Chapter 47: Under The Sun
On the same day, at around 6:30 PM, everyone seems to have gotten their plans for the party all set up. Although, not EVERYTHING is perfect, now is it? Because, at that same time, Chris gets a phone call from somebody, and he goes to see who it is exactly, and it's Double D!
"Hey Double D, what's going on dude?"
Double D answers over the phone, "Greetings Chris, I think we need to have a discussion about that potion that we made that one time."
"Really?" Chris said, becoming curious. "What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing is negative with it exactly, we just need to make sure we have a plan for it, as leaving it in the fridge for so long cannot be a long term decision in my view." Double D explains.
Although Chris has tried the thing, and nothing is wrong with it exactly, Double D has a point. So, to solve this minor inconvenience, Chris tells him, "Ok, I'm going to come over and pick it up, I'll drink it first thing in the morning. There's not even that much left man!"
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Double D asks, slightly concerned.
Chris only laughs and says, "Calm down, I got this thing under control. I'm coming over right now, one second..."
Chris hangs up and gets his shoes set, and go to Double D's to get the potion. When he gets there, he knocks, and Double D quickly comes over to get the door open. He greets Chris, and says to him, "The potion is at the kitchen."
"Cool." Chris responds. "So, you ready for everything tomorrow?"
"Yes, I have organized everything for tomorrow. I am not certain however, as to Marie's decisions for tomorrow. We haven't discussed it yet." Double D tells him.
"That's pretty surprising, ain't it?" Chris comments in his head, before saying out loud, "Hopefully you and her manage to figure it out, but I'm sure it won't be much of an issue. As for myself, I'm all set. It's all up to Skylar now really, but I'm positive she's going to be fine. Anyways, I don't wanna be here more than necessary, so I shall leave you to your duty my friend."
And with that, right before Chris leaves the door, Double D tells him, "Alright then, take care, and be sure to act professionally and treat her with respect!"
Chris gives him a thumbs up, before saying in his mind, "Shouldn't that second part be obvious? Also, his definition of professional, can't even imagine it. Hahaha!"
With that taken care of, he heads back home, and stores the potion in the fridge, so that it's cool when he drinks it first thing tomorrow morning. For the record, there's only around 40% of the bottle left, which Chris was surprised to see, but he assumed that Double D must used it to mess around some more perhaps? That was the only logical conclusion anyways, so he stuck with it.
Anyways, in Double D's house, Double D himself was simple occupying himself with his chores, as he had plenty of them to do, and he holds himself to completing them, so, he does them. Even then, they were your basic everyday chores, take out the trash, do the laundry, clean up some parts of the house, you get the idea?
Double D manages to finish all of these at about 7:50 PM, leaving with sometime to rest, or perhaps work on an experiment, or take a look at some stuff from school? Well, he might have to pause thinking about that, because he hears another ring of the doorbell. Who could that be this time?
To the beanie-wearing Ed's surprise, it's Marie! Although, Double D is more surprised at the fact that Marie didn't do something ridiculous to tell him that she was here at his house. So, this was refreshing to him.
"Greetings Marie, how is everything?" Double D tells her at the door.
Marie responds, with a smile, "Good. How've you been?"
She then enters the house, and Double D closes and locks the door. Marie then proceeds to take a seat on the couch in the living room, and Double D takes a seat next to her.
"All is well. Everyone seems to have planned for the party tomorrow, and I have everything all organized in an orderly fashion. Nazz insisted in the most fancy attire, so I got what I could." Double D tells her.
"Well..." said Marie, adopting a teasing tone. "...you better be looking to impressing only one person!"
Obviously Marie was referring to (shocker) herself, but Double D simply laughed a bit to her tease, which amused Marie slightly. Double D's response?
"Rest assured Marie, I shall try my best to impress."
The two of them shared a laugh, before Marie continues, saying, "So, you've got your outfit ready? Mind showing me?"
Usually, Double D wouldn't mind telling Marie something as trivial as that, but he decides to keep it a surprise, because he wants to try an experiment of trying to do something like that with her, seeing as Marie always loves to do it on him.
"If it's not an inconvenience, Marie, I would like to save it for the party. After all, I would prefer to keep it in mint condition, and all ready for the party tomorrow." said Double D, trying to keep it a secret.
Marie only chuckles at him, finding his attempt to keep a secret funny. But, she says, "Sure cutie, but remember what I said!"
After a quick chuckle, Double D asks Marie, "Out of curiosity Marie, what have your sisters planned for the party?"
"For May, she's just going to dress in a more fashion type of way, it's nothing special. I'm sure she's excited that Ed invited her. Can you believe that? But I guess everyone grows a pair, and Ed ain't a exception." Marie explains to Double D, before continuing, "But enough about May, because guess what?"
Double D raises an eyebrow, out of curiosity. Marie tells him, "Two of your friends came over for a chat. Chris and Eddy I should say."
"What business did they have there?" asked Double D, with a slight hint of concern.
Marie explains, "Eddy wanted to talk to Lee about things, and as for Chris, I guess Eddy just brought him along for some backup? My goodness, is Eddy THAT scared of Lee? I couldn't even believe that he really brought him along, it's embarrassing. But lucky for Eddy, he didn't cause any issues, otherwise, god knows if he would've even left!"
The only thing Double D could think about was simply... why? Why on planet earth did Eddy go do that? Was there a secret reason? Oh, if only Double D knew. Then again, he decides that he is going to ask Eddy about that tomorrow when they all walk to school. But it's confirmed something for Double D, which is Eddy has DEFINITELY stopped fearing Lee a lot less as time went on, from the incident where Eddy told her and her sisters away from Double D himself, the situation in chapter 33, and... while he doesn't know EXACTLY what happened, he can only assume that it was similar to the previous example, so... overall, Double D feel confident in concluding it that way.
"Hmm... while it doesn't much sense why Eddy decided to go talk to Lee, I must ask Marie, did Chris cause any trouble?" Double D asks.
"No! I just told you, Eddy didn't cause issues, so why would Chris cause trouble?" said Marie in an exaggerated tone.
You know that moment when you realize something that you should've realized before? Yeah, that's Double D right now.
"My apologies Marie! I should've been assessed the situation more, that was all my fault, sorry." apologized Double D, which only made Marie rolls her eyes at his ridiculous reaction.
"Relax cutie, it's fine! Jeez, you're so dramatic! But I like that about ya. Anyway, yeah, everything was fine, so you can relax. Though, I did plan an idea." Marie tells him.
Double D couldn't help his curiosity. "What's your plan?"
"So, you know how the party starts at like 6:30?" Marie states. "Well, I asked Lee, May and Skylar if they wanted to all gather together at the trailer after school, so that we could help each other with getting ready. I'm surprised Skylar accepted, expected her to go off alone, but she's welcome. I'm sure May will accept her, but I hope Lee doesn't bother her much. She hasn't yet, which is good."
"As long as everyone gets along, I am positive that everything will go according to plan. That is very nice Marie by the way, I'm pleased you're inviting Skylar to some activities." Double D comments.
Marie simply says, "I figured why not?"
"When exactly did you ask this however? I didn't see you ask her this today during school." Double D asks.
"It was during our last class today, you just were busy, and so was Chris. I didn't expect you to notice." said Marie, very straightforward.
Well, that explains it! However it happened, it doesn't exactly matter THAT much to Double D, as he appreciates such gestures, and he is proud of Marie for doing as such. Although, Double D then says...
"Onto another topic, Marie, there's a question I must ask you."
Marie looks at him with a face that says "What is it?", and Double D responds, "I've wanted to ask more about this before, but unfortunately many complications have occurred that have delayed me from asking you this. You are always welcome to not talk about this, I will respect your privacy. But... you once mentioned that you never knew much about your father, correct? I've been meaning to ask, what exactly do you know?"
Admittedly, Double D felt like he was taking a risk asking that question. Because, it's only so rare that a person actually tells you parts of their life that they are sensitive towards. But, to his relief, Marie takes a deep breath, before stating, "I honestly only recall one specific incident. He and mom kept bickering back and forth about an argument, which I assume was about their breakup, as after that, I never saw him again. Mom had screamed at him, telling him to back off, and a whole bunch of crap, but... dad wasn't having it. All three of us were trying to avoid the argument by hiding upstairs, so we couldn't hear them, but I'm pretty sure dad told mom something like... 'you can take of them alone then! Be that way!'"
After taking a quick second, Marie continues, "So, after dad said that, he slammed the door, and I never saw him once after that. All I can say is, if he couldn't work something out with mom, and have a talk about things... forget him. I don't want to even see him, because it seemed like he caused trouble for mom. But the thing is, I just don't know if it was either him or mom, as she never talks about dad. Then again, did I really expect anything? Mom doesn't even talk to May and Lee about their fathers!"
Clearly Marie is getting frustrated and slightly sad, so Double D, in a quick second, hugs her tightly, while she exhales deeply. Double D's shock is quite hard to imagine right now, because while he did expect it to be a bit of a story, he wasn't expecting that, per se. Either way you spin it, that doesn't matter, because all Double D wants to do now is comfort Marie, not ask anymore questions.
After around 5 or so minutes of the two sitting in slience, Double D says, "I'm deeply sorry for that Marie."
"It's okay. It's just because I don't know him, and I've never seen him since then, how should I think about him? I can only hope that he's not being stupid, but if he is... so be it." said Marie, with a chill of anger.
"Marie, pardon me for asking, but..." Double D paused, before asking her, "...if you were to ever meet him again, would you allow him another chance?"
"The problem isn't if I want to Double D. It's because... okay, fine, I'll give him another chance, but will MOM do that? I doubt it, as they ended their little thing on the worst note possible. Heck, I'm not even sure if he's even near us anymore, so... I'm not sure if it even matters." Marie explains.
At this point, Double D feels like he's hit a roadblock, because when it comes down to family issues that aren't his own, he feels nearly powerless. So, he decides to tell Marie...
"Marie, if hypothetically, this situation ever arises, I shall try to assist to the best of my abilities."
At that point, Marie looks up to Double D, smiling, which in return makes him smile too, and they end up sharing a 20 second kiss.
After a couple minutes, Marie asks Double D, "So... are you sure you're all set for tomorrow?"
"Of course, don't worry Marie, I promise no complications will arise. Rest assured, everything will go according to plan." said Double D.
Marie smiles a bit at that statement, before telling Double D, "Okay, I would love to stay some more, but I'd rather get home earlier to sleep for tomorrow honestly."
"Same here Marie. Please take care of yourself!" Double D tells her.
"I will. Love you, and take care."
And with that, Marie shares a hug with Double D, before getting up, and leaving through the door.
Admittedly, while Double D always appreciates Marie's company these days, tonight was just... so different for both him and her, that to him, it felt like it was going really quick. Nevertheless, he didn't complain, as that would make him look insensitive, plus, it wouldn't have been the right time.
Double D decided that he should take this time to get some early rest, as he had nothing to do, and his mind was too busy thinking about the story Marie had told him, along with other details. He goes upstairs into his room, changes into his pajamas, sets the alarm to the standard time of 7 AM, and goes to sleep at a pretty decent time.
Wow... what a trip. Man...