hey all! Cimmy and I were online for hours today, writing this chapter. there's some real action in this chapter, it should be enjoyable. hit the review button when finished. this chapter is a long one, pee before you start reading. chapter 20 is already in the works.
Peace and Peaches,
Kristine and Cimmy
disclaimer: the Ducks, as well as Disney World and everything in it, belong to the Walt Disney Company. Fred and Cecilia belong to Cimmy. Lex, Jeff, Anthony, Sammie, Matt, Anna, and Chris belong to NYgoldfish54.
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Chapter 19: Visible Changes
By Cimmy and NYgoldfish54
Fulton's POV
While the rest of the team is resting by the pool, I decide to go inside and look for something to eat, since I really didn't get to finish my breakfast earlier. Even if some people have the ability to skip meals just like that, I just can't. My stomach isn't made for that.
I think about what's been going on the last couple of days, and I feel somewhat guilty for the commotion. I have a feeling that if I'd just talked to Portman earlier, he never would've taken out his frustrations on Cecilia, and she wouldn't have had so much repressed anger to take out on Fred. Fred never would've gotten drunk and beaten up by Anthony, so Lex and Anthony never would've shown interest in the feuding couple.
Talk about a bad chain reaction. This is all Portman's fault, when I think about it. If he hadn't been so afraid of what people think, we could've been fine right now.
I meet Fred in the door when I'm heading towards the kitchen. He doesn't stop to say hello. Someday I'll teach that boy some manners. Lex doesn't come running after him as usual. Instead, I hear her speak somewhere from the restaurant.
"He's just upset. Let him leave," she says. I assume she's talking to Cecilia. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
I've barely known Cecilia for a year, but I still know that when she's mad, you leave her alone. Otherwise she attacks. That's happened a dozen times out on the ice, which explains why she has so many minutes in penalty. Lex should know that too, she was there when Cecilia was punched out by an enforcer during a game. Being annoying has its downsides.
"I think you should leave," Cecilia snarls. I decide to go and break the two of them up before they begin to fight. Cecilia has put her hair back up, probably for a reason.
"I'm trying to help out!" Lex announces. "I'm your friend, I'm not trying to steal Fred away from you! Could you stop being so stubborn all the time?"
"I'm not stubborn," Cecilia howls. I walk over to them and Anthony's there too. He's giving me a confused look and shrugs. I'm used to girls fighting; Julie and Connie have their battles, especially when they're stealing clothes from each other. Thank God I'm gay.
"Yeah, you are!" Lex states. She's much more dominating then Cecilia is, and I'm pretty sure she'd crush Cee if they ever got into a real fight. Cecilia has a bad temper, but that doesn't help much, unless you need to scream your enemies away.
"No, I'm not! Stop following me around and leave me alone! For God's sake, can't you understand that I don't like you? I hate you! Go away!" Cecilia bellows and throws her fist into the wall.
"I'm not interested in Fred!" Lex shouts again. "I just think you're being small minded, and impossible to talk to. Maybe that's why he's not exactly thrilled about being with you right now."
"He doesn't want me," Cecilia mumbles and looks devastated. "He wants you. He's wanted you since he first saw you."
Lex shakes her head and opens her mouth to disagree, but doesn't get the chance. Cecilia looks up with a raged expression on her face. "This is all your fault. You bitch!" she yells and throws herself over Lex.
Even though I should be the one taking Cee's side right now, I'm convinced that she's the one that's out of line. Lex doesn't deserve being yelled at, because she hasn't been doing anything wrong. Neither has Anthony. Actually, he's probably the most innocent of them all in this drama. Cecilia is wrong to blame Lex, and she should be angry at Fred instead.
"Cut it out," I yell at her when they both fall into one of the tables. Ouch, that had got to hurt. "Be reasonable!" I guess I'm not used to breaking fights up. I just know how to start them.
The screams and crashes make the others come running too. Oh no, now they have yet another reason to rally up into two groups and be mad. This time it's going to be ugly, because I just know Lex's friends won't like that Cecilia attacked her.
"What the hell is going on here?" Charlie exclaims when he comes bursting in through the doors. "What are you doing?"
I'm just about to answer when Lex pushes Cecilia into a food cart. It's sort of like on the airplane, but this time it's pastry and cake that goes flying. And none of it sticks to Charlie; it all falls over Lex and Cecilia. They keep rolling around hitting each other, all messy from the cream.
Lex would probably make a great hockey player, based on her fighting ability. Maybe she should try out for next year. Too bad she lacks in the skating skills. Cecilia has the skating skills, but lacks of true fighting spirit. She's just too hot headed. Lex is probably going to kill her. There, problem solved!
"Get off me!" Lex yells.
"I hate you!" Cecilia screams back.
We all try to break them up, but nothing works. There are too much kicking and fist fighting, so we are all close to being assaulted by them when we go near.
"You can't fight with each other!" Jeff yells. "Lex, you won't be able to sing!"
"Oh, screw you!"
"I think I'll stay out of this," Jeff rolls his eyes.
Lex succeeds with getting back on her feet, but Cecilia quickly knocks her down again, throwing her into the counter. The hotel personnel are beginning to get annoyed, and I just know that if they don't stop fighting, we'll get thrown out.
When Lex gets a chance to punch Cecilia right in the face so she finally steps back, Jeff and Matt grab Lex to drag her away. Charlie and Portman do the same to Cecilia, but she's too upset to just give in. She shoves Charlie away, and then she hits Portman right on the nose and he lets go of her. I have a feeling she's wanted to do that for a long time.
"Get off me!" Cecilia yells and walks backward right into a table. Lex really kicked her ass, and I think they both deserved what they got. Not like I was all aware of what was going on, but they were both way out of line. Okay, mostly Cecilia, but I still have to take her side, she being a Duck and all.
"Could you calm down?" Portman whines and rubs his nose. "That hurt!" Sometimes he annoys the hell out of me.
Lex still looks angry, and Cecilia is probably going to attack once more unless we stop her. And where is the source of all this? Fred? He just left us to take care of the mess he caused.
"Can't you understand? It's her fault! All of this!" Cecilia screams with an upset voice, tears running down her cheeks. "How can you do that to me? Why don't you understand?"
We're all quiet, knowing that she's about to fall apart and calm down in just a moment. Yeah, we know that, but the band doesn't. They all begin to defend Lex.
"Hey, you were the one starting all this!" Matt says. "Don't think we'll feel bad for you, just because your boyfriend can't keep his eyes off other girls!"
"Yeah! And you have no right to attack Lex like that! You stay away from her, or we'll throw you out of this hotel!" Sammie continues, rubbing Lex's arm. "None of this is her fault!"
"Leave her alone," Charlie sighs, holding up his hand in their direction. "She's had enough."
"She's had enough? She could use some sense kicked into her," Anna shakes her head. "Look at what she did to Lex!"
"Well, Lex knows how to defend herself," Portman replies. "Look at what she did to Psycho! I mean Cee."
"You don't mess with Lex," Jeff points out, still not knowing what to do. He spent all year hanging out with Cecilia, so he knows her pretty well by now. "And you should both stop it."
I look around, and we're all gathered again. Except from the missing boyfriend, of course. The Ducks are standing in a half-circle in front of the door, and the band are still standing next to Lex, soothing her.
"Cecilia?" Charlie tries. "Are you okay?" He takes one step towards her, and she stumbles back into the wall. "Sorry."
"Why don't you understand me?" she whispers to him. "How can you... Why doesn't he..." Her voice trails off into silent mumbling, and she's still crying. I suppose it's not just because Lex punched her. It must feel awful to not have control over your feelings. I notice that she's shaking. If I only had some wise thing to say, but I don't. Hell, I can't even get my boyfriend to show me some affection!
"Look, it's gonna be alright," Charlie tells her, grabbing her hand. She looks up, stares at him for a second and then tries to pull away. "Wait...!"
Cecilia doesn't want to wait, and she begins to struggle even more. Charlie holds her back while she's kicking and screaming at him to let go. She's about to slap him again when Fred comes running from out of nowhere.
"What the hell is going on?" he asks with an upset voice. "Charlie, let her go!" Fred hurries up to them and grabs Cecilia's arms, and Charlie seems relieved that he doesn't have to deal with her anymore.
We all try to explain to him what's happened while he was gone, but since we all talk at once, nothing but murmur can be heard. Fred doesn't seem to care anyway; he's busy trying to calm down Cecilia. I don't know how he does it, but somehow he manages to keep her from scratching his eyes out.
"Okay, that's it! What are we going to do about this?" Charlie asks us all. What, is it suddenly our fault?
"About what? This has nothing to do with us!" Julie says.
For some reason, Connie is still bouncing up and down. Even though she's usually bouncing with excitement, and now it's more of an upset bouncing, it's still bouncing. Very irritating.
"There are some major tensions among us," Charlie speaks with his usual 'captain-voice'. "Why are you acting like mental cases!?"
I look at Fred, who's talking to Cecilia while holding her face with his hands to get her to look at him. Wow, I wish I had that skill. "Maybe it's because of the environment," I suggest.
"Very funny," Charlie mutters. "If you don't cut it out, we're all going to be put on the first plane back to Minnesota. You want that?"
"Technically, we're not from there, so..." Portman begins but doesn't finish his sentence. "Never mind." He continues to rub his nose instead.
"There is some weird shit going on here!" Charlie jumps with anger. He's sort of amusing when he's like this. "Tell me what's going on!"
"Nothing," we all answer. If he only knew...
"That's it. Someone better be gay, dying, or pregnant, or I'm sending you all back home!"
"Fine, I'm gay," I say with a smile.
They all look at me, until Portman coughs violently. "I'm dying!" he shouts.
Charlie gives him a doubtful look. Julie sighs. "I guess I could be the pregnant one, then," she says, making Jeff fall over.
"I hate you all," Charlie growls. "Go pack."
"I'm not really pregnant, you fool," Julie informs Jeff. "Get up from the floor."
He slowly crawls back up, while Fred's carrying Cecilia over to us. "Why are we packing?" he asks.
"Because I need to go home and find myself a new team," Charlie mutters and looks at Cecilia. "Welcome back."
Portman goes over to stand next to Charlie. "You know, I'm not really dying," he says stupidly. Duh, we know.
"Thanks for the heads-up," Charlie says sarcastically, and then he looks at me. "And I suppose you're not gay either?"
"Uh, well, actually..." I begin, but Portman panics before I get the chance to tell them the truth. He pulls Cecilia away from Fred and kisses her affectionately. Well, if he wasn't gay before, he's probably going to be gay now.
"What are you doing?" Fred howls.
Portman lets go of Cecilia and she looses her balance and bumps into the floor. Nice going, Einstein. Everyone knows he hates her; this will only make them suspicious.
"You're not gay, are you?" Averman asks. I knew it! If he'd just kissed Julie, or Connie, or anyone but Psycho, they never would've suspect anything!
"Why would I be gay?"
"Uh, well, since you hate Cecilia, why would you kiss her unless to prove yourself that you're not gay," Luis points out. That bastard already knows, so why is he piping up?
"Eh..." Portman winces and looks at me.
Fred shakes his head. "I leave for two seconds and you all tear down the sky? No one's dying, or gay, or pregnant. Are you looking for trouble?"
"Not really," Ken answers. "We just find it everywhere we go."
"Tell me about it," I mutter and glare at Portman.
"Who injured Cecilia?" Fred continues. And here we go again!
"What do you care?" Cecilia says.
"Shouldn't I care?"
"I don't know, should you?" she snaps and gives Portman a threatening look. "Don't kiss me!"
Portman never gets the chance to argue back, because Fred interrupts him. "I think you need to apologize to me," he tells his girlfriend. And we were doing fine just a minute ago...
"Like hell I will. This is all your fault. You can go and pack your bags for all I care. Just don't touch my things."
"Fine, be that way," Fred answers sourly. "Don't come crying the next time someone kicks your ass. And believe me, it's going to happen again if I know you well enough."
"Maybe you don't know me," she snorts. "Wanna bet?"
Argh, how they annoy me!
"Okay, yeah, let's bet! Or let's flip a coin about it. Here!" Fred throws her a penny and she makes a face at him.
"What do you want, heads or tails?"
"Heads."
"Oh, you want head do you? Well, I'm sure as hell not going to give you them, not for all the coins in the world!" she shouts.
"Who asked you to? Wait, are we talking coins or dollars?" he answers. This is sort of entertaining, actually.
"Why?"
"Because coins are worth less," he points out, stating the obvious. Cecilia throws back the penny at him.
"Whatever!"
"Yeah, whatever!"
They are just about to get into another nasty fight, when Portman stomps his foot in the floor. "Fine, I'm gay!" he shouts, grabs my arm and shoves me onto the couch to kiss me. Talk about the best way to end a fight. Even Cecilia shuts up.
"What?" Charlie laughs. "Are you sure? You're not dying again, are you?"
"That's so cheesy," Connie giggles.
"So, why would you kiss my girlfriend?" Fred whimpers and catches Cecilia before she has time to sneak away. "She's not gay!"
"Even if she were gay, she still wouldn't kiss Portman. That's the concept. Of being gay, I mean," Charlie explains to Fred, and Fred gives him a threatening stare. My, he's getting good at delivering those.
"This was a nice twist and all," Fred mutters. "But I still don't know what went on earlier. Why are the two of you covered in..." He puts his finger on Cecilia's nose and wipes the cream off her face. "...cream?"
"Ha! Wouldn't you like to lick that off!" Luis laughs.
"Shutting up would be perfect for you right now," Charlie suggests, holding Fred back from crushing Luis into tiny Luis pieces.
Suddenly Lex steps up to them and shakes off her own delicious cover. "This is just... perfect!" she bellows. "Why can't you ever get along!?"
No one expected her to explode like that. It's more of a Cecilia thing. "Lex..." Fred says, but this time she doesn't obey him at all.
"No! Why should I put up with you? You don't care about me! You just want to make your insane girlfriend jealous! I'm so sick and tired of this! And now, now everyone takes her side just because she's mentally instable," Lex shouts and shoves Fred in the shoulder. "Who do you want? Her or me? How's it going to be?"
Did you two fight?" Fred asks, obviously not paying any attention to what Lex is saying. "Why would you punch her?"
"She punched me!" both Lex and Cecilia bellow at the same time.
I can just imagine what Portman is going to have to do to me to break them up this time. Ha! No, it's not funny...
"Calm down!" Fred says with a voice of reason. Cecilia shuts up, but Lex doesn't.
"Unless you want the two of us to finish each other off, I suggest you make up your mind and decide who you want to be with!" Lex yells, sort of scaring us all.
"I knew you wanted him!" Cecilia cries, all worked up again. Maybe we should put them both to sleep?
"Like you don't want Anthony! You've been drooling all over him since he was nursing you after you got drunk! You're practically an alcoholic!" Lex bites back. "And if you think being punched was bad, just imagine what I'll do if you come close to me again!"
"Don't do this," Charlie whines. "Stop fighting. It's not worth it. He's not worth it."
"Hey!" Fred shouts. "I could be worth it."
"Believe me, you're not," Charlie says harshly, and I'm beginning to agree with him. What's up with all this fuss, just to be the center of Fred's attention? Is he that dreamy? I don't see it.
The girls keep pushing each other, and this time we all decide to break them apart before they start the fist throwing again. Fred pulls Cecilia in one direction, while Charlie holds Lex back. Charlie isn't strong enough, sadly. He looses his grip of Lex and she tumbles right into Fred and Cecilia, so they all crash into the floor.
"And by the way!" Lex hisses and grabs Cecilia's sweater. "You're the bitch, not me!" Cecilia must've realized that she's way undermined right now, and she holds her hands up to cover her face. That makes Lex hesitate for a second, which leaves Fred enough time to push them apart again.
"Don't touch her!" he warns Lex and grabs her arm. Lex looks like she's about to take a swing at Fred, but before she does, Jeff joins the 'conversation'.
"Let go of her," he tells Fred, and Fred does as told. Lex takes this as an opportunity to give back at Cecilia, so she throws her hand out and hits her in the face again. They both topple over once more, and we all moan. Stupid girls.
Cecilia crawls back up and doesn't try to fight back. This time she's crying, and that makes Fred soften up. "What happened?" he asks. Is he completely oblivious, or what?
"You don't really love me, do you?" she sobs. "You just said all those things last night because... How could you do that to me? How could you string me along, just so you could sleep with me...?"
Fred shakes his head violently. "It wasn't like that, you know that. I love you. I do. I love you, Cecilia. I just don't think I can handle this right now."
I'm confused. What's there to handle? Did they sleep together last night? Lex takes one step back and looks to be on the verge of tears too. "You know what, Fred? You can just go to hell. All you do is lie and play dirty tricks. You've taken advantage of both of us, and now you expect us to be fine with that?"
"Are you breaking up with him?" Connie asks, looking confused. "And you two, what the hell are you doing?"
"Yeah, I'm breaking up with him!" Lex exclaims.
"We weren't dating," Fred screams back, also with tears in his eyes.
"Whatever!"
"You can't break up with him if you're not dating him," Cecilia says quietly. "I'm his girlfriend, I'm the only one who can officially break up with him."
We all look at her. "But you're not going to, are you?" Fred asks worriedly. It must really suck to be dumped by two girls twice on the same day, practically at the same time.
"I guess not. I guess I love you too much," Cecilia sniffles and wipes the tears out of her eyes. "And I'm tired of fighting with Lex, and I'm tired of fighting with you. If you don't want me, just say so, and please just break up with me already. Please."
There's an awkward silence settling over the room, and we wait for Fred's answer. Lex has pulled herself together, has wrapped herself up in Matt's arms, and is also waiting for Fred to speak his mind.
"Wait, say that again," he suddenly says loudly, making us jump. Why is he smiling? I thought this was serious.
Cecilia swallows hard and opens her mouth to continue. Then she looks at Lex and starts to cry even more. "I love you."
Fred's face goes from devastated to surprised. Then he smiles again. "Please say it again," he begs her.
"I love you," she says, throwing her arms around his neck. "Please don't break up with me, Fred. I love you."
I start to laugh. Is that all that is to it? Are those three words so important that they can actually save a relationship? I must try that on Portman later.
"I'm so sorry," Cecilia cries into his shoulder. "This is all my fault."
"No, it's not. Of course it's not," Fred sooths, rubbing her back. "It's not your fault at all."
"Hey, while we're having this feel good spirit, how about you two make up with each other?" Charlie suggests and points at Lex. "Just to give us some peace and quiet."
Lex doesn't seem willing to admit that she's wrong, but she doesn't have time to say anything. "I'm sorry, Lex," Cecilia sniffles and goes over to her. Matt holds Lex tighter, as if afraid the two would go after each other again, but Lex pulls away to come face to face with Cecilia again. "I really don't hate you and I shouldn't have called you a bitch."
"Shouldn't you apologize for punching her as well?" Sammie wonders out loud.
"I'm sorry too," Lex answers, disregarding Sammie's comment. "I shouldn't have come between you two. Sorry if I hurt you."
They both look at each other, Cecilia wiping away her tears, and Lex sighing deeply.
I suppose we have to use that as our happy ending. I hope they get over this, because I'd hate it if they're going to act like this all year, while avoiding each other.
Cecilia just nods at Lex and smiles, then she runs along toward the exit. She's still pretty upset, and she's bruised and is bleeding from Lex's violent treatment earlier. I don't feel so bad for her, though. Lex looks torn as well. Plus, Cecilia got the guy in the end, and she got his love and all that. I feel bad for Lex. She lost it all.
Lex goes over and shoves at Fred a little.
"I hope you realize that this means that we're not going to be lab partners anymore. You just have to settle for Jeff from now on."
"Eh, I hope you realize that leaves you with Cecilia during all of next year," he points out.
Lex bites her lip and looks to be thinking hard. "Guess what? You're my lab partner again!" she exclaims with a smile.
"Yay!" Fred says sarcastically. "No hard feelings?"
"Nah. I'll kill you later."
Fred leaves to find Cecilia, and we all look at each other, relieved that they've finally left.
Anthony looks at Lex and sighs a little. "It sucks being dumped, doesn't it?" he says to her. I smile, since he was the only real victim in this emotional train crash.
"Hey, I dumped him! You're the dumped one!" Lex points out.
Anthony rolls his eyes. "Sure. You don't wanna hook up, do you?" he asks, sounding serious, but he's obviously joking.
"Nah, not really," Lex wrinkles her nose.
"Good. See ya." They both leave to walk in different directions, and we walk back out on the terrace.
I think what just happened is way too much information for the Ducks to handle in so little time. They look really confused and surprised. I can't blame them, but I still feel great. There's nothing like a big blow-up to gather ones feelings.
***
Anthony's POV
I'm watching all the Ducks splash around in the pool. Jeff is with Julie, Anna with Averman, Fulton and Sammie seem to be trying to see who can drown the other first, and obviously, Fulton's winning. Matt and Luis are doing cannonballs to see who can make the greatest splash. Connie and Guy are judging that contest. Charlie and Adam are laughing at Kenny and Goldberg, who are having chicken fights with Dwayne and Russ. It's this game where Kenny is on Goldberg's shoulders and Dwayne is on Russ's shoulders and they're trying to knock each other over. Chris is trying to teach Portman how to dive, but it's not really working. He keeps doing belly flops. Fred and Cecilia are splashing near by.
I'm not joining in the festivities of the now happy, but somewhat confused Ducks. Between the fight for Fred's attention and Fulton and Portman's sexuality…well, let's just say it really threw them for a loop, and they're doing the mature thing by not saying anything and ignoring it. They can come to terms with it later.
I'm sitting on one of the chairs by the side of the pool. One of those long ones you can put your legs up on. I don't think I'll be swimming, as I'm a little depressed right now. I had really liked Cecilia, but I guess that feeling isn't returned…although, I definitely liked her less when she went after Lex. Lex shouldn't have hit her after the two had been broken up, but Cecilia definitely started the whole thing. Lex did kick Cecilia's ass though, and as Fred hurt Lex and Cee hurt me, I see this as the one bright spot. Lex has forgiven them both though. She'll even be Fred's lab partner again, and soon, she and Fred and Cecilia will be friends, and back to normal…and that'll be fine with her. She'll move on to someone else. She always does. Lex will never let it show that she was hurt, but she was. Just like I'll never admit I liked Cecilia, but I did. I never actually said to anyone that I did, but I really did like Cee for a few days. Oh well. We can still be friends, and I'll get over her. It'll just take a little time. For now, I'm just glad everyone's at peace and nobody's being violent or screaming. I'm sick of the screaming.
"YOU IDIOT!" came Cecilia's shrieking voice. Whoops, spoke too soon. Fred had just knocked her into the water. She is holding her cheek, which was cut from where she and Lex had come to blows before. My guess is it stung in the chlorine water. Fred shuts her up by kissing her, and everything seems alright again.
I see Lex coming out of the hotel. She had gone up to change. 'Pastry cream isn't really my color' she'd said. She now had on a black tank top with the words 'The Rolling Stones' embroidered in red. She was wearing khaki, drawstring shorts from American Eagle, and no bathing suit. It was evident she wouldn't be swimming much either. As she gets closer, I realize she's carrying two drinks. One is electric blue, the other off-white, and each have a cherry and one of those little umbrellas. She walks over and sits down on me.
"Hey! This seat's taken!" I say.
"I know that," she says, wiggling to get next to me and not spill the drinks at the same time. "Shove over a bit! You're too big, taking up all the space."
I move over best I can, and she squeezes into the small space I give her. She hands me the blue drink and I sip it.
"Electric lemonade," I say, smiling at her. "My favorite, how'd you know?"
"Anthony, whenever we go to Applebee's, that's what you get."
"True. And yours is…?"
"A Pina Colada," she says practically. "I figured we could both use a drink."
"You said no alcohol around the Ducks," I remind her.
"I've changed my mind."
"Since when?"
"Since I've had to beat the shit out of Cecilia, get dumped by Fred, and make up with both of them in one morning. I'm good, Anthony, but I'm not that good. It would drive anyone to drinking," she says, eating the cherry out of her drink.
"I guess I'm not the only one who feels like they got kicked in the teeth this afternoon," I say to her, sipping my drink again.
"Hey, be glad you just feel that way. I did just get kicked in the teeth," she says rubbing her mouth. I glance at her face.
"Look at me," I command, and she turns her head to face me. Lex definitely won the physical fight earlier, but Cecilia did do a number on her. There were bruises coming up on her cheek, and her lower lip was a bit swollen. Her eyes look alright, but there's a mark on her neck, by her throat.
"Lex, will you be able to sing with that?" I say, tracing the mark.
"Of course. It doesn't hurt much, that's the least of my worries," she says, lifting her hair off her neck and showing me the very top of her neck and the bottom of her head. It's hard to see through her hair, but upon touch, I can tell there's definitely a big lump coming up back there.
"Ouch," I say to her, and she sips her drink.
"It's from when Cecilia and I went flying into the table before," she says, good naturedly.
"Yeah, that's why I feel like I was kicked in the teeth," I say, the slightest trace of bitterness in my voice, but not enough to give me away.
"Liked the psycho bitch, did you?" Lex says to me, grinning. Wow, she got it in one shot.
"Hey, I thought you two were friends again?" I say to her, somewhat shocked about what she said. Lex isn't really a bitter person.
"We are, I'll get over it, and right now I'm just annoyed…more with myself than anyone else. I mean, I knew Fred loved Cee. I knew Cee loved Fred. And I fell for Fred anyway. I wasn't trying to come between them. I'm not like that, and you know it. But it's hard not to come between two people when they try so hard to put you there."
"Yeah, true…and you're right. I did like her," I say, somewhat reluctantly. I said I'd never admit it, and I'm not thrilled that I have, but somehow I don't mind admitting it to Lex so much. We're in the same boat here, anyway.
"I feel bad for you, but it's understandable. I mean, hey, Fred loves her…or something like that. It must have started somewhere, right? I doubt it was love at first sight, knowing those two," she says this all in a very matter-of-fact voice. She's not mocking them, she's serious.
"Love at first sight? More like love at first fight…or punch, or first heavy object flying through the air at someone's head," I say, making her snort into her drink. She looks at them, rolling her eyes, although I know she's somewhat sad.
"Are you alright?" I ask her. She grins.
"Of course. Just a little hurt. Are you alright?" she says. Wow, she's admitted she's hurt. I guess I was wrong about both of us.
"Yeah, just a little hurt," I echo back to her.
We put our drinks on the table beside the chair we're sharing. She leans her head back on my chest, the way she did when we were going out a few years back, flinching slightly because of the lump she showed me earlier. Instinctively, I wrap my arms around her shoulders and rest my chin on her head. We used to sit like this for hours, just her and me. This didn't stop after we broke up. She'd always sit with me, but I think it's the first time we've done this since she left for Eden Hall. It's nice, just sitting like this. So often we're caught up in doing things like chasing after people we can't have, or rehearsing, that we forget to just sit back and relax. We have a rehearsal later, now that I'm thinking about it. Dress rehearsal, actually. A run through of all our songs for tomorrow. From 5:00 to who knows how late. It's only 1:00 right now though, so we're ok. I can't believe Fred was storming out because of a haircut just a few hours ago…seems like much longer.
"We deserve better than this," I say to Lex suddenly.
"What do you mean?" she asks.
"We don't deserve to have our emotions stepped on, and we don't deserve to have people walking all over us. We deserve to be happy too, you know?"
"I'm happy right now," she says to me.
"What?" I ask. I expected her to agree, not say she's happy right now.
"Well, my dad's not here and not coming. My brother will be here tomorrow. My friends are here now. My best friends and I are competing for the chance of a lifetime. We're in Orlando, and the weather has been gorgeous. In spite of everything that's happened the past few days, and especially the past few hours, I'm not having a bad time. I'm watching my best friends, drinking exotic drinks, and lying on top of one of my other best friends. Why shouldn't I be happy?" she smiles warmly at me.
"Because Fred just smashed your heart into a thousand pieces. You deserve someone who loves you, Lex. You're a pretty special girl. And I deserve someone, and something better than having Cecilia use me to make her boyfriend jealous. I don't want a cock tease. I'm a nice guy, I want somebody to love," I say and her smile fades a bit. She looks slightly annoyed, and I feel a twinge of guilt. She was happy, and now she's not.
"Hearts can be repaired," she says finally. "And we'll find people to love. It'll just take time. Fred and Cecilia are obviously not the right people for us. We're probably better off without them. We'll get what we deserve, just you wait." She's recovering rather quickly from earlier. Glad she is. Wish I could.
"What if we don't?" I ask her.
"We will. But I'll tell you what," she says to me. "If we don't find people we love and deserve, and love us back, by the time we're 30, we'll marry each other. We're already friends, we'll do alright together. Deal?" she holds out her hand for me to shake.
I have to laugh. "Deal," I say, shaking her hand. "You know, you're not bad, O'Leary. I could learn to love you."
"Same, Nicholson. I could learn to love you, too."
"For now, good friends though, right?"
"Best friends, Anthony, best friends. You and me and Jeff and Matt and Anna and Chris and Sammie. Best friends, always and forever. That's the pact we made, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember."
"Hey, are you two coming to swim?" Charlie calls to us.
"Nope, we're going inside to get more drinks!" Lex calls. "Come on," she says, climbing off me, ignoring Charlie's yells of 'no alcohol!', and grabbing my hands to pull me up. "Let's go get some more drinks, and we can play some pool."
"Tired of watching Fred and Cee?" I ask her, jokingly.
"Well, yeah," she says honestly, shrugging.
"Jealous?" I ask, only half joking this time.
"Yeah, a bit. But I wish them all the happiness in the world. They deserve it," she says leading me toward the doors to inside.
She's not a bad chick, Lex O'Leary. One of the best I've ever met, and one of the best I ever will meet, I'm sure. I laugh on the inside. Fred may love Cecilia, and that's all well and good, but he doesn't know who he's passing up.
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iluvguygermain00: glad you love it so much. wait for an update no longer! chapter 20 is in the works, so you won't have to wait too long.
percussion: yeah, D3 didn't do much for their friendship, did it? but hey, the Ducks can solve anything. it just takes a while. Banksie would take that bridge thing seriously in a darker, more serious relationship fic with Charlie. aren't you glad this isn't a darker, more serious fic? *grins*
KShyne99: glad you love it. I spent a ton of time with that paragraph on Guy. it took me a good ten minutes to come up with the right wording, so I really appreciate the fact that you enjoy it.
plainjane: Cee cut her hair! thrilling! disastrous consequences though…hehehe…well, me, I wrote that ending, I have trouble breaking up the Ducks. it breaks my heart. Cimmy is the more angsty one of the two of us, she's good at that kind of stuff, although I'm working on it. but I had to make the Ducks not angry at each other, it kills me when they hate each other…besides, how do you hate your friends in Disney World? *grins*