Sorry for the delay but I was pretty busy yesterday so I didn't have time to get on this so without further delay, here's Chapter 3.

"Jt's just what? Mike is what? Cmon, spit it out already, red." Duncan said in a half-joking manner.

"Mike is…..gone." Zoey told him as she hid her face to hide the tears rolling down her eyes.

Duncan's eyes widened at the news. "Woah…. So ol' toothpick bit the dust huh….wow that sucks."

"Wait what?" Zoey looked back at Duncan with confusion. "No no you have it all wrong." She chuckled, wiping away some of the tears from her eyes. "I meant Mike's not in the country anymore."

"Oohh… that's what you meant. Wow I feel like Tyler right now." Duncan scratched his head in embarrassment with Zoey giggling at the action. "So when did he move and I'm assuming him moving would put some strain on your relationship with him."

"It's like you can read me like a book." Zoey joked in a sad manner. "But yes, you're right. The move definitely affected our relationship completely and even before then, I just realized how little Mike and I know about each other."

"Huh.. you don't say…." Duncan trailed off.

"Yeah." Zoey continued on. "I mean all we really knew about each other was that we liked waffles, action movies and nice people. I mean I didn't really know about what Mike wanted to be when he grows up or any of his dreams and vice versa. We were just focused on the love aspect of the relationship and dealing with his disorder but we never you know…. really got to actually grow as a couple since we didn't know that much about each other."

"Well at least you guys respected each other… "Duncan narrowed his eyes. "Unlike me and Courtney…" He muttered in a low voice.

"What was that?" Zoey questioned.

"Oh nothing," Duncan looked back at Zoey, who was giving him an "I don't believe you" look. "Seriously it's nothing… so go on, what caused the rift between you and Mike?"

"Well…. we just began having our differences after we got to learn more on what we like or dislike and it started to get constant. While Mike was never physically or verbally abusive towards me, the arguments just became too much and right there and then, I realized that me and Mike have more differences than I thought we did." Zoey started tearing up again, causing Duncan to place a hand on her shoulder as a sign of comfort despite his ego telling him he's a bad boy and bad boys don't comfort other people.

"Wow… it pretty much sounds like my relationship with Courtney the more you talk about your relationship with Mike." Duncan mused. "I mean when we got together, it was like fireworks but as time passed, all that feeling went away after I realized Courtney and I have pretty much nothing in common. I mean yeah it was kinda obvious from the start but back then….."Duncan took his hand off of Zoey's shoulder, which caused the girl to look up at him. His face was cold and emotionless. Like the old Duncan just disappeared and has been replaced by some doppelganger "She wasn't so bad…. back then…. back then….. she seemed to actually care about me. Like she had a heart. Then she changed and became more and more bossy along with ruthless. I may have been responsible for that."

"N-no! You can't blame yourself for the past!" Zoey exclaimed as she grabbed Duncan's hand. "I mean I've seen the show from the beginning and if anybody's responsible for Courtney's behavior, it's Courtney. Nobody else."

Duncan chuckled at the comment. "I'd like to think that but the same thing happened with Gwen too. I mean yeah her case wasn't as bad as Courtney's, but she changed as well once All-Stars began and was being distant towards me for some reason. She didn't even bother to tell me or maybe I didn't bother to listen. I just don't know."

Zoey was looking at the hidden sorrow coming from the normally level headed delinquent's face and for the first time since she first saw him while watching Total Drama Island, she saw a side of Duncan that she didn't know that existed. That the world didn't know that existed just like they didn't believe he had a soft side. She's seeing a sign of regret. Something Duncan's never shown once on the show so to Zoey, this is all new.

"Duncan…." Zoey squeezed his hand as a way to comfort him. "You're not a bad person. Sure you make mistakes, but that's just how humans are. Nobody's perfect. You can't keep beating yourself up over the past. All you have to do is look forward to tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Duncan inquired looking up at Zoey.

"Yes because tomorrow is the first step towards the future. Because with tomorrow comes endless possibilities. That's pretty much what I've been telling myself after things went down the way they did with Mike.." Zoey's grip on Duncan's hand, loosened a bit at the thought of Mike.

"Yeah you never did finish your story on what happened with Mike because I had to bombard you with my own failed romance." Duncan chuckled, jokingly. "My bad."

"It's ok." Zoey giggled before getting serious once again. "It's not your fault, well to pretty much finish it off…. Mike's family decided to move out of the country to explore new opportunities with Mike no longer having his disorder and all. When he first told me about this, I was devastated. I didn't want to lose Mike and he felt the same way but at the same time, our relationship wasn't really going anywhere so it just…" For the third time today, Zoey was on the verge of tears as she gripped Duncan's hand tighter to control herself with Duncan subconsciously placed his right hand on her hand to keep her from losing it.

"You don't have to go any further if you don't want to…" Duncan spoke, gently. "I can see how painful this is for you. We don't have to talk about this any—"

"No." Zoey whispered. "I need to talk about it. To let it all out after keeping it in for more than a year. As you know, I don't have a lot of friends besides Cameron and Gwen…. and I didn't have the courage or the willpower to talk to them about it without breaking down completely but I believe that the sooner I get this off my chest, the better." She looked back at Duncan to see if he was paying attention and once she saw that he was, she took a deep breath and finished her story.

"I…. decided that we should break up." Zoey began, practically crushing Duncan's hand at this point. "He took it so hard, like I just destroyed his whole world. I just felt it wouldn't work out when we live like thousands of miles away from each other. It just wasn't fair to Mike and I believe he should start his life over completely with him now being free of his disorder. I-I did it for him! Because I loved him!" At this point, Zoey was sobbing grabbing the attention of some of the customers nearby with Duncan sending a glare at each and every one of them in a "Turn the fuck around and continue eating your slop or else" manner with everyone pretty much obeying and turning their attention back to their meal. Duncan returned his attention at the sobbing girl and held her hand tightly.

"Zoey… it's ok. You did what you had to do. You did it for him so you shouldn't keep kicking your own ass over it." Duncan said trying to calm the red head down.

"Then why does it still hurt? Why do I feel like I'm in the wrong for doing such a thing?" Zoey whimpered as the tears continued flowing down her cheeks.

"Because… you really liked him and for his own good, you made the sacrifice on letting him go." Duncan whispered. "He might not have known it back then, but I'm sure now he understands what you were trying to do for him and is probably thanking you wherever he is."

"You really think so?" Zoey sniffled as the sobs began dying down.

"I know so. Now cmon, as you just told me a couple of minutes ago, you have to forget about the past and look forward to tomorrow. After all, tomorrow usually brings in endless possibilities, right?" Duncan winked causing the girl to giggle as she let go of Duncan's hand to wipe away the remaining tears on her face.

"Thanks Duncan…. I really appreciate it. I always knew you were a sweet guy. I feel better telling you everything. " Zoey smiled.

"S-sweet? I'm not sweet! I just didn't want to see you crying, that's all!" Duncan grunted which Zoey laughed at. "I'm serious…. Duncans aren't sweet."

Zoey grinned. "Except this one." She poked him on the nose causing the delinquent to growl as Zoey giggled at Duncan's reaction. Then they both looked down at the table and realized something crazy: they were still holding hands. Finally noticing this, they both let go turning away from the other with their faces red.

"Uhh sorry… I didn't mean to invade your personal space." Zoey blushed in embarrassment.

"It's cool…" Duncan shrugged trying to play it cool despite his face being as red as a tomato. "No biggie.."

Then silence took over as the two former All-Stars looked at anywhere but each other as the employee finally came to the table with Duncan's food.

"Here's your meal sir, sorry for the wait." The male employee said.

"Well it's about time. I could have used this time to take a nap if I knew how slow the service would be." Duncan grumbled as he took the food and started attacking it out of hunger.

"So… what do you plan to do now?" Zoey asked.

"What do you mean?" Duncan mumbled with food in his mouth.

"Well what I mean is, where you plan to go?" Zoey reiterated. "I mean you said you left your old group behind so do you plan to go home or something?"

Duncan swallowed his food and looked at the girl before erupting in laughter. "Are you kidding me? The last place I'd go back to is that place with those people. My dad pretty much hates me and I bet would cuff me if he heard I was with a gang. Ma is probably the only person I could somewhat tolerate but I would risk total freedom for her so…..basically no way in hell."

"But they're your parents!" Zoey protested. "I'm sure they must be worried about you. Wouldn't it be nice to at least give them a call or something?"

"Yeah that would be nice of me to do, but I'm NOT a nice guy, remember?" Duncan smirked.

"Whatever you say." Zoey rolled her eyes, playfully. "But where do you plan to stay at?"

"I don't know. Maybe an old bud of mine like Geoff or DJ would put me up or something." Duncan responded nonchalantly as he sipped his soda.

Zoey then narrowed her eyes as she played with her fingers. "You could stay with me." She whispered.

Duncan turned around and spit his food at a middle aged man's head as he turned around , ignoring the curses from behind him.

"What did you just say?" Duncan gawked.

"I said you could stay with me until you can find a place of your own…. unless you don't want to!" Zoey rubbed her arm nervously.

Duncan's never thought Zoey would be so bold asking something like that. Though at this point, he doesn't really have a lot of options as Geoff probably forgot about him after all these years since he's most likely still with Bridgette and DJ… well Duncan wouldn't want to deal with 24 hours of DJ's mama's sass. He had dealt with plenty of it with Leshawna back in the earlier days of Total Drama.

"Ok.. if you're alright with it, I'm down." Duncan said.

"Perfect!" Zoey smiled. "So once you finish eating, I can give you a ride to my apartment."

"Um nuh-uh. I've got a motorcycle with saddlebags. I ride solo, sweetie." Duncan proclaimed as he folded his arms.

"Whatever you say, Mr. Bad Boy." Zoey giggled.

"Actually, we can leave now because I'm pretty much done." As he said this, Duncan went to toss all his remaining food in the trash before he made his way back to the table. "You ready to go?"

"Sure, let's head on out." Zoey smiled which Duncan returned back before scowling to look badass in front of people causing Zoey to laugh out loud. As they made their way to the entrance, Duncan tripped a guy putting his food in the trash.

"Hey! What the hell is your problem?!" The guy yelled.

"Oops my bad!" Duncan gasped. "Let me help you up, man." As he bended down to help the guy up and his items, he took out 50 dollars from the wallet and swiftly put the wallet back in the guy's pocket without him noticing. "Really dude, sorry for that. I wasn't paying attention."

"Whatever, man." Then the man walked away with Duncan grinning as he walked away with Zoey.

"Ha. Dumbass." Duncan snickered as he went on his motorcycle.

"What's so funny?" Zoey asked.

"Nothing, lead the way, indie chick."

With no more words said, Zoey went in her car and pulled out as she made her way to the exit with Duncan following right behind her. Duncan's adventure just got more interesting… but what of the guys he left behind?

A couple hours later, dusk hit the skies as Alejandro, Lightning and Scott stopped by at a local bar to get a few drinks and try to have a good time… at least Lightning and Scott were as Alejandro was currently frustrated about something.

"Ugh, I can't believe mi amor Heather cancelled our date tonight." Alejandro complained. "Now I'm stuck here in this middle- class bar."

"Jeez, quit complainin' will ya?" Scott rolled his eyes. "We get to get buzzed as much as we like and for a good price since the owner is pretty much afraid of us after what we did the last time we were here."

Lightning chuckled. "Sha-yeah. Lightning remembers it like it was yesterday. I've never seen a guy piss his pants and shit his pants at the same time. I should have taken a video of it." Lightning and Scott laughed at the comment while Alejandro rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"I'm sure we'd all like to remember that wonderful moment but…. " Alejandro glanced at his phone. "I've also been trying to get ahold of Duncan but he hasn't picked up."

"You're still trying to call him?" Scott groaned. "Forget it. He walked out on us because he was too "sensitive" to the criticism against him. I say we don't need him."

"Which is why you were asking earlier if he picked up?" Alejandro smirked.

"I asked just so you could stop calling him like every hour." Scott glared. "As if I'd care if that punk ever called back."

"Whatever, you say my friend." Alejandro turned around and saw Lightning staring at the door. "What's up with you?"

"Sha-damn… who are those girls?" Lightning stared as Alejandro and Scott looked in the direction the jock facing. At the door stood, four girls who look about a year younger than Lightning and Scott an older lady but with her appearance, she could be mistaken in her 20's due to her beauty.

A/N: I'm going to end it here to keep you all in wonder. Who are the mysterious women? How will the RVB react? How will Duncan's living arraignment with Zoey fare? These questions will be answered next chapter. I know that Topher and Ella weren't in this chapter but I wanted to fully focus on Duncan and Zoey's interactions before moving on. Topher and Ella will most likely appear again next chapter and then we'd go from there. Hoping to get the chapter out either tomorrow or Friday depending on my schedule. Hope you guys liked this chapter! Until next time!