I popped a jawbreaker into my mouth. Double Dweeb was keeping me waiting in the highschool's library. Just because I'm the Captain of a football team doesn't mean I can fall behind in my academics. Yes, I know what academics means. I was falling behind in my math class, not English. Then he walked into the library. Edd or Double D as we called him. He still wore that same hat that hid his hair. He had on a brown cardigan, an orange tee, and khakis. Over his shoulder was an old messenger bag. He saw me and rushed over.
"Terribly sorry, Kevin. Eddy was trying to pull me into another scam." He bowed politely.
"I figured that's why you were late. Don't worry about it." I shrugged. " Just help me with my math."
"Righty-o." He grinned with that gap in his teeth.
We studied for two hours. He went over all the materials without skipping a beat. It took awhile, but some of the stuff he explained to me managed to stick. He got me caught up with the current lessons and even helped with some of the stuff we haven't even got to yet. This is why I preferred him over the other two Eds. Eddy was okay in small doses, but he got annoying quick. Ed was hard to follow sometimes, it was amazing he got this far. Double D, however, was the nicest guy you could meet. He was polite, knowledgeable, and just all around great human being. He brought out good in people somehow. It made me happy to be around him, I guess.
"My word, we got farther along than I had hoped. You are quite the quick learner, Kevin." He smiled.
"Eh. You're a good teacher, Double Dork." I shrugged.
"All these years and you still call us those childish nicknames..." Double D sighed.
"Eh, I'm just mad about my grade. You know how I get, man." I yawned.
"True. You are prone to violent outbursts." He nodded.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" I growled. He threw his hands up in defense.
"I was kidding! It was a joke!" He panicked. I busted out laughing at his expression.
"I'm just messing with ya, Double D." I laughed loudly.
"O-oh...Of course." He chuckled nervously. He looked at his watch.
"Oh dear...I've missed the last bus." He sighed in dissapointment.
"That's not a problem. Come on, I can drive you home." I told him, shoving my stuff into my backpack.
"Kevin, are you certain? I can offer proper repayment if I need to." He offered. He put his things away neatly into his bag.
"No need, Sockhead. We live in the same neighborhood. Consider it payback for the tutoring." I tossed my keys up and caught them.
"Well...all right. You have my thanks, Kevin. Shall we get going?" He smiled.
"Yup, let's roll." I told him.

Only a brief period of time had passed since we had departed from the school. To me, it felt like an eternity. I had been unable to strike up a conversation with Kevin. I was too nervous to say anything to him. It was much less difficult talking with him in the library, but here we were alone in his car. It's not that he was intimidating to me. I had another reason to be nervous. Around the time when I entered high school, I noticed my attractions to the opposite sex had declined steadily. I felt my affections shifting...towards the same sex. It took several weeks of self-study before I had accepted this as fact. I was homosexual. In other words, I'm gay. This brings me to my current nervous situation. I had only told two people of my orientation. Ed and Eddy. The memory came back to me. I had invited them to my home to tell them in private.
"What's up, Sockhead? You had something important to tell us?" Eddy asked, spinning around in my desk chair.
"Are you going to take off your hat?" Ed asked, munching his toast.
"Why would do that? We already know what's under there." Eddy corrected him
"Oh yeah. I forget." Ed smiled.
"No...it's about something personal." I swallowed my fears and took a deep breath.
"I am...attracted to the same gender of our species." I blurted out. They both stopped and looked at me.
"What?" Ed finished his toast.
"Hold on...I don't follow a lot of the things you say. But are you saying...?" Eddy let the question hang in the air.
"Yes...I'm...gay." I shut my eyes and awaited their judgement of me. Next thing I knew, Ed scooped me up in a spine destroying, bear hug.
"Hooray for Double D!" He cheered for me.
"E-Ed! You're crushing me!" I gasped for air. He set me down.
"I have a cousin who's gay too! He always brought cool stuff for Ed!" Ed smiled joyfully. It made sense that Ed would accept me so quick. He was a lovable oaf with a big heart.
"Dang and here I was thinking you won a huge jawbreaker jackpot or something." Eddy sighed dejectedly.
"Eddy?" I turned to him. I thought he would be at least disgusted with me, given how much material he had under his bed.
"I mean that's cool and all. Just don't go hitting on me." He chuckled. At first, I thought he was going to play it off with a joke.
"But...I know there are some real aholes about that stuff. I got your back if you need me to bust some kneecaps." He flicked his nose with his thumb. It sounded like a joke, but his face told another story. He was serious.
"Yeah! We'll beat up the homophobes! We Eds stick together!" Ed pumped his fist into the air.
"You got our support, Sockhead." Eddy gave me a thumbs up.
"Th-Thank you both." I couldn't hold back my emotions as the tears started to flow. Make no mistake, those were tears of joy.
"You both are truly my dearest friends." I sniffed, wiping my eyes.
"Yeah yeah. Can the waterworks. Come on, let's go get some jawbreakers. My treat." Eddy pat my back.
"Wow, Eddy! You don't pay for anything!" Ed shouted.
"I pay for stuff!" Eddy shot back a retort.
"The readers are gonna be so shocked!" Ed held his face like the Scream.
"What are you talking about?!" Eddy shouted.
And just like that, the mood went back to normal. I told them and nothing had changed. These two were my truest companions.
"Hey, Double D. Do you have a crush on anyone?" Ed asked suddenly.
"What?!" I blushed heavily.
"Oh snap! He does have one!" Eddy grinned.
"Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!" Ed cheered.
"It can't be that bad, right?" Eddy chuckled.
"It's...Kevin." I admitted.
"WHAT?!" They both shouted in unison.
After that, I told them my reasoning. Kevin had met my standards, I guess you could say. He was a perfect physical specimen. He had the perfect amount of muscle in the right places. I would catch glimpses of chest in the locker rooms. I always felt my face alight with a heavy blush after thinking about him. Kevin's bold nature drew me to him as well. He was confident, he was an amazing leader, and on the football field he proved to be an excellent strategist. He was also an incredible mechanic. He repaired his current car from one he had aqcuired from the dump nearby. I remembered just watching him work from a far off distance. I offered my assistance once, but he politely declined. He told me that he wanted to do this himself. He wasn't trying to be rude, it was just something he needed to do himself. That's what he told me. It was a sight to behold when Kevin drew into the school's parking lot in his car. To make this statement short, he looked so cool. He put all his hard work into making something incredible. To me, it was inspiring and attractive.
Which brings me to my current situation. Sitting in the same vehicle with my aforementioned crush that he built from a junk car frame. I couldn't bring myself to talk to him like this. I was too nervous!
"Hey, Double D." Kevin broke the silence.
"U-Um! Yes, Kevin?" I stuttered a response.
"What do you plan on doing after high school?" He asked me, keeping his eyes on the road.
"Oh...I'm actually planning to go into engineering." I answered truthfully.
"You don't say?" He nodded.
"My hope is to create an highly efficient, free source of energy. Something thst can power the world without harming the enviroment we live in." I explained.
"That's pretty noble. I hope you make it." He smiled.
"Th-Thank you, K-Kevin." I blushed, quickly turning my face from him. Before I knew it, we had arrived in the Cul-De-Sac. He pulled into his house's driveway.
"All right. We're here." He got the car and I followed.
"I thank you for the ride, Kevin." I bowed politely to him.
"No problem. You ever need a ride, just call, Double Dweeb." He twirled his keys around his finger. I always found that nickname to be rather irksome, but it was better than "Dork".
"I'll see you at school tomorow." I smiled and started walking home.
"Cool, maybe we can hangout." He offered.
"I would like that." I smiled at him. I then returned to my dwelling

I sat in my room, throwing darts at the wall. I didn't know what it was, but hanging around Double D like that always made me happy inside. It felt like when I fixed up my car for the first time. Just this warm feeling in my chest. I liked it. A lot.
"Maybe I should let him help me with my car..." I murmured to myself. His smiling face suddenly flashed across my mind, then I felt that warmth again.
"Yeah...I think I'm gonna do that. He might like that." I said to myself. I smiled, lying back on my bed.
"It'll be a great summer project with him." I chuckled.