Disclaimer – I don't own Jimmy Neutron nor any other referenced media material.
Jimmy, Cindy and Paul had congregated around the entrance to the jungle, where the overhanging leaves provided partial shelter from the rain. Fortunately, the rain was not too heavy and the temperature was still very warm, which made the weather tolerable. Jimmy had activated the hover-car's shield so that it was protected by a dome-like plastic cover. Currently, all three friends were staring at it.
The embodiment of their coming exodus.
"You don't think it's going to storm, do you?" Cindy asked as she examined the hover-car. "Might be a little difficult to get back home riding that."
"No, we should be good," Jimmy said. "I checked the weather forecast before we left. There was a chance of rain, but nothing more than that. Believe me Cindy, if I had seen there was a hurricane or something coming, I would have picked a different spot."
"Right."
They listened to the rain fall. It had settled into a steady, pattering rhythm, which would have put them to sleep if they weren't so wired up. Instead, perhaps because they were so tense, the rain only increased their anxiety.
Jimmy watched as a water droplet dripped from a leaf. It fell onto a coconut, and then slid across the curved exterior, where it finally dripped again to the sand below, to its demise.
At the moment, Jimmy couldn't help feeling sort of like a water droplet himself.
"Well," he said, preparing to ask the question on everyone's mind. "What should we do now?"
The only answer Jimmy received was the falling rain. Cindy was looking down at her lap, her damp hair beginning to cling to her cheek. Paul was idly tracing a line in the wet earth with his finger. During the last half hour, the little monkey had become very quiet.
"We still have fifty minutes left," Jimmy said. He was determined not to let the rest of their time go to waste. "Any ideas?"
There was no immediate response.
"I got nothing," Cindy said. She folded her hands together. "I think we went every place we could hit Neutron. Even if we wanted to go somewhere else, it's too dark to see where we're going."
"I-I could fire up the sun again," Jimmy insisted. He proffered his watch. "Just another hour wouldn't hurt."
Jimmy was about to retract the panel from his wristband when he felt a hand on his arm. He looked at Cindy to find her staring at him sadly but firmly. The blonde guided his arm away from the watch.
"It's over Jimmy," she said. Her eyes were pleading, but her head was shaking. "Even with the artificial daylight, where would we go? Any of the places we haven't visited yet would take too long to find. Why don't we just stay put?"
Jimmy climbed to his feet. "You want to give up that easily?" he exclaimed. He turned and began shuffling about.
"No one's giving up," Cindy said. "But our time's running out. That's a fact." She patted the empty space beside her. "Sit down next to me Jimmy; you're making me nervous."
"If I sit down any longer I think I'll go crazy! Waiting around like that." Jimmy ran his hands through his hair. His mind was cranking furiously, desperate to come up with a way out of his predicament. He shot Cindy a glance. "We could just go home early."
The blonde made no reaction to his statement.
"We can go to the lab and I can show you what I've been up to lately. O-Or we could go to The Candy Bar. Sam told me he'd keep it open all night if I wanted him to. Or we could break into Retroland." Jimmy began chuckling. "R-Remember when we did that Cindy? Back in fifth grade. I could jumpstart the rides and we could go for free! Just you and me."
"Or we could just stay here," Cindy said. Her glistening forehead wrinkled in concern at Jimmy. "And you're forgetting about Paul. We're the ones who went through the trouble of finding him. After we leave here today, he's probably never going to see us again."
The little monkey scrambled over to Cindy, where she hoisted him up by the underarms and placed him on her lap. She patting him gently, all the while eying Jimmy. "We owe him some time too."
"And what exactly are we going to do here for the next fifty minutes?" Jimmy said.
The rain started coming down a little more heavily.
Cindy was slightly hurt by Jimmy's tone of voice. "Talk," she said with a frown.
In her twin emeralds, Jimmy found nothing but sorrowful acceptance. It was too much to bear. He wasn't ready for that cup of poison just yet. There had to be another way.
"Talk about what?" he asked. He had to raise his voice to be heard over the rising precipitation.
"I think we have ample topics to choose from," Cindy said. For the first time, she was sounding faintly annoyed. "You wanted to have 'healthy, spontaneous fun' Jimmy. Well we did. Now, since we're both about to enter a new chapter in our lives, maybe we could use some closure."
Something in Jimmy's face darkened. He crossed his arms, staring hard at Cindy. "Closure?"
"Do I have an echo out here?" Cindy exclaimed. Seeing that Jimmy was no longer capable of sitting, Cindy placed Paul to the side and stood up herself, so that she faced the teen genius. She threw her hair back, so that her soaked locks fell behind her shoulders.
"All I asked was a question," Jimmy said.
"All you've been asking are questions," Cindy retorted.
Feeling the mounting tension, Paul flattened himself against the ground.
"It's called the Socratic method Vortex."
"Well at least Socrates had the guts to do what needed to be done!"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
At this, Cindy stopped. She squeezed her eyes shut, and then opened them. Her fingernails dug into her palms. Slowly, her lungs expanded with air, and then contracted. She willed her mind into focus.
"If you had asked me that at any point other than tonight, I would have beaten you to a pulp." She took another deep breath. It was a strain to keep calm. "I think we both know that there is some unfinished business between us, and that it is in our best interest to solve it before you leave. Even if resolving that business may be difficult, even if it may be unpleasant, I think we should give it some serious consideration."
The defiance in Jimmy's eyes and posture was gone, but all the same, he didn't seem too receptive to Cindy's words. His hard gaze was fixed on the muddy sand beneath their feet.
"Let me continue," Cindy said, determined to crack Jimmy's shell. "Ever since we met all the way back in the third grade, there have been moments between us that have been, for lack of a better word…confusing."
"Cindy, why are you bringing up all of this right now?" Jimmy snapped.
"And those moments continued," Cindy said forcefully, "to happen periodically as time went by. And when we got into the fifth grade, things between us started changing."
"I don't have time to listen to this," Jimmy said with a dismissive shake of the head.
"You'll make time to listen if you know what's good for you!" Cindy shot back. "In the fifth grade, things started changing! We still acted like we hated each other, but every so often, the tables turned. It was more than just little moments now. We had whole exchanges, sometimes even hours together at a time, where we acted civil toward one another other and we found, to our great surprise, that we actually enjoyed each other's company!"
Jimmy kept staring at the ground. He could have melted a hole in the island with the intensity of his gaze.
"We went on adventures together. We saved the world the world together. We even got stranded on this stupid island together!" Cindy had stamped her foot when she said 'island.' "And you know what? You know what happened at the end of fifth grade?"
Jimmy said nothing.
"By some miracle, by some act of some god, not that you've ever believed in one, you Jimmy Neutron," Cindy pointed her finger at Jimmy, "you, of your own free will and of sound body and mind, you kissed me! After Libby had been telling the whole school about all our little 'moments' together, you just took me aside and kissed me. No alibi. No explanation. You just did it."
Jimmy said nothing.
"And you know what happened then?" Cindy's voice had obtained a quaver. "After all that, like all the times before, things just went back to the way they were. Like that moment had never happened."
Jimmy said nothing.
"And then sixth grade happened. And things became even more different. We started going through puberty. We had hormones. We became attracted to each other – don't you dare deny it Jimmy– we became attracted to each other in ways we didn't even expect. But no matter how many moments, or exchanges, or hours we had together, things always went back to the way they were!"
Jimmy said nothing.
"We got so close Jimmy. So many times, we got so close. We even became good friends! But it all never got past that point. This went on for the rest of seventh grade, and eighth grade. And in the ninth grade…"
Cindy had to stop. She needed a pause to collect her emotions. She couldn't break down just yet. She had to finish what she started.
"In the ninth grade, everything stopped." Cindy paused again. "Just like that. The Missionaries contacted you, and you practically spent the next four years in your lab, working on your application. We didn't have any little moments after that. I barely saw you. We barely spent anymore time together. You changed. And I thought I had lost you."
Once again, Jimmy said nothing.
"Fast-forward four years." Cindy's voice had regained its tough edge. With it, the rain intensified. She had to practically shout to make herself heard. "The Missionaries accepted you. Your dream became reality. And you finally had the resources to spread that dream throughout the universe. You were ecstatic. Except that as the clock wound down, so did you, and you finally had the time to realize how much you were going to miss everyone and everything once you had left planet earth. And for some reason for the past several weeks, you kept staring at my house. Yes, I noticed! And tonight, when I confronted you, you whisked me away on another adventure. And I had a wonderful time, just like always. But Jimmy, we have less then an hour left."
Cindy gazed imploringly at the taciturn genius.
"Less than an hour left to make some sense out of all of this. But no matter which angle I come at, you either pretend like you don't understand what I'm saying, or you say nothing altogether." Cindy clenched her jaw tightly. "After all we've been through, how is it that when I tell you we need closure, you don't understand?"
Cindy didn't wait for an answer this time. She bridged the gap between her and Jimmy and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. "For the love of God Jimmy, if there was ever a time you wanted to say anything to me, anything at all, now is that time!"
The rain was everywhere. It bore down heavily on them, making it difficult to keep their eyes open. Despite this challenge, Cindy forced hers open, making Jimmy look at them. It was green versus blue. Blue versus green. A staring contest that neither of them wanted to lose.
"I'm waiting!" Cindy said. Her lips curled around her teeth. "I asked you to say it on the ride over here, now I'm asking you to say it again." She waited. "We're out here alone on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Now's your chance! Say it!"
"How can you expect me to say it Cindy?" Jimmy exclaimed at last. He caught Cindy's hands in his and squeezed them. He shook his head. "How can you ask that from me?"
"It's easy!" Cindy shouted. "People've been saying it for centuries!" To this, Jimmy made no response. "Jimmy Neutron, you are leaving the Milky Way galaxy in a matter of hours!"
"THAT'S EXACTLY MY POINT!" Jimmy screeched.
A fork of lightning shot through the sky, followed by an explosion of thunder. While the rain had been coming down hard before, now, it began hammering down in punishing sheets.
"Don't you get it Cindy? The very reason you're telling me I should say it is the very reason I can't say it! I'm leaving in the morning; it could be years before I come back!"
"Don't give me this martyr crap Neutron! That's not the reason you can't say it!" Cindy jabbed a finger into Jimmy's chest. "You can't say it because you're afraid of what'll happen if you do!"
"No I'm not!" Jimmy tried to shove Cindy's finger away, but she shoved it right back at him.
"You just can't face the music!" she said. "You keep all your emotions bottled up inside, and now that it matters, you're trying to throw them all away!"
"THEN WHERE DO YOU GET OFF, HUH?"
A flash of lightning revealed the fullness of Jimmy's face, distorted by fury.
"You're all too eager to pile all the blame on me, to say that I've changed, to order me to proclaim my feelings when you won't take any responsibility for yourself!"
Jimmy had had it with Cindy's tirade. He was taking the wheel.
"You're the one who started all this Cindy! Ever since we met in third grade, you've treated me like the plague and you never gave me a reason why!"
"YOU KNOW WHY!" Cindy hollered.
"I SHOULD KNOW WHY BUT YOU NEVER CONFIRMED IT! YOU KEEP TELLING ME HOW I NEED TO SAY 'IT'," Jimmy stuck his thumb at himself, "BUT YOU'RE TOO MUCH OF A COWARD TO SAY 'IT' YOURSELF!"
"I'M TRYING!"
"THAT'S FUNNY, 'CAUSE ON THE WAY OVER HERE, I REMEMBER YOU SAYING THAT YOU DIDN'T WANT ANYTHING HAPPENING BETWEEN US THAT WE MIGHT REGRET!"
"I CHANGED MY MIND!"
"WHAT HAPPENS IF ONE OF US SAYS IT VORTEX?"
Jimmy had screamed so loud this time that both he and Cindy quieted.
"WHAT HAPPENS IF ONE OF US SAYS IT?" he repeated. "I'LL TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENS: NOTHING! I SAY IT, YOU SAY IT, IT DOESN'T MATTER! I'M LEAVING IN FIVE HOURS AND THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT!"
"YOU WIMP!"
Cindy wasn't going down without a fight. If this screaming match was being decided by volume, then she was giving it every decibel she had.
"YOU THINK THAT WE SHOULD AVOID ALL THIS ALTOGETHER BECAUSE IT WILL BE TOO PAINFUL?" she cried in disbelief. "I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU PAL, BUT I'D RATHER TAKE THE PAIN AND DEAL WITH IT NOW, THEN AVOID IT AND HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!"
"ONE OF THE MISSIONS I HEARD ABOUT LASTED FOR TEN YEARS CINDY!"
Lightning flashed just then, revealing not only fury, but terror, on Jimmy's face.
"TEN. YEARS."
Cindy spat out a mouthful of rainwater "GOOD! IF YOU WIND UP ON ONE LIKE THAT, MAYBE IT'LL GIVE YOU ENOUGH TIME TO GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT!"
The thunder exploded.
"It'll kill us," Jimmy croaked. His voice has grown hoarse from the shouting. He shook his head at Cindy, all his anger dissolving into despair. The rain had drenched his hair, making it fall into his eyes. "If we started something. If we tried to hold on to each other. Cindy, we could never make it."
"MAYBE IT'LL KILL YOU NEUTRON, BUT I'M NOT GOIN' DOWN SO EASILY!"
The thunder crashed again and the lightning followed, leaving Jimmy like a deer caught in headlights. He had run out of excuses, and he had run out of answers. It was clear now that no amount of deliberating would change Cindy's mind. She had made her choice, and with the iron will that only she possessed, that choice would never be altered.
Jimmy didn't know what to do.
"NOW FOR THE LAST TIME!" Cindy yelled. Her eyes flashed like flames. "THIS IS YOUR CHANCE! THE PART WHERE THE HERO TELLS THE GIRL WHAT HE'S BEEN WANTING TO SAY TO HER HIS WHOLE LIFE!"
The words had caught in Jimmy's throat. He wanted to say them. He tried to say them. But he just couldn't get them out. His heart hammered in his chest as he tried to.
And tried to.
And tried to.
"WELL?"
It was no use. It felt like Jimmy's vocal cords had been sabotaged. No matter how hard he tried to form the syllables, there just weren't any to draw from. His panicking climaxed when he saw Cindy stick out her arms and throw them down.
"FOR-GET IT!"
Jimmy had never seen Cindy so mad in his entire life.
"IF WE CAN'T EVEN COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER, THEN YOU'RE RIGHT! FORGET IT!"
Cindy turned on her heel and stormed away from Jimmy. She was headed out onto the beach, away from the hover-car. And she wasn't looking back.
"I wouldn't want to be with a jelly-boned wuss like you anyway! Go back home and blast out of the solar system for all I care! You can tell Libby to come with the hover-car and pick me up when you're gone!"
It was like it happened in slow motion. Jimmy saw her as she was leaving, the girl who had been the source of so much of his passion, and fear, for the past nine years. The thunder crashed, the lightning flashed, and the rain fell. His tongue was knots. He couldn't call out her name, in spite of how badly he wanted to. The only thing at this point that seemed to be working were his limbs. And as he saw her going away, the girl who had turned his life upside down, he only knew one thing. And that one thing, was that he had to get her back at all costs.
Jimmy started running.
Cindy, not thinking it could be possible to feel any lower, was about ten feet away from the hover-car when she was grabbed by the shoulders.
"Where do you think you're going?" Jimmy exclaimed.
Cindy violently pushed him away from her. "DON'T TOUCH ME NEUTRON! I TOLD YOU TO GO BACK HOME AND LEAVE ME BEHIND!"
She tried to turn around again, but Jimmy grabbed her by the arm.
"GET OFFA ME!"
Jimmy was determined to hold onto her if it was the last thing he did.
"No!"
"I SAID GET OFF!"
"NO!"
"I SAID...GET…OFF!"
Using all her strength, Cindy hit Jimmy's chest with both hands. Jimmy went flying backward, landing hard on his back, the breath knocked out of him. His eyes watered as he struggled to lift his head, only to find Cindy continuing her single-minded trek away from him. Trembling, he balled his hands into fists. Mud squirted out of his palms. His blood caught on fire.
At the same time the thunder exploded, so did Jimmy.
"VORTEX!"
By the time Cindy heard this, it was too late. She froze. Jimmy had caught up to her, and there was no time to react.
"I–"
Jimmy caught her by the shoulders.
"SAID–"
He forced her around.
"NO!"
He held her in place.
And then he crashed his lips against hers.
It was the second time Jimmy and Cindy had kissed in real life, but it was nothing like the first. The first kiss was private, sweet-tempered, and almost as an afterthought. This kiss on the other hand, while it was private, shared none of those other attributes. It was raw. It was harsh. It was primal. And it was completely premeditated.
Jimmy crushed Cindy's lips with every ounce of strength he possessed. He went at it until muscle failure. He didn't care if it hurt, he didn't care if it left a mark. In fact, he hoped it left a mark. He hoped that the grooves he left in Cindy's lips from pushing them against her teeth were so deep, that they never wore off. He hoped that those grooves became embedded within her flesh forever, so that no matter what happened, she always had something to remember him by.
When the kiss finally did end, Jimmy moved his face away. He had given it all he had. He hadn't held back. He didn't know what this did to him, Cindy, or his coming departure, but he did know that ultimately, he had played his hand.
"YOU IDIOT!"
Cindy slapped Jimmy hard on the face, causing the teen genius to stagger back a couple of steps. When he had recovered, he looked at the blonde, finding her face to be a swirling tide of emotion. The rain had lessened somewhat, and was falling in a steady patter, down Cindy's hair and cheeks. As Cindy panted, tears brimmed on her eyelids.
"Well," she said with a snarl. She gave Jimmy a look of utter contempt. "My turn!"
Before Jimmy could react, Cindy had grabbed a hold of both of his cheeks and delivered a violent kiss of her own. The force of her action drove them both to the ground.
"You…" she said, kissing him in between words, "Are so…stupid."
Jimmy gasped for breath, burying a kiss into Cindy's neck. "I know," he wheezed, huffing and puffing. "I'm a Class A fool…huh?"
"You're telling me…" Cindy replied, planting one on his forehead. "…Neutron."
They did nothing for the next several minutes except plaster their lips all over each other. During their silent passion, the storm began dying down, the lightning and thunder gone, the rain lessening with every passing second. When Jimmy and Cindy had kissed each other enough, they held one another by the face. Cindy, who was on top of Jimmy, peered into his deep blue eyes.
"I'm so sorry Jimmy!" she cried, tears now running down her face. She pressed down her head, so that her eyes were as close to Jimmy's as physically possible. Even so, this was nowhere near close enough. "I should have told you how I felt. I should have told you that I loved you…since I was only eight-years-old." Cindy turned and placed her lips near Jimmy's ear. "Since the moment I first saw you. So long ago."
She buried her head against Jimmy's neck.
"Don't cry Cindy," Jimmy said. He massaged her along the back, wishing he could rub out her misery. He let out a long sigh. "Don't cry." He pulled her, the girl he loved, against himself. The pain of regret was overwhelming. "I had my chances too. So many chances that I never took. I'm just as guilty."
"Oh Jimmy. I'm so scared to lose you!"
Jimmy propped her up, so that they could look into each other's eyes. He caressed her cheek. "For now we have this moment," he told her. "For now…we have each other."
He closed his eyes, Cindy closed hers, and they embraced each other until their strength ran out.
"Oh Jimmy!"