roof, thinking he might have better luck there than the front door.

"No, that's why I said go away."

"Are you really gonna shut me out forever? Come on Cindy..."

Cindy stood up from her desk and made her way to the window, pulling the curtain open a little, but left the window closed. "You already told me to stay away at the Candy Bar, what, now you need to pull my access from the lab? Plus if I let you in, that's more dangerous you and me alone time." She sassed throwing the curtains shut again.

"Just let me in." there was no response. Inside Cindy was sitting on the side of her desk, listening to see if he was going to leave. "Look," he started barley loud enough for Cindy to hear "I'm sorry I didn't tell you what she said right away back at the party, but I was scared of what you might say or do." Cindy hopped up and placed her ear against the window to hear the boy clearly. "And apparently with good reason seeing how you're acting. So I waited to tell you until I was put in a situation alone with you, which happened to be after a pretty great afternoon with friends, unfortunately… But I need to talk to you, I need my best friend back."

Cindy slowly pulled open the curtains. He seems to be being sincere… and besides cars passing seeing a boy looking in a window, that probably won't end well. She unlocked her window and turned to sit on her bed. As he opened the window and accepted the silent invitation, Cindy explained where she was very clearly. "First off, I'm still mad at you, but somewhere in there is my friend and you sound worried so I'm willing to hear you out. Cause if I don't right now, you're just gonna try to talk to me during a class again and get us both in trouble."

"Thanks," Jimmy acknowledged then motioned to the space next to her on the bed "That seat taken?" Cindy rolled her eyes and shrugged to the request. He sat to her left on the bed, then started his explanation "Look I thought a lot about what happened on Thursday and you were right with what you said." Cindy always seemed to perk up at that magical phrase 'you were right', more so if it's followed with 'I was wrong' Jimmy thought to himself knowing he now had her full attention "I've been a little preoccupied with Aja. And you were right to blow-up at me for what she insisted, and I was maybe too quick to agree."

"You think." She replied curtly crossing her arms.

"I was gonna stop by after you stormed out Thursday, but there was a limo at your house so I figured your folks were entertaining a client or something. Then you clearly didn't want to talk at school on Friday, and since nobody needed their normal ride home after school, I guess so you could go on and fill everyone in on what I said." She conceeded to the assumption with a nod before he continued. "So anyway Aja and I left a little early for our weekend away, and we just got back to town an hour ago… and that's why I haven't come by sooner to talk."

"Okay, makes sense." She agreed to the logic plainly, Jimmy couldn't help but realize that the emotion she normally radiated with every word was gone, then she asked just as plainly, "So what you just came by to say I was right but you gotta abide by your girlfriend if you wanna keep her."

"If I would have come by on Thursday that may have been the conversation, but after this weekend…" he trailed off.

"What about this weekend Neutron?"

"Well I know this is just gonna make you more pissed, and I honestly wasn't planning on telling you where we went, but it's relevant to why I'm here…. the thing is Aja and I had been talking about becoming intimate with each other and I wanted to make it really special, so I took her to the most romantic place I knew…"

"Just spit it out!" She practically yelled as she threw her hands up.

"I took her to the deserted island, by the equator." Cindy's face went even more blank than it already was, and she had no clue what to say, she turned away from him and stood up and walked toward her desk, placing her hand on the knob of the top drawer, remembering the pearl that was inside, wanting to chuck it at his head… but left it closed for the moment.

"So you guys did it even though you had doubts. Or hell maybe things changed, god knows you havn't been talking to me about anything anymore." Cindy could feel the anger in her voice, and her chest getting tight, she spun around to face him raising her voice. "But hey if you brought her someplace with no school distractions or that pesky blonde girl you might get some. Yeah, I know I'm 'the Blonde' when you guys are talking in your own little world." Cindy could feel her eyes start to water as she spun back around to face the desk. "You know for some reason I thought you were a guy with values."

"I am! Would you just let me explain..." he blurted, at least that was something... some kind of emotion... then after she didn't respond he took a breath and stood up from his place on the bed. "The thing is that island, it wasn't like I remembered, I mean, Aja loved it, it was still beautiful, but it felt… wrong for me to be there again."

"What's that suppose' ta mean?" Cindy asked still facing her desk trying to remain calm and hear him out.

Jimmy took a deep breath and walked up behind her. "Something was missing…" I hope she says it for me… He was about to place his hands on her shoulders and continue, but then retracted his hands when Cindy opened the drawer she had her hand on and must have pulled something out, but it was either too fast or too small for Jimmy to tell what it was.

Cindy turned around, she knew the boy wasn't sitting on the bed anymore, but didn't realize just how close he was. At no more than a foot and a half from her, she nearly jumped at the surprise, but then managed to ask, "Was it missing this?" she opened her palm revealing the pearl he had found and gave her. She kept it! That's gotta mean what I think it means… Jimmy thought to himself so hopeful.

"137," he muttered quietly not realizing how big of a smile was now plastered on his face.

"What? You okay Neutron?"

Smile still on his face he cast his gaze up from the pearl to her green eyes. "I opened 137 oysters before finding that pearl for you. You know, you started calling me Jimmy on that island, but you haven't since I've been back."

"What's your point?"

"You started calling me Jimmy when you started liking me."

"No I didn't, that just slipped out at the island and figured what the heck." Cindy pushed passed the boy to sit on the bed again, pearl still in her right hand.

"There's a palm tree on that island that says differently." He commented as he joined her.

"Oh…" What are the odds that was still read-able and he'd find it… "Did you or Aja find that?"

"Aja."

"Oh I'm sure that was fun for you to explain." She joked, finally starting to show some of her normal fire.

"Well she knew all about us before we even started dating, but you know how she can over-react."

"So that ruin you're romantic weekend."

"That was the start of a very big fight." He admitted, then continued to explain "And I realized something while we were there. That what I loved about that island, wasn't there anymore, and I wasn't going to find it with Aja."

Cindy held up the pearl as an answer. Jimmy chortled quietly, accepting the pearl. Then mustered up all his courage to admit what he had done. "The thing is, I had way more fun with you when we were stranded there than I did with my girlfriend of nearly 3 years while on vacation."

"Well you didn't have fun cause you were fighting." Cindy insisted "And since you were fighting I'm guessing you didn't do the other thing you went to the island for." She implied hoping for a 'yes'.

"We broke up." Cindy's eyes got huge, What? How? Why? You go away for a romantic weekend and come back broken up? Were all questions she wanted to ask but no words came out. "We discussed our future, and what we want to do with our lives, and nothing seemed to match. Our relationship started in such a structured atmosphere, we were together everyday cause we had to be, and when we tried to replicate that here it causes such a rift with you guys, it's not fair for anybody to take up 100% of my time. Whatever spark we might have had never grew in all the time we were together, so we concluded it probably wasn't there…" Did he just say there was no spark… "Plus she was certain I was still hung up on you, and I really couldn't convince her otherwise." Jimmy nervously spun the pearl in his fingers "You know, most of this past summer is a blur but I can remember a few days so clearly."

"The back to school party?" She asked, a little nervous as to what he was trying to say.

"No… well yeah that too, but I was gonna say that day on the lake. You had just broken up with Nick that day and Aja wasn't here yet and we were fending our friends off from trying to get us together, then you just laid it all out on the table, how our recent exchange in the lab left you confused. Everything you said made complete sense. I loved the logic behind but hated what you were saying." Jimmy swallowed a lump in his throat "but when you came out and admitted you wanted to kiss me that day in the lab, my brain shut down."

"Is that even possible?" she grinned at the boy, what is he getting at?

"With you it is." He said sweetly, "And it was never like that with Aja."

"What do ya mean?"

"I didn't say it then because of the point you were trying to make, but that day in the lab... I wanted to kiss you too." He replied unashamedly. The girl blushed at the comment and bit her lower lip, not really sure what to say next. She looks so cute when she does that… Damnit just go for it… Jimmy leaned in toward her, placed his hand on the back of her neck and closed the space between their lips.

Cindy thought to protest, He just broke up with his girlfriend, he's just feeling lonely, but that idea was soon push away by how right the kiss felt, but I mean he practically broke up with her for me, so is this really so wrong?, she wasn't about to be the one to end it. Eventually Jimmy pulled away, releasing her neck. "I'm sorry this took me so long to see. I wanted to kiss you all summer, but you were with Nick, then I made that arrangement with Aja, and…"

"It's alright Jimmy." His smile became huge at the sound of her using his first name again. "Besides I'm the one that helps you with emotional crap, however if you hadn't been avoiding me for the past month maybe I could have helped sooner." She joked.

He leaned in and gave her another soft kiss, pulled away to ask "Are you okay with this?" she shot him a clear 'you've got to be kidding me?' look before he clarified "I mean, you've had enough time to get over Nick?"

"Yeah," she acknowledged then felt compelled to ask "You sure you're over Aja? I mean you really want to be jumping into this now? So fast after a break-up?"

"She knows were done, I know were done, and we both know you're a big reason why." He lifted his free hand to stroke her cheek. "I don't want to squander any more time, I've already wasted enough. I love you Cindy Vortex, I always have." This time Cindy practical lunged forward to kiss the teenage boy genius, toppling him backwards on her bed, he felt his hair graze the headboard but luckily his head had missed, and they could savor the kiss.