Chapter 2 - Finn (Originally Published: 14 August 2015)

Finn sat in class eyeing the attractive redhead next to him. She was talking to someone, about what - Finn didn't know. The conversation sounded distant to him, as if he were observing it from another room. When she laughed, his stomach fluttered uncontrollably. She shook her hair out of her face and caught him looking at her with those brilliant sapphire eyes. He was so embarrassed, he wanted to look away, but his body wouldn't let him. His limbs felt like cement. Why can't I move?

"Hey Finn," she said.

"You know my name?"

"Of course I do, silly." She took a plump bottom lip between her teeth, biting it lightly - an innocent action that made his lower abdomen grow hot.

"Could you help me with this?" She held out a coke bottle that seemingly materialized out of nowhere.

"I want to, but I can't move my arms." Finn actually wasn't sure anymore if he ever had arms. His head was fuzzy and he couldn't think straight.

"That's okay. Just hold it." She sat it between his legs and twisted the top. After struggling with it for a time, the cap came off and the coke fizzed up. Sticky caramel liquid spilled out over his legs. He was embarrassed about it, but he couldn't say why. He felt his face get red.

"It's okay, Finn. Just wake up."

"What?"

"Finn. Wake. Up."

The comfort of his covers were ripped from him. Before he could protest the sudden loss of warmth, a pillow hit him square in the face.

"Get ready for school, man. And go clean yourself up." The sharp tone in Jake's voice warned him not to argue.

Finn rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he sat up. He vaguely remembered watching a film before he fell asleep and realized he'd probably forgotten to set an alarm.

After a cold shower, partially because Jake used up all the hot water and partially because of the weird dream he had, he got dressed into a light blue t-shirt and grey skinny jeans. He grabbed his backpack and slipped on his shoes before going downstairs to find Jake waiting for him, car keys in hand.

There were no streetlamps in the countryside and the stars had already bid their early morning farewell, leaving them to traverse the walk from the back porch to the car in total twilight. The walk was ingrained into their muscle memory - step around mum's flowerbed, walk to the right to avoid running into the shed, duck down to avoid the low hanging tree branch that shielded the upstairs from a direct path with sunlight. Of course, occasionally they would fall victim to hazard. One time Finn had skinned his hands and knees from tripping on a basketball someone, probably Finn himself, had forgotten to put away.

With the windows rolled down, the morning air hit their faces in sharp blasts. If nothing else, it certainly woke them up.

"I need to fill the tank," Jake said, pulling the car into the lot of a small shack-like service station on the corner of their street.

Finn hadn't gotten the chance to grab a bite to eat in the rush to get ready, and he was pretty hungry. "I'll be right back, Jake."

Using the dim light provided by the service station, Finn pulled his wallet out to count how much money he had to spend. Suddenly, he collided head on with something… soft. He looked up to see a girl he vaguely recognized from one of his classes.

"Watch where you're going, arsehole." The girl he'd run into pushed him abruptly away from her.

Finn watched, stupefied as she got into an old, faded red truck and sped off. Wow. What the hell crawled up her fanny?

The service station smelled stale and mildewy, and the only person that appeared to work there was a husky middle-aged man who always seemed to have a magazine in one hand and a cinnamon bun in the other. As run-down as it was, the service station was still a treasure trove of goodies. That was the great thing about living next to the only shopfront this far outside of Whitewater. If he wanted something that the shop didn't have, he'd just tell them to order it and within a week the station would be carrying whatever was ordered. Of course, Finn and Jake took advantage of that to gain access to a wide variety of junk food.

He grabbed a handful of his favourite chocolate bars, a bag of bonbons, and an assortment of sour zotz for himself. After piling everything on the counter to free his hands, he went back to grab Jake one of the wrapped sandwiches that they kept on hand in the back of the store.

"Hey Finn." The cashier greeted him without ever taking his eyes off the magazine he was reading. No one had ever known his name, they just called him Bunyan in jest of his choice of food. He didn't seem to mind it though.

"Hey, man. How's it going?"

Bunyan wiped his hands on his shirt, leaving a trail of sticky glaze across his chest. "Good. It's starting to get cold outside."

"Yeah, it is… Hey, do you know that girl that was just in here?"

He stopped scanning Finn's items for a second. "Uh, yeah. She just moved here. I think her name is Marceline. Why?"

"Just wondering." Finn paid for everything and ran back out to the car. He tossed his brother the sandwich through the open passenger seat window. Jake thanked him and peeled back the layers of plastic wrap surrounding it.

"I think I saw Bonnie's friend."

"Who? Marceline? I didn't realize she lived out here," Jake said through a mouthful of ham and cheese sandwich.

The younger Mertens brother shrugged his shoulders, looking at the time on his watch. "Hurry up and finish your sandwich, we're going to be late for school."

It was a thirty minute drive to their school in Whitewater. By the time they reached the bridge separating the town from the countryside the sun had just crested over the horizon. Vibrant hues of orange and pink danced against the waves in the river below them.

When they arrived at the school, the usual sparse groups of students were chatting away on the front lawn. Spotting Bonnie and Aeryn sitting together on the steps in front of the building, they headed over to join them. Finn said hello to his friends, waved at the group of girls behind them, and sat a couple of stairs below.

"I'd like you guys to meet my new friend Bea," Bonnie said. She tugged on the arm of one of the girls standing behind her and Bea came and sat down next to her.

"Oh yeah, I know Bea-Rae."

"You do?" Bonnie asked.

"Yeah, we have three classes together." Finn shook her hand anyways. They had never talked before, but if Bonnie liked her then she was cool by association.

Jake didn't sit with them. He stood as stiff as a board with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. "Why are we out here? It's freezing."

"I wanted to wait for Marceline, but we can go inside if you want," Bonnie said. She got up and dusted the dirt off her jeans.

Jake led the way inside, with Bea and Finn trailing behind the two older girls.

"What do you like to do?" Finn asked.

Bea considered the question for a moment. "Going to the cinema is really fun. Sometimes I also like to just sit in my room and listen to music.. and video games. I love video games."

"Really? That's awesome. You should come over sometime. I have a PS4."

Bea smiled. "That sounds like a lot of fun. I'm free today after school if you are. Can Bonnie come too?"

"I don't really play games," Bonnie said over her shoulder, "but I don't mind watching you guys."

They stood by the lockers talking. Finn noticed that Bonnie checked her cell phone more often than usual - a substantial change from her usual indifference to the device. The bell rang and they all went their separate ways. Aeryn and Bonnie walked together to their first period and Jake went his own way. Finn walked with Bea since they had science together. He wasn't sure what was up with Bonnie, but he hoped she was okay.

Finn toweled off and dressed into his normal clothes. He and Jake never waited for Bonnie. She usually took much longer to get out of the gym than they did. However, when they got to their usual lunch table she was already there, sitting with the girl that Finn had inadvertently barreled into that morning.

Bea was the first to notice them. "Hello Finn and Jake!"

The girl with the dark hair, Marceline, looked up. "Well, look who it is. Did you come to get up close and personal with my tits again?"

He could feel his face turning beet red. "Sorry," he said, barely above a whisper.

She looked angry, but her features softened and the corner of her lips turned up in a smirk. "I'm just messing with you. Lighten up."

Bonnie looked from Marceline to Finn, but she didn't say anything. He was glad for that.

He relaxed a bit after the conversation began again. From the girls' reminiscing, he learned that Marceline and Bonnie grew up in houses next to each other. They said they were best friends, but until yesterday Finn had never heard about the new girl. Bonnie was reserved in general, but he was sure she would have mentioned her if they were that close. He wasn't even entirely sure how his brother knew her since they hadn't met Bonnie until high school.

"Hey Marce. There you are." Everyone turned to see Guy Carson walking towards their table. "Come on, we're going down the street to eat."

Marceline said bye to Bonnie, whose mood seemed to instantaneously take a turn for the worse, and the two left together. Next to him, Jake was glaring at the two receding figures. He must really not like Guy or something.

When the bell rang for them to go to their next class Finn asked his brother to wait for him, purposely taking a long time to throw his trash away. "Are you okay, man?" He asked when they were alone. Jake hadn't stopped grinding his teeth since he saw Guy earlier.

"I'm just mad. That was really insensitive of Marceline."

"Wait, what?"

"Bonnie hasn't seen her in years and she just blows her off for a bunch of potheads. That really hurt her, man."

"I didn't realize."

Jake sighed heavily and shrugged his shoulders. "It's whatever. Bonnie'll be okay. I'll see you after school."

Bonnie was strong, Finn wasn't worried about that. It was just all so confusing to him. He sighed, wondering if he would ever truly understand other people, and went to class.

For the first time in his life, Finn was excited to be in maths class. On one hand, it meant that he only had one more class before school was over for the day. It also meant that for the next two periods, he got to sit next to Bea. Every time they'd seen each other throughout the day they continued their conversation like no time had passed. She had become a quick friend to him. She was also cute, which Finn considered a huge plus. Not the kind of cute that made his throat go dry like that Phoebe girl in his second period, but just... cute.

"I think your brother has a crush on Aeryn," Bea said randomly.

"Yeah, he's pretty bummed she didn't get to come over today." Finn didn't think he had brought that up to her. "Is it that obvious?"

Bea shrugged. "You can kind of see it in the way he looks at her, but I feel like I can just tell when two people are meant to be together."

Finn laughed. "I can't. I used to have a huge crush on Bonnie because I thought she was flirting with me. She wasn't. She's just really nice."

"That's understandable. Hey, what game are we going to play first today?"

Finn was about to say something when a voice behind them interrupted his train of thought.

"You've gotten to second base with me and you still haven't invited me over? I'm offended."

"Hey Marceline!" Bea said in that cheerful way she does.

Finn hadn't even noticed Marceline sit down. He cleared his throat, somehow always flustered when she was around. "You can come over too. We're just playing video games after school."

"Yeah, and Bonnie's coming too," Bea said. The expression on Marceline's face changed, although to what, Finn couldn't read.

Their teacher shut them up and began the lesson. Finn caught a glimpse of Marceline with her head down when he turned to ask Bea for a pencil. He couldn't blame her for going to sleep. If he had been held back a grade, he wouldn't want to pay attention either.

At the end of class he shook the older girl's arm to wake her up. Her eyes were puffy and red from sleep, he guessed. "Are you coming over tonight? I need to give you directions if you are."

"I probably shouldn't. I have other shit I need to do," Marceline said.

"Maybe another time," Finn said. He and Bea got their stuff together and headed to their next class.

Finn led the two girls into the basement, suddenly glad his parents had refused to let him keep video games in his room. Even if he had no romantic interests in them, they were girls. It would be embarrassing if they'd seen how messy his room was. Jake came down toting a tray of snacks and soda pop. It was a silver tray that their parents had bought for entertaining guests, but the piece of dinnerware had never been used until now. Jake set the tray on the coffee table in front of them before plopping down on the couch next to Bonnie.

Finn turned on the PS4 and let Bea pick from their library of games. She took a liking to one and they played for a while, Finn sitting crossed-legged next to Bea who was laying on her stomach next to him. Behind them, Jake and Bonnie were talking about boring stuff like what university they hoped to get into and what their teachers were like this year. Determined to get everyone to have fun, Finn shut off the game they'd been playing. He went into the basket they kept near the television and pulled out four N64 controllers.

"Oh man, I haven't even seen one of those since I was a kid," Bea said, taking a transparent teal coloured one from him.

He handed Jake his favourite controller - the yellow one they'd gotten with their Donkey Kong game. Its buttons were worn from years of intense gaming (but mostly from the water temple in Ocarina of Time).

Bonnie stared skeptically at the controller in Finn's outstretched hand. "I can just watch, Finn. I told you I don't play games."

He shook it, as if that would make it more appealing. "It's pink. Your favourite colour."

She shook her head, but he wasn't giving up that easily. He went for the argument he knew Bonnie couldn't resist. "What? Are you scared?"

She snatched it out of his hand. "No!" Then after turning it over in her hands a few times, "Why are there so many buttons on this thing?"

Jake leaned over to try to teach her how to use it, but her pride had already been wounded. "I'll figure it out. It can't be that hard."

Finn picked a cartridge out of their box of old games. He blew into the bottom of it and gagged when dust flew back into his mouth. He pushed the game into the system and turned it on.

"Gauntlet Legends? I don't think I know this one," Bea said. She sat up, intrigued.

They picked their characters - Finn, a blue warrior; Bea, a green Valkyrie; Jake, a yellow wizard; and Bonnie, a red archer. It didn't take long to teach them the controls, but learning to work as a team was a different story. Before long though, they all got the hang of it and the two older teens came to sit in front of the television with them. It was almost hilarious to see Bonnie get so into the game. She was the most headstrong out of all of them, and in the bursts of the group screaming at bosses in the game she was always the loudest.

They had reached the fourth level when Finn's mum came down the steps to ask if Bea and Bonnie were going to stay for dinner.

"No thank you, Mrs. Mertens. I have homework I need to do," Bonnie said. She got to her feet and stretched, groaning at how sore she was from sitting on the hard ground for so long. "Jake, are you going to give Bea a ride home or do you need me to?"

Jake shrugged. "If she wants to stay for a while, she can. I don't mind taking her later."

"We would love for you to stay," their mum said. She walked back up the stairs leaving them to decide.

Bonnie gave everyone a hug and said goodbye, leaving Bea to join them for dinner. Finn wasn't sure what kind of guest she would be. He was still learning who she was, after all. He was anxious at dinner, worried about the impression his parents would get of Bea, but it turned out he had nothing to worry about. His parents loved Bonnie because she was polite and sweet, but they also loved Bea because she was down to earth and honest. By the end of dinner, his normally strict parents were enjoying her ramblings. They even laughed at her jokes, even though not all of them were appropriate at the table. After the plates were cleared, Bea offered to help wash dishes, but their mum wouldn't hear of it. She made Finn stay and help while Jake took her home. It had been a great day, he decided.