Chapter 33: Fuel, Fire, And Desire!

Ahh... a new day. Hopefully we can get a good refresh today. Hopefully.

Anyways, at the end of the day, our good lads didn't really meet up for anything else, as they were either resting or doing something else. Of course, this varies from persona to persona. Either way though, compared to the Kankers, their day was less eventful.

What about the next morning? Or today?

Well, Chris has already started his day, waking up earlier than usual, at like 7:30 AM. He did not intend to do this, his mind just randomly decides, saying to him, "Oi! Time to wake up bud!". It doesn't really matter to him, as just spent his day with making his simple, yet effective breakfast of some cereal. Afterwards, he just up to his room, playing a video game that's a fighter, trying to memorize moves of a certain character. While his day might be going smooth for now, he still knows about what he and his friends agreed to do today. But he wanted to not worry about that stuff right now, as he wanted to relax his mind, and go in with a mindset that didn't equal the force of 500 punches. Then again, he did give his word to not cause anymore harm, and go on the defensive. Can he hold that promise though? Only time shall tell.

Although, our good friend might be forgetting something very important. What is that? Well, at around 12:30 PM, after he finishes his chores for his room, organization and stuff, Chris is called by his mother. "Chris! Come down please!"

"Good thing I'm done. Coming!"

Chris leaves his now-organized room, and walks downstairs, to see why his mom called him. It turns out that someone knocked on the door, but his mom was too busy washing and cleaning, so she couldn't answer sadly.

"Someone is at the door." Maria stated.

Chris walks to the door, and decides to open the door. And he sees... no one?!

"Uh... mom?! Are you sure someone is here?"

Maria pauses what she was doing and checks with him and yeah, she doesn't see anything either. "Weird. Nevermind, you're good."

Chris closes the door, and chuckles a little, before he returns to his room, and decides to put on Black Sabbath's "Paranoid". Unfortunately, not even 5 minutes into the album, the doorbell rings.

"Okay, now I'm certain someone is at the door this time."

Chris speeds out of his room, and goes down the stairs pretty quickly. He should probably slow down a bit, cause that's ill-advised. Anyways, before he opens the door, he says to himself, "This better be someone."

And...?

"Okay, what?"

Yet again, no one is at the door. Although, there's a reason for that this time. It turns out that it was just the mail peeps dropping off the mail. Chris rolls his eyes, as... why would he be excited about some mail that doesn't concern him? Makes no sense right?

"Mom! Mail!"

"En la mesa, por favor." (On the table, please.)

Chris proceeds to put the mail on table, and back to his room. 30 minutes or so pass, and Chris manages to get to the halfway mark or so of "Hand Of Doom", but surprise! The doorbell is ringin again!

"Wow. Okay then."

Chris, again, runs down to answer, and his mother was upstairs in her room, so she wasn't exactly there to answer. Nevertheless, Chris goes to the door, and while he opens it, he says, in his mind, "This better be..."

And once he takes a peek at who it is, he says, "...good."

Well, I'm pretty sure it's obvious that it's Skylar, who just now arrived to visit him, as that's what she promised him the previous day, right? Right. Anyways, Chris stands there, surprised beyond surprised, to say the least.

"Hey. You see something you like?" Skylar teased.

"What?!" Chris stated, catching himself. "No... wait I mean, yeah! But... oh uh..."

Skylar laughs a little at his slur of conflicting responses. Welp.

"You know what I mean! Unexpected visit, but I guess we didn't exactly plan out the time exactly. Oh well."

"Yeah." Skylar says. "I just planned in the afternoon. Figured it would've been the best time."

Chris nods his head in approval, and to say that Skylar distracted him was... sorta of an understatement. She decided to go with a basically all dark look, with the only thing not being the darkest black is her pants, being grey. Still dark, but not as dark. Aside from that, she wore a jacket that seemed leather-like yet was also pretty thin looking, and a shirt that was sleeveless, and as a last addition, the black shoes she usually wears.

"Right. Umm... would you come in?" Chris said, inviting her inside.

"Yes."

And so, Skylar enters, but Chris realizes his mom is coming, and she proceeds to say, "Who is that?"

"Oh crap!" Chris says, nothing that he failed to introduce Skylar. So, for around 5 minutes or so, Chris explains to his mom who Skylar is, and after Maria talks with Skylar some more, she decides that Skylar is welcome! And so with that, the two of them go to Chris's room, in order to have a more private conversation about... literally anything you have in mind. EXCEPT THAT! Calm your imagination down. Jeez...

"Dang." Skylar comments, noting all the posters and stuff. "You collected all of this or is this recent?"

"A mix. Ace Of Spades is recent, but Painkiller and Diary Of A Madman are a bit old." Chris explains.

As Skylar scans around and all, she notices his collection of like 80 or so CDs she guessed. Various artists were there that were mentioned in this story before, so take your guesses!

"At least I know you aren't pretending to like it."

Chris burst out in laughter. "Dude! Why wouldn't I even? If I didn't like it, I would just be honest! No reason to lie, jeez."

Skylar also shared a laugh, before she sat down and asked him, "So, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah?"

"What were you going to tell me back to school? You were going to speak about something, but then the bell rang and... yeah." Skylar explains to Chris.

Chris sits with her aswell, and says, "Oh yeah... well, I was curious..."

Skylar stares at him with a face that gives an expression of that she is waiting. Chris just says, "...your accent."

"Ahh... so that's what your curious about hmm?" A teasing Skylar said.

Oh goodness, so, Skylar decides to lean in, and attempts to put a hand on his shoulder, but Chris, as if Skylar moving in closer didn't do it, grabs her hand, lightly, and says, "What are you doing?"

"You don't want me to?"

"No." Chris responded. "You don't need to mate, all I am is just curious about your accent."

Skylar smiles before she speaks saying, "Well, I actually I'm not from the areas around here. Basically, my parents are from different places. My dad is from the United Kingdom, and my mom is from Poland."

"Wow, really?" Chris said, very surprised. "How did they meet? If you wanna share of course."

"Don't worry about it. Anyways, the way that they always told me the story was, well... they actually were friends in their high school years, right? At around 12 grade is when they decided that, they really loved each other, and their past experiences really brought them as one. They didn't wanna leave each other, so... they went to college together."

Chris was listening closely, as well, it's not exactly like... everyday someone tells you their story of how their parents met, and what happened that led to their birth. Either way, Skylar then ended it with saying, "I was simply born after they finished their years at college."

"Huh..." Chris said. "Wow. They must been really dedicated to the whole thing. That's commitment if you ask me. Let me ask though, where was this school exactly? Because they came from quite different areas."

"At the UK, mom moved there when she was like 10, as she told me." Skylar explained. "I'm not fully certain as to the reason why she moved there with her parents, but she did."

Chris nods his head, then says, "Well, that's quite the story ya got, enjoyable to listen to."

"Thank you." Skylar said. "But now it's my turn to ask."

"Oh boy... yes?"

"What has occurred ever since that stuff you told me with the Eds and Kankers?"

Chris laughs, before he specifically states, "Well, this is probably the fourth story within a story. Talk about meta..."

Does it get easier explaining what Chris said to Skylar than... he just recounted what has occurred ever since he moved here? From how he met the Eds, the conflicts here and there with the Kankers (minus the VERY huge fights that occurred, preferring to keep that from Skylar), the things that occurred with Double D and Marie, and eventually Chris came full circle, to how it lead to now.

"Wait... how the heck did you do all of that escaping stuff?" Skylar asked, surprised at the fights that occurred.

Chris chuckled before explaining, "Ah, well... I guess you could say that I know a trick here or there."

"Get outta here!" Skylar teased. "That's not all!"

"Okay fine, jeebus." Chris said. "Let's just say that in the moments where you know that moments like that are going to break... it's a fight for your life!"

"Nice, don't get in all the trouble now. Although, how did it feel being in the mix of all that?" A curious Skylar said.

"Well, it was very sudden, and honestly these days, I try to avoid it. I told Eddy this, but those six need to bury this hatchet. And, minus Lee, they are all doing it." Chris explained.

Skylar responds, "At least you tried to manage it the best you could. This is just... I don't know what to say."

"Yeah... I know." Chris said.

Chris then remembers that he has to help Double D with the whole thing, as that's what he and the lads agreed to yesterday. So, he tells Skylar, "Damn! I forgot that!"

"What's wrong?"

"Okay so, today there's a whole thing planned between me and the lads, and what we plan to do is basically, to convince Lee to realize that her perspective on the whole thing between Double D and Marie is just wrong." Chris rapidly explained, while getting his shoes prepared and all.

"So... what now?"

"If we are to talk some more, It will have to wait." Chris responds.

Skylar, however, had a different idea. "I'm going with you."

"No!" Chris said. "I didn't mean to get you into this! Just go and-"

Skylar covers his mouth with her hand and says, weirdly seductively, "I am going. End of story."

"Clever girl... jeebus." Chris thinks in his mind. "Alright, fine, just follow with us, alright?"

"Okay." Skylar said, more cheerfully this time.

And so, Chris and Skylar leave the former's house, although Chris let his mom know what's about to happen. Well, he actually just mentioned that he is going to hangout with his friends, so yeah. Moving along now, the two of them decided to get Double D first, as he was the main persona and all.

"One second please!" Double D said, responding to the doorbell going off.

Double D opens the door, and says to the two lads, "Good day Chris! And... Skylar?"

"She visited me earlier today, and she decided that she wanted to join. I didn't argue."

"Liar." Skylar said playfully. Double D states, "Well, while unexpected, I hope Skylar can assist us with this plan."

"Yeah. Let's go get the others."

That, they do. The other Eds were surprised that Skylar joined them, but Chris explained everything, and they understood. And so, they begin their little adventure to the trailer of the Kankers! Everyone generally agreed that the main objective of this "plan", is to just convince Lee that this whole misconception of Double D planning something stupid, an exploit, or whatever you wanna think of, towards Marie is just wrong. Then again, why does she even think this? Double D is the least likely of people to attempt something like that, as he would curse himself for god knows how long.

Speaking of Double D, he was actually nervous for this whole operation, because, for one thing, it feels like it is overly complicated and difficult dealing with the fact that he has quite a bit of people speaking in his stead. The thing is, he needs assistance for this, as he has VERY HIGH doubts that his words will mean anything to Lee. Then again, actions speak louder than words lads. But one issue runs through Double D's mind. He forgot completely that, sure Marie knows, but he had no way of letting her know that it's about to start. Actually, that's incorrect. A phone call.

"Why Eddward?! Why couldn't you have taken a minute to let her of the possible aftermaths!?" Double D said in his mind. In his hindsight however, it's likely that Marie wasn't going to be able to respond, as god knows what Lee is doing at her home today. Granted, yes she was calm yesterday at home, but today? No one can tell...

They have now arrived. Fingers crossed...

"So uh... who's going first?" Eddy asked his friends. No one really wanted to take the initiative. However, someone does.

"Let me attempt to begin." Double D said, volunteering.

Double D goes to the door, and he knocks a couple of times, and someone is already coming towards the door. That person is...

"Double D? What do you need?"

May. Well, at least it's not Lee, to the relief of Double D. However, umm...

"May! Who's at the door!?"

Yeah. You know who's coming.

"So, it's the fake boyfriend of Marie!" Lee said. "Whatcha want? I'll be making sure you don't go near her."

"Lee, I've come to have a civil, and polite conversation about your reservations related to the relationship between Marie and I." Double D began to explain himself. Lee, however, appeared as if though she couldn't have cared.

Lee actually decides to step outside the trailer, forcing Double D to move back a bit. Lee notices the that fact, Double D isn't alone. "Why do you got your friends with you?"

"Dude." Chris joined in. "You are being ridiculously exaggerated and just... I don't even know, you're just wrong."

"And what would you know?!" Lee barked back.

Skylar then decided to support Chris's statement. "Lee, I've seen many people in my life, but I wouldn't consider Double D a bad dude. He seems like a trustworthy guy, and I think he deserves to be with Marie. Come on, at least let him get a chance with your sister, as he hasn't been disrespectful yet, right?"

Lee still isn't moved, "Skylar, you are so blind! All guys are exploiting-"

"Stop!" Skylar cut Lee off. "You are the dumb one here. Okay, I'll ask you this, has he done ANYTHING that would make you suspicious?"

Checkmate. To say that, well... Lee was stuck, is an understatement. Skylar does have a point, as Double D is never once exploited a person in his life. And if he did, he would lose sleep over that for the next 500 years. Exaggerated, I know.

"Guys, do you think Double D is exploitative?" Skylar asked all of the lads.

"Nope. Not at all." Chris responded.

"What? That's absurd. I can understand if she said me, but Double D?! Ha! Fat chance!" Eddy said.

"No agreement from Ed here." Ed said in a funny manner.

"He isn't one."

Who said that? It wasn't anyone of the group of 5. Well, Marie just came out of the trailer, who was actually silently observing the situation. She walks past Lee, and over to Double D. "Stop it now Lee. You lost this argument. Even if they agreed with you, I'm not leaving Double D, and that's final."

"May! Your opinion on this?" Lee yelled out, clearly seeking someone in agreement with her. But well...

"They are right! Double D is deserving of Marie, and he hasn't done anything horrible!"

Lee is literally alone in this confrontation. At this point, welcome to the jungle my lads, because how the heck is Lee now supposed to win this? Granted, when Skylar mentioned the fact that Double D has not done anything to spite this concern... yeah.

"While I appreciate your support everyone," Double D said, "I do believe there is a possible compromise that can be achieved here. Lee, what must I do in order to receive your approval?"

"I'll tell ya what you can do." Lee said, threateningly. "Leave my sister alone! She doesn't need you messing her looks up!"

"Lee please!" Double D, concerned about what is about to happen. "Have some decency!"

"Shut it beanie boy! All of you, minus May and Marie, leave!"

Oh, that's unlikely to happen. Why? Well, in response, Double D gets directly kissed on the lips by Marie, and is brought into a position of what appears to look like they were dancing, but really it was just Marie repositioning the both of them. The two, or three groups of peeps, had differing reactions. The lads were rolling their eyes, minus Ed who was confused... again. Oh how things don't change. The girls? Well, Skylar and May found it very sudden, but they just assumed that it was Marie's way of showing that this was going to stay. And Lee? She went over to get Marie off Double D after like 15 seconds of so.

"Get off of him! He doesn't deserve you!" Lee responded harshly, while, oh my goodness, she literally throws Marie off of him.

Skylar got REALLY mad at this. "What's wrong with you?!"

"Stay outta this, you are not needed here, as far as I'm concerned!"

Skylar was about to do something, but Chris held her back saying, "There is no changing her mind, relax."

"Lee, until you have some sense of mortality and maturity, I will be refusing to speak to you for the meanwhile." Double D said, very disappointed with what just occurred.

"Honestly," Chris spoke once more. "I've never in my life seen someone this arrogant and disgusting towards someone else."

"Deal with it! Out!" Lee yelled out. "Never come here if you what's good for ya!"

"She's right I guess. Come on, let's get outta here." Chris said, annoyed. Everyone was beginning to leave, but uh...

"NO! SHE ISN'T RIGHT!" Eddy said, pushing aside everyone. To say that the others were surprised is an understatement. But Eddy goes over to Lee, who is also surprised to see, "her man", yet also secretly slightly impressed. Eddy begins to speak, "Lee, I getcha, you are suspicious of what someone that you don't know much can do when dating a sister of yours, but have some sense of a chance for him!"

Lee ignored Eddy. Eddy isn't willing the give up though, so he, daringly, grabs Lee shoulder and turns her around to face him. Everyone had a face of just, "did he really just do that?"

"How the heck do you expect to trust him when you won't even give him a chance! You haven't even listened to what he has been saying!" An angry Eddy said. There was still no response from Lee however, as she actually was staring into Eddy's eyes. Eddy couldn't really do the same... as her hair was still covering her eyes, as usual.

Eddy wasn't going to get distracted, and quite frankly, his patience was low. "I'm just gonna leave. This is stupid, but hopefully you'll realize that If you can't trust him with this, you never will, ever! Let's go guys..."

With that, Eddy, along with everyone else (with the exception of May and Marie), leave. Everyone is feeling a different way. Shocked... surprised... confused... can you think of more words that end with the suffix of "Ed"?

Although, we have other news besides that though. To say that, FINALLY, the wall of constant persistence was hit for Lee, is an understatement. She really thought about what Eddy said to her, as she sat down watching TV. But her thoughts were broken off when Marie SLAMS the door very hard in frustration. May went to check up on her.

"Yeah... isn't she mad..." Lee said in her mind. In fact, what she was watching on TV mattered little to her right now. It felt as though that there was a heavy guilty feeling she has, but she dismisses it as if it wasn't important. There's basically a war going on in her mind, and only she will determine whether or not she either stays the way she is, or if she decides to let Double D be with her sister.

Back with our group of 5...

"That was a disaster!" Eddy said in annoyance.

Double D said in response, "I hate to be the bear of agreeing with pessimistic statements, but unfortunately Eddy is correct. I fear as to the aftermath of this."

"Don't worry Double D!" Ed said, comforting his friend. "The good in people shall destroy the darkness within! It is as in the movies! The light gets rid of the dark!"

Chris, chuckling a tiny bit, says, "That was actually a clever saying from you Ed. Although, I can only hope so."

Skylar sighed a bit in annoyance herself, before Chris asked her, "You okay? You seem a bit down."

"No. I'm fine. It's just like... why is she even like that?!"

Skylar only groaned in annoyance, and Chris, although slightly reluctant, decides to quickly hug her, if only just to let her relax a little. "Don't worry. We will find a way to get her to think twice about this... somehow. Just relax for the meanwhile, alright?"

"Aww, nice to know that you care about me." Skylar said back to him teasingly.

Chris, slightly confused says, "I mean... you are my friend. And I'm your friend too. So it only makes sense."

"Chris!" Eddy said. "I actually just got an idea I got from listening to one of those songs of yours!"

"Alright then. Let's go to my house. Skylar uh... what do you plan to do?" Chris said.

Skylar responds, "Well, home sweet home for me. It was nice visiting you though."

"Wait, how did you even get to my house?! You never mentioned that!" Chris said in confusion. "I didn't even hear a car pull up in front of my house."

"You are really stupid." Skylar said. "I'm just messing with you. You probably didn't hear it because you were blasting 'Hand Of Doom' in your room really loudly. So... that's your explanation."

Chris realized that she was correct after all. "Oh... right. Welp, uh... my bad. Are they gonna come get you now then I assume?"

"Yeah. I just texted them, and they are coming. I'm gonna go now. You and your friends take care okay? Also, Double D, I wish you luck with Marie. You really are a good guy, hope you know." Skylar said to Double D.

"Thank you Skylar. I appreciate that." Double D with a slight smile.

Chris then says, "Catch ya in school then."

"Or maybe tomorrow. You don't know. See ya soon." Skylar said, before giving a hug back to him, and going on her way to the location where she told her parents she'd be waiting for them.

"Wow." Chris said out loud.

Eddy snickered beneath his breath, as the whole situation was just hilarious to him. Double D stated, "At least Skylar seems to be in agreement of our stance."

"True, true." Chris said. "Eddy, you want to talk about this idea that you got from a song? Can't wait to hear this..."

"Heck yeah!" Eddy says. "Guys! Come join us!"

"My schedule seems to be in order, so... I shall be open to accompanying you gentlemen!" Double D said.

"Ed is in!" A silly Ed said.

And so, the lads went off to Chris's house, as Eddy had an idea for... something, based on a song similar to what Chris likes. This is either gonna be the biggest success, or failure of all time.

That's quite the statement, ain't it? Huh...