Author's Note: Sorry this is later than expected. I've been really busy some things. This chapter has 2 days in it. School's starting up, so I may not be able to update as many times as I used to.

An Unexpected Fight

MAY 26th, 2011

"Mordecai…Mordecai wake up man," I heard faintly.

"Dude seriously, wake up!"

Rigby?

I slowly opened my eyes to reveal a blurry Rigby, pushing me while I'm still in bed. I could see sunlight faintly going through the curtains.

"Knock it off man…" I try shooing him off, but he keeps at it. It was about 5 o'clock am, an hour and a half before the park opens

"No, you have to see this!"

I gave in and got up, stumbling while I followed Rigby: We went downstairs.

"Remember when I said I had to talk to Eileen about something yesterday?" Rigby said.

"Yeah?"

"Well it actually had something to do with what me and her discussed on our date."

"What was it?"

"I was talking about how cool it would be if our room was to be redecorated."

"So what does that mean?"

"Let's just say…Eileen's a good listener." Rigby opened the front door to reveal a pickup truck in front of the house. Eileen was out there, talking to mole, taller than her. He was wearing a white tee and blue jeans.

I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was seeing things but I wasn't. I saw a couple of things in the trunk that I couldn't make out. Rigby led me outside.

"Morning Mordecai!" Eileen greeted.

"Uh hey, what's going on?" I asked.

"Well Rigby told me how cool it would be for the room to get an upgrade. So, I got some spare money together, called my cousin, and got some things."

"That's your cousin?" I saw the mole behind her picking up a box.

"Yep. Hey Jerry, this is Mordecai!" She called out to him.

"Hey man," Jerry waved. "Eileen, where do I put this TV?"

"Rigby will show you," Eileen gestured to Rigby to help.

"Wait, you got us a TV?!" I asked, getting excited.

"Sure did. A 20 inch."

"Woah."

"I had a feeling you'd say that."

"Eileen, you didn't have to do all of this. How are we going to pay you back?"

"It's a gift silly. Plus, my cousin paid for most of the stuff."

"Thanks Eileen, this is very nice of you."

"Anything for you guys."

"Well if you don't mind, I need to wash up, I just woke. You need anything before go? Help with the stuff or something to drink?"

"Nah, go ahead."

I went upstairs to take a quick shower, then went back in my room to make up my bed. The TV Jerry set up, was in between the end of Rigby and I's beds. Now all we had to do was put our gaming system there. My cell vibrated.

Rhonda?

No, Margaret.

[Margaret]: What was that thing you wanted to talk about back at the shop?

What I planned to tell her back at the shop, was my concern with Repar. Last time I was around him, I felt extremely uncomfortable and felt ready to explode, knowing his secret and all. I didn't want to go through those feeling again, so I needed to ask Margaret if Repar was coming with us. Matter of fact, I needed to tell her how I felt about them still being together and how much it doesn't make sense to me at all.

I'm starting to learn I can't keep things quiet, just messes me up more.

[Me]: It's about Repar.

[Margaret]: Tell me now.

[Me]: Listen, last time I was at your house, Repar was there and I have to be honest, I didn't feel good being around him. Just knowing what he did…how he affected you, it's not right and honestly feel like he doesn't deserve you.

Send.

"Hey Mordecai…help me out with this chair," I heard Rigby huff from the stairs. I went into the hallway and met him halfway down the stairs. The box was double his size.

"What's in here man?" I asked, helping him with the box.

"Bean bag chair."

"No F-ing way!"

"H yeah man. Two. And you're going to like the last thing…"

"What's the last thing?"

"You'll like it, trust me."

We got to the room and set the chairs in front of the TV, Rigby went to get the other with Jerry, while I unboxed the chair. My cell vibrated.

[Margaret]: He fucking does deserve me! How dare you?

That…did not sound good.

I mean I haven't even known to curse like that. And "How dare you?" Crap, I messed up with something.

Then it came to me, I said something about her boyfriend.

[Me]: I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry…my nerves got the best of me.

[Margaret]: You have no room to say that.

[Me]: I'm sorry you're right I shouldn't have said that, it was selfish of me. I had hesitation saying what I had said before about Repar.

I was getting a bad vibe from these texts. I needed to say whatever I could to calm her down.

[Me]: It was jealousy, I'll never say anything like that again, I'm sorry.

Maybe I did say what I said because I was jealous.

Wait…no, that's not why. Why did I text that?

[Me]: I understand if you don't want to talk to me for the rest of the day. I should have chosen my words more wisely…just understand I was airing out my feelings…maybe I should have kept it to myself. I don't expect you to forgive me anytime soon.

What am I even putting down at this point?

[Margaret]: You should have.

That's what she has to say?

[Me]: I know and I'm sorry. Tell you the truth…I regret saying what I said about Repar. I know you love him and its time I realized that. But I need to know either way what really made you take him back after what he did.

What?

I heard footsteps going up the stairs and the sound of someone grunting. Turns out, it was Jerry and Rigby coming up to the room and put down the last item on the floor.

"That's the last of it. Hope you guys enjoy!" Jerry said.

"Thanks, we will." I responded. Jerry left, along with his truck. Eileen said goodbye and headed to work.

Rigby and I opened the box and went wide eyed. A mini fridge.

"Can't believe Eileen got this for us," I said.

"Yeah, I don't think we'll ever leave our room again."

"MORDECAI, RIGBY, get down here for your assignments!" Benson's voice called. He must have just drove in. Rigby went downstairs to meet up with him and the rest of the staff, park was about to open. Meanwhile I stayed upstairs, thinking of a way on how to straighten things out…but what came next only made it worse.

[Margaret]: You don't need to know anything about him.

[Me]: I don't blame you…

Why am I texting this?

Despite that, this whole conversation brought up one question: Were me and her still meeting this weekend?

[Me]: Are we still meeting this weekend?

[Margaret]: I don't know anymore.

[Me]: I understand.

I put my phone down and sat on my bed.

What the fuck just happened?

It started from a simple question Margaret asked to a desperate mission to keep her from being mad at me…for what I said. I couldn't help but be a little pissed at Margaret, but I didn't exactly know why.

I heard knocking at my room door.

"Come in."

In came Skips.

"Mordecai, Benson needs everyone downstairs."

"I'll be down in a second, just need to think about some things," I sighed

Skips looked at me in curiosity, "You okay Mordecai?"

…

"Everything okay?"

"Your sad on some days, then okay on the others."

"You okay Mordecai?"

"You okay Mordecai?"

"You okay Mordecai?"

…

I hear that question…I always….hear that question and I respond the same way.

"I'm good."

"I'm okay."

"I'm fine."

I snapped.

"No Skips! I'm not okay!" I yelled. I stood up, trying to keep my cool, but I couldn't.

"I haven't been okay for weeks!"

Skips only nodded and said, "Hold on a moment." Skips left the room, then one minute later returned. "I told Benson that me and you are having an important conversation, so I have all the time in the world."

"Okay… it all started when I first confessed to Margaret, my love for her. Unfortunately, I didn't get the answer I want and just had to accept the facts that I had to move on. She already has a boyfriend named Repar. During the time me and her were working on a project, still are. About two weeks ago, I went to her house to help her out. After we were done, we played some Scrabble, just to pass the time and then she went to put something back in her bag, a small box fell out when she did. I asked her what it was and she said it was condoms and that she has them because of rape that happened to her two years ago, before me and Rigby came to this park. To make things worse, it was the guy she's still with now. It baffles me how someone can still be with a person who raped them. I mean Margaret has all these different kind of problems because of this guy! I told her I'd always be there for her and she told me I could talk to her about anything. She convinced me to just forgive Repar, since she forgave him after her apologized. Didn't help. One day I had to be near the guy the whole day and nearly blew it. The fact that I knew the guys beforehand, only to find out he did this…Anyway I texted her just now to pretty much tell her I couldn't deal with that a second time and said Repar didn't deserve her after what he did to her…Now she's pissed at me and I don't know how to fix this," I huffed, then sat back down on the bed.

Skips nodded once more and leaned on the door, "I'll be honest with you Mordecai, you should never say anything bad about a girl's boyfriend, even if you have good reason…and you have very good reason. This whole situation…just isn't normal. Can I see your phone?"

"Sure." I gave him the phone and put it to where it started, when Margaret wanted to know what I wanted to talk about. He started at it intently as if picking apart everything that was said in those texts.

He then spoke, "I have a question for you."

"What?" I asked.

"Did you really mean what you said?"

"I don't understand."

"You just told me how you don't approve of them being together but in the text, you take that back and then you said that it was jealousy. Was that really the reason you said that?"

"I…no…no it wasn't." I got up from the bed. "I was afraid…"

"Afraid of what?"

"…Afraid she was mad at me. So, I just texted some things that would make her forgive me."

"Why go against your own beliefs to make someone else happy?"

"Dammit Skips, I don't know!" I shouted, but then calmed down. "I don't know…I just don't want to lose Margaret as a friend, but at the same time, I can't support her relationship with Repar. I feel like I need to express that to her."

Skips sighed, "I hate to say it Mordecai, but that will never get to her. She will stay with the guy regardless. What did her dad say about this?"

I laughed sarcastically, "Forgot to mention, Margaret told her father to forgive Repar and he did."

"What?! If I were the father, I'd-"

"Kill him, I know." At this point, I was shaking: All those feelings of frustration, hate, sadness coming back to me at the same time. "I'm tired Skips. I keep trying to move on but it's like every time I do, Margaret comes back to play with feelings and thoughts. Repar, her text, everything, I can't do it anymore. All this time, I've been trying to act like everything's okay, but it's not!"

Skips walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder, "Mordecai, can I say something?"

"…"

"Don't you think it's kind of strange that Margaret said you could talk to her about anything, but she flips out on you because you talked about her boyfriend in a bad light?"

"Yeah, but if she told me a secret like that, then maybe she told her other friends."

"And maybe at some point, she had an argument with them on the issue, just like she did with you."

"I guess. It's going to be so awkward though. I have to see her this weekend…if we're still meeting."

"Then talk to her about it. If you two can come to a consensus, good for you. If not, let her go."

"What?" I questioned.

"She's been a burden on your mind for the longest, it's shown. And by what she just said to you on that text, your friendship is on the line."

"I can't believe this is happening right now."

"Finish this project up and if your friendship is still standing, that means she's willing to forgive and forget. If not…"

"Drop it, I know." I dropped my head. "Thanks for the talk Skips, but can I have some time alone please?"

"Sure thing. I'll let Benson know you'll be down in a bit." Skips left the room and I texted one last things to Margaret.

[Me]: Listen, I don't want this fight to ruin our friendship. I thought I could tell you anything and that's what was on my mind. I'm entitled to my opinion and I'm sorry if it came across the wrong way to you.

There was no response from her.

An Unexpected Fight: Part 2

MAY 27th, 2011

You may be wondering why I would still be helping Margaret with the project after what happened yesterday. After all the time I've put helping her with this, quitting now would be a waste of time. I should just finish what I helped started.

I walked into the coffee shop to pick up a bite to eat. Rigby was at him playing video games, (Probably in our room, now that we can…) leaving me to sit by myself. Margaret came out of the kitchen and went towards me.

No greeting, no "Hi", she just dropped a packet of paper on my table.

Yep, still mad; but at this point I didn't care. I was tired of all this and just wanted to get it done. Get it all done.

The packet was pretty much the presentation in paper form, for practice. There were some slides with questions and some sides blank. I looked at the back of the packet:

[Mordecai, the blanks are for any ideas you may have. We're still meeting at the library, but not too long…]

"Not too long" huh? I see how it is.

I came up with some ideas anyway.

I arrived at the library after my work shift. Who would've thought the same place Margaret and I first studied together would be the same place that I dreaded to go to now. Same bland columns, outdated computers, just like last time. I sat at the table we first sat at here, waiting for her to come.

About five minutes later, she was here, with a small bag of books. She set them down on the table, once again not saying anything and I not saying anything as well. After she set her stuff out, I pulled out the packet.

"I have some ideas but not many, sorry," I said.

"It's okay," Margaret said. She looked at the pages in the packet and at the things I put down. "Looks good."

And that was it. She started packing up and gathering her books; but before I could let her leave, I had to ask one question.

"I've noticed how you've been acting lately…" My voice had no emotion, just tired.

Margaret turned around to face me.

I continued.

"You're hating me-aren't you?"

Her expression darkened. She replied with, "Well if that's all you have to say about the project, then we're done here." She continued packing and left, leaving me sit alone at the table.

I just sat there. Not angry, not sad, just tired.

What a waste of time…