A few hours later Fionna, Cake, and I were discussing how to get my car open. We sat at the cluttered dining table while I was wiping off a bunch of makeup with a wipe. After Fionna and I talked, we ended up doing a livestream on her Instagram. Which resulted in me doing a very incorrect beauty tutorial spoof. Some of the highlights were:

"Hello my cute little sugar babies, welcome back to my channel!" Followed by a makeup brush being thrown at the phone.

"This little egg-shaped sponge is actually a soft butt-plug for beginners! The ass juices really help with blending!"

"Next you want to take the brightest red lipstick you have and apply that shit everywhere, like a lesbian! Trust me, my cousins are lesbos, I'm allowed to say that, I know exactly what I'm doing."

And "When struggling to pick out which blush to wear, color-match it with your butthole!"

Those were just a few moments.

Anyway, back to the present, we were pretty much all out of options. Cake had tried texting Mono but he never replied. And we couldn't ask Flame since we all hated him now. The option of calling a tow-truck or something was said but we none of us had the money. And since it was getting late, Cake offered to just drive me home and worry about it later, but I wasn't comfortable with the idea of Simone's car being alone at a park all night. It was bad enough I left it alone for this long already! Who even knows if the hub caps are still on it.

"I think I know who we can call," Fionna stated after a while, an all-knowing look on her face.

"Who?" Cake and I said at the same time. She gave me the side eye before leaning in towards her sister, who whispered in her ear. Cake's eyes widened and she looked at me briefly.

"What? Who is it?" I asked, annoyed they weren't telling me. Fionna and her sister just snickered to themselves. I rolled my eyes and got up to go find a mirror to make sure all the makeup was off. Whoever they were planning on getting to help, I couldn't face them looking like Pennywise from the new IT movie. Or while wearing girls clothes for that matter. I jogged up the stairs.

Once my face was bare again and I was wearing my jeans and one of Fionna's hoodies, I came back downstairs to find Fionna just ending her phone call.

"...Chill out, you'll be fine!... Alright, see you in a bit, love you! ...Yeah, yeah, whatever... Bye!"

"Who was that?" I tried asking again. The girls turned their attention to me, big smiles on their faces.

"Guess which handsome lad is on their way to rescue you?"

"Fionna." I glared. I told her I wasn't ready, which should automatically mean not to tease me with cute boys.

"Sorry, sorry. But guess who!" I didn't guess so Fionna just said it. "Gumball!" she beamed. My jaw fell to the floor. She called him!?

"Out of the 7 billion people in the world, you called my ex to come help!?" My hands found my hair and I paced around the kitchen. "Oh this is just lovely."

"Come one, it won't be that bad! I thought you guys were supposed to be friends still? Friends always help friends, no matter what!"

"Just because we're friends doesn't automatically make it any less awkward!" I sighed. I can't believe this! This is all too much happening at once. I feel like I could throw up, pass out, and scream all at the same time. A wave of anxiety rushed through my body and I could feel my hands shaking. I tried my hardest to calm down but it just wasn't working. I managed to keep my cool all day yet here I am freaking out over Bubba again.

Cake spoke up this time. "Hey, Marshall, maybe you should sit down..." She must've noticed how stressed I am. My mind was racing on how this would go down. Fionna said he doesn't hate me, but how could I be so sure? Also it takes a while to get to the park so it's not like we'll be alone for just a quick moment. Oh glob what are we supposed to talk about? "Marshall!" My thoughts were interrupted by Cake's small hands on my shoulders.

"Huh?" Has she been trying to talk to me?

"Sit for a moment." Catherine gently pulled my to a wooden chair and sat me down. "Take a few deep breaths, okay? Calm down." I did as was told and tried to focus on slowing my heartbeat down. I met eyes with Fionna and she looked concerned. "It's just Gumball," Cake reminded, "He's not going to do anything mean. He cares about you."

"What if-"

"Hush! Just calm down okay? He's almost here." I steadied my breathing and calmed my thoughts. Cake's right, it's just Bubba. I've known and trusted him for a long time. There's no reason why I should be freaking out right now.

Not long after that, a faint knock came from the front door. My heart rate picked up again.

"Gummy!" Fionna exclaimed, running to go open the door. I stay in my chair and listen to them talk.

"Hi, Fi! Oh- uh- remember what I said about hugs?" An awkward laugh came from him.

"Oh! Right. Sorry, Gumball! Do you want to come in for a second?" Fionna asked politely. I took a deep breath and entered the living room. It's just Bubba...

Another awkward laugh came from him. "I- I don't want to sound rude but... I'm not sure if I-"

I interrupted him before it got too awkward. I could tell he was felt bad about not wanting to come in, so I saved him the hassle of rejecting her. "It's alright, Fi. It's getting late and I'm kinda tired so we should probably get going."

"Oh," Fionna said in a sorta disappointed voice. "Okay... well, good luck with your car!" I gave Fionna a big, long hug and thanked her for everything. Then before I knew it, I was alone in a car with my ex-boyfriend.

"You can sit in the passenger seat," he had said. I was confused and kind of relieved. Why did he want me to sit up front with Pepper? To save the awkwardness of being close to me? That's what I thought until I saw him get in the driver's seat.

"You drove?" I asked, shocked. Driving was a big issue for Bubba. He got his license right when he first turned 16 and was so excited. Pepper bought him his own car and everything. Until one day he got in a very very minor accident, someone just barely bumped into him at a red light, but it was enough to scare him into never driving. That is, until now.

"Oh, yeah," he said, blushing a little. "It's late and I didn't want to bother Pepps. Plus, remember, I swore that I wouldn't drive unless it was important. And I'd say this is pretty important." He shrugged a little, a crooked smile on his face, and our eyes met. A tingle went through my body, and I gave him a little smile in return.

Barnaby cleared his throat before digging in his pocket. He pulled out a little bottle of hand sanitizer and squirted some into his palm, rubbing it into his hands. While he did so, he winced a little, fanning his hands before starting the car's ignition.

"You good?" I asked, wondering why putting on sanitizer hurt him. He turned his body towards me, looking behind him, and backed out of the driveway.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine," he said once he changed gears. "My hands are just chapped a little. But it's okay." He made a small gesture. I just let it go. "Sooo, how've you beeen?" Bubba asked after a while. He was actually a really good driver, even after so long of not being behind the wheel.

"Um. Alright, I guess. I'm really trying. That's kind of the best I can do at the moment, you know?" I hated how awkward this was. My heart was racing and nothing was natural. I felt super aware of myself and every movement I made. It never used to be like this, that was upsetting.

"Yeah I understand. I'm trying, too but, it's harder than it sounds - am I going the right way?" I told him he was. "- But it's hard. Like just a few minutes ago, I told myself in the car that when Fionna greets me at the door, I'd at least try and shake her hand. But I just couldn't. It was too much. I don't even know what I would've done if I went inside," he said with a slight shiver. "Thanks for that, by the way. For rushing us out of there..."

"I could tell you were getting uncomfortable."

"That'd be an understatement," he laughed. We stopped at a red light. Nervously, he checked his mirrors and even behind him, making sure no one was behind us. While the light was still red, Barnaby put on more sanitizer. "I honestly feel bad." The light went green. "She's been my best friend for how long? And I can't even touch her, or go in her house," he sighed. I could tell this was hurting him. It must be hard what he's going through. People always tend to glorify OCD and think it's so cool that they're just neat and tidy all the time. It's much more than that and it's not something to be praised for having.

"I'm sorry," I said. I didn't really know what to say after that.

The pink-haired boy sighed. My heart fluttered. I tried not to think about it. "You know what," he started, an optimistic smile on his face. He looked at me for a moment before turning back to the road. I was positive I stopped breathing for those two seconds.

"What?" I asked, instantly feeling stupid.

"One day, everything will be just fine. I'll be able to go outside and touch everything I see! I won't worry about germs or dirt or unorganized things, and life will be great," he beamed, looking hopeful. "And you," Barnaby said, giving my knee a quick pat. The spot where he touched seemed to tingle. "You're gonna be happy. And you'll love the world just as much as it loves you. Life will having meaning again... Everything will be perfect for us." The way he said 'us' made my heart skip.

I smiled, finding his hopefulness cute. "I can't wait," I said softly, admiring him. He smiled back at me briefly. I may not be ready to accept the truth, but I guess I can say that I'm not not gay. So that's progress I guess.

Bubba cleared his throat again after a while. "So I heard about the whole Ashley thing. How'd that go?" I audibly sighed. This is the moment I was dreading.

My heart starting picking up pace again. I played with my fingers to try and calm down. "Just as great as you think it went."

"Oh okay, so, horribly wrong," he said in a jokey tone. I let out a small laugh.

"That'd be an understatement," I said in the same tone he had a few minutes ago, which made Barnaby laugh. I knew he probably wanted more details but there was no way I could handle talking to him about it.

I ran my hand through my hair while I gave Bubba directions. I guess this isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I felt kind of stupid for freaking out earlier.

"Hey," I started, not exactly knowing where I was going with this. Bubba's blue eyes caught mine for a moment before focusing ahead of him. "I want you to know that I'm sorry," I decided.

Gumball's thick eyebrows knitted but he didn't look at me. "For what?"

I sighed, fiddling with my hands. "For a lot of things... everything. I'm just a shitty person... I've been avoiding you at school and I shouldn't have. I'm also sorry for thinking that seeing Ashley would result in something good for once. For breaking us up, and how I did it, and how I acted towards you beforehand. For thinking that it would be easy without you after I did it. For practically leading you in that entire time. For not listening to you when I know for a fact that you're always right. For being stupid. For making an impulsive choice and ruining everything we had. For-"

"Marshall, stop." Barnaby cut my ranting short. I almost apologized again but decided against it. We were at a stop sign, but since his hand was on my shoulder and he was turned towards me, it didn't look like he was planning on moving any time soon. "Don't be sorry. It's in the past. You have to focus on you, and I have to focus on me. I get it, it's cool."

We stared into each other's eyes for a moment. His blue eyes held something that I couldn't quite place. Pain? Regret? Longing? Pity? All of the above? I couldn't tell.

"...Do you hate me?" I asked. It sounded stupid after I said it.

Barnaby blinked, taking his hand off my shoulder. His touch still lingered. "Of course not," he said, sounding kind of disbelieved. "Why would you think that?" His eyebrows furrowed and he frowned. "Did I do something to make you think I hate you?"

I shook my head. "No! You didn't do anything. I just-" I looked away, messing with my seatbelt. "I dumped you, ghosted you, stole your best friend, went behind your back to go see my ex... a lot of shit that you have every right to hate me for."

Bubba didn't say anything for a while and I didn't meet his eyes. The car had started moving again. I hated this silence.

"To be honest, I'm not happy about the things you did. But I wouldn't ever hate you over it... And just so you know, you didn't steal Fionna away from me. I told her to be there for you instead of me. Plus, I think you've noticed by now that she kind of... irks me. Germ-wise..."

He told Fionna to be there for me more? I was sort of shocked by that. All this time I was sure he was just mad at me, and Fionna just stepped up to take his place on her own. It didn't occur to me that he was making sure I was okay without getting in my way himself. He was so caring and considerate. Did that mean he was pretty much using Fionna as a spy to get all the dirt on me? Smart, honestly.

"Well, I'm still sorry. I'll try to not fuck up any more."

"Really, Lee. It's fine. The past is in the past."
Lee... He never calls me that. The only times I've ever been called by my second first name is by my mother, who usually says it to scold me for something.

"...okay," was all I said.

A while later we had reached our destination. When Barnaby saw that my car was at the park he made a dissatisfied hum. I felt guilty for bringing my ex-girlfriend to the same place I brought him. Bubba wasn't too happy about that either, obviously. He finally parallel parked behind my car (after five minutes of trying to do it perfectly) and exited the car. I jumped out as well and watched as he walked over, a wire hanger, pliers, and a paint scraper in his grip. I was curious about how he was going to use those three obscure items to unlock my car but I didn't say anything. This was probably common knowledge.

"You might want to give this to Ashley when I'm done," he said, waving the hanger in the air. I choked on my spit, laughing loudly. He laughed too, a bright smile on his face. If I wasn't busy dying over his abortion joke, I would've swooned. "Alright, let's get your car open."

Barnaby walked to the drivers side of my car and set the scraper and pliers on the hood. With some strength, the untwisted the hanger and straightened it, using the pliers to form the hook into a 'V' shape.

"Need me to do anything?" I asked, feeling kind of like a loser just standing around watching him.

His eyebrows were furrowed in focus. "Uh, yeah. In just a sec." He stopped messing with the wire and handed it to me, setting the pliers on the roof and replacing them for the paint scraper. Carefully, he wedged the thin metal between the top on the car door, pushing the handle to pry it open a little bit. With slow movements, he removed one hand from the scraper's handle and stepped to the side, taking the wire from my hand. "Can you hold this open while I reach in with the hanger?" I nodded and grabbed the handle, my heart skipping a beat when our hands touched. "Be very careful," he said, removing his other hand. "If you push too hard the window could break."

"Got it." I kept my hands still.

Barnaby then shoved the wire through the small crack, fishing around in the dark car. He hummed to himself while he did so and I pretended not to love it. Small clinking sounds came from inside the car from the hanger touching and scraping against stuff. As he worked, I finally noticed how chapped his hands were from this close. They looked like they hurt, honestly. I bet it was from washing and sanitizing his hands too often. I felt bad for him.

After multiple tries to grab the door handle from the inside with no luck, Bubba groaned loudly, clearly frustrated. It had been at least ten minutes of him just wiggling the hanger around in there. And since it was already getting dark out, it was really hard to see through the window. Before he had a mental break down, I suggested we take a break. My hands were starting to get tired from cracking the door open anyway.

"Ugh," he grumbled, tossing the wire on the car roof. I left the scraper wedged in the door, wiping the sweat off my palms. "How'd you even lock yourself out? I don't see your keys," Bubba said, looking in the window.

"They're in the back."

He moved and cupped his hands to look in the back. "Why are they- ohhh." He backed away, a blank look on his face. He must've saw my stuff there and pieced it together. I fiddled with my hands, feeling guilty again. "I guess she really will need that hanger then," he tried to joke, kicking the back tire a little.

"Nah," I said. "We didn't do anything. Don't worry." I met his gaze. He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?" He hummed. "Doesn't look like it back there. Is there any reason you guys didn't... you know?"

I made a gesture, trying to act chill. I didn't want him to think I was a prude loser, but also didn't want to make him upset. "I mean, we didn't do nothing obviously." I leaned against the car, my head holding up my head. "But yeah, I guess you could say there's a reason we stopped." Bubba just hummed, looking elsewhere. I didn't really want to tell him exactly what happened.

As I was standing there, my head in my hand, it had just occurred to me that after all this time... I hadn't even washed my hands after what Ash and I did... I slowly lifted my head, holding my hand away from me. Oh glob. I touched so many things with this hand. I should probably tell Cake to spray down their house.

"Hey, Bubbs, do you have any more of that sanitizer?" I asked, trying to be nonchalant. He glanced at me and nodded, grabbing the little bottle from his pocket and squirting some onto my hand. "Thanks."

"Yup." He sanitized his own hands before putting it away. "...Oh, gross!" he laughed after a while, hitting himself on the forehead. "You didn't even wash your hands after? Gross, Marsh, it's been like hours."

I just shrugged. "Oops." We laughed.

Barnaby just shook his head. "Let's try the car again."

We went back to what we were doing, prying the door, wiggling the wire. And after another five minutes of no success, Bubba cursed. It was really dark out by now and the closest street lamp was a distance away, the light just barely out of reach.

"I can't see shit. Here," Barnaby grabbed his phone from his pocket and handed it to me. "Shine the flashlight in there."

I held the handle of the scraper tightly in one hand, holding his phone in the other. Pressing the home button to turn the screen on, I was shocked when I ended up unlocking it. He kept my fingerprint in his phone? I glanced at the boy beside me briefly. He was still focused on trying to blindly fish around. I smiled to myself before turning on the flash, pointing the light into the car.

"That's much better, thank you."

After a few more tries and a lot of cussing, he finally latched into the handle. "I think I got it!" he beamed. He pulled the wire up and towards the back of the car, making it release a soft click. We cheered and high-fived, opening the car door wide open and doing a little victory dance. I pressed the button to unlock all the doors.

"Bubbs, you're my savior!" I grinned and hugged him tightly around the neck. Did he get taller? I don't remember him being as tall as me... and how did I not notice until just now? I gave his phone back to him.

"Oh stop, it was nothing. You know I'd do anything for you." He gave me a squeeze and I pulled away to finally get my things from the backseat (and also hide the blush I knew I had). I grabbed my shirt, hat, keys, and phone and danced around with them on the sidewalk, thrilled to have them all back in my possession. Barnaby watched me and laughed.

"Wait, so after you got locked out, how'd you get to Fionna's with no phone?" He asked, leaning against my car. I threw all my stuff in the front seat.

"I walked," I said nonchalantly. "Without a shirt, too. This is Mono's hoodie." I lied about the second part. If I told him this hoodie was actually Fionna's, he'd have a fit.

Barnaby looked shocked. "Seriously? Marshall, it's freezing out! You could've gotten hypothermia or something! You know you could've called me in the first place. We're still friends." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"First if all, with what phone?"

"Oh yeah," he hummed.

"Second, I was positive you hated me."

Barnaby rolled his eyes and walked towards me. "Again with the hate thing! Who do you think I am?" He placed his hands on my shoulders, shaking me. A 'ding' came from his phone, interrupting him. He checked it. "Oh jeez. Pepper wants me home. She doesn't like me driving at night." He let out a sigh, "I guess I should get home then."

I felt sad. I wanted him to stay! I missed being around him. "Aw," I pouted slightly. "Yeah don't get her all worried." I smiled and we hugged, holding each other tightly, as if it was for the last time.

"We should hang out more, we're still friends you know," he said, rubbing my back. "I've missed you." The way he said that made me feel guilty.

I closed my eyes, shoving my face into his shoulder. He smelled really nice. "I'm sorry. And I've missed you too." He let go and smiled, patting my shoulder. "Thanks for getting my car open." I watched at he grabbed up the three items.

"Anytime," he said with a wink. I felt my face heat up. "I'll see you later." Then he walked to his own fancy car.

"See ya, Barns. Drive safe."

"You too." He flashed me one of his bright smiles and got in his car. I entered my own and that was it. We went our separate ways.

This day started off shitty but I'm glad it ended well. I certainly had a lot of thinking to do tonight. About this whole gay thing, Barnaby, women's clothes, et cetera. That can all wait though. I felt happy, and no stupid thoughts could ruin that right now.

>>>>><<<<<

Part 2 is through!
Hello again guys lol
I decided to split this into two parts bc it would've been too long to read and people would probably have zoned out halfway

But anyway! Thanks for continuing to read this and I appreciate every one of you!

I'll see you in the next chapter 😉❤️