Chapter IV: Dunce Cap October 10th, 2012 Eddy is clueless. Utterly clueless. He is a complete idiot and he knows it but still he simply gapes at Madeline. "Movie." "Yes, a movie I think you'd like." "With you?" "Yes." "Alone?" "If you'd like." She shrugs, and he's sure he looks like a fish. "Okay, I suppose." 'You are an idiot.' "Excellent. I shall pick you up at nine. You will pay for your own ticket?" "Uh...yeah." Eddy feels slightly sick. Dahlia is, to say the least, surprised to see Eddy at her front door. She's even more surprised to see that he is disheveled beyond belief. "My hand is tangled in my hair. I have a date with Madeline. Clementine would shun me forever more. James would laugh at me and call me an idiot. Help me." Dahlia manages to remove his hand from his hair, and she fixes him up nice and makes sure he smells pretty. And then, Eddy collapses onto her bed. Geoffrey the turtle stares at them so hard that he bonks his head against the tank. "Dahlia, I'm going to die today, and I want you to know, you are a very excellent, uncomplicated, kind, generous, thoughtful girl and I appreciated you." "You are turning into James." She sighs as she flops down beside him. These moments with him were always nice, a silence that was absolutely comfortable and with a person who understood. Eddy's brief sense of calm dissipates once it is 8 o'clock. He can almost feel the blood drain out of his face as he walks the short distance from Dahlia's house to his. He paces. He tries not to look at Lola and James as they, in broad daylight, in his house, make out viciously on the couch. Date night is always horrid for Eddy. James almost always has a girl and he almost always ends up in their bathroom, reading a book in the bathtub to escape their noise. He's glad his parents still date and all, but this can be rather annoying. At 9:20, Eddy sprints out the door to Dahlia's house, bursts in, and comes face to face with her father, Mr. Hill, stay at home dad extraordinaire. "Err; may I talk to Dahlia, sir?" Mr. Hill smiles just like his daughter when shes feeling awkward and waves him in. "I thought you would come back." He says as Eddy bolts up his carefully cleaned stairs after removing his shoes. He likes Eddy, and he thinks he wouldn't mind terribly if his daughter ended up with him. He picks up his daughter, Claire, who stares after Eddy in wonder. She has always had an affinity for him, out of all of Dahlia's friends. They both watch as Eddy calmly walks out the door, Dahlia not far behind. "No later than nine." Dahlia says to him. He smiles again, 'that's my girl.' Dahlia, who is still dressed in her school clothes, always expecting the unexpected, thinks of something very important, "Eddy, who's going to pay for me?" "Me, of course." He says, shrugging. Madeline is right on time, of course. She gets a sour look in her face when she sees Dahlia, but it's very brief. Eddy smirks at her. Smirks. Eddy. Dahlia is dumbfounded, he looks like...James. She's more that dumbfounded. She's horrified. It's almost as if something had snapped. He isn't exactly...Eddy around her...Madeline. It was a subtle change, something only Dahlia could pick up on. They are locked in a forbidden dance, the way their eyes met, the way her lips moved as she speaks to him, the way his eyes travel her body, discretely, in their way. Or maybe Dahlia is too much of a romantic. But their dance continues on to the movie theater, and Dahlia is clueless how to stop it. Eddy's doing the tango with an anaconda. ---------------------------- Sweet balls. Romance. It's a stinker. I'm sorry Clemmy. It had to be done.
Ehehe. It's really rather random, but the randomness of this will be explained in a later update. Be patient with me.
The movie is fine. The popcorn is buttery. Eddy is melting. It is no big deal. Nothing matters, because he doesn't care anymore. Madeline puts her hand on his, and it feels like ice, but he doesn't flinch. The only one who pays any attention to the movie is Dahlia. Eddy really, really, really loves Dahlia, because she is the only thing keeping him semi sane. Madeline is still staring into his eyes, almost like he's a piece of meat. Predator and prey. It gives him chills up his spine. Her hand is still on his, seemingly draining the warmth from him. There's a strange feeling he gets when he touches her or vice versa, it is somewhere between electrifying and burning, almost borderline painful. As always, he has no idea what to make of it. He wished life made more sense, like math did before all these imaginary numbers, which he still couldn't figure out, but he passed the ninth grade so this is no longer an issue. After the movie, Madeline's hand remains with Eddy's, twining her freezing fingers with his. This doesn't go unnoticed by Dahlia, who is concerned as she usually is. She knows very well that she is a third wheel, but she takes this opportunity to examine this odd, out of the blue relationship that has popped up. Dahlia doesn't trust Madeline. She's too…too unusual. She gets a horrible feeling about all of this. If there is any way to get to Clementine, Madeline has done it. Eddy is confused. He's torn between what he knows and the more dangerous side. He expects her to be upset when she sees them together. He expects her to be angry. This is an understatement. It has been about a week since the date, and Madeline now holds his hand and spends time with him, yet still remains cold and distant. She is the queen of ice and he is a campfire. Clementine won't look at him. She won't speak to him. In their classes together, she pays attention and takes the notes herself. She will not, for all the money in the world, acknowledge him. It is worse than if she'd yelled at him, the silence is pure and complete hell. Dahlia is very much stuck in the middle. She chooses to remain quiet and often skips lunch just to avoid conversation. Her most important friendships are crumbling before her eyes; Dahlia is not equipped to handle such trauma. James is too busy with Lola. She consumes all of his time; she demands everything from him, and nothing less. He's helpless to her tyranny. James has fallen under a unique state of denial. He knows she is probably using him, but he doesn't really know, you know? James is used to always being what girls obsessed over. He's used to being in control. Lola has taken that away from him. And he's hapless in trying to take it back. All he can do is follow. He is oblivious to everything else.
Chapter V: Birthday Bash. October 25th, 2012 James' birthday is always slightly depressing for him. Ever since he came to the states, anyways. His mum was off being a high class lady and his dad was off being a business man. But they never forgot his birthday. His dad always, no matter where he was supposed to be, was there. His mum stayed home, and dressed down. There was a lot you could say about Mr. and Mrs. Charles Berkley, but they did love their son. They did, they really did at one point. But somewhere in between him turning ten and his sister getting pregnant, they decided he was too old for love. When he turned eleven, and vandalized several of their neighbors houses, they decided, instead of military school, which his Grandmother Berkley suggested, he was sent to live with Grandmother Todd, a nasty crow of a woman who, only after three months of him, wanted to get rid of him. His mother's sister offered to take him, because otherwise he'd be facing military school. He doesn't know why she did it, he never did, but he is still grateful. He arrived on the eve of his birthday. He'd never actually met this woman, but there were pictures of her. He saw her with a warm smile and a sign that said 'James Berkley'. She was not alone. There was a tall, gangly man with brown hair and a quiet air about him, and a boy with hair as red as his mother's, only a couple months younger than him, but a good two inches taller. He resents him already. The now fifteen year old him listens to said cousin snore. He cannot help but feel sad as he stares up at the ceiling. "Everything happens for a reason." He tells it, and it being a ceiling, does not respond. James' day is rather...anticlimactic, at least for a little while. There is no screaming or shouting or some great revelation. It feels terribly familiar and alien at the same time. Clementine gives him a box of chocolates and kangaroo keychain. Eddy gives him a book with a dirty magazine hidden within its pages and his love. Dahlia graces him with a hug and card saying she had no idea what to get him so she got him this. Lola does very pleasant and inappropriate things to him, which should not be named for all intensive purposes, and James thinks she would make an excellent trapeze artist. 'Pretzel people.' He thinks dizzily, trying very hard to not burst out laughing. When James ends up beside Madeline as he walks home, he thinks today is taking an interesting turn. ----------- Kinda short, kinda slow lately. I'm getting a bit more motivated to write, so it might get better. Hopefully.
Eddy is at work, and he has the car. "Hello." He says pleasantly. He doesn't know much about her, no one really does except for Eddy. She looks at him silently. Her eyes are purple, he notices, but he doesn't notice the lack of matter beneath him until he's falling in an infinite sea of purple. Eddy is beyond worried when his mother calls him that his cousin had an epileptic attack in the middle of the street. "On his birthday too." Eddy grips the steering wheel. "Hospital, hospital, hospital..." He has taken to thinking aloud, when he's alone. It's easier to cope. His mother has already called Clementine's mother and Dahlia's father. He wonders how his aunt and uncle, whom he's never met, except from James' description and pictures, would react. He could picture a James with curlier hair and dark eyes pacing, a woman who looks quite like his mother, but more blonde than ginger, in a chair dabbing her eyes as to not smudge her makeup with a linen handkerchief. Eddy is very unlike James when handling stress. Eddy is very bad at hiding it, whereas James is very good at it. He can feel his hair turning gray as he walks mechanically to where his mother had told him to go. James has not had an attack in more than a year and a half. They'd taken him off his medicine only a few weeks ago. He'd even gotten his driver's license... "Edwin." Eddy cringes inwardly at his full name, and his mother is practically sagging into a chair. His father stands stoically, looking out the window. "It was a long, convulsive one. We don't know if it did any damage, but he's alive, at least. We're doing all that we can." The doctor is a woman with a tired but pretty face, who is at least forty-five. Strands of gray stand out against the brown of her hair. She smells like antiseptic, but everything here does. He thinks that all of his nose hairs have shriveled up and died in the harsh scent. Everything is too white. Even their teeth and their hair and the floor and the ceiling are the most fluorescent white ever. Eddy sits down heavily and closes his eyes. He feels like an old man, the heavy chains of love and worry weighing him down. It feels like hours. He's thinly aware of Dahlia curled up beside him, her hand on his, a beacon of comfort. He rests his head on her shoulder. "You know, you're like a sister to me." "I feel the same." She responds, warm and as worried as he is. Clementine arrives quickly behind Dahlia, and Eddy greets her with a hug. Warmth pools into his stomach, a sensation he is used to around her. Dahlia and Eddy's mom are soon after. Even his dad waves to both of them. They've known each other so long, they really could be family, Eddy realizes. Eddy sits back down, a link of worry has disappeared from his chain, causing the whole thing, which is built upon memories and fear and love to fall, to pool onto the ground. Clementine's presence is often very welcome, because his brain goes slightly fuzzy when she is around. Eddy feels an obligation to call Lola. She is his girlfriend, no matter how much Dahlia hates it, it's the truth. "You have her number?" "James gave it to me just for this such occasion..." "Do we absolutely have to?" "It would be the right thing to do..." Dahlia sighs. It has been a good thirty minutes. She feels sicker and sicker with each passing moment. Eddy takes a deep breath and calls her. ------------------ Ermahgerd plot and exciting things and updates. Hopefully it will become less boring as the Big Bang has finally occurred. Figuratively, of course. Be kind, it's 12AM. Should not be awake. Oh well. You live, you have coffee, and you fall asleep in gym class.