Chapter Eleven

Ed was in trouble. That much he knew for sure. The semester was winding down and coming to an end as the crisp cool of autumn gave way to the chill of winter. A light snow had blanketed the campus, bathing it in a bright, white coat that made even the nights brighter as it reflected the moon's light.

With less than two weeks left it was coming down to the wire and his two best friends found themselves with their hands full. Double D not only managed his classes, studying with a level of dedication Ed would never have, as he prepared for his finals. But he was also helping Marie along the way. Cheering her on and helping her in his fullest capacity. It was a noble gesture that Ed could appreciate, but it meant that his friend had less and less free time. Something Ed had picked up on.

Even Eddy was taking this semester more seriously. He hadn't said one thing to them about another party, or a night on the town, or anything like that. He was growing more and more distant. Something Ed didn't process to its fullest, but he did know that Eddy had less free time now than he did at the onset of the semester. As much as Ed and Double D wanted to help their friend through his rough patch, both of them found themselves with their hands full and that led Ed back to his problem.

He had a presentation to give, and it wasn't a small little lecture where he talked about a topic with the briefest of methods. No this was a detailed oral report that he had to give, and on top of all of that, it counted as his final and the majority of his grade. He wanted to make his mother proud, God knew she deserved it after putting up with his antics his entire life, and he wanted to be the type of son that she could brag about. Despite the odds, he had made it this far and was terrified of even entertaining the thought of dropping the ball now that he was so close to the goal line.

But he was even more terrified of giving a presentation that held this much weight. What if he messed up? What if it wasn't good enough? What if he froze up in the middle of it or couldn't keep his attention on it long enough to make it through the time limit? These anxieties played through his mind the closer and closer the deadline got. Each day made it more and more of a reality and less of a passing thought he could continue to put off.

On top of that, he had waited too long to rely on the help of his friends. He knew both of them would help him if he asked, but they were so busy as it was, Double D would exhaust himself in an effort to please everyone and whatever Eddy was going through he didn't need a distraction as big as this.

So, he paced the halls of the dorm, a sullen expression on his face and his eyes downcast on the carpet as he made another lap. He knew he had a third option for help outside of his usual two sources, but it would be a big step and it wasn't something he thought he should do. But what other choice did he have? If he failed his speech then he'd fail the class and that was an avenue he couldn't go down. Not after he'd made it as far as he had.

His hand rapped against the door before he could talk himself out of it anymore and as it opened it revealed an unimpressed Lee Kanker peering at him. The sad look on his face could bring even the harshest and meanest of monsters to their knees, this was evident when Lee sighed and called out behind, "May, it's for you."

As the blonde girl came to the door Ed started having second thoughts. May was sure to be just as busy with her own workload and shouldn't be distracted from her studies. But she was in front of him before he could spin on his heel and retreat back into his room where his thoughts could smother him with more anxiety.

"Hey Ed." she smiled, but her perky demeanor soured when she saw the look on his face, "Is everything okay?" she asked.

He shuffled the thoughts around in his head before he said anything. He knew she was his friend now, the two of them had left the past in the past. But she was his movie buddy, someone he watched slashers and monster movies with. Would she be willing to, or able to, help him with his problem?

"Hi May." he muttered out the necessary greeting, "I need some help with something." he said, moving his eyes from hers and down to the floor under their feet. This was harder than he thought it was going to be.

May looked over her shoulder back into the room at Lee before she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her, he dared a glance up at her. "What do you need help with?" she asked him, the look of genuine concern in her eyes comforted Ed in the already uncomfortable situation.

"It's this thing in one of my classes. A presentation." he pulled the words out of himself.

"You need help with a presentation?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Okay." she said, checking the time on her phone, "Let's head over to the library and you can tell me all about it."

"You mean you'll help me?" he asked, his voice was weak. It wasn't that he was surprised by her willingness, but the suddenness of the whole thing caught him off guard. Was she this willing to help him? At the drop of a hat?

Before he could react, she took his hand in hers and led him towards the elevators and then across the campus to the library. It seemed he had asked the right person to help him after all.

The library was busy, to say the least. Almost every student on campus was spending time hitting the books and cramming as much information into their minds as they could in the short span they had left before it was time to prove to themselves if doing such a thing was a viable strategy or if they'd have to start sooner next semester and treat their classes with the seriousness they deserved.

Ed and May were only lucky enough to get a table thanks to her "Kanker Persuasion". They were posted up in the far corner away from most of the chaos and had been there for longer than either of them had realized as the sun was beginning to set outside. Strewn across the table were a number of books they had grabbed in order to get a grasp on as much of the subject matter they could. That coupled with the computer at there with internet access and they had amassed several pages worth of notes, facts, and citations. With all of this, the ball was more than rolling on Ed's presentation at this point. It was roaring down the slope and anything that got in its path was in danger.

It was a presentation for his English class, and the students were given a myriad of prompts. Something Ed was too nervous to even look at without May there to hold his hand and guide him along the way. She wasn't as studious as Double D, who would have known where everything Ed would have needed was the instant he asked him, or as inventive as Eddy who would have helped him devise a scheme to cheat or point out enough methods to ensure the speaking part was secured even if the information part wasn't.

Instead, May brought something different to the table. She was furious. Not in the sense that she was angry or upset and fueling her rage into the process. No, but she was pouring every ounce of her effort into this. It was amazing to see someone with so much passion, not for the subject matter like Double D or for the act of pulling one over on someone like Eddy, but to help her friend. Someone she cared about, even if she was just as outside her element as he was. She was throwing so much shit at the walls that something had to stick.

And it had stuck. They had decided on the central idea being the effect of the literature the class had covered on modern media. It was an easy fit for Ed, who during the mandatory readings had drawn parallels between the mediums in passing. Knowing what he was doing on schoolwork was a refreshing feeling for Ed, and May only made it all the more enjoyable.

They made a good team. Each one acted as their own agent in pooling together information and then passing it on to the other and both were confident at this point, they had compiled more than enough information to put together a compelling presentation. Now all they had to do was organize it and then came the hard part. Presenting it.

May organized the information on the table when she noticed Ed had stopped. She looked over to see the young man as he stared at all the books and notes with a thousand yard stare.

"Everything okay, Ed?" she asked.

"Thanks for all the help May." he replied. "I couldn't have done all of this without you, but now I gotta figure out what I'm going to say…"

She couldn't help but chuckle, "Don't worry about it, silly." she smiled at him. This earned her a confused expression from Ed. "I'll help you the whole way. I'm not just gonna leave you on your own now."

"You mean it?" he perked up and wore a smile of his own.

"Sure! After this we can go get everything, we can put it all together, and then you can start practicing in front of me."

His face dropped again like he had just been hit in the gut, "What?" he asked.

"I said I'm going to help you!"

"You want me to give the presentation to you?" he asked, the wind now gone from his sails.

"Well yeah, this way when you're up there giving it you can pretend you're just talking to me."

"You think that'll work?"

"Sure!" she beamed. In truth, she didn't know that this plan would work. It was just something she had heard about before, but she wouldn't pass up spending more time with Ed, and if it helped him then all the better.

"Okay…" he said, uncertainty evident in both his tone and demeanor.

"Don't sweat it, Big Ed! We'll get this thing knocked out and you'll get the best grade in the class!" she reassured. It seemed to work somewhat as a small smile crept across his face. He gave her a nod and the duo got back to work.

They made a good team.

Lee was going over her pretest for just one of the finals. All of them were right around the corner and she was stressed. Who's idea was it to make all the tests happen at the same time? May had left hours ago to help Ed and she was able to focus all of her effort on getting some serious work done without distractions, but now that she was finishing up on her work, she both wondered where May was and what she was going to do to keep her occupied before bed.

It was a stupid question to ask herself. It was the same thing every night. Scrolling on her phone until the effort to keep her eyes open became too much of a challenge. It wasn't much but it was hers. Besides anything else would have been a dumb idea considering how close she was to finish out the semester with her sisters. They couldn't afford to fuck it up now. Lee wouldn't allow it.

She tossed her schoolwork down on the table, satisfied with the outcome. Just a little more work and she'd secure all As for herself this semester. Hoping May and Marie did the same was a fool's errand. But she knew that they knew that if they didn't at least pass then they'd face the wrath of their older sister and that wasn't something either of them would be prepared for.

The knock at her door tore her from her thoughts. It had to have been either Marie wanting to hang out or May forgot her keys again. Lee stood up out of the chair and the joints in her knees popped. She walked across the small dwelling and opened the door to see a sight she hadn't expected or wanted.

Eddy stood in front of her not looking his usual carefree and stupid self. No, he looked a few degrees more downtrodden and maybe even ashamed. But she wasn't that generous. A large part of her wanted to slam the door in his face, but she decided that for old time's sake she'd be a little less abrasive. But not much.

"What do you want?" the words left her mouth laced with enough venom to cause the boy opposite of her to wince. She hadn't seen much of him since Halloween. The two hadn't shared so much as a passing glance with her knee deep in studies and him doing whatever the hell he did.

"I wanted to talk." he said, his tone only a few degrees above a whisper. Was it guilt or shame she detected in him? She was going to chalk up to both. Good.

"Find someone else to talk to. I'm busy." with that she reared back to slam the door, but he held up his hand to stop her.

"Please, there's something I need to tell you. Can I come in?" he asked.

She paused and weighed her options. It's not like she had much to do before May came back, and even then, it was getting late. She had a few minutes to spare, but if he didn't make this worth her time, he'd be sorry.

She stood aside and let him walk in. He ran a hand through his dark hair and slumped down in the same office chair she had occupied moments ago. She preferred to stand. Bearing down on him with an intense and critical gaze.

"If you came here to apologize, I don't want to hear it." she lied. She knew a part of her wanted him to take back what he said and did so they could continue their little game even though the rest of her knew it was toxic and unhealthy.

"I didn't come to apologize." he said surprising her. He continued before she could interrupt. "I didn't come to apologize because you deserve better than that."

Now she was more than surprised. This was proving to be interesting but if he screwed it up now then she'd just make his life that much worse.

His eyes moved around, as he scanned the floor he got his thoughts together and tried to find the right words to say. "I've been thinking a lot lately." he started, "Ever since that night at the party, I've kind of just been in my own head. The guys are starting to get worried about me."

"So why not take your problems to them?" she asked, if he was here to complain about his problems then she was ready to nip that in the bud, and kick him in the ass.

"Because it's not about them. It's about us." he said as he looked up at her. She opened her mouth to fire back at him, but he continued. "I was wrong. I've been wrong about you for a long time, and I don't know if it's because I've just been so caught up in some rivalry between us or my brother or whatever, but…you're a great person. I never thought I'd be saying that about you, much less to a Kanker, but it's true. You love your sisters more than anything and would do whatever they needed you to do. You've been nicer to me than I deserve, and you've always been there for me no matter how much of an ass I am." he paused his tirade and looked up at her, into her eyes.

"I've been so stupid and blind and just such…such a dick. I told you you deserve better than a half assed apology, so I came here to give you better than that." he swallowed the lump that was in his throat and took a breath before continuing.

"I came here because I wanted to ask you out. On a date."