Next chapter.
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Chapter 4: Make You Cry (Part 2)
"Ten bucks to buy you flowers
You say they're pretty
And you put them in a vase and say goodnight
Not quite what I had hoped for
Me, I've got nothing left but time
To try again and it's alright
Because I know you care
You just don't care for me
On some sunny day you're gonna fall for me
The way I fell for you
That's when I'm gonna make you cry"
- Jonathan Coulton
Thomas sighed and rapped his fingers on the steering wheel, "We're never gonna get out of here."
"Why didn't you follow Moredecai?"
He let a short laugh out, "We're not exactly in a truck, y'know?"
CJ continued leaning against the door.
Thomas glanced over, "Something wrong?"
She thought a moment before answering, "What was up with you earlier?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, pretending he didn't understand.
"When we were talking to them before the movie, you got all paranoid and drug us to another line."
"Oh. Well, you know, that's a touchy subject with Mordecai."
She turned and looked at him. He kept glancing between her and the windshield while clearing his throat.
"You're not telling me something."
He laughed and shook his head, "No, come on, you're talking crazy…"
She held her gaze until he sighed.
"It's a long story, okay?"
She looked back through the windshield, "Well, we got time."
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Mordecai laughed as he threw the shifter into park outside the apartment building, "As if. That's nearly impossible."
"We'll see who's laughing when swarms of turkey's rule the country."
"That's probably just tabloid journalism…"
There was another stretch of silence.
"Uh, anyway, thanks for going. It would've sucked seeing it by myself."
Eileen nodded and unbuckled her seatbelt, "Thanks for asking. It got me away from the apartment for awhile."
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure things'll get better soon."
Eileen had opened the door, but pulled it closed, "You mind if I ask you something?"
Mordecai blinked for a moment, "No, what is it?"
"Do you think it's worth trying anymore?"
"Huh?"
She spent a moment thinking about what she said before she answered, "Well, Margaret really hasn't caught the hint that you like her, and Rigby is a jerk anyway you say it, but what I meant was, do you think it's worth chasing after them when there's a whole world full of people that we still haven't met? Like, what if there's the possibility of finding someone better than who we like?"
Mordecai began to say something but stopped suddenly. He looked over the steering wheel, as if there was an answer in it's scuffed and worn exterior.
At length, he shifted back into drive and held his foot on the brake, "Thanks again for going, i'll see you around."
Eileen nodded and opened the door again, "Sorry, it's just been on my mind a lot lately."
"It's okay. I just wasn't expecting it is all."
"See ya."
He waited until she was inside before he left. As he drove off, he leaned against the door and contemplated what he was asked. It wasn't the question that scared him, but more the answer to it.
The sound of beeping startled him out of his thoughts and brought his attention to the instrument panel. A light with the symbol of a gas pump started beeping as the fuel gauge reached nearly empty.
He sighed, "That's an easier question to answer."
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He pulled to a stop at the pumps outside the AM/PM and shut off the engine. He walked to the gas pump and swiped the gas card Skips had given him and began to fill the tank.
Leaning against the truck, he glanced toward the building and seen two shaggy haired heads slowly peak up from behind the window.
Waving caused them to quickly disappear below the wall.
With a shrug, he waited for the machine to beep before replacing the nozzle.
After twisting on the cap and closing the fuel door, he jumped back behind the wheel and started the engine. The fuel gauge rose quickly back to the full mark.
Nodding out of approval, he drove to the exit and waited for the police cruiser to enter the lot before he drove back to the house.
Instead of the vacant lot he was expecting, it was occupied by Muscle Man, Fives, and Skips crouched around the smoking cart.
"Hey, what's going on?"
Everyone looked in his direction when he ran over.
"Cart's busted bro," Muscle Man said with a shake of his head, "Drove here to get Skips and it started smoking."
Mordecai sniffed the air, "Aww, man, what's that smell?"
Skips stood up and wiped his forehead, "The batteries are boiling. The regulator shorted out and started overcharging them."
"Can you fix it?" asked Fives, a note of worry hanging in his voice.
"Of course I can, but it needs a new regulator, and without one it isn't going anywhere tonight."
Muscle Man threw his hands up and ran to a nearby tree, "Lame! Bro's night is ruined!"
Gripping the tree, he proceeded to squeal and shake it until it snapped at the trunk. He held his weapon over his head and charged at the cart.
"Whoah, hold on!" Mordecai yelled, causing him to stop in his tracks, "We can take the truck, it's running fine."
Skips nodded, "That's not a bad idea. We'd get there faster than if we took the cart, anyway!"
"Bro's night is back on!" Fives cheered.
Muscle Man lost his grip on the tree, causing it to crush him into the ground.
From under the tree trunk, Muscle Man's arm raised up in a fist and the faint sound of 'Whoop!' could be heard.
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"So, how much longer until we get there?"
Skips pointed to a road they approached, "Turn here. Not much longer, we should be getting close."
Mordecai followed the instructions, "So, where'd you guys hear about this place?"
"This place was posted all over the internet! Tonight's the grand opening!" Fives yelled from the backseat.
"This gonna be awesome!" Muscle Man added while he began thrashing, causing the car to veer across the road.
"Whoa, chill out! It wouldn't be fun if we got killed on the way there!"
"I can't help it, bro, I've been looking forward to this all month!"
Mordecai looked in the mirror, "Hey, where'd he go?"
There was a loud thump on the roof as another muffled 'Whoop' started.
"Should've known."
"We're here!"
When the building came into view the sight nearly took his breath.
The large parking lot was lit by large flood lights attached to the end of thick poles that stretched far into the air. It was filled to the edges with customized hot rods and street cars. As they pulled in, a small foreign car and a large muscle car sped from the lot and raced down the road, side by side at rapidly increasing speeds.
There were so many people that they had trouble maneuvering the narrow aisles.
They finally found an open spot next to a large Japanese sedan that was painted a metallic silver-flake with blue racing stripes down the middle and checkered flag stripes down the side.
Mordecai shut the engine off and they exited the truck.
"Pop the hood," Skips said before he closed the door.
Mordecai obeyed and walked to the front.
Skips raised it and set the prop rod, sending the light dancing over the clean and shiny engine.
He pointed to the steel box raised off the ground beside their spot, "At some car shows, people will leave you money if they like your car."
Muscle Man jumped from the roof and landed between them, "Whoo! Let's get inside!"
"I'll catch up to you later," Skips said as he started down the aisle, "I'm gonna check out the cars first."
Mordecai nodded and hurried to catch up to Muscle Man and Fives.
The building was completely different than the parking lot made you think. At one point in it's past it used to be a large barn, but now was renovated into a building used for partying. It's name, 'Anarchy' was painted in large, red letters over the doors. The windows were shattered and shown blue and green lights on swivels, a sign of the party inside.
When they opened the door, the rush of loud music nearly knocking him backwards. The source was a group of musicians on a platform raised off the ground, their speakers and instruments occupying most of the space.
And there were people everywhere! So many, that it made the group outside look just like that, a group.
He was sure the fire marshal would have something to say about it, but he followed in the wake of Muscle Man as him and Fives forced their way to an open table.
"This place is off the hook!" Fives yelled from their vantage point.
From where they were sitting, the music on the stage was almost enough to cause total hearing loss. The musicians were all banging their heads, causing their hair to swirl around them. The only thing you could notice was that they were shirtless.
The song ended, and the crowd cheered.
"Thank you, that was our newest song, Song 4!"
Mordecai remembered him immediately as the kid from the DMV. Martin, was it?
"This song is called, 'Last Song Kills Audience', and it will be our last song. Enjoy!"
Everyone cheered again, louder than before, even though they just promised this song would kill them…
The guitarist stepped backward and started them off, the drummer and bassist following the lead they were given.
Mordecai saw everyone dancing and thought to himself that it was all just an accident away from a full scale figh.
"What do you think, bro?" Muscle Man asked, yelling to be heard over the music.
Mordecai looked across the table a moment and back to the crowd, "It's insane! I don't think I've ever seen this many people in one place before!"
Muscle Man nodded, "I know! This is primetime party-ing! I'm so pumped!"
Fives moved closer to Mordecai and whispered, "We have to keep an eye on him. If he gets too crazy, we gotta get him out of here."
Mordecai nodded and turned back to the crowd.
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CJ ran into her apartment and tossed her bag onto the table. Pulling her dead cell phone from her pocket, she quickly plugged it into the charger and waited for it to turn on.
'Come on, come on!'
The screen flashed a welcome message, followed by a low battery warning. Hitting ignore, she scrolled to her messages and began typing. After three minutes of typing, she selected Mordecai's number and began to hit the send button.
Something stopped her, though. Maybe it was Thomas asking her to keep it a secret, maybe it was realizing it was a horrible thing to find out through a text message.
She sighed, deciding to follow her better judgment and deleted the message. Instead of the long, explanation she had planned, she typed a new, shorter message.
'Mordecai, I need to talk to you. Important. CJ.'
This time, she hit send and tossed her phone onto the table and sighed.
She told herself she was doing this for him.
Whether it hurt him or not, he had the right to know.
Didn't he?
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Mordecai stepped outside to get away from the riot that had started and raised his ringing phone. The screen read a number he was familiar with, but still dreaded seeing.
After fighting the urge to ignore it, he hit answer.
"Hello?"
Even outside, the noise was loud enough to keep him from hearing the person on the other line.
"I can't hear you, you'll have to speak up!"
The voice became louder, but still remained unintelligible.
"Look, I'll have to talk to you some other time. I can't hear a thing."
The voice understood and hung up.
He lowered the phone and seen the prompt, 'New Message.'
He read the message from CJ and responded, "Okay, how about at the diner by the park tomorrow at 1:30?"
Mordecai clicked send and returned his phone to his pocket when he heard familiar squealing.
A shirtless Muscle Man was handcuffed and being drug through the doors of the building toward the nearby police car.
"They got me, bro! Tell Benson I might be late tomorrow!"
As he was thrown into the back seat, people nearby started cheering and clapping as the car drove away.
With a sigh, Mordecai shook his head and walked back to the truck to wait on those who weren't arrested.
When he returned, though, the first thing he noticed was the box. It was so full of money that it was sticking out of the slot. Opening the lid, he began to stack it together in disbelief.
"Not too bad for a first timer," Martin said from beside him as he set his guitar bag into the backseat of the car.
Mordecai shook his head, "All this because they liked the truck?!"
Martin smiled and nodded, "Yeah. You'd be amazed what you could make at these things."
A quick count of the stack shown he had close to ninety dollars for just three hours of doing nothing.
"If I'd known you were gonna be here, I'd have had you come up on stage and sing," Martin said as he emptied his own box.
Mordecai laughed, "I told you, that was all just a joke."
"Come on, you can't say you didn't enjoy it. It's just like karaoke, but better."
Skips closed the hood of the truck, "I think it's about time to go."
"Muscle Man got arrested, and they're gonna call in crowd control." Fives said as he floated into the backseat.
Mordecai looked at the money in his hand and sighed, "I guess we should go bail him out…"
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The light from the rising sun was amplified through the windshield, waking up the sleeping Mordecai. As he stirred, it took him a minute to realize where he was. The truck was parked outside of the house, but for whatever reason he'd fallen asleep before he could make it inside.
He yawned loudly and looked through the window where Muscle Man was asleep on the ground.
He unbuckled his seat belt and opened the door, somehow finding the strength to walk. The ringing of his phone startled him at first, but he managed to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Mordecai! How're you doing? You weren't sleeping, were you?"
He yawned and shook his head, "Not really, ma."
"Oh, good. You sounded busy last night, so I figured I'd try again."
"Alright. What'd you need?"
"Well," she began, "I just wanted to ask if you'd like to come in for your sister's birthday. She's been asking when you'd come back, and I thought this would be a good surprise."
Mordecai yawned again, and contemplated if he really wanted to. It would, after all, mean he'd have to deal with his father again.
"I'd have to see if I can get time off from work, but yeah, that'd be great." he answered, forcing himself to sound excited.
"Okay! Thanks, dear, I'm sure she'd be thrilled! Anyway, I'll let you get back to whatever you were doing, give me a call when you find anything out. See you soon!"
Mordecai hung up and read the, 'Battery low' message before returning the phone to his pocket.
He figured he had another two hours of sleep before he had to get ready for work and hoped that'd be long enough to charge it.
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Mordecai wiped the sweat from his forehead and replaced his hat. He looked over the leaves he'd raked, and the ones Rigby hadn't.
"Dude, rake the leaves!"
Rigby stretched from where he was leaning against the tree, "I'll get to them! I'm just resting."
Mordecai shook his head, "You've done nothing but rest! If Benson comes by here, he'll blow a gasket and I'm getting tired of sticking up for you."
Rigby yawned, "Since when did Benson make you my supervisor? I told you I'll get to them, and I will. Just not right this moment."
Mordecai looked at his watch and seen it was almost time for him to meet CJ.
He sighed and dropped his rake, "Whatever, just have your half done by the time I get back."
As he walked toward the entrance to the park, he switched to Benson's channel on his walkie.
"Hey, Benson, I'm going on my lunch break."
The static was interrupted moments later, "All right, just make sure the leaves are done by tonight."
"Will do."
By the time he made it to the diner, CJ was already waiting for him. As he walked in, both her and Eileen were locked in a death stare.
"Uh, hey. What's going on?"
"Nothing, just having a chat with Eileen. Let's get a table."
The tone of her voice told him that they were arguing over something serious.
Mordecai noticed as he passed the counter that Eileen avoided making eye contact with him. A sign that this wasn't going to be a good conversation.
Thanks for reading. Hope someone got the reference.