The loud, obnoxious rings of a telephone rang throughout the tidy and clean home. Mr. Persnickety rolled in his bed and covered his ears with a soft, white pillow. The pillow failed to block the sounds of the old telephone out.
Irritably, Persnickety sat himself up on his bed and rubbed his eyes. He glanced up at the clock hung up on his wall. It read 12:37.
"Who on Earth would be calling at his hour," he grumbled as he picked up his glasses and got up from his bed. He fumbled around in the dark and slowly walked down the stairs. He switched the light switch on, blinding himself for a moment, before heading over to the phone and answering it.
A yawn escaped his mouth before be spoke. "Hello?"
"H-h-h-heeeey M-Mr. Pa-Pa-P-," a familiar, yet slurred, voice responded.
Mr. Persnickety groaned and pinched his nose. "Mr. Messy, what are you doing drunk at this hour?"
"D-Daruuunk? I-I-I," the voice on the other line hiccupped, "oolny a wittle b-bit-"
"Uh huh, well, Mr. Messy it is quite late and I should be heading back to bed n-"
"NO!" Messy quickly interrupted, making Persnickety jumped and almost drop the phone. "Iam notta h-hoome- C-C-Cannota dr'rove-"
He sighed before asking. "Mr. Messy, do you need me to pick you up?"
"Please es-"
He sighed once again, rubbing his eyes. "Where are you at?"
"O-outtatown- Am I aaat- umm...I atta Wi-Wi-Washer...nono... Wisher City-"
Persnickety shivered. Wisher City itself wasn't the most pleasant town around. It was a filthy city filled with crime and corruption. Almost every news article about that town was either about a shotting or an arrest. Not to mention it was a hour and a half drive away from Dillydale.
"What on Earth are you doing there!" Persnickety yelled into the phone.
"S-sosorry- P-Party invited to- ooooldie frieeend- too draunk-"
"What's the building you're at look like?"
"Umm- G-green dinosaur."
Persnickety furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What?"
"Green Dinosaur- wery c-cute-"
He gave up on understanding and sighed for the third time tonight. "I'll be in around a hour and a half."
"T-t-thankie a-amgio," he giggled.
He hung up the phone. He took a deep breath and put on his coat and shoes, before exiting his house and getting into his car. This was going be a long night.
--
Persnickety was on edge as he drove his car through the streets of Wisher City. His eyes kept looking quickly side to side, looking to see if he could see Mr. Messy anywhere. He had to use every once of his willpower to not go on a full edge panic attack from seeing the awfully dirty condition of the town.
He drove slowly so that why he wouldn't miss his neighbor, although it would be hard to miss that big, pink, messy blob. He soon saw the pink man, but he wasn't on the sidewalk. He wasn't even on the ground. He was ontop of a car that had a green dinosaur molded around it. Persnickety almost crashed his car from the surprise of that.
He quickly drove into the sidewalk next to the dino-car and got out of his own car. "Sweet Henrietta, Mr. Messy, what on Earth are you doing ontop of that thing!"
Messy looked down and sluggishly waved a hello at Persnickety. "H-Hiya P Mr.- I uhh...I forgot how- got up here-"
The green man groaned before hearing his neighbor scream catch me. Next thing Persnickety knew, the drunk man had jumped off the car. He quickly ran over to catch his drunken neighbor before he hit the ground.
Messy giggled. "Y-woo! Y-Y-Ya catch me P-P!"
Once again Persnickety groaned. "Don't you ever do that again," he growled. He quickly realized how dirty he was getting from just holding Messy and quickly dropped him to clean himself off.
Messy rolled over on his back and kept giggling. "Th-Those stars alot tonight-"
"Messy, this town is way too polluted to see any stars. You're looking at airplanes," he muttered as he finished cleaning himself.
"O-oh...st-still a wery pre-pretty-"
"Can you get up by yourself?"
"Upppp? ...I c-can n-not fly...Miss Daredevil go up- Bounce up too!"
Mr. Persnickety sighed, realizing he had cleaned himself up too soon, and slowly bent down to sit Messy up. He wrapped his arm under Messy's and lifted him up. He wasn't the strongest man in town, so he almost dropped him, but he quickly got a hold on him before he could hit the ground.
He walked his neighbor slowly to his car and opend the door to his backseat. He moved Messy into the seat and buckled him up, before quickly closing the door and cleaning himself once again. He soon finished and got into his driver seat, starting the engine and quickly driving away from the house. Persnickety wanted to get out of the dirty town as soon as possible.
Forty-five minutes had past on their drive. The drive had been rather quiet, the silence only got interrupted by Messy's occasional hiccups and giggles. Persnickety was grateful for that, he wasn't sure if he would have last the drive if Messy had been rambling in his ears.
He looked in the rearview mirror to check on Messy. He made somewhat of a mess, but not as big of a mess he usually made. It would be rather easy for him to clean up. "Thank goodness," Persnickety thought to himself.
Five more minutes passed before Messy started to make some odd sounds. "Mr. Messy, are you ok," Persnickety asked as he looked in the rearview mirror again. Messy's face was green. Oh god, his face was green.
Persnickety quickly clicked a button to roll down the window next to Messy. "Don't throw up inside, go out of the window, out of the window," he yelled.
But it was too late. His neighborhood started to throw up inside of his car. His clean and tidy car. His body shuddered in disgust. His neighbor's lunch was all over his clean car and he had to clean it up. Heck, he wouldn't be able to clean it up until he reached the nearest gas station, and that was twenty minutes away.
"S-Sa-Saorry Mr. Pa-" Messy panted.
"Oh, sweet Henrietta-"
--
Mr. Persnickety, now back with a clean and tidy car, drove up into his garage. He sighed, trying to keep the memory of cleaning Messy's mess out of his car. He opened his car door and went out to help Messy out of his car.
Persnickety wanted to just leave Messy on the couch of his own all alone, but he feared that in his drunken state Messy would do something stupid and get himself killed. Not to mention, he'd rather not walk into that dirty house infested with god knows what. He decided to let Messy spend the night at his place and keep an eye on him.
He helped Messy walk into his home and and laid him down on his couch. Persnickety ran to a closet and ran back to give Messy a blanket and a pillow. He responded to the gifts by smiling wide and snuggling the pillow.
Persnickety left once again and returned this time with a cup of water. He handed it to Messy.
"W-w-wha tha?"
"Water. Drink it, it'll help you sober up."
Messy drank all of the water without any more questions. Once he placed it down, Persnickety took it and went back to refill it with water. This time when he returned, he placed it on the coffee table in front of Messy.
"Do I-I must drank m-more?"
"No, that's for the hangover you're going have in the morning."
"Oh...I'm getting h-hunged? W-what c-c-crime I d-did? What-wha be I hunged over?"
Persnickety sighed once again. He didn't think he had the energy to explain to a drunk man what a hangover was and that we wasn't getting hanged. So he simply didn't respond and went to pull a chair next to Messy.
Messy watched him with a puzzled look as Persnickety sat down.
"W-why ya sit?"
"Because, Mr. Messy, I'd rather not be standing up all night watching you."
"W-why ya watch me?"
"So you don't do something dumb or wreck my beautifully clean home."
"I-I no dumb."
"Mr. Messy, last time you were drunk, ran into the forest and tried to fight a bear for a smelly sock. You were lucky that Mr. Stubborn was on park duty when that happened, or else you would have been as good as dead."
"Oh.." Messy laughed. "O-oh yeah, I that did!"
"I hardly find that a funny situation, Messy," he grumbled.
"O-oh, loosen up!"
Persnickety huffed in response. He picked up a book that he had placed directly on the certain of his coffee table and began reading, not wanting to continue the conversation.
Surprisingly, the drunk man was able to take the hint and rolled over on his back, staying quiet as he stared up at the ceiling.
As time passed, Messy eyes started to close. The affects of the night he had were finally kicking in. He pulled the blanket closer to him and rolled over on his side, facing Mr. Persnickety. He opened his eyes and looked at his green neighbor.
"Mr. P-"
"Yes," he asked as he looked up from his book.
"T-thank you...for well, everything-"
"Think nothing of it, Mr. Messy," he responded as he went back to his book. "Now go ahead to sleep. You're going need it."
Messy nodded and closed his eyes once again. Soon, his snores filled the room. Persnickety looked at an old clock he had. It was three in the morning.
Somehow, seeing the time made him feel more tired. He placed his book back in the certain of his coffee table and snuggle into his chair. He looked back at his neighbor to make sure he was still asleep and slowly fell into a deep slumber.