APtCH: Chapter 2

It was now the early morning hours here in the little town of Peach Creek, as well as the start of the weekend. We soon zoomed in on Eddy's house where we could see him waking up from sleeping with a bit of a tired groan. He could not sleep well last night for some reason but could not remember exactly why.

"Geez, why did have to wake up this early today?" Eddy grumbled to himself before making a big yawn.

It was as he was getting out of his bed that Eddy could immediately feel that something was both off and different about him, "Uh…"

He looked down at himself before widening his eyes in shock. The pajamas he usually wears (which are just a tank top and boxer shorts) were now a lot tighter on him than when he went to sleep last night. Eddy quickly realized what was going on; the reason he was tired and could not sleep well last night was because he was feeling sudden growing pains. He was now taller than he used to be by several inches.

"… Uh oh."

Eddy went to look at himself in the mirror, only to confirm that he did grow a lot taller overnight. He was now about the same height as Double D, probably a few centimeters or one inch taller than him.

"H-How the hell did this happen?!" Eddy started to question himself in disbelief, "I thought they told me I would stop growing by now!"

Eddy started to make a very big smile at the fact that he was now taller, now other people will never call him short again! But now another problem has come up because of this…

"… Does this mean I can't leave my room right now?! All my clothes are too small!" Eddy realized with a bit of a small panic, "Frick!"

Eddy rushed back over to his bed to grab his cell phone that was sitting on his nightstand. He quickly began to call someone who could try to help him with this situation; thankfully, the person he called was already awake, "Hello?"

"D-Double D! You gotta help me, please! Something happened last night, and…"

It was after Eddy finished explaining to Double D what happened that his friend quickly ran over to his house, bringing him one of his spare shirts and a pair of pants. Double D opened the back door to Eddy's room, only to see him hiding behind his closet door, his head peeking out from behind it. He sighed a little at his behavior.

"Eddy, there's nothing to be ashamed of," Double D started to say to him as he went over to him and handed him his spare clothes, "You just hit your growth spurt a bit late is all."

"Oh, you got it wrong, Double D. I'm not ashamed; I'm ecstatic!" Eddy said to him as he started to put on his friend's spare shirt and pants, "I just needed some clothes that fit so I could even leave my room to go buy new clothes with my folks. I'm pretty sure my shoes might not even fit me anymore."

Eddy then stepped out of his closet after changing into Double D's clothes. Double D could now see why Eddy called him in particular; they were now practically the same height, with Eddy possibly being even taller, "Oh my, that is a drastic height difference! You've lost all your baby fat."

"Yeah? Tell me something I don't know!" Eddy sarcastically said to him before making a sigh, "Anyway, do you mind keeping this news to yourself for now? I'll visit you all later today once I'm done shopping for some new clothes in town."

"Of course," Double D replied with a small smile, "I'll talk to you later and check on you, okay?"

"Thanks."

Double D then left Eddy's room by his back door, leaving behind Eddy in his room. Eddy made a sigh before taking off Double D's clothes so he could get a shower and get ready for the day; he only put them on at that moment to make sure the clothes fit him.

As he went to his bathroom and waited for the water to heat up in his shower, he started to take off his boxers. That was when he noticed something else that was drastically different; his height was not the only thing that grew last night.

Eddy's face grew a little pale as he almost yelled out in shock before covering his mouth to prevent him from screaming or causing a commotion, 'Holy shit!'

His mind started to race with many thoughts about what was going on, but one of the things that crossed his mind was what Zoey would think of this…

'… Wait, what the hell am I thinking about that for?!' Eddy thought as he shook his head and hopped into his shower, 'I know she will see how tall I am now along with everyone else, but even I know she's not ever gonna see this… Right?'

He blushed at the thought before making a sigh, "Yeah right, she's probably not gonna have any interest in that because of what happened between her and my idiot brother. Even I don't care that much about stuff like this, so why would she care?"

It was now the late afternoon in Peach Creek. We could see Jennifer and her friends hanging out at her house for the day, playing some video games on her Switch, and doing other things.

Right now, almost everyone is watching Jennifer and Double D play a game called Secret of Mana, a game from Jennifer's childhood that was re-released a few years ago. Double D finally decided he wanted to try and play a video game with her to see how well he would do, so Jennifer suggested they would play this together in co-op whenever he and their friends would come visit. The third player would be rotated around to whoever wanted to play with them at the time, "I know it can be a bit much to take in at first, but I know you can handle it! You don't have to be perfect at it, that's what trial and error is all about. It's learning!" Jennifer said to him with a big smile before they started playing the intro of the game.

They had currently arrived at Randi's, the main character, hometown which they got around to about ten minutes into starting the game. Double D glanced away for a moment to see that Zoey was standing by Jennifer's window, looking out towards the road.

"… Jennifer, there is a save function in this game, yes?" Double D started to ask, "I want to take a small break for one second."

"Oh, yeah there is!" Jennifer replied, "You just need to rest at the inn, and that will save your game. There's also save states, but I usually use those if I need to quit in a hurry."

"Okay, I was just making sure," Double D stated with a chuckle as he got up from where he sat, "I'll be right back."

Double D walked over to Zoey, noticing she looked a little worried, "Zoey?"

Zoey jumped a little in surprise, "Oh, hey."

"I would ask what's bothering you, but I know the answer to that already," Double D stated to her, "Don't worry about Eddy, he told me this morning that he would be arriving here later today. He'll be here soon to hang out with everyone, I promise."

"… I-I know, thanks," Zoey replied with a little smile.

Zoey then walked away to the kitchen to go to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water as she did. It was as soon as she walked into Jennifer's kitchen that Double D could see Eddy jogging over to Jennifer's house from the entrance of her neighborhood. He could see that Eddy's clothes were now fitted to him properly; and yet somehow, he found his usual attire again in town, but now in a different size that could fit him, 'What are the odds of that?' Double D thought to himself with a small bit of amusement.

Double D went over to open the door for Eddy to come in, "Hello, Eddy. Nice of you to finally arrive back from your trip into town!"

Everyone in the living room turned to Jennifer's front door to see Eddy enter her house. Everyone gasped loudly or widened their eyes at him. Ed, on the other hand…

"AHHH!" he yelled in horror, hiding a little behind a nearby recliner chair and peeking his head out from behind it, "Who are you and what did you do to Eddy?!"

"Huh? What's going on?" Zoey asked from Jennifer's kitchen, coming back into the living room with the bottle of water she got from the fridge, "Did something hap…?!"

That was when Zoey saw Eddy standing next to Double D by the front door, slowly processing the fact that he had hit a growth spurt last night in his sleep. She dropped the bottle of water she was holding in shock as she could feel her whole face turn bright red, "E-Eddy?!" she questioned aloud.

Eddy walked over to Zoey's side as everyone else could see how much he had grown. In the past, the top of Eddy's head would only come up to Zoey's shoulders, maybe even a little less, but now he was quite a few centimeters shorter than the top of Zoey's head, who was already considered tall for a girl her age. The difference between yesterday to today was almost like night and day. Zoey could not stop staring at her boyfriend; he had grown a lot more attractive. But then she widened her eyes in terror; he looked very similar to…

"U-Umm… Hey there, Zoey," Eddy started to say to her in embarrassment, scratching the back of his as he did. Even his voice had changed between the time he left his house and now; it was a bit deeper, but not by much, "Sorry I'm a little late. Something happened last night, and I—"

"I-I gotta go! I gotta leave!" Zoey suddenly blurted out loud in a big panic, running past Eddy and her friends and out the front door to her home next door.

Eddy instinctively ran after her, leaving behind his friends, all of them were still stunned at the sight of him and how tall he was now. He could see that she did run back to her house, not even closing her front door behind. Eddy walked over to Zoey's house and entered her living room, only to see her sitting on her couch, looking down at the floor. She looked to be shaking slightly.

"… Zoey?"

She jolted up in fright for a moment when she realized he had come into her house, now trying to avoid directly looking at him. That was when that it clicked to Eddy about why she was acting this way to him, "Oh."

Eddy could only sit down next to her, "Sorry, it didn't cross my mind until now about why you ran back here."

"… I'm sorry too," Zoey started to say to him, "I didn't mean to run away from you like that. It's just… You look a lot like your older brother now, and it kind of scared me. It made me remember those two days he almost—"

Zoey could feel Eddy pull her into a hug, "I know, you don't need to say it," he said to her, "He won't be coming back."

"Yeah, I know, b-but…" They both sat there for a second before Eddy could feel her trembling again, "There's something you need to know. Something that happened on one of those days."

Zoey slightly pushed him away for a moment before speaking up again, "On the day he came back when Jennifer and I were taken by Viper and Evan, they had us tied up to those two metal poles. But before they did that to us, he… your brother…" she started to place her hand around the right side of her chest, around her right breast, "H-He started to grope me right around here for a few seconds before Viper told him to stop; he even put his hand into both my shirt and bra to grab it. She told him to hold out on 'having his way with me' until she was finished torturing us both and killing Jennifer," she could feel herself starting to sob, "Jennifer seemed to be very disoriented by then, so she did not see it happen. I did tell the officers afterward about what he did to me when they talked to me about what happened. I can only hope that this was a crime he was charged with, along with everything else."

There was a very tense moment of silence between the two teens.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything about it you, Eddy," Zoey continued to say, "I was scared that if I told you what he did, you would start to look down on me or treat me in a different way… I really didn't want that to happen, so I said nothing," tears started to form in her eyes, "But then, you started to yell and blame me for what happened when you found out that I knew who Viper was and what she was planning to do. It crushed my soul that I ruined everything for you and your friends! I-I felt so guilty!" she then started to cry even more, "I ran towards the lake that day… B-Because I was thinking about jumping into the lake to end my life! I was going to drown myself, but then you stopped me when I was being hesitant about doing it. You saved my life twice that day!"

"Z-Zoey!" Eddy widened his eyes in disbelief and horror. He did not realize that was the reason she ran to the lake that day.

Zoey went back over to Eddy on the other side of her couch to hug him tightly, and he did the same for her in return. He could still feel her body trembling from the memory of what happened.

'God dammit, Evan…' Eddy thought to himself in anger, 'When he hurt Zoey the first time, I legit thought it was because he was so drunk and out of his mind that he was not thinking straight, like how he was with me in the past. But now I know for sure that this is just how he is… Freaking scumbag!' he closed his eyes in sadness, 'What the hell can I even do to make Zoey feel better?!'

They sat there for several minutes in their hug before separating to look at one another. Zoey had to look away for a split second before looking back to Eddy, she was still trying to get over how he looked now, "Umm, Eddy… Can you be honest with me about something?"

Eddy looked at her with a bit of confusion, "Yeah, what is it?"

"Why do you even like me this much?"

"H-Huh?!" Eddy was shocked at what she asked him.

"Is it because of how busty my body is for my age? Am I really that attractive to other people? Is that the ONLY reason I even have any friends?!"

Eddy could only sit there for a moment, stunned at the questions she was asking out loud. He could begin to see that she had been having doubts and trust issues ever since the incidents with Evan.

Eddy started to make a very serious face to her, "Do really wanna know the truth? About how and why I fell in love with you?"

Zoey was silent to Eddy, but only nodded her head in response to him.

"Your eyes."

"… H-Huh?" Zoey uttered out in confusion to him.

"You kept saying just now that people only cared about your looks and how good your body was," Eddy started to say, "But do you wanna know the first thing I noticed about you when we met, besides our height difference?"

He could feel himself getting a little nervous before telling her, "It was your eyes. They really stood out to me because of how bright and blue they were, as well as your smile. Your curves were only something I noticed later; and even then, that was not the reason why I love you at all."

Eddy reached out for her left hand with his right, "It's because I cared about you, even when we bickered a lot when we started hanging out with the others. Eventually, I noticed that I was just happier when you were around, and… Well, that's when I kinda knew."

Zoey sat there for a moment, speechless at what he said to her. She could feel herself blushing as her heart started to beat faster and faster in her chest, "W-What the hell, Eddy… That's so sweet."

"Yeah, and it's really freaking cheesy," Eddy stated in a teasing manner before making a warm smile to her, "But it's also the truth. I wouldn't lie to you about that, and…" he glanced down to the necklace that had the promise ring he gave her hanging from it, "How about this. Why don't I make a promise to you on something."

"A promise?"

"Yeah!" Eddy stated with a nod of his head, "I promise you; I will never do anything to hurt or harm you in any way, not for ANY reason in the world!" he puffed out his chest when he said that before making a nervous smile to her, "Uh, d-did that help cheer you up?"

"… Wow," Zoey replied with a teasing smirk, "You really are a dork, aren't you?"

"H-Hey!" Eddy started to retort to her in surprise, "I was trying to—"

He could suddenly feel Zoey's lips pressed up against his own, cutting him off from saying anything else. Eddy widened his eyes to her for a second before closing them, responding back to her kiss with his own, wrapping both their arms around each other's waists. They sat there for a moment in their kiss before separating from each other.

"Thank you, Eddy," Zoey said to him with a big smile, "I really do feel better now."

"That's good to hear…" Eddy sighed in relief.

The two teens started to get up off the couch and turn to the front door nearby, only to see their six friends were there; four of them were peeping at them from behind the door and the door frame while they could see Double D and Jennifer standing farther away. It was obvious that Double D and Jennifer did not want to intrude while the others only wanted to watch.

Eddy almost wanted to yell very loudly at them, but only made an irritable groan instead, "Wow, really? Come on you guys…"

"I-I'm so sorry Eddy!" Double D shouted to him from where he was standing with Jennifer, trying their best to avoid being nosey, "We tried to stop them from listening, but they were really worried about you two, as well as the two of us!"

Eddy and Zoey made another sigh, "How much did you hear us say?" Zoey asked.

"Not much, honestly," Marie replied with a little smirk as everyone finally approached them, "We only got here when Eddy started telling you about how and why he loves you so much."

"… Oh," Both Eddy and Zoey could feel their whole face turning red, realizing that all their friends saw them making out for that very short moment.

Suddenly, they could hear one of their phones get a text message; it was Double D's cell phone that made the noise. He took his phone out of his pocket to check to see who messaged him.

"Who messaged you, big brother?" Serena asked.

"It was our mother, actually," Double D replied as he unlocked his phone to read what the message said. He stood there for a moment to read it before he started to widen his eyes, "Oh my…"

All his friends looked at each other in confusion, "What is it?" Matthew asked.

"I-I didn't think they would work this fast, but… Mother messaged me to say they've contacted m-my, umm… My real father," Double D started to explain, "She said that he plans to arrive at Peach Creek tomorrow at the police station to talk to them and… F-For me to meet up with him."

Jennifer widened her eyes at the news, "Wow, that was very fast!"

"Indeed…" Double D nodded his head before glancing back down to his phone, "I know I'm the one who made the request, b-but now I'm starting to get nervous about all of this…"

He could feel Jennifer latch onto his left arm a little as she held his hand, "I-It's alright, Double D, I'll be there to help you, okay?"

Double D smiled to Jennifer, "Thank you, Jen."

Author's Note (October 15th, 2023): I know I said that this story was going to be more about Double D meeting his real dad, but that doesn't mean the others won't have any sort of spotlight in the story!