Chapter 64

Around the same time that Tabby and Rod initiated their long overdue passionate kiss, Lee and Eddy had just finished sharing a passionate moment of their own on Double Dee's couch. The loud music emanating from the speakers of Double Dee's entertainment system was dampened due to the den being isolated from the rest of the house by a pair of French doors.

Eddy and Lee had spent the last fifteen minutes sharing an unexpected passionate kiss, and even though both had felt as if they had done something taboo, both boy and girl couldn't help but feel like a million bucks as they lied in each other's arms.

Eddy was currently lying on his back staring up towards the ceiling. Lee laid on her side next to Eddy with her head resting on his chest. Eddy had his left arm around Lee's shoulder as she draped her right leg over Eddy's hips.

The couple remained in this position for quite some time, recovering from their wistful kiss. Eddy looked away from the ceiling and glanced down at the girl who he had just shared his first kiss with. Her long red curls fell over her shoulder with what Eddy saw as perfection. Eddy continued to check Lee out, admiring her well endowed chest, as well as her curvy hips, which were especially pronounced due to the way she was positioned.

Although Eddy had taken a vow to never fall for a girl and to spend his youthful days "playing the field, he simply could not deny the fact that he had feelings for the red headed girl that was lying in his arms. Although Eddy knew that he had feelings of attraction towards the eldest Kanker sister, he began to wonder if his feelings were genuine, or merely due to his hormones raging from their lascivious encounter.

Eddy finally realized that while his hormones were currently raging more they have ever had in his adolescent life, there was something else causing his unusual feelings. True, Lee looked like a totally different person, and to quote Eddy's thoughts, she was 'hot as shit'. But although her altered physical appearance was able to quickly capture Eddy's attention, it was her genuine kindness, sweetness, and honesty that retained Eddy's interest in her. Eddy had never even thought that Lee had had such a horrible and violent past. He had only looked skin deep, and saw a tough bully who cared about no one but herself.

As Lee rested her head on Eddy's chest, she couldn't help but feel ecstatic. Although Lee had done things with men she wasn't particularly proud of, she was glad that her first "real" kiss was a special one.

Lee's feelings took a nose dive after her last thought. Did their kiss really mean anything to Eddy or was it just his teenage hormones acting out against his better judgment? Lee wrestled with her thoughts for a few moments before she came to a rather relaxing conclusion. The proud and confident Eddy McGee would have never opened up to her about his life, if he did not trust her and view her as someone special. Eddy's tears were completely genuine, and Lee truly felt sorry for poor Eddy and the abuse he had been forced to deal with during his young life.

Over the course of the last few days, Lee began to notice change in her own personality as well as her attitude towards Eddy. For the past two weeks it was as if a chisel was attempting to carve away at Lee's tough unemotional exterior. With each passing day, the chisel slowly but surely began breaking off chunks of material, paving the way to set the true Annalee Kanker free from the grasp of the hellish persona she had created for herself. After exchanging her powerful words with Eddy a few moments ago, it was as if that chisel morphed into a sledgehammer, which broke Lee out of her emotional casket with one powerful strike.

The couple sat in silence for a few seconds before Lee finally decided to speak. Lee did not look up towards Eddy, but remained in the same position she was in.

"Crazy night huh?" asked Lee using her true lady like voice. Lee's gentle voice still surprised Eddy in a good way, as she was so used to Lee's gravely, deep, domineering voice.

Eddy looked towards the ceiling while smiling before replying in a dream like voice.

"Yeah," said Eddy slowly as he stared wide-eyed toward the ceiling, "Crazy night."

Lee and Eddy sat in silence for a few moments. Lee still had some things that she needed to get off of her chest and in her heart she trusted Eddy enough to talk to him about her problems.

"It's funny," said Lee in a rather somber tone, "It just feels like things were never really meant to work out for me in life."

Eddy, although clueless when it came to being emotional, couldn't help but feel sorry for Lee after hearing her last statement. He knew from the sound of her voice that Lee was being serious with him. Even though Eddy usually turned the other cheek towards his peers when they needed emotional guidance, he couldn't just sit back and watch Lee suffer.

"What do you mean Lee?" asked Eddy in a gentle voice. Although his voice still retained its natural gritty tone, it sounded rather calm and peaceful.

"I was dealt so many bad cards it wasn't even funny," said Lee, "As I said before, after my mom and dad broke up, my mom shut herself off from me and my sisters. She suddenly stopped wanting to spend time with us. She used to play dolls with us and read to each of us all the time before bed. After the breakup, we were forced to fend for ourselves. The stories we enjoyed before bed were gone, along with all of the fun that we shared with her."

Lee paused to take her breath.

"Just to be clear, I do not look down upon my mother, and I do not believe that she is a bad mother. She worked her ass off every day of her life to keep a roof over our heads and put food in our mouths. She loved us, and we all knew it even though she never told us she did. She just wasn't there for us emotionally when we really needed her."

Eddy glanced down towards Lee's face which was still gazing at the deactivated television screen.

"It's amazing though," said Lee, "Within the last couple of days, she has finally been opening up to us about her problems, and we have all talked with her about the things that were bothering us. She offered to help me deal with my abuse, and asked me if I wanted to go to this camp at the end of June to talk to professionals and other survivors about my issues. She truly is trying to get to know us, and earn a place back in our lives. She even told us that she loved us and meant it, something that I cannot remember her doing since I was 5 years old. "

Lee took another breath as Eddy tightened his embrace around Lee. Lee decided to continue the story she had began earlier.

"Things only got worse when we started school," said Lee, "My mom delayed me and Marie from starting until May was ready, so I was already seven years old when we started kindergarten. We were shy girls, and I can remember my teacher telling us 'how fun school was gonna be and how we're gonna make friends with so many other little girls and boys'"

Lee paused.

"Her statement couldn't be further from the truth." said Lee, "After my mother stopped caring so much, our appearances started to suffer. We used to go to school with tangles in our hair and dirty clothes. We all were teased for certain things about ourselves as well. I was teased about my silver tooth and my tangled hair, Marie was teased about her eye, and May was teased about her overbite and the bad lisp she used to have."

Lee paused for a few seconds before continuing.

"My baby teeth were pretty much trashed, covered in plaque and almost rotted down to the roots. My mother did take us to the dentist, but that was only once every six months, and six months without any kind of maintenance is plenty of time for tooth decay to set in."

Eddy stared down into Lee's face, waiting for the continuation of her story.

"I started losing my baby teeth when I was 6, and when I did, I made two promises to myself. The first was that I would make sure that I brushed my adult teeth everyday to prevent them from rotting away. My second promise was that I would make sure that Marie and May took care of their teeth so that they wouldn't have to go through anything I went through. Every morning before school, I stood in the bathroom door making sure that they brushed their teeth carefully. I sometimes had to help May with it because she was so much younger."

Eddy was surprised at what he was hearing. Lee had already proven to him that she was a compassionate person after hearing her emotional words earlier that evening, but he had never expected the antagonistic Lee Kanker to act as a mother figure to her little sisters.

"Although I cared for my adult teeth, it turned out that the decay on my baby teeth did more damage than we thought." said Lee.

Lee looked up into Eddy's eyes and leaned slightly off of his body so that she could look into his eyes. She opened her mouth, and gently removed her false cap revealing the silver crown that covered her left central maxillary incisor. Eddy stared down into Lee's eyes with seriousness, having no idea what to say.

"Apparently, the decay from my front top baby tooth was so bad that the bacteria spread into my gums. Infection set in, and it was already too late to treat when the dentist discovered it. He had no choice, it was either to put this crown on, or to pull the tooth. We made the obvious choice and I had this ugly thing ever since."

Lee placed her concealer back into her mouth, disguing her tooth once again.

"As I got older, I found myself taking on more and more responsibilities," said Lee, "In addition to making sure they brushed their teeth, I made sure that they were up to get ready to school on time in the morning. I also started taking care of their hair so that they would at least stop being teased about that. Somebody had to be there for them and that someone had to be me."

Lee's eyes began watering as she told the rest of her story.

"Even into our teenage years, I was the one who showed them the way," said Lee, "I didn't even feel close enough to my mom to talk with her when I got my period for the first time. I had to figure it all out by myself and then guide Marie and May through it too. The worst part was that my mom never even asked us about it, even though she knew that we were all reaching that age."

Eddy laid on the couch surprised that Lee felt comfortable enough around him to discuss things such as her "womanly functions". He began to feel compassion for Lee, a feeling which he never thought he would display for the belligerent Kanker girl.

"It hurts Eddy," said Lee as she looked up to Eddy with tears in her eyes, "Even though I'm glad I did what I did, I wish I could go back and enjoy my child hood with my sisters, rather than be a second mother to them. I really wish that my mom and dad didn't break up. She was such a happy person before they did. It actually broke my heart as a little girl to see such a drastic change in the family, and it hurt so much feeling like my mom didn't love me anymore."

Lee paused.

"And the bullying at school didn't help either," said Lee, "Hearing names like 'Metal Mouth' , 'Lazy Eye Marie' and 'Bucky Beaver' directed towards us really hurt. Eventually, we couldn't take it anymore and we became bullies ourselves. We started beating people up, taking their money, and calling others hurtful names to try to escape our own problems. Needless to say, it worked really well, and to be honest with you it felt pretty good to be on the other side of the spectrum for a change. Me and Marie even wound up changing our appearances to make ourselves more intimidating. I cut off my long hair, stopped caring about the way I dressed and stopped shaving my legs. Marie dyed her hair blue, started wearing black, and got this messed up 'I hate life' attitude for a little while."

Lee took a breath as she laid her head back onto Eddy's chest.

"May never changed her appearance." said Lee, "She never really had a behavior problem in school either. I guess she was spared the feeling that me and Marie felt of being alone in the world. She played softball for the YWCA back in the city, and the girls on the team were really nice and looked out for each other. I'm glad that she at least had that outlet for herself."

"So that's where she learned to pitch like she did when we were fighting over the ball field!" said Eddy.

"Yep," replied Lee.

Lee looked up into Eddy's wide eyes once again. Eddy was currently sweating bullets. He was not used to comforting an emotional needy person, especially a girl as cute as Lee, and had no idea what to say.

"The thing that really bothers me the most is that we all had the chance to make friends when we moved here." said Lee, "But instead of being kind to everyone, we continued to bully. I guess being able to bully everyone here made us feel better and for some reason we thought it made up for all of the bullying that we dealt with growing up."

Lee paused and took a breath.

"All's it really did was make us social outcasts and put us back in the same position of being alone in the world just as we were back in the city."

Eddy saw this as an opportunity to strike in with a few words of his own.

"I know what you mean," said Eddy, "Up until last summer, me and my friends were considered outcasts to all of the other kids. Ed and Double Dee really had nothing to do with it, it was all my fault. I'm actually surprised that they stuck by me through everything, even when I was a jerk to both of them most of the time."

Eddy and Lee paused, at which point Lee leaned her head on Eddy's chest once again.

"I guess we really aren't that different after all huh?" asked Lee.

"I guess we aren't." said Eddy.

With those words, the couple once again sat in silence for around five minutes, at which point Lee decided to pose a curious question.

"Hey Eddy," said Lee rather calmly, "What did you really get out of looking at those magazines that I took off of ya the other night?"

Eddy stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before looking down into Lee's blue eyes.

"To tell you the truth Lee," said Eddy, "It started as just being the 'cool thing to do'. I know it sounds really weird, but I got them off of my brother. He started showing the magazines to me when I was seven years old."

"Seven?" asked Lee, "Isn't that a little young?"

"Yeah," said Eddy, "Looking back on it that was inappropriate. But then again, I can't think of anything that Matt did that wasn't inappropriate."

Eddy paused for a few seconds.

"The only lesson I really learned from the magazines is how to treat women like crap." said Eddy, "That stuff is sort of like poison, too much of it starts to screw up your social life with the ladies. I learned that the hard way, I got shot down by every single girl that I ever tried to hit on because I was in this fantasy world that I was some big shot Casanova."

Lee giggled.

"Eddy," said Lee jokingly, "I hate to break it to ya, but you are not Casanova. I knew that the day you and your friends tried to use 'reverse psychology' on us. I could tell that you were afraid of hitting on us, and your sweating is what let me know that you were just playing into us. It's funny cause you try to act like this big sex god, but it was Ed and Double Dee who were doing all of the work that day."

Eddy appeared slightly disheartened by Lee's comment about his ways with women. Lee looked up into his eyes with a gentle smile, after which she rolled her body over onto his, and moved herself up so that her face was directly in front of his.

"Listen you," said Lee with a whisper as she smiled, "You go around trying to act like a player, when you are really just a big sweetheart. You are a really nice guy on the inside, and you proved that to me over the last couple of days. I would really like to see more of my sweet little Eddy Skipper McGee."

Lee playfully reached her hands up and pinched Eddy's cheeks as she uttered her last statement. Eddy couldn't help but smile as he stared into Lee's blue eyes, which for once appeared to be glistening out of pure joy.

"You are a really sweet girl too Lee," said Eddy in a dream-like voice uncharacteristic of him, "And I'm glad I finally got to see the real you tonight."

Lee blushed as Eddy stared directly into her eyes with a dreamy smile. At this moment, Lee couldn't control herself from leaning her face down and touching her lips to Eddy's once again. She pulled away and repositioned her head back onto Eddy's chest. Eddy decided to pose an extremely serious question, a question that he would have never even thought to ask prior to his encounter with Lee tonight.

"Um….Lee…..um…..does….uh…..me and you…uh."

Eddy's words simply were not coming out and the space that they were supposed to fill was occupied by key words punctuated by non-sensible gibberish. Lee could make out the gist of what Eddy was saying and giggled as she looked up into his eyes.

"Eddy," said Lee, "Are you trying to ask me to be your girlfriend?"

Eddy stared down into Lee's eyes blushing heavily, causing Lee to giggle. Her statements about Eddy and his false bravado couldn't be further from the truth.

"Well…umm…ye…see" said Eddy.

Lee sighed at which point she once again rolled over on top of Eddy.

"Here's your answer lover boy" said Lee while smiling, after which she pressed her lips to Eddy's for a third time. The new couple spent the next few minutes sharing their second voluntary passionate kiss, as well as their first kiss as a couple. Two arch rivals, who once bickered over everything from control of a baseball field, to the space of a poorly constructed tree house were now lovers, caught up in the same web of emotions as their sisters and friends.

After a few moments, Lee pulled away from Eddy and laid her heard on his shoulder. She placed her arm around his other shoulder, and hugged him tightly. Eddy responded with a slight squeeze of his own.

"This whole month has been nothing but some kind of big hanky panky hullabaloo!" said Lee after which she snickered, "It's almost unreal."

"Tell me about it," said Eddy as he grinned, "First Sockhead and Marie, then Lumpy and May, and now, …"

Eddy looked down in to Lee's blue eyes and smiled.

"Me and you." said Eddy

Lee smiled back at Eddy with a whole hearted smile of her own, after which she leaned her head on his shoulder once again.

"Things are changing Eddy," said Lee as she looked up into Eddy's eyes smiling, "And I'm glad they are."

Eddy smiled back into Lee's eyes. He was so enchanted by Lee's beautiful face that he didn't even notice himself leaning into Lee's forehead. He kissed Lee on the forehead, causing her to smile, after which he returned his head to resting on the armrest of the couch.

The new couple sat in silence for a few minutes, after which Lee began to sit up.

"Alright," said Lee in a gentle yet domineering voice, "Enough of all of this mushy stuff, we got a party to enjoy!"

Lee reached into her purse, pulling out her makeup mirror and eyeliner. She quickly readjusted her makeup, after which she closed her mirror and placed her supplies back into her purse.

"Come on let's go!" yelled Lee enthusiastically as she smiled and rose off of the couch. She smiled at Eddy with a sexy grin, and began walking toward the French doors, being sure to flaunt her hips as much as she could.

"Ya comin Eddy?" asked Lee as she stood by the doors while twirling her hair as if trying to be sexy.

Eddy's face adorned a sly grin as he got up off of the couch, never taking his eyes off of Lee. Eddy began dancing to the music as he walked towards her, causing Lee to giggle. He eventually reached Lee, and opened the door for her, while smiling. The height difference between Eddy's 5'2" and Lee's 5'9" (with heels) was quite pronounced and almost comical. Despite this fact, neither of them seemed to really care.

"Ready to make our debut as a couple?" asked Lee.

"Sure thing," said Eddy as he looked up into Lee's eyes

"I'm probably never going to hear the end of this one from May and Marie." said Lee.

"Don't worry," said Eddy, "The Sock Head and Lumpy aren't gonna let me live it down either."

Eddy glanced Lee over from head to toe once again, admiring her beautiful curves as well as he gorgeous face. Eddy shot another grin towards Lee's face.

"But one thing I can say is that everyone's finally gonna be jealous of me for once," said Eddy, "Cause I'm gonna be sitting next to the hottest babe here."

Lee smiled and blushed for a few seconds, after which she leaned down into Eddy's face while smiling.

"Well let me just say that all of those girls that turned you down earlier tonight had no idea of the mistake that they made." said Lee.

Lee gently pecked Eddy on the cheek after which she giggled and stood erect once more.

"Alright, enough sweet talkin'" said Lee as she grabbed Eddy's hand in a laced finger hold, "Let's Party Little Man!"