CHAPTER XIV:
warming affairs

( March 1986 )

      THE SUN HAD BEEN FAR PAST THE TIME IT HAD BEGUN TO SET WHILE THE OLD FRIENDS REMAINED IN THE BOAT SHED BY THEMSELVES. The following few hours after Eddie spoke up about their lack of communication had been filled with meaningless conversation over anything and everything while playing various kinds of card games since she always kept a pack in her car.

      It seemed as though Eddie being suspect number one for a murder is what needed to happen for the two to return to how close they had been those years ago.

Cleo gave a small shiver beside Eddie, being in nylon shorts and a striped t-shirt hadn't been the most practical choice of clothing to be sleeping in a boat shed with the lake water creating a chill throughout the spring night. And the pink jacket she had brought wasn't being put to use for warmth since it was being used as a sanitation device.

      Eddie noticed her shiver as they spoke. "I would offer you a tarp to keep you warm but I don't feel like making you vomit in my sleeping quarters," he joked. "Here, stand up."

She did as she was told, leaving her zip-up on the wood floor. Eddie stood up too, his chains rattling as he did so. He then picked up her jacket, flailed it around for a few seconds to rid it of any dirt that could have accumulated on it, and handed it to her. Cleo stared at him confused for a moment, her eyes going between the jacket and Eddie before she took hold of it.

Sighing, putting her phobia aside, she slid on the zip-up. Cleo outstretched her arms in her usual awkward manner while showing that smile he always had when looking at her. Eddie took a step forward and put the hood on then nodded satisfied.

      "Alright, come here," he said while sitting back down and laying down. She squinted her eyes and raised her eyebrows knowing she was going to regret her decision but lay down beside him staring up at the dark ceiling. "I'm probably warmer than you, so all that stuff about radiating body heat should apply here."

      Cleo thought about it for a moment, "guess so," she said shrugging. "Okay, would you...would you rather be a hawk, capybara, or...a jellyfish?" Cleodora asked while toying with the loose strings on the sleeves of her jacket. Eddie had been about to answer but she interrupted him, "Oh! And- and why?"

"Hawk all the way," he said. She turned her head to him expectantly waiting for the rest of his answer. "I don't know, man. They're just, like, always in the air watching over everything that goes on and they can be involved in whatever they want and if it gets too much then they can easily leave."

"I knew you'd pick that," she giggled.

"You're not so unpredictable either, you'll probably choose the jellyfish," he guessed.

"No, I wouldn't!" She lightly shoved him.

"Oh, yeah?" he squinted at her.

"Yeah," Cleo nodded assuredly.

"Then which would you choose?" He said while leaning up on his elbow to look at her more.

      "I would choose..." Cleodora too sat up on her elbow, her eyes drifting to Eddie's toothy grin as she thought about her question. Sighing and ducking her head down in defeat, Cleo answered, "the jellyfish."

Victorious, Eddie grinned wider than before. "Now, why the jellyfish?"

The girl sighed laying on her back again to look up at the dim ceiling in the low lighting they had. "I want... I want to be comfortable with the ocean again. More so just water." Eddie carefully watched her talk, how her eyes lit up with the different thoughts that had run through her head. "Jellyfish just get to stay in the water for their whole lives, just going with the currents. They don't know anything away from the ocean, perks of not having a brain."

      "So, no more wanting to be a sea urchin?" he joked. Cleo groaned running her hands over her face in embarrassment for ever wishing such an odd thing in life.

"I did until I found out they destroy kelp forests," she explained. Her teasing expression suddenly began to fall as she spoke again, "jellyfish also can't drown, being fish and all, and some are even immortal."

      Eddie noticed her mood change, anyone could for a mile radius, so he hesitantly asked, "what...happened that made you not want to be around water anymore?"

      Her eyes met his and she sat up crisscrossing her legs, Eddie following her example to sit up. "I sorta died," she said.

      His smile grew as he thought she had been joking but it quickly fell when he realized she was being serious. "You died?"

      "Drowned more specifically," she said nodding and looking down at her hands that fiddled with her sleeves. "I was at a lake on vacation with my family and we brought Robin with us," she began. "There was a platform in the middle that the both of us swam to jump off of, but there was also another group of people on it who were messing around and pushing each other. Eventually, me and Robin were about to jump off when someone from that group ran into me and I fell into the water."

      For being so loud and eccentric, Eddie had listened to Cleo the entire time she spoke about her least favorite time of her life.

"You would think that after all the things I'd research that I'd remember to try to stay afloat and stay calm when getting pulled into a current but I completely panicked, tired myself out, and swallowed water."

"How the hell did they get you out?" Eddie asked concerned.

"Well, with me drowning, my body went limp and I became afloat high enough for them to pull me out and start CPR," she said while trying not to bring the mood of their rekindling down even more.

"That's why you wouldn't go over to the boat," he connected.

She nodded, "and because of your germs," she teased.

"Dora, are you trying to say that I have cooties?" he scoffed trying to lighten the mood and bring her bracketed smile back. Even if it was just a fragment.

"You said it, I didn't," the girl put her hands up in surrender.

"Whatever."

NOTE. ok ik eddies supposed to be like 2 years older than the regular high school age in the show but hes not here sooo