Paradise Blvd. Year One

Chapter Fourteen

Saturday

Marceline walked into Marion's room and found him sitting against the windowsill. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

He scoffed and, without looking back, asked, "Are you okay? You almost killed a man."

"You don't have to be so coy, Marion." She walked further into the room and sat on his desk. "I'm sorry, okay?"

"You're only sorry until the next time."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

He looked at her. "Over these years, we've had our rough patches, Marceline. And every time, it ended up with me pissed because I'm sensitive and emotional, right?"

"I apologised all those times."

"Well, if it was one time you apologized and shit like that never happened again it would mean something," said Marion. "But when you say sorry, you expect me to forgive and forget. Act like those rough patches never even happened. You always apologise only to do the same thing again. How long 'til you invalidate everyone else's problems again?"

Marceline stayed sile.

"I'm in pain, Marceline. For you. Don't act like you don't matter to us. Don't act like anyone of us should matter more than the others."

"So, what you're saying is that I can't take time to myself and deal with my own shit with my own terms," said Marceline.

Marion sighed. "That's not what I'm say-"

"No, that is what you're saying." Marceline stood up. "Marion, you spend most of your life concerned with how you can better other people's lives that you're losing yourself. I don't wanna be you, okay? None of us are like you and you can't expect that from us."

Marion turned away and took out a cigarette from his denim jacket's breast pocket. "That's unfair," he said as he lit the cigarette with a cheap, plastic lighter, "but it's okay, Marcy. It's all good."

•

The other room had been quiet for so long, it was starting to get less sombre and more awkward. "I think we've got shit to deal wi-" Troye started.

"I got raped," Tulip blurted out without much thought to it. "Lucien... he drugged me and... and he raped me."

Just like that, the room had went back to sombre.

"The first step to getting through problems is acknowledging them, right?" she asked. "I guess this is my first step."

Lucia scoffed. "You already took more than a first step, Tulip. Last night."

"Yeah." Forest smiled. "That was powerful."

"Nay!" Troye exclaimed. "It was more than just powerful, Tulip Moore. It was badass."

Tulip looked down and chuckled. "Guess so." She suddenly jumped up. "Excuse me, I need a breath."

Lucia looked at her go before turning to the boys. "Should I go?"

Forest nodded. "Yeah, probably."

"Go get your girl," said Troye. "Tell her we're here, too. Not here, but here, you know?"

"I think she knows what you mean, bruh," Forest stated. "Now," he said after she'd left, "can i throw ceramic plates at you?"

•

Lucia found Tulip sitting on the pavement and quietly sat next to her. Tulip was bent over, with her legs perched up and her head buried in between her knees. "I'm not Marion," said Lucia, "so I don't have anything pointlessly profound to say."

Tulip let out a soft chuckle.

"I'm not Marceline, so I don't have anything empowering to say," Lucia continued. "I'm not Forest, so I don't have anything comforting to say. I'm not Troye, so I don't have anything funny to say. I'm just Lucia: the depressed, coloured girl. All I have to say is thank you. Thank you so much, Tulip, but I don't think you should get so focused on my problems that you forget about your own. How are you?"

Tulip looked up at her and smiled, sadly. "I don't know." She chuckled again and Lucia gave her a shoulder to lean on. So, they sat there side by side and as silent as humanly possible. There was no one to acknowledge how awkward this silence was. It wasn't even awkward.

•

The wind was warm and moist to the point of discomfort, so Marion decided to climb back into the room. He snubbed the cigarette and faced Marceline. Without a word, he walked past her and out of the room. She stayed there with her fist clenched and her breath quickening.

After calming herself down, Marceline followed. In the hallway, she looked up at the frames on the wall. Some were pictures of Ms. King and her achievements. Most were art pieces. She looked down the stairs and saw the boys rambling about their powers and just how far they could them. "Hey, Troye. Wanna burn some stuff?"

Forest looked up and before he could help it, he had read her mind. "You wanna burn Ms. King's stuff?"

She smirked.

Soon, they found themselves in the basement and Troye had stacked the frames up in the middle of the room. It was cold, with dark stone wall and a horror movie atmosphere, except that it was devoid of any old tokens.

"I want you to know something, Kai," said Marceline.

"Don't call me Kai," said Marion. "My mom calls me Marion, it's unnerving coming from anyone else's mouth."

"What I wanna say is we live in a democratic society," Marceline continued.

"No shit."

"A society that values and embraces individuality, alright? So, I'd like it if you stopped shoving your socialist bullcrap down everyone's throats."

Marion frowned. "I don't recall discussing politics with anyone, Marcy."

"What I'm saying is life's not a group activity," Marceline stated. "I'm not saying that to excuse my selfishness. I acknowledge the fact that I seek attention to much and I'm working on dealing with it, okay? I'm saying you need to get a little selfish. You need to stop trying to bring everyone comfort, 'cause all that does is stop us from solving our shit."

"Is that what you're doing now?" Marion asked.

"Uh huh." Marceline shot a wave of flames at the art pieces and they started turning to black dust. "Esau is alive. A rapist is alive, 'cause i couldn't handle the guilt. Whether he tries to hurt Veronica or not in the foreseeable future - when he recovers, we both know he will, he's white and rich - he's still dangerous and unstable and some poor other person's going to be hurt by him. I'm never going to see Veronica the same again. All she's gonna be is a reminder that I almost crossed a line, which I technically did. So, yeah! I'm dealing with my shit. I'm cooling down by burning everything down."

When she stopped talking, she watched the fire. She was surprised at how silent Troye and Forest were. Marion had stopped talking too. She didn't see them either until she put out the fire. She felt better now. She'd let everything out, but what laid before her was unreal.

Corpses. Three of them.