"Bonnibel!" The pink-haired girl heard her mother call from the bottom of the stairs, "Are you coming with us or not?"
"No" Bubblegum called back down with a heavy sigh as she heard her mother's foot steps come up the steps. They had this argument every week...every Sunday it was the same thing. Her mother would try to get her to come to evening mass with them. Bubblegum didn't want to go. She really wasn't interested in all this religion stuff and it interfered with the time that she spent doing her work. What she loved, science. Her parents didn't understand.
"Young lady, why do you insist on staying up here when you could be worshiping the dear lord that saved your life."
"Mom, do we really have to go over this again?" Bubblegum asked in an exhausted tone when her mother burst into her room, "Church is your thing, this is mine."
"Being disrespectful to your lord and savior is your thing?" Her mother asked in a shocked tone. "Well I'd never. You of all people who was saved by Jesus Christ when he took the burden of cancer off you when you were young. He spared your life and all you can do to repay him is sit up here in this room and go against his wishes and power?"
"Mom, I was saved by the doctors at St. Luke's hospital." Bubblegum stated, "You never even thanked them. The first thing you did was run off to church rather then thank the scientists that really helped cure my cancer."
"And how did those doctors get their ability to cure you?"
"Mom-"
"God blessed them."
"No mom" Bubblegum stood, fairly angry now with how dense her religion-bound mother was being. "They studied hard, they learned, they made their own path not walk down one made by a fictional character in an old leather bound book!"
Bubblegum pushed past her mother and started out the door, "I'm going out"
"Don't come back until you are willing to accept Jesus as your lord and savior" Was the only thing the pink haired girl heard before she slammed the door shut and ran from the large expensive looking house. Her mother, she really couldn't stand being alone with her. It was hard when her father was always away on business. He was the CEO of The Candy Kingdom, a world-wide candy store that sold exotic and local candy. Her father was no where near this crazy when it came to religion. The pinkette sighed before turning the corner, shoulders stiffening as she realized that she had walked out without a jacket in her haste.
There was a cafe around the corner, she could stay there until everything died down at home. She walked through the door and into the semi-crowded cafe.
"Hey there, Bonnibel, long time no see." A tall blonde welcomed with a warm smile, "Just you this evening?"
"Yes, Lars, just me" The girl nodded at the familiar boy, Lars Lemongarb, one of the Lemongarb twins. The nice one if she needed to be specific. His brother Earl also worked in the small cafe, but he was far more harsh then the friendly male before her. Lars lead the girl to a small table off to the side by the stage where they had live entertainment. After a few minutes the male came back with a coffee and rested it before the pink haired girl.
"The usual" The blonde stated with a friendly smile, "Anything else I can get you?"
"No, that's fine, thank you." Bubblegum responded as the twin walked away. Bubblegum took a swing of coffee, the hot liquid burning her tongue and throat as it went down. Bubblegum coughed in her hand blinking back a few tears from the burn in her throat.
"Attention patrons, The Acceptable Cafe would like to introduce our live local entertainment for tonight. Please put your hands together for Marceline Abadeer."
Bubblegum almost choked on her coffee when she noticed the black haired girl walk onto the stage dressed beautifully in black slacks and a purple button up shirt. She sat at the bench of the piano that was positioned on the stage. Bubblegum watched as the pale girl's fingers started dancing across the old piano, the instrument coming to life as it's voice filled the small cafe.
"White lips, pale face
Breathing in the snowflakes
Burnt lungs, sour taste
Light's gone, day's end
Struggling to pay rent
Long nights, strange men"
Bubblegum's jaw dropped at the sound...Marceline had a very beautiful voice. Certainly not something she expected from this...this...well brute that picked fights and played pranks and got under her skin. Not this "I'll break every bone in his body" type, moody, unemotional chick.
Well that's what Bonnie had pegged her for but perhaps she was...premature in thinking all those things about her...after all they were mostly assumptions made out of anger after that fight Marceline had got into with Ash...
"And they say
She's in the Class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since 18
But lately
Her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
And they scream
The worst things in life come free to us
Cause she's just under the upper hand
And go mad for a couple of grams
And she don't want to go outside tonight
And in a pipe she flies to the Motherland
Or sells love to another man
It's too cold outside
For angels to fly
Angels to fly"
Now just about everyone was onlooking, green eyes surveyed the group and rested momentarily on Bonnibel. The girl had a shot lived look of surprise before a smile graced her face. A small acknowledgment that she had seen the other girl.
"Ripped gloves, raincoat
Tried to swim and stay afloat
Dry house, wet clothes
Loose change, bank notes
Weary-eyed, dry throat
Call girl, no phone
And they say
She's in the Class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since 18
But lately
Her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
And they scream
The worst things in life come free to us
Cause we're just under the upperhand
And go mad for a couple of grams
And she don't want to go outside tonight
And in a pipe she flies to the Motherland
Or sells love to another man
It's too cold outside
For angels to fly
An angel will die
Covered in white
Closed eyes
And hoping for a better life
This time, we'll fade out tonight
Straight down the line
And they say
She's in the Class A Team
Stuck in her daydream
Been this way since 18
But lately
Her face seems
Slowly sinking, wasting
Crumbling like pastries
They scream
The worst things in life come free to us
And we're ALL under the upper hand
We'll go mad for a couple grams
And we don't want to go outside tonight
And in a pipe we fly to the Motherland
Or sell love to another man
It's too cold
For angels to fly
Angels to fly
To fly, fly
Angels to fly
To fly, to fly
For angels to die"
The round of applause that followed was amazing as some people got to their feet. Marceline gave a bow as she walked off the stage while the announcer got back on stage to announce another act. Marceline walked over to Bonnibel with her trademark smirk.
"Hey Princess, fancy seeing you here."
"Likewise," Bubblegum responded as she black haired girl took a seat across from her, "Do you always come here to sing?"
"Naw, not really," Marceline explained as she rested her elbows on the table, "I work here during the weekend to make some extra money for Marsh and I. I waitress here and on weekends I sing to earn some extra money. The more people that like my performance the more money I get at the end of the week."
"I see." Bubblegum started as she sipped her coffee. "So your not on the clock?"
"No officer," Marceline sighed, "I'm not slacking off, if that's what you meant. I just get up on stage every hour to sing a song for the people. I've been here all day actually. It's great for tips on Sunday, so I'm usually here all day."
"I see," Bubblegum trailed off looking down at the mostly-filled cup of coffee in her hand. The black haired girl across from her seemed unusually happy tonight. She wore a satisfied smile although she seemed rather tired from being there all day long. Those teal eyes glanced around the cafe before landing back on Bubblegum.
"Marceline," Bubblegum started, "Is is hard? I mean working and going to school to support yourself and Marshall?"
"I'm used to it by now. Marshall works too so we both bring in extra money. That and we get an allowance every month from Child Services. They give us some odd much money because of the program we are involved in." Marceline stated, a little surprised by the question to begin with, "I'm used to all this cooking and waitressing stuff though, I've been doing it since I was 15. Cooking since I was practically 8."
"Did you...have a good relationship with your parents?" Bubblegum asked lightly making eye contact with the other girl, seeing something she could define in those green eyes. "What was your mom like?"
"My mom worked a lot, but she came home every evening before my father left for work. She used to cook dinner as soon as she got home, we would all sit and eat together before she would get us ready for bed. She always told us a bedtime story before we fell asleep." Marceline smiled sadly as she turned slightly away from the other girl, "I scrapped my knees pretty bad in preschool and my mom would always patch me up. Every year for Marshall and my birthday she would make us a huge Christmas themed birthday cake. Since our birthday was so close to Christmas we would celebrate them together. Actually everyone's birthday was celebrated like Christmas because Marshall and I would help decorate everyone's birthday cake. It took us until we were 15 to realize birthday cakes and Christmas cakes were different."
"You sound like you were very close to your mother." Bubblegum pointed out taking another sip of coffee, "I wish I had that kind of relationship with my own mother. It seems that all we do is fight."
There was a moment of silence as the two sat there not looking at each other, "Do you mind me asking, how did she-you know."
"She got really sick," Marceline stated before a bitter laugh broke through, "It's kinda my fault. I was supposed to be watching them, but I fell asleep in the clubhouse and mom had to come look for us. It was raining pretty hard and she was outside for like an hour looking for us. We had fallen asleep in a pretty good hiding spot so she didn't see us when she checked the club house. She was already sick before then since a week prior her car broke down and she was stuck in the rain for a few hours. Of course it was raining and it only made her worse." Marceline stated as her shoulders slumped, "She was in the hospital for a few days...she died because her heart failed on her and there was nothing they could do."
"It's hardly your fault," Bubblegum stated quickly a little upset that she had brought up such a sensitive topic of conversation to begin with. "It was rude of me to ask such a thing to begin with."
Marceline didn't say anything, she just sat back in the chair, eyes downcast. Bubblegum felt bad, she should have never asked, she knew Marceline's parents were not in her life, she had assumed both of them were dead when Marshall told them the day they all met that they didn't have parents. It was horrible of her to ask, but she was so distracted by her own troubles at home that she didn't think before she asked. Marceline's story replayed in Bubblegum's mind, how this girl must miss her mother terribly...
"Hey," Bubblegum started quickly catching Marceline's attention, "Who's 'them'?"
"Wha-"
"In your story you said, 'I was supposed to be watching them' and before 'we would all sit and eat together' I thought it was just you and Marshall?"
Something she didn't recognize flashed through Marceline's eyes, she stood up bluntly, "I gotta go." It was hardly a grumble before she left the cafe, leaving Bubblegum by herself.
END NOTES
Hey guys sorry if the lyrics are in a funny font or anything It was a pain editing it so it wasn't like that. Anyway hope you enjoy the new chapter! It was something entirely different but I rewrote it into this which is why it took so long to come out! Hope it was worth the wait!
