Cabo Wabo

[quotemyname]

Glad I got out of that jam! I really hate it when she's upset. Makes me feel all crummy inside...

"Hehe." He hugged her tight, "I think I can manage that." He kissed her on the head again. "I'll avoid the Sweet Child O' Mine from now on though." He looked down at the golf ball near his feet. Eddie put on his smarmiest smile, "Did you wanna finish this game? Or is it pretty much a lost cause at this point?"

[N/A]

Zöe opened her eyes and raised her head. "Wha? Oh, right. That. Yeah, totally a lost cause." She took Eddie's hand and led him back out the way they'd come, a spring in her step. "Let's grab something to eat on our way out. I am farking starving."

When they hit one of the concession stands, Eddie's suspicions were confirmed as to why she offered to take on the cost of provisions. "Hi! Lessee...I'll have 3 large cherry Cokes...two slices of pepperoni pizza...a jumbo hot dog...a pretzel...oh, yeah, definitely with salt...Oooh! And one of those deep-fried Twinkies!" She jumped with glee and grinned ear-to-ear as she turned back to Eddie. "I haven't had one of those in years. Go ahead and get whatever you want, too."

[quotemyname]

"Hehe, certainly sounds good." Eddie said to her. Taking her hand in his he turned back to the man behind the concession stand. "Yea, I'll just get a uhm...Bacon double cheesburger, and uh.....A Dr. Pepper! What? Fries? Yea sure, why not?" He glanced a Zoe, I'm sure you'll eat 'em even if I don't."

[N/A]

Zöe blushed a little, rolled her eyes, and smiled. "Yeah. I think it's my powers. The whole speed thing works in weird ways. Like, I sleep about half as much as you do. But I eat and drink way more. I dunno. I guess moving faster than sound just burns a lot of calories." As soon as they sat down at a nearby table, Zöe's food started disappearing. Eddie never actually saw her eat anything. The food just went away, a piece at a time. Occasionally, he caught a glimpse of her swallowing. She caught herself. "Sorry. I know it looks like I'm totally just wolfing all this down. But hey, at least I never talk with my mouth full, right?"

OK, Z. He's seen you freaking out, he's seen you in your underwear, and he's seen you stuffing your face. If he's still in after all that, you're golden.

[quotemyname]

"Heh, no, no, it's cool." Eddie set his burger down and swallowed, taking a sip of his soda while he was at it. "It's fun because it's like a guessing game for me." He held his hands tentatively out over her plate. "You never know which piece of food is going to disappear next. I'm guessing hot dog!" He stared at the hot dog and put his fingers on his temples like he was fixing the frank with a fake psychic stare, almost as if he was daring it to vanish before his eyes. He couldn't keep a straight face, though, and after a few seconds he smiled again and started laughing.

[N/A]

After they finished eating, Zöe slid around to Eddie's side of the table and cuddled up next to him. "And believe it or not, I'm not even 'full.' That was just enough to make me feel refreshed and not nauseous or achey anymore." She playfully kissed his ear, then whispered into it. "Now I've just got three questions for you."

Zöe's heart started pounding in her ears. She honestly worried for a second that it was going to break through her sternum. Heh. You were worried that he was gonna be the pushy one. I want this. I've never been more scared in my life. And I've never been more sure of anything, either. He's the one. I want this. I want it to be him.

"One - do you mind if we get out of here? Two - are your parents still out of town? Three...Can you sing any Tool songs?" She laughed, then pulled back and fixed her eyes on his, unblinking, intense, yet open and vulnerable at the same time.

"I...I'm not promising anything. I don't know how far I wanna go. Just fair warning."

Yeah, right.

[quotemyname]

"Okay I'm ready!" He looked her straight in the eyes

One - do you mind if we get out of here?

I thought you'd never ask!

Two - are your parents still out of town?

If they know what's good for them...

Three...Can you sing any Tool songs?

Oh I thought that was going to be the hard one!

"And I've got three quick answers. No, yes, and do you want any certain album? Or just the entire discography?" He smiled at her, waiting for the all but inevitable super-fast walk back to his house to begin.

[N/A]

"ÆNIEMA. Sing me ÆNIEMA."

It wasn't a walk, not even a fast one. Zöe grabbed Eddie's hand and full-on ran all the way to his house. It took them less than fifteen seconds. At one point, she even took them on what she called "a shortcut" over the surface of the water.

Despite her verbal warnings and just as her internal monologue had predicted, Zöe's enthusiasm did not fade away when they reached Eddie's house. She started kissing him frantically as soon as they stumbled through the front door.

Yeah. I want this. I want it to be him.

"Confession Time: This afternoon, when I was out shopping for this dress, the checkout line wasn't really that long. I may have also stopped at every bookstore and library in the city and read every single book they had on this particular subject cover-to-cover." She blushed, then grinned and shoved him backward, down onto the couch. "Let's do this."

[quotemyname]

One thing was for sure. She left him no time to sing. In fact, he barely managed to shut the door before she was all over him.

Oh man I wasn't expecting any of this. But I like it. I like HER! I really do!

She blushed, then grinned and shoved him backward, down onto the couch. "Let's do this."

Could this GET any more awesome? He pushed her away for a second so he could speak, "Don't all of those books usually say how much better it is if you use a bed?"

A few seconds later they were upstairs in his room on his bed under the covers. He didn't even know how they had gotten there. He thought they had been kissing...

---

Some time later, the two of them were just laying on his bed, relaxed. Her head rested there on his chest, and he remarked at how this was one of the few times that he had ever seen Zöe MacMillan stay completely still.

He was twirling her hair with one of his fingers when he started singing softly.

"Some say the end is near.

Some say we'll see armageddon soon.

I certainly hope we will.

I sure could use a vacation from this

Bull@#$% three ring circus sideshow of

Freaks

Here in this hopeless @#$%ing hole we call LA

The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.

Any @#$%ing time. Any @#$%ing day.

Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay.

Fret for your figure and

Fret for your latte and

Fret for your lawsuit and

Fret for your......."

He continued singing the song she had requested of him as the two of them lay there, enjoying the moment.

[N/A]

For a long time, Zöe just laid there and clung to Eddie tightly. Her breathing didn't slow down nearly as quickly as it should have.

Whoa. Whoa.

Zöe couldn't explain some of the things that happened that night. There were times when she and Eddie found themselves in one place or another, with no idea how they got there or how long they had been there. Times when she would swear that hours had passed and the minute hand on the clock only moved once. Or when she turned away from the clock for a few seconds and when she looked back, two hours had come and gone.

But while some of these events were merely "strange," others were remarkably fortuitous. And the time distortions, if that's what they truly were, and not just perception altered by mundane changes in emotion and body chemistry, were not, in and of themselves, what Zöe considered the more noteworthy events of the evening.

"That was...that was...fark it. There aren't words."

Eddie's singing seemed to calm her down.

"I think it was more powerful than I thought it would be. More than I wanted it to be." She propped herself up on one arm, leaning on a pillow, and stroked her fingers through Eddie's hair. She grinned so hard it felt like her cheeks were about to split. "And it was really, really farking awesome." She kissed him, then fell back onto the bed and into his arms.

[quotemyname]

Eddie managed to relax himself, but there was something about her excitement that was invigorating. He felt like he was on top of the world.

"Yea..." Eddie returned the kiss and merely just lay there. "I ... Yea...Yea it was. And to think, normally I don't even have a good reason for being speechless."

He simply cradled her in his arms while he tried to get his brain working again. It had been a while since he had really had any significant conscious thoughts. "Sorry about the choice of songs. It's just that that was the last song you mentioned, and well my brain's not working too hard right now, so I couldn't even remember anything else at the moment."

"And yea, you're right. I have no clue what that was. But it was amazing. You're amazing!"

[N/A]

Exhausted, Zöe fell asleep in Eddie's arms that night. A deeper, more peaceful sleep than she had enjoyed since she first arrived in this time. So peaceful, in fact, that the the rays of sunlight pouring in from the bedroom window had to tickle her skin for several minutes before she awoke.

However, once she did finally wake up, she practically leapt out of bed. "Oh fark! Fark me, fark me. That can not be the time! I never sleep this much! Sprak! I forgot what day it is! I'm supposed to be at the dining hall in..." She glanced at the clock. "Two minutes! FARK!"

She dashed out of the bedroom as a pink and orange blur. The gust of wind in her slipstream blew the covers up off of Eddie. He could hear the sound of every faucet in the bathroom being turned on, then immediately off again, along with the toilet flushing, all simultaneously. A few seconds later, Zöe appeared at the side of the bed, haphazardly dressed in the minimum amount of clothes from last night's outfit necessary to be considered "decent." Just the bare essentials, with no frills. She kissed him quickly, then again. Then again.

"OK, seriously we have to stop, because I gotta go. Right now. Last night was awesome, it was fun, you're amazing, let's do it again soon, blah blah blah." She gave him one last peck on the lips before he heard her steps machine-gunning down the stairs. "Bye!"

[quotemyname]

Eddie was getting used to this. When Zoe was on a mission, there was no stopping her. He just satisfied himself with waking up in bed with her, listening to her getting ready. When she came back into the room he kissed her invitingly. Then almost without warning she dashed out of his house. "Bye." He sighed.

Eddie relaxed and laid back against the pillow putting his arms behind his head. A very satisfied smile spread across his face as he closed his eyes. "Hmm...Ahhhh." he sighed. Rolling over and pulling the sheets back up over his head he drifted back off to sleep.

"Blah blah blah..."

[N/A]

Zöe made it back to her dorm as quickly and quietly as she could manage. Wanting to avoid the gauntlet inside, she instead came around the outside and just ran up the side of the wall to her window (which she had left unlocked just for this purpose). However, it was broad daylight, and even on a weekend day, there were plenty of students in residence, and some of them were even awake. Her arrival, and state of dress, were noted, and eventually intersected with rumors of her activities the previous night. Even the most dim-witted social butterfly can add two and two and (eventually) come up with "four."

Whether any authority figures were aware of her comings and goings, or would choose to censure her, remained to be seen. But in the court of public opinion, some had already begun to brand Zöe as "a bad girl."