Chapter Twenty Four

It was late. The sun had set hours ago and Double D sat alone in his room. The only illumination in the dark space came from the computer's monitor. Its light cast the shadow of the young man slouched in front of it across the wall behind him. He scrolled through the information on the display, skimming through the content of an online textbook for his sophomore semester. Both Ed and Eddy had been busy that afternoon and that had allowed him to get a head start on his upcoming classes. It was never a bad idea to get a leg up on this sort of thing, that was why he registered as early as he could. Doing so meant he could preorder his books weeks in advance and get a rough idea about all of the course info.

He blinked the sting out of his eyes. He'd been at work since earlier that day, and in that time staring at the screen was starting to affect him. He glanced away and down at his phone that sat next to him on the surface of his desk. He reached over and unlocked it, there were no new notifications, which wasn't a surprise to the young man. His friends were all busy with their girlfriends that night and he wanted them to have fun together. In that brief moment he thought, not for the first time, about what a wild ride the last few months had been for the six of them.

He shook his head and decided some music would be beneficial. He had been unaware of its ability to increase focus and productivity until he started working with Marie. In fact, his idea of what music was had been flipped on its head thanks to the girl. He had always appreciated it as an art form and even had a few favorites of his own, but the classical genre he had been introduced to by his parents conflicted with Eddy's less contemporary choices in music. So, he kept the stuff at arm's length as he was far more interested in more academic pursuits.

But Marie had introduced him to all new horizons of the medium with her vast knowledge in the field. At first, he felt the music was noisy and too abrasive. That was when he heard it in passing. When they would both set to work on their own individual assignments every night. But that changed when the two of them started working together more often. She would ask him what songs he wanted to hear, and when he had nothing specific to offer, she would press him.

To say she was surprised by the revelation that he didn't listen to music would have been an understatement. It wasn't so much that he had music enthusiast labeled on his forehead, it was more that music was so important to her that the idea of someone not even having a favorite type of music was strange and alien.

He tapped on a rock ballad she showed him that he enjoyed and listened as the music started wafting from the speakers of his phones into his ears. It filled the room with the only sounds that hadn't been keystrokes in quite some time. The guitar rifts and rhythmic bass line created a tune that he couldn't help but tap his foot to. The lyrics spoke of someone who filled the singer with a sense of joy and release they sang in repetitive verses.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, enraptured by the song. His mind drifted to Marie, it was doing that more and more on its own accord these days. Something about her…no everything about her had him hooked. To him, she was a breath of fresh air, a change of pace, a challenge to his norm. It was exciting. Maybe on a psychological level that was where the attraction had come from. He was smart and logical enough to understand that. But it wasn't smart and it wasn't logical. He had come to terms with that the moment he decided to embrace the challenge. When he jumped into that lake with her on that faithful night.

A smile crossed his lips as the memory played through his mind. What had possessed him to do such a thing? He never would have done something like that before. What could have made him throw both caution and his inhibitions to the wind like that? It was dumb and illogical. He knew that. He recognized that. But at the same time, it thrilled him. He found it invigorating.

The song came to a close and a different one played. This one more mellow and slow. The piano keys played and the singer, this one different from the last, spoke of a lost love. As the tempo picked up, he described the times they shared together and how often he still thought about it, and of course how he longed to relive it. This, of course, wasn't a possibility and the singer seemed to struggle with grasping that. All he had left were memories that would one day fade, memories of a time lost. The emotion weighed heavy in his voice and the lyrics he sang.

Love, Double D mused, wasn't the sort of thing that they made manuals for. It wasn't something that the scientific method could be applied to. It was sloppy and unpredictable. It was strange and anxiety inducing. It was wrought with highs and lows, and even the simplest of minds understood that the pain and feelings of uncertainty that went along with it made no sense in pursuing. But everyone did it anyway. It was fascinating.

It wasn't something he had a terrible amount of exposure to. He wasn't sure that his parents loved each other or if they ever did. To him, it seemed their union was one made on necessity and an idea of preservation. He'd felt a sense of warmth and welcome that one might call love in a more nurturing way from both Ed and Eddy's parents when his own were away. Missed holidays, birthdays, the sort of things he'd long since stopped noticing much less caring about. But they hadn't. He supposed he'd also known that sort of brotherly love that came from the comradeship of his two best friends. But romance? In that pursuit he was hopeless.

He didn't have to wonder why people pursued it, he knew that much. It was exciting. It was euphoric. A single high could make up for a lifetime of lows. Even with his limited understanding, he could understand that. After everything the Kanker Sisters had done to both him and his friends it made no sense to even be in the same room as any of them. Yet they had done it, and they would continue to do so much more. It just didn't make sense.

He forced his thoughts onto something new and tried to redirect them to the online copy of the textbook that was on his screen. But as the song continued his mind was filled with images of her. That was when it hit him. His thoughts, the things that danced in his mind's eye, the language and words he used in them…was he in love with Marie Kanker?

His eyes snapped open with enough speed that they must have made an audible sound. He scanned his immediate surroundings as if they held an answer to the hysteria that was mounting inside of him. It had started out innocent enough, two friends with a complicated past helping each other through college. Well, he was the one helping her, but that wasn't important. That had turned into a…curiosity. An interest, one could say. Maybe even a crush.

It was an innocent infatuation that grew as he attempted to ignore it. That had proven to be his Waterloo, however, and from there it morphed into something more. Something that he tried to understand and apply reason to. He learned more and more that it was something impossible, and from here…he didn't know where here was.

He knew that he liked her. That the attraction was undeniable at this point. But what did that mean? His thoughts were jumbled, and his mouth was dry. He felt the all too familiar sweat gather at his forehead, just under the brim of his trademark hat, and swallowed the lump in his throat. The question plagued his mind. Was he in love with Marie Kanker?

"Oh dear…" he muttered to himself. Both surprised by the sudden outburst and his ability to speak despite the odds. He straightened himself in his seat. He needed to think about this, needed to try to understand this. But the more he tried to, the more he realized that wasn't in the cards.

With a sharp intake of breath, he rose from his seat. Some fresh air would do him some good. Yes, that's what he needed. He stopped the song and pocketed the handheld device before he made his way out of his room and down the stairs. Once he was outside, he was met with a wall of humidity that made him feel hot and sweaty. He paid it no mind as he shut the door to his family's home and started down the sidewalk out of the cul-de-sac.

The insects of the summer buzzed around the streetlamps that lit his way. On a normal occasion, this would have been an excellent time to observe them and make notes. He'd done this exact thing several times in the past. Tonight, however, his mind was busy with a new challenge and Marie Kanker was every bit of a challenge.

As his feet carried him forward, he failed to notice how they turned him off the main sidewalk and down the alley between Rethink Avenue and the new development on the other side. It was only a handful of years ago that he and his friends would play at the construction site. He recalled a flawed attempt to recreate Rolf's illusive home country, the time Ed covered the place in red Qs as he followed the directions in one of his outlandish comic books, and of course the time both the Eds and the Kankers had an Old West style showdown when Eddy found the Canadian "squirt guns".

He was too caught up in his thoughts and reminiscing when he walked over the old board that the neighborhood kids stole from the aforementioned construction site to serve as a bridge over the stream that bisected the woods years ago. The same stream the Eds tried to use as a basis for a scam centered around luxury cruises, another one shattered by the three sisters when they played pirates.

He was too clouded in his own head to realize he had hopped over the pit of ever constant mud that seemed to remain no matter how long it went between rain showers or storms. The same pit he and his best friends fell in on that faithful day so long ago. The day they met their matches, the Kankers.

His feet carried him into the trailer park as his mind raced and once he was met with the low lights coming out of the windows coupled with the faint sounds of arguments and TV shows that came through the thin aluminum walls and it all mixed into an unmistakable background noise he realized where he was. His head shot up and he scanned his surroundings. Somehow, someway, in his confusion, he had walked all the way to Park N' Flush. Had his subconscious taken the driver's seat while his mind was focused on the problem that plagued him that night? Had fate stepped in and carried him to the destination his heart longed for, but his mind feared? Whatever the case, he was there, and it was too late to turn around. There she was.

She sat on the stoop of the small set of stairs that led up into her trailer. The same locale he, and everyone else for that matter, had avoided like the plague for so many years. Now he was walking up to it, and not against his will. The porch light flickered over her, bathing her in a hazy light. The moths collided with it, again and again, drawn into the warmth. It was a feeling Double D finally understood after years of observations and theories as he felt his feet come to life under him, they continued to carry him forward. A sense of longing formed a deep, nervous pit in his stomach.

She glanced up at the movement, ready to fight whatever drunk creep had noticed her when she saw it was him. Seeing his form softened her expression. He stepped into the light under shaky legs, his mouth a whole new definition of dry.

"What's up?" she asked as a grin snaked its way across her lips, "Get lost?"

He felt his own smile creep across his features as something took hold of him. The shy and calculating boy was nowhere to be found as he watched, through his own eyes as he approached. Every alarm bell was silenced, every caution was thrown out the window, and every logical reservation disappeared as he felt the creaky, wooden step under him as he sat next to her.

"Something like that." he breathed more than said.

"I'd offer you a drink, but all we have is tape water and powdered milk."

"It's fine."

"So…" she started, as she leaned back and propped her arms up on the landing in front of the door behind them.

"So." he echoed.

"What brings you all the way out here?" she asked. It was innocent and trying to get to the heart of the subject, but her voice betrayed her in showing its excitement.

"It's really not that far of a walk." he commented.

"True."

Silence enveloped them and for a stretch of uncounted minutes, all that could be heard was the cacophony of bugs colliding with the light behind him, the crickets wailing in the background, the voices from inside other trailers, and the window air conditioners that hummed and vibrated against aluminum frames. Not that either of them could hear that, their own thoughts and heartbeats hammered inside their chests and deafened them.

"You didn't answer the question." she squeaked and just like that she wanted to throw herself into the wall. Cool, badass, and hot Marie Kanker didn't squeak, damnit.

"I know." he replied, staring ahead out into the park around them. His eyes darted around his surrounding settling on everything except for her.

More silence.

"Want to give it a try?" she broke it again.

"I think so." he said in a reply that came a lot quicker than she expected, or even thought possible.

"Well? What brings you out here?" she repeated.

"You." he said, snapping his head around and staring into her eyes.

She slammed her lips against his and pulled him in with enough force that she feared she hurt him. Her inner monologue screamed at her, it begged her to stop, to do anything but this. The one thing that she knew she wanted more than anything else on Earth at that moment. But she couldn't! She could scare him away, hurt him, send him running back to the cul-de-sac like the old days. Ruining a year's worth of work. All the progress they had made. The friendship they'd built.

To her surprise, she felt him do the opposite of pull away. She felt him push into her, deepening the kiss. With that, she threw her inhibitions away. Wrapped her arms around him and forced herself to be as close to him as the laws of physics would allow, and to her delight, he returned the gesture.

How long they stayed like that, pressed against each other, lips locked in a passionate embrace was unknown to both of them. Neither wanted the moment to end. Both craved being stuck in that snapshot of time for the rest of eternity. Only the Sun exploding and washing the entire solar system in a cataclysm would stop them. But basic human biology had other plans, and the need for oxygen overtook them. They broke the embrace and stared into each other's eyes, panting, with foreheads touching.

And then they went in for another one.