Disclaimer: I do not own Jimmy Neutron.

Chapter 9: James' Confession

Cindy and Jimmy exchanged worried glances. What was he talking about? They had been so sure that he was telling the truth. What was this "confession" that he was referring to all of a sudden?

"Maybe he doesn't think that she'll believe him, so he's going to pretend that he did cheat on her after all, and then just apologize for it," Jimmy guessed.

"No, he's way to prideful to apologize for something that he didn't do," Cindy reminded him, shaking her head. Jimmy rolled his eyes, but didn't argue.

Cynthia's heart soared. He was finally going to tell her what she wanted to hear! It was almost too good to be true. Maybe Cindy had gotten to him after all.

"Cynthia, I never told you this, but…" James hesitated. "Betty had started to…communicate with me a few months ago."

"I knew it!" Cynthia cried out.

"Wait, listen," James told her, holding up a hand. "She started calling me on my cell phone and began telling me all these outrageous things."

"Like what?" Cynthia inquired, pressing for more information.

"It was all a bunch of stupid stuff. Like, that I was too good for you, and that she'd always loved me, and how we'd always been meant for each other." James' face turned red, and he clenched his fists tightly. "I never listened to a word of it, but I didn't want to tell you about it because I knew it would make you upset." He sighed remorsefully. "Now I see that I should've. Perhaps it would've prevented this whole mess."

"Continue," Cynthia nodded, mulling over this new information.

"Anyway, finally I blew up at her," James continued. "I insulted her, and told her not to ever call me again. Unfortunately, I think that was what caused her to go spread that rumor to everyone—it was sort of a way to get back at me."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Cynthia demanded.

"Because I—," James started to say.

"Wait, don't even say it. It's because it isn't true, is it?" she accused, suddenly angry again.

"What?" James exclaimed in surprise. "Of course it's true! How can you say that?"

"All you ever do is lie," Cynthia snapped. "How do you expect me to believe you? I don't trust you anymore, James. If you told me the whole story, then that would be different. But you're still trying to make yourself look like the good guy."

"Cynthia, that is the whole story," James insisted, heartbroken.

"That's it," she said abruptly. "I never wanted it to come to this, but—"

"Divorce papers?" Cindy cried out. "How could she do this?" Tears began streaming down her face. "I tried so hard…"

"You did everything you could, Cindy," Jimmy whispered. "It's not your fault."

"It is my fault, Jimmy!" Cindy sobbed. "You don't understand. She's me! I can't believe I turned out to be such a jerk. I hate myself!"

Jimmy rested his hand on her shoulder, gazing at her sadly. "Maybe we should just go home, Cindy," he suggested. "We should've never gotten involved."

"No! I can't!" she protested. "I have to fix this. I have to. I'm going to go give her a piece of my mind!"

"Cindy, wait!" Jimmy called, trying to prevent her from going upstairs. It was no use, however. She had already taken off towards the elevator. There was nothing left to do but follow her.

"I'm not going to divorce you, Cynthia," James was saying. "I love you."

"No, you don't!" Cynthia yelled, standing to her feet and pushing back the chair. He followed suit and stood up as well.

"Yes, he does!" Cindy yelled back, rushing in from the kitchen. Jimmy stood behind her silently.

"Cindy? Jimmy?" Cynthia gasped. "Where'd you two come from?"

"They were in the lab," James explained.

Cynthia turned to him angrily. "You mean to say that they saw and heard everything?" she demanded. He nodded. "I can't believe you did that! All that stuff that you did and said—it was planned, wasn't it? I bet they already told you about the twins and everything!"

"No, that's not true!" James protested frantically. He had hoped so badly that this would day would change everything—but all it was doing was making things worse. Suddenly he felt like he was losing her all over again.

"Oh, yeah, that's a likely story!" Cynthia said sarcastically.

"He's telling the truth!" Cindy shouted, her breathing heavy. "You're just too steadfast to listen!"

"What are you trying to say?" Cynthia asked defensively. "He's the stubborn one!"

Cindy shook her head fervently. "No, he's not," she said softly. "You said that he never admits to his mistakes—and he just did. He hadn't even told Jimmy or me about Betty's phone calls. He realized that it was wrong to keep it from you, and he apologized. Imagine how hard that was for him. If he cares enough about telling you that, don't you think he'd tell you if he was having an affair with her? He loves you a lot, Cynthia. You're just too blind to see that. I was too blind to see that." Here she gazed at Jimmy thoughtfully, wishing she could grab one of his hands.

Cynthia sighed. "I'm—I'm sorry, Cindy, I just can't believe that," she said slowly, shaking her head. She turned to James. "I'm sorry." Glancing at her watch and seeing that an hour and a half had already gone by, she pushed past Jimmy and Cindy and kept walking—all the way out of the front door.

A/N: I'm sorry if that one was a little bit on the short side. It might be my last chapter for a while, because I'm going back with my mom tomorrow. Also, I have to profusely apologize to all of those who read the mistake that I made in the last chapter! It has since been fixed, but I still feel awful that I didn't notice that after all of my proofreading!

kprrs3000: Thank you! Here's that chapter you asked for!

Sonomi-chan: Well, this chapter should've answered your question! I'm glad you liked the last one, and that I've been an inspiration to you! I'll be looking for those updates that you mentioned, LOL.

Hermione Granger63: Thank you so much for pointing that out to me; I can't believe that I missed that! Hope you liked Chapter 9!

acosta perez jose ramiro: Thank you! I'm glad that I seem to be doing a good job on them. Yes, Cynthia definitely has some problems right now, but she'll come around eventually...we hope.

starrlightstarbrite: I'm glad you liked it, but I'm so sorry about what that last line did to everyone! I still can't believe what a big mistake I did with that. Well, I hope you still like the rest of the story.

Lady Lola Laflaunda: He he, I left everyone with that line on purpose so that they'd start getting all confused and freaked out. Looks like it worked! Anyway, hopefully his explanation in this chapter was reassuring.

Emily: LOL, thank you! Here's the update you wanted. I hope it was quick enough!