Trudy lays in her bed, still wearing Ethan's hoodie, crying louder than she was this morning. Tears stream down her face as she hugs herself tightly. My Neighbour Totoro playing through one of her monitors , but ultimately ignored. “Its all my fault”, she thinks to herself, “he was in so much pain, because of me, if I hadn’t spilled coffee on my fucking hoodie. Guts…Ethan I'm sorry, after all he’s done for me I can still do nothing for him, I owe so much to him…I owe him to be left alone. I’ve ruined his fucking hoodie too, its covered in blood and tears… what a horrible day for rain”. Trudy remains in her own sorrow, the only thought now repeating in her head is, “im…sorry”, even as she’s internally apologising to him she can’t help but cling to his hoodie for support. Her stomach rumbles, of course it does, when’s the last time she ate? She knows if she spends a second not crying over Ethan that the guilt will take over, the only emotion worse than sadness, guilt. She turns over in her bed, "I haven't even made dinner yet”, she thinks to herself, “mom can’t know that I came home crying, then she’ll find out about everything happening at school, I might need to see a professional, everyone might get in trouble, then I’ll go from outcast to target…i might have to move schools, move away from…Ethan”. “Why him, why does it always come back to him… why do I not care about anyone else, anything else… What’s it all for, I'm never gonna make him smile again”.

Then it starts to rain, “Boston, and it's nearly summer”, she thinks to herself, “and it's raining? What's next?”. She waits for something else bizarre to happen, but nothing does. The tears have stopped flowing and are now coming at a normal pace, she lays on her back staring at the ceiling. She punches the air above her in lazy jabs, making the fabric of her loose sleeves flow. She stops to hug herself again, “this hoodie still smells like him…”, her thought is cut off by a knock on her door, “mom shouldn’t be home yet” she thinks to herself, “is it Guts? Of course it isn’t you fucking idiot”, the door knocks again, she rubs her eyes with her sleeves, she checks the mirror in the hallway as she approaches the door,she still looks like she was crying. The third knock forces her to answer in her current state, she opens the door and sees Ethan stood in front of her holding a brown bag. The smile he came to the door with turns into a look of concern. “Trudy?”he asks softly, her head starts to shake, her fingers start to dig into her thighs, I just…” she responds before tearing up even more, “why are you here?”. “You said I needed to watch Guardians of the Galaxy… so I came to watch Guardians of the Galaxy…But if you want to just talk we can” he reaches into the brown bag he’s holding and pulls out a four colour pen, with a plastic Pikachu perched at the top, “there was only one left…I thought you might like it”.

Tears stream down her face, it's not like a hole has broken in the dam, it's like the dam has now ceased to exist. With shaky hands she takes the pen from him, gently. She offers a soft smile through all the sniffles, “thank you guts… it means a lot”. She stands aside to let him into the house then closes the door behind him and leads him to her bedroom. He sits on the same bean bag he did last time, but before he does he puts some distance between it and her one. She takes a seat too. She slowly begins to calm down. “Sorry about the hoodie, I'll wash it” she says, still slightly sniffy. “It's yours now”, Ethan responds, "don't worry about it”. Trudy wants to protest it, give him back his hoodie, but she can't, she blushes, the tears have  now completely stopped flowing, “thanks Guts”.

She gestures for Ethan to move his bean bag closer to her’s as she starts using her computer. Guardians of the Galaxy begins playing, Ethan watches the screen, Trudy watches Ethan watching the screen.then at the seven minute mark she notices a faint smile cross Ethan's face, she smiles shyly before turning to face the screen. As Groot begins drinking fountain water she feels a soft stroke and a gentle weight on her left shoulder. She looks to Ethan and notices him looking forward, shaking slightly, with his arm wrapped around her shoulders. She starts making a clicking noise, she starts to tremble, her fingers dig into her thighs. Ethan pulls his arm away from her in a quiet,considerate motion, feeling slightly defeated until he feels her hand firmly clutch his wrist. She pulls his arm back around her shoulders, still trembling, but now she's smiling. Ethan looks at her in mild surprise, "I want to get used to it”, she says softly before focusing back on the movie, Ethan smiles and follows suit.

Her clicking slowly becomes quieter as time passes, she can feel her fingers loosen on her thighs, the trembling also slows down but at a much slower rate to everything else. As they are about an hour into the film Ethan feels a weight on his shoulder, he looks to the side and sees Trudy’s head resting on his shoulder, he smiles proudly. 

As the movie reaches its final third Trudy’s hand comes to wrap around Ethan’s waist, at first it's for balance but it becomes about a lot more. She’s still trembling but she has learned to ignore it. As the credits begin to roll Ethan looks over at Trudy and smiles, she smiles back. “You got hurt because of me”, she says self awarely, he pulls her in tighter, “you’re not still thinking about that are you? You think I'm bothered?”. She meets his eyes with a pure spellbound look before nuzzling into his shoulder, “but why does it not affect you?”. “My whole life I've been picked on for nothing, or for things that I can't control. But now I get picked on for a reason, a reason I believe in” he responds, “me?”, she asks in shock, “I’m your reason?”. He chuckles, “yep.”

Trudy is blushing so intensely that it can nearly be heard, but the silence of the room still wins. This fifteen minutes of being in each other's arms in silence is interrupted by a firm exclamation, “shit!”. “My mom will be home in an hour… i need to cook dinner” she says frantically, “oh I’ll… leave I guess? Or do you need help”, Ethan responds. “Dont worry, you’ve helped plenty… I'll go to murphy’s and get a microwavable meal…i’ll put it in a pot, pretend i cooked it”, then the panic subsides and she wraps her arms around Ethan's arm, she smiles, “so we still have another few minutes”. Ethan smiles, “I’m glad”

“Are there more movies like Guardians of the Galaxy?”Ethan asks curiously, “oh my god”, she responds, “if you liked it there’s a whole series of movies similar”. “Think of it this way”, she continues, “Guardians of the Galaxy are Method Man right? So the Avengers are the Wu Tang Clan… and every other solo member has their own movies and they’re all part of one whole series”. Ethan smirks, “so where do we go next?. “Right to the start” she responds, “Iron-Man”. Ethan's face lights up, “we can double up the Iron-Man movie with Ghostface Killa’s first solo album, it's also called Iron Man”. “Sounds great," she responds “… I’m glad you liked guardians”

He very hesitantly gets up, “well I better get going before your mom shows up, see you at Miss Jackson tomorrow”. He starts to walk towards her door,”wait!” she shouts as she approaches him. He stands there slightly stunned, she awkwardly wraps her arms around his torso, “thanks for everything, guts”, she looks up at him with a smile, he returns it. She then lets go of him and allows him to leave.