Sponge: Welcome back! Before we get into the story, I am pleased to announce that I am now on TWITTER! You can follow me there at Sponge_Addict if you want to know what I'm thinking while I write. I'm hard at work on the threequel, so you can rest assured I'll be procrastinating on Twitter a lot. Anyway, here's chapter 13! Warnings: some angst, mentions of death and abandonment, a bit of kissing, and language, as always. Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Scooby-Doo characters. They belong to Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, and Hanna Barbera. All lyrics to the song "How Could I Ever Forget" belong to Brian Yorkey. All dialogue in bold comes from the Next to Normal script.
Chapter 13: How Could I Ever Forget?
Over the weekend, Shaggy bit the bullet and bought condoms. He had been on the fence about it, as he didn't want to seem presumptuous, but his and Velma's most recent practice room venture made up his mind. His motto had always been "better safe than sorry," and it applied to all aspects of his life, from mystery-solving to his intimacies with Velma. They'd been able to stop themselves on Friday, but would they have that same sense of self-control in the future? Shaggy didn't want to be caught unprepared when they found out – whenever that would be. So he asked to borrow his father's car and drove to Lyonsville under the guise of buying a new sketchpad for art class. He did buy a sketchpad, but in reality, he wanted to go to a town where he didn't know anyone to purchase the condoms. He was terrified of running into someone he knew, less so for the act of buying condoms, and more for the idea that someone from Coolsville might find out about him and Velma. It was bad enough that Tony knew. Shaggy dreaded Monday more than he normally did.
To his credit, Tony was totally normal in history class on Monday morning. He greeted Shaggy as he usually did and he didn't bring up Velma at all.
In the practice room later though, Shaggy and Velma were much more careful than they had been on Friday. All their clothes stayed on, though they struggled to keep their passion in check. Regardless, they sighed discontentedly when Tony knocked on the door after five minutes.
"Are ya decent in there?" he whispered. Velma opened the door and fixed him with an unamused stare. Tony shrugged. "Leesa says it's time to start. Mr. Atwood's still not here, so I'm not sure what we're gonna do today." He rolled his eyes and gave them his signature lopsided smile. "If it's more cue-to-cue though, I'm gonna scream."
Shaggy and Velma nodded in agreement, and three of them headed for the auditorium together, where they found Leesa, Scooby, and the rest of the cast standing onstage.
"Come on up," Leesa called to them as they walked towards the stage.
"Like, where's Mr. Atwood?" asked Shaggy when he, Velma, and Tony had reached the rest of the group.
"He's still got that stomach bug," Leesa replied. "He told me he should be feeling better tomorrow, but today he wants us to keep on with cue-to-cue."
Tony looked at Shaggy and Velma. He opened his mouth wide and put his hands to each side of his face, like in the famous painting by Edvard Munch. Shaggy couldn't help but chuckle.
Leesa didn't notice, or if she did, she didn't say anything about it. "Remember, everyone needs to stay nearby during cue-to-cue. We'll pick up where we ended things on Friday, at the reprise of 'You Don't Know,' and then we'll go on into light cues for 'How Could I Ever Forget.'"
Shaggy's stomach clenched, all humor gone. He wasn't in that song, and up till now he'd always been sure to be out of the room when Daphne and Fred worked on it. No chance of that now, since cue-to-cue was happening. He shot a worried glance at Scooby, who looked back understandingly.
No one else noticed Shaggy's discomfort. Leesa, Travis, and Addie went to the booth. Everyone else headed for the house except for Daphne and Tony, who were in "You Don't Know (Reprise)." They set the scene for Dr. Madden's office – Daphne in one chair, Tony in another.
"Action," Leesa called. The pit orchestra began the music.
Daphne/Diana fixed Tony/Dr. Madden with an irritated gaze before she sang.
"It's been four weeks since the treatment
And my mind is still a mess
And what's left to be remembered,
Well, it's anybody's guess.
Cause my past is like the weather –
It will come and it will go.
I don't know
Even know
What it is that I don't know."
Shaggy sat between Velma and Fred, trying to zone out so he'd be ready for the next song.
Daphne/Diana continued. "I'm some Christopher Columbus
Sailing out into my mind…
With no map of where I'm going,
Or of what I've left behind.
I don't know
The things I don't know.
I'm sure something's missing –
I wish it would show.
I don't know…
You say take it slow,
And I do, although
How I do
I don't know."
Tony/Dr. Madden was sat forward, his elbows on his knees as he sang back.
"Are you talking with your husband?"
Daphne/Diana: "Well, he hasn't much to say."
Tony/Dr. Madden: "Is it helping you remember?"
Daphne/Diana shrugged. "I remember that's his way."
Tony/Dr. Madden pressed on. "Does the puzzle come together,
Piece by piece and row by row?"
Daphne/Diana stood and threw her arms up in frustration. "I don't know
I don't know
Where the fucking pieces go.
Cause I don't know how this started,
So I won't know when it's done."
Tony/Dr. Madden got up to calm her. "Have you talked of your depression,
Your delusions, and your son?"
The music stopped as this landed.
Daphne/Diana stared at Tony/Dr. Madden in disbelief. "My what?" she whispered.
Tony/Dr. Madden furrowed his brow in confusion. "Your husband didn't—" but he cut himself off before he said anything more. He took a breath and began again. "I think you two…should talk more."
Daphne/Diana clenched her jaw. "We should talk more? That's it? I don't even remember marrying this man, it's not like I'm some sexually frustrated soccer mom."
Almost to himself, Tony/Dr. Madden said, "Interestingly, the underlying challenges are similar." Then, back to her. "I'll see you next week."
"But…" Daphne/Diana began.
Tony/Dr. Madden held up a hand to stop her. "Next week." He exited, leaving Daphne/Diana alone.
While Travis fiddled with the lights, the stagehands reset the scene so Daphne/Diana was back in the Goodman house. Holden/Gabe entered with the music box from "I Dreamed a Dance." The script called for him to hand it to Diana, who takes it without seeing him, and then seems surprised to find it in her hands. The entire exchange was rougher than it should have been – Holden practically threw the music box at Daphne, who just barely caught it. They glared at each other murderously.
"Focus, actors," Leesa's amplified voice came over the sound system as Scooby sighed in defeat. Fred left his seat to get ready for his entrance, grimacing at Shaggy and Velma as he went. Tony sat down in his place.
Trying to get back into character, Daphne/Diana opened the music box and stared at it until Fred entered.
"What are you doing?" he cried, rushing forward.
Daphne/Diana closed the box and glanced at him. Holden/Gabe stomped offstage.
"What is this?" she asked him, trying to ignore Holden's theatrics.
"Where'd you get that?" Fred/Dan asked in response. "It's nothing, an old music box."
He reached for it, but Daphne/Diana pulled it away.
"We played it for the baby," she murmured, remembering. "Sometimes it helped him sleep."
Fred/Dan shook his head. "Diana –"
"Him." Daphne/Diana looked at him, realization spreading across her face. "We did have a boy."
Fred/Dan shook his head again. "Diana. You – you shouldn't."
Shaggy heard Tony whisper, "He's getting better at his lines."
Daphne/Diana began to sing. "We were still living downtown…"
Fred/Dan: "It's only going to make it worse."
"It's not a good idea," Leesa corrected from the booth.
Tony frowned. "I guess I spoke too soon," he remarked.
Daphne/Diana continued singing, though she was no longer in the moment. "My black coat thrown over my blue nightgown.
You drove too fast –
The lights of the city flew past."
Fred/Dan made a pained expression. "Please," he whispered. "Don't."
Daphne/Diana: "How could I ever forget?
Outside the morning was cool and wet
He had such chills…
But still – he lay there so still.
Just eighteen months old…
So cold…
We ran him inside,
Lost – worrying, wondering.
That hospital room –
That gloom –"
Shaggy was suddenly aware of a soft weight on his knee. He looked down to see that Scooby Doo had come up from the front of the house to sit with him, and put his head on his knee. Shaggy patted the dog and tried to make his mind go elsewhere, so he wouldn't have to pay attention to the song. It helped that Daphne and Fred both seemed distracted onstage as well.
Daphne/Diana: "How could I ever forget?"
Fred/Dan: "How could I ever forget?"
Daphne/Diana: "Screaming at doctors,"
Fred/Dan: "God I was so upset."
Daphne/Diana: "Alarmed, upset.
They said to wait,
They never said we were too late."
Fred/Dan: "Diana – don't.
You think this will help,
But it won't."
Daphne/Diana: "But I was a child…"
Fred/Dan: "So many years ago…"
Daphne/Diana: "Raising a child."
Fred/Dan: "So much we could not know…"
Daphne/Diana: "Those weeks full of joy…
Then – a moment of dread.
Someone simply said
Your child…is…"
Then Fred and Daphne sang together. "How could I ever forget?
This was the moment my life was set.
That day that I lost you –
It's clear as the day we met.
How could I ever forget?"
Shaggy exhaled deeply as the song came to an end. Velma noticed, and looked at him inquisitively. She and Scooby made eye contact, and the dog very subtly shook his head. Onstage, oblivious to the people in the house, Fred and Daphne grimaced at each other, knowing the song hadn't gone as well as it could have.
"Cut," Leesa called. "Everyone up on stage." She seemed annoyed, so everyone followed her apprehensively. Leesa dismissed the techies and the orchestra, much to the confusion of the cast. Once the rest of the cast had made it to the stage, she had them all sit in a circle on the floor. Holden sat beside her, glaring daggers at Mystery Inc. Tony tactfully dropped down on Holden's other side so no one in the gang had to sit next to him. Velma sat next to Tony, with Shaggy on her other side, then Scooby, then Fred, then Daphne. Leesa looked at everyone seriously.
"All right," she told them. "I know that tensions are high with everyone these days because weird stuff has been going on at rehearsal, but it's getting to the point where it's affecting your abilities to work together. So first things first – you all are going to apologize to each other." She indicated Holden and Mystery Inc. "I'm positive no one in the cast is involved with all the shit that's going on, and you guys need to bury the hatchet." She glared at them fiercely, daring them to defy her.
Everyone in the gang mumbled an apology to Holden, who looked away and muttered back one of his own. Leesa rolled her eyes. "Whatever. That'll do for now. But regardless, it's time we had a cast bonding session." She jerked her head over at Shaggy and Velma. "Like what they do every day before and after rehearsal. Their practice room meetings have helped them a lot, and I think we'll find the same result if we all do it as a group."
Velma caught Tony trying not to laugh and she elbowed him subtly, but hard. No one but him knew exactly what Shaggy and Velma did in the practice room, and they were determined that nobody else find out.
"So," said Leesa, who hadn't noticed any of the exchange. "It's no secret that this play is full of dark themes – attempted suicide, depression and other mental illnesses, the death of a child...and I think we're all having trouble here, with the song we just did in particular, because we haven't been completely vulnerable with each other." She looked at each member of the cast seriously. "How can we be vulnerable on stage in front of an audience when we can't even do that with each other?" She didn't wait for a response. "Dig down deep into yourselves, and try to think of an example from your own life that you could bring to the portrayals of your characters. Obviously none of us are parents, so we can't fully relate to Diana and Dan, but is there something else that you could use to capture that heartache?" She looked at Velma. "Natalie strives for perfection. What's something you strive for?" She looked to Holden. "Gabe wants to be noticed. What do you want?"
The cast was silent, no one wanting to be the first to speak up.
Leesa sighed. "Okay then, I'll get the ball rolling. Not a lot of people know this, but my aunt committed suicide when I was in middle school." She looked down. "We were really close. I was devastated when she died. If I was an actor in this play, that's the feeling I would take with me into my performance." She looked back at the cast. "Anyone else?"
More silence. Then, Tony cleared his throat.
"Well, it's not a death, but it coulda been. My brother was an alcoholic."
Shaggy turned his head to stare at him. He'd met Tony's brother once, very briefly, at a party last winter. It was the same party where Fred and Daphne had hooked up for the first time. Like, what was that dude's name? Shaggy racked his brain trying to think of it.
Velma got there first. "Joey?" she asked, looking at Tony with concern. "I remember him. He picked you up from Brandon Michaels' party last year."
Tony nodded. "Yeah. I had no idea he was struggling with addiction then. That's why he was so eager to get out of there."
Shaggy remembered how uncomfortable and annoyed Joey had looked at that party, but he'd figured it was because Joey, the older, college-age brother, didn't want to be at a high school party to give Tony a ride home.
"He'd taken a year off school," Tony continued, "because his drinking had gotten so bad, and my parents sent him to rehab. I didn't know anything about it until that night, when he came to pick me up. He didn't think there'd be alcohol at that party, which is why he'd volunteered to come get me. He told me everything on the car ride home. He's been sober for almost a year now, but..." Tony shook his head. "I dunno. The way he told it, it had the potential to get real bad real quick."
"I'm sorry, Tony," Leesa said, sympathy shining through her eyes. "That must have been really hard on your family."
Holden clapped Tony on the shoulder in comfort. Without looking at the group, he said,
"My dad disowned me when I came out."
Shaggy blinked at him, stricken.
Everyone else gawked at Holden, just as shocked as Shaggy was. "He did what?" Fred murmured, aghast.
Holden nodded, still not making eye contact with anyone. "He and my mom broke up when I was really little, but he was still my dad. I always had a relationship with him. He lives in Lyonsville, so I'd see him at least once a week growing up. I spent a lot of holidays with him too, and breaks from school. We were really close. And then I told him I was gay..." Holden stopped talking for a moment, seemingly trying to get control of his emotions. He said the next part in a rush. "...It was bad. There was a lot of shouting and crying and throwing things, and at the end of it all, he said I wasn't his son. And I haven't seen him since." Unshed tears glimmered in his eyes, but he blinked them away before they could fall. "It only happened two years ago," he continued in a whisper. "But I don't talk about him anymore." He shook his head. "That shit broke my heart."
Daphne felt her own heart breaking for the pain her friend had gone through. She slid away from Fred, across the circle to where Holden was, and lay her head on his shoulder. "Holden," she murmured. "I'm so sorry. That's…that's terrible."
Tony put a comforting hand on Holden's other shoulder.
Fred remembered the day he'd accused Holden of being the Phantom, and the look that had crossed Holden's face when he talked about his father's real name. He looked at Holden across the expanse of the small circle. "I'm sorry about what I said that day," he said. "About Harrison Walsh being your dad. I didn't mean to bring him up and cause you all that pain again."
Holden shrugged. "Like I said, I don't talk about my dad anymore. There's no way you could have known."
When no one said anything for a while, Daphne took a shaky breath.
"My parents..." she began. She looked over at Velma, who nodded. She was the only one in the gang who knew about this. "Their marriage hasn't been great these days. Or years, really. They never talk to each other, and they don't do anything together. I can't remember the last time I heard them say they love each other. They don't even sleep in the same room." She shrugged. "I'm the youngest of five, you know. I have four older sisters, and they've all moved out. I'm...I'm worried about what's going to happen when I go to college. I have a feeling that as soon as I leave, the divorce papers will come out."
"Daph," Fred muttered in disbelief, scooting over to her. Their circle had become more of a clump now. "I had no idea."
"It's part of the reason they don't approve of our relationship, I think," Daphne told him. "Because my parents were high school sweethearts who got married young. They're afraid the same thing will happen to us. To me."
Shaggy and Scooby looked at each other. Now, at least, Shaggy knew why the Blakes had grimaced back at his house on the last day of summer vacation when Fred and Daphne held hands before the Ultimatum was delivered.
Fred put an arm around Daphne and kissed her on the temple. He addressed his next words to the whole group.
"You know my dad raised me on his own, right?" he said. Everyone nodded – it was common knowledge that Mayor Jones was a single father. Fred sighed. "It's because my mom left right after I was born."
"Like, she divorced your dad, you mean?" Shaggy asked, but Fred shook his head.
"No, she and my dad never even got married," Fred told him. "When she got pregnant with me, my dad wanted to marry her, but he always told me that she left to be a stock photo model. That's some bullshit." Fred shrugged, and gripped Daphne's shoulder for support. "When I was thirteen, I found a letter my mom had written to my dad after I'd been born. The basic gist of it was that she didn't want to be his wife...and she didn't want to be my mother." He sighed again and looked at the floor. "She didn't want either one of us."
Daphne's heart twisted in her chest, as though someone was trying to wring it out. "Freddie," she whispered, as a few tears escaped down her cheeks. "I can't believe you never told me that." She put a hand on his arm and leaned her forehead into his shoulder.
Fred blinked back tears of his own. "It's hard to talk about," he said.
Holden nodded in understanding. "I get it, man," he said hoarsely. "It's shitty to admit to other people, let alone yourself, that your parent doesn't really want you."
Fred and Holden looked at each other as though seeing the other for the first time.
Velma glanced around at the others. Compared to all of the stories she was hearing, her childhood and family life had been a walk in the park. Indeed, the worst thing that had ever happened to her had been in ninth grade, after she and Tony had broken up and rumors started circulating that she was a lesbian. But she would feel dumb saying that now, after what everyone else had been sharing.
Through it all, Shaggy had been fighting with himself, trying to decide if this was the moment he wanted to share everything. Why this play was so hard for him. Why he didn't want to ask his parents to come see it. Scooby looked at him and immediately knew what he was wrestling with, in that way that only best friends do. They made eye contact, and Scooby nodded at Shaggy, giving him permission.
Shaggy took a deep breath. The time had come.
"When I was ten, my baby sister died," he said to the floor.
He felt each head swivel towards him.
"What?" Daphne said, her voice low with shock.
Scooby put his head on Shaggy's knee. Shaggy patted him absentmindedly as he spoke.
"Her name was Maggie," Shaggy murmured. "But I always called her Sugie. Like, for sugar. Because she was...so sweet."
No one said anything, just waited for him to continue.
"She was like, such a happy baby," he went on. "Everybody loved her. My mom especially was like, so thrilled. She'd always wanted a daughter. And I had like, all these ideas in my head that I was going to be the best older brother ever."
"How did she die?" asked Tony quietly.
Shaggy shrugged. "We like, have no idea," he whispered. "Neither did the doctors. It's a lot like what happens with Gabe in this play. In fact, that whole song, 'How Could I Ever Forget,' is like…almost exactly what happened to her. One day she just like, got really sick. My parents and I were wrecks." He lay a hand on Scooby's head. "Scooby Doo was like, my hero during that time. He was only a puppy, but he really helped me through that whole mess." He took a shaky breath. "The doctors didn't know what was wrong with her, so they ran some tests and told us they'd keep her overnight to like, observe her. We didn't even go home – we stayed in the lobby all night. And then like, in the middle of the night, she…" he broke off and swallowed. It was even harder to talk about this than he'd anticipated.
He took a deep breath before he started again. "My mother's like, a lot like Diana," he said. "She was a mess after Sugie died. She never…you know, like, tried anything. But we were worried she might. She started going to the doctor a lot, and she had a lot of like, what my dad called 'nervous episodes.' I remember once I was at Target with her, and she like, broke down in the middle of the store because we'd walked past the baby clothes." He shut his eyes at the memory. "I had to like, call my dad to come pick us up because she was making a scene."
Velma stared at him in disbelief. She couldn't believe what he was saying. Shaggy, her happy-go-lucky, fun-loving best friend, had such a dark and tragic past. And his poor parents! Knowing what she knew about rigid, structured, formal Mrs. Rogers, the scene from Target must have been terrifying for Shaggy and his dad. She couldn't even begin to imagine how Shaggy felt about any of it. Now though, she understood what Shaggy had meant when he'd told her that Scooby was more than just a dog to him. He had gotten Shaggy through the worst time of his life.
Velma stole a glance over at Daphne, whose tears were streaming freely down her face now. "Shag..." the redhead breathed, slipping away from Fred and coming over to embrace Shaggy in a comforting manner.
Shaggy returned the hug, still trying not to let his emotions get the best of him. "It's like, why we moved here," he said raggedly. "There were like, too many reminders in California, for all of us. So after six years, we packed up and left."
Velma put a hand on his arm, trying to be comforting, but not wanting to give them away. "I didn't know that's why you'd moved," she said in a whisper. Fred came over too and put one hand on Daphne's back and the other on Shaggy's shoulder.
Shaggy felt his friends around him and indeed, took comfort in the gesture. It had been hard to get out, but now that it was done, he realized how good it felt to say all this out loud. To finally tell his friends everything about it.
Tony, who had been crying through this whole story, clapped a hand on Shaggy's back. "I'm sorry about your sister, man," he said thickly.
Holden, too, moved towards Shaggy and enveloped him in his arms, wiping his eyes as he went.
Leesa, her face streaked with tears, was the final one to embrace the group, and they all huddled together in a silent cluster, with Shaggy and Scooby at the center.
x.X.x
By the time all the crying had stopped, it was just about time for rehearsal to end. Fred, Daphne, and Scooby went to get the Mystery Machine, while Tony hung out near the door to the parking lot, ready to get Shaggy and Velma in the practice room when the rest of the gang arrived.
In the practice room, Shaggy and Velma simply stood next to each other, leaning against the wall, saying nothing for a while.
"Shaggy..." Velma finally said when the silence became too great. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea..."
He shook his head. "There's like, no way you could have known, Velm," he said, shifting slightly to face her. "I didn't talk about it. I didn't want to talk about it."
She turned to look at him. "Did you want to talk about it today?"
Shaggy shrugged. "It like, felt good to get it off my chest," he conceded. "It's been hard to do this play in some ways."
Velma nodded. "I'm sure." Suddenly, a memory hit her. "The day of the interest meeting...when Daphne was telling us the plot for this show...you had gone quiet and I asked you if you were all right, and you said you were just thinking about the audition..." She blinked up at him. "Jinkies. You were thinking about your sister."
Shaggy nodded. "Yeah. Like, and my parents." He sighed and leaned against the wall again. "I'm like, not sure if I can ask them to come see this play, Velma," he admitted. "I'm afraid of like, what it's going to do to my mom."
Velma took his hand. "Do you talk about your sister much at home?"
Shaggy shook his head. "No. Like, never."
Velma sighed and squeezed his hand, moving to stand in front of him. "That can't be easy for you," she murmured.
Shaggy shook his head again. "No, it's like, really not. And today, I realized that I really need to talk about her. It's like, Diana needing to remember Gabe, but Dan not responding. It like, really messed me up as a kid, that we never talked about it."
"It would mess anybody up," Velma assured him, running her thumb across his knuckles.
"I was like, really angry after it happened," he told her. "And I like, folded in on myself, I guess. I slacked off, didn't do my homework, talked back to teachers when they tried to involve me in class. I like, got in a lot of fights at school for no reason. And then I met this guy Brannen Schultz in middle school, and he was like, always kind of bad news. But for some reason I gravitated towards him. When we got to high school, he started smoking weed and I always like, kinda resisted but then...when I found out that we were moving away, I figured like, 'what the hell, I'm already on this delinquent path with nothing more to lose,' and...I started too."
Shaggy had never actually said it out loud, that his sister's death had been the catalyst for his mild addiction all these years later. But it was true, and it was such a relief to admit it to someone else.
Velma said nothing. Just stood in front of him, watching him, and listening.
"I like, should have been in therapy after she died," he continued. Now he was on a roll. "Especially cuz I didn't have anyone to talk to except Scoob. And like Scooby Doo is great, but he is a dog. I needed to talk to like, humans. I needed to ask the big questions, like why did this happen to my sister, and will my family ever come back from this, and...am I still a brother, if my only sibling is dead?"
Velma took in a shaky breath. She'd never seen Shaggy this vulnerable before.
Shaggy looked down at her cheerlessly. "I've like, never told anyone any of this," he confessed to her.
Velma let go of his hand and wrapped her arms around Shaggy's torso in the most comforting manner she could. "You can tell me anything, Shaggy," she whispered. "I hope that you're able to talk to your parents about this one day but until then, you can talk to me whenever you want, about whatever you want. I'll always be here for you."
Shaggy shut his eyes and embraced her as he felt his heart swell with adoration. "Like, you don't know what that means to me, Velma," he murmured in her ear.
Velma turned her head to the side to plant a soft, reassuring kiss on Shaggy's cheek. His face was turned towards her as well, and his lips landed on her jawbone in response. When their mouths met, it was in a warm, tender kiss that was all at once gentle and desirous. For the first time since they had begun their excursions to the practice room, there was more to their physical intimacy than just raw, animal passion. Something was different about this. There was a compassionate undertone to this kiss. All Velma wanted now was to be there for Shaggy, for him to know that she would comfort him when he needed it. She felt as though her heart had grown too large for her ribcage as they kissed tenderly.
All too soon, Tony knocked on the door. "You guys ready?" he called. "Your friends are here."
Shaggy reluctantly broke the kiss and sighed. "Like yeah, man," he called back, without letting go of Velma or looking away from her. "Tell them we'll be right there." But instead of going for the door, as he usually did, Shaggy kept Velma in his arms and kissed her again, deepening it with all the devotion and affection he had for her. Velma returned the kiss, and her knees went weak. The kiss went on and on, lingering until the feeling of it had spread from the pits of their stomachs to the bottoms of their toes, all the way back up to the tops of their heads, making them both feel dizzy. When it was over, Shaggy still didn't go for the door – rather, he closed his eyes, pulled Velma closer to him, and rested his forehead against hers.
"Thank you," he sighed.
"Anytime," she breathed back.
He was reluctant to let her go, but when he did, he first kissed her gently on the lips once more. Only then did he go for the door, and they walked out into the hallway together.
As she followed him out to the Mystery Machine, where Fred, Daphne, and Scooby waited, Velma realized why this afternoon's practice room meeting had been so different.
They had shared their feelings today, which had brought them even closer. Just as Leesa had said it would. But now, because of that, their relationship had changed. This was more than just a physical attraction, or even a crush.
Velma was falling in love with Shaggy.
Oh, fuck.
Sponge: Can you believe there are only four chapters left till the end? Hope you enjoyed this installment. Thank you for reading. Review if you please!
