'"Maybe lt's not meant to be." "We don't even know what we're doing" "It doesn't seem like we belong together"'.
Rememberring that day was like getting hit by a train. Each sentence was like being hit by another train car. Had she really said those words? She grimaced as she replayed the scene over & over in her mind.
Bonnibel returned home from the most difficult task she had ever faced, saying goodbye to Marceline. It wasn't really goodbye, but lt sure felt like lt was. Inside, she was confronted by her mother & father. They could tell instantly by her distraught expression that she had done the deed. They looked neither pleased nor upset, as they sat her down at the dining room table to talk about lt.
"You did the right thing & we're proud of you. I'm sorry lt couldn't work out. I'm sure lt was hard. But, such is life. You will find someone else.", her father said.
In truth, he had hoped deep down that she wouldn't obey. But since she had, all he could think to do is try to cheer her up somehow.
"I suppose.", Bonnibel said, not really believing lt.
"Hopefully those kids won't bully you anymore.", her mom said.
She was too' sad to be surprised that her mom knew about that.
"Yeah", she said plainly.
"How did Marceline react?", her mother asked, concernedly.
"She took lt surprisingly well." Bonnibel said, recalling how Marceline seemed ready to give up even before she made her decision. "It's like everyone's been saying. It's not meant to be.", Bonnibel justified.
This made them feel worse about their decision. All her mother could think to do is change the subject.
"Do you still want to switch schools?", asked her mother.
"No, let them talk. At least I still have my friends.".
"That's the right attitude, Bubblegum. It's not as though you will never see Marceline again.", her father told her, before he & her mother stood up from their 18'th Century collector's chairs.
She tried to assure herself they were right, but could only think of how all of the grandiloquent nights on the stars that she shared with Marceline would die.
"Now then, lf you don't mind, we have some business we must to attend to.".
They left. They drove off in their $50,000 1958 Rolls Royce Phantom V, probably to another get-together with some aristocrats from around the area. In truth, they left to give her some alone time to reflect. It was her future & they realized that she should be the one to make the decisions regarding lt, free from their influence, however good-intentioned lt may be. Once they were off the property, she weakly scaled the stairs. Peppermint was cleaning the floor when he noticed her inner turmoil, feeling dejected for not being able to help his best friend. She enterred her room, her one safe haven. Here she had spent most of her days, toiling the hours away to conduct science experiments in a cyclical effort to appease her parents. It's not that they weren't appeased. It's that she wasn't. All of those days, she had never known about a better life she could have experienced. Would lt have made a difference? She wonderred. Her ailment was loneliness. And Marceline had been the antidote. But lt was more than that. She would still see her. And she had friends now. Yet she was met with the same despair she had escaped many nights ago. She looked upon the experiment she was working so hard on weeks ago, so hard that she began to lose her mind, the night she snuck out. It was a simple invisibility syrum; lt was supposed to be simple, but yet she just couldn't get lt right. The invisibility worked fine, lt was changing things back that was the problem. She attempted many different antidotes, but with zero effect. She spent the next ten minutes hoping to rekindle her old passion for science, hoping she could finally produce a functional antidote. But alas, there were no equations or theories or formulas in her mind-space. There was only Marceline. There was only her dark goddess. The ailment was loneliness, but the root was lovelessness.
Her parents loved her, much more than she was aware. But they came up short when lt came to expressing that love, not really knowing what to do. They were both very reserved, as were their parents before them. Being overtly loving simply did not run in the family. So when things had taken flight that day with Marceline, she felt that familiar spark that she was longing for. Marceline had given her love when there was nowhere to turn to receive lt. Unfortunately in this world, one cannot stand in line for their daily fill of love like collecting food stamps. Without Marceline, without ever truly being with Marceline, would she ever know that feeling again, that eveful shaid of pink & black splendiferous? Would she ever... feel like she wasn't alone? She fell to the floor & sat, tearing up, overwhelmed by her troubling thoughts.
"Goodbye, Marceline. Goodbye, forever.".
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Not all stories have a happy ending. Such is life.