My word count is getting better. :) Anyways, this chapter is the official start of the plot. So no more long introductions — just straight (ish) Kevedd from now on. I hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own the original Ed, Edd n' Eddy characters. I only own my interpretation and usage of the plot, and whatever miscellaneous characters I may add. This story will also include scenes not suitable for children or bigots. You have been fairly warned.
Please enjoy!
It's Complicated
3/46
When Eddward awoke the following morning, it was raining outside; a downpour; not just raining cats and dogs, but likely drowning them as well with the massive quantities of water that fell from the sky, at such a high rate, too.
While he pleasantly enjoyed the white noise that rain created when it was time for him to fall asleep, in the mornings, it greatly dampened his mood — no pun intended. This would make it incredibly difficult to make his way over to the Kanker household to taste the goodness that was May's cooking early on, and have another rush of witty banter with Marie. Then there was always Lee, and what she had to offer to the situation. It would be difficult, yes, to run while holding an umbrella above his head, but he would do it regardless for the pleasant company that came from the trio of friends.
(For a moment he mused on his present and past. He remembered back to a time when he had feared the Kanker sisters — Marie especially, who had what he determined to be an unhealthy crush on him, at the time. Now, however, he very much enjoyed the Kankers' company — and Marie was one of his most important people, whom he felt he would go to any cost to protect.
Ah, how embarrassingly fondly he looked back at all those times he ran away from her. Even back then, she had her hair dyed blue, but never let its natural black color show like she was doing now with the sides of her fauxhawk. She had come off to him as obsessive and rude, and with some mental dysfunction — but oh how wrong he had been in the judge of her character. When he finally stopped running away from her advances and made an effort to be her friend, at least, Marie Kanker turned out to be someone he was able to connect to on a spiritual level. There were so many more layers to her than he had been allowed to see — her sisters, as well, turned out to be much more mature and exciting than they let on. Candid. Hard-working. Nice.
He could hardly imagine what he may have deprived himself from if he had not stopped physically running from Marie when she and her sisters were chasing him and Ed and Eddy, and held out the white flag of surrender, and the hand of friendship.)
However, this plan quickly fell apart as he, looking out his bedroom window, found his vision nearly entirely blocked by the heavy rain. He would be unable to run, at all. He heaved a sigh and went to his cellphone. On days like these, he always sent a text to Marie to let her know that he would be unable to come over for breakfast that day (he would still go to pick them up for school, but not to eat). The results of which were usually the sisters breaking into his locker at school — as in, cracking the combination lock through whatever means they used that left no signs of tampering (he assumed they used the old-fashioned stethoscope trick) — and leaving his food there for him to eat during his initial free periods. It was always a nice treat, even though he was expecting it.
He had not sent the message but a minute before he got a reply back from Marie. In her usual, emoticon-hieroglyphic way, which he felt he should get a Master's Degree for being able to debunk the series of emojis, she communicated to him, "Booooooooooo!" Followed by, "We gotchu."
He laughed, almost hearing her voice and seeing her face as she sent him these things. He imagined the look of displeasure turning into a smug, pouty look as she nodded her head at her sisters, who would somehow know exactly what she meant. He held back the escalation threatening in his laughter as he spent more cognitive skills on this one thought.
With his morning situation taken care of, he put his phone aside and went to bathe. As usual, his towel and other toiletries were waiting for him in there, and he made quick work of his hygienic process. When he was finished, he wrapped his hair up and went into his bedroom, naked as usual. Inside, he dried and dressed, and then finished up setting his hair.
It was incredibly early by the time he finished — not even 8am. It was still early enough, however, to go to Marie's house and transport her and her sisters to school with him; and still manage to get them to their class on time.
At his foyer, he grabbed his plastic bubble umbrella from the umbrella rack next to the door, and his house keys; his phone already in the internal pocket of the jacket he decided to wear, as extra protection against the wind.
As he stepped out, he was hit by the full-force of the rainstorm; high velocity winds and heavy rainfall got him drenched almost instantly. He regretted not putting on rain boots as well, having felt that he could handle it with his current footwear. He was half ready to go back indoors and change, but opted against it; what good would that do, now that he was already wet? He would just be dragging the filth into the house, which was the last thing he wanted.
He decided on instead heading into his car. The short distance there was harder to traverse than normal, even with his bubble umbrella providing a clear barrier for his eyes to see through — part of the reason why he had purchased it over a regular umbrella. When he got to his car, he was more-than-happy to step in and close his bubble umbrella, before tossing it to the bottom of the back seat. He felt happier than ever, now, that he had opted to get the Weather Tech floor-liners for his vehicle; the seats already had plastic protectors keeping the white, white, and the leather dry, after all, and the use of the floor-liners made cleaning his vehicle during accidental spells and rainy days, much easier.
Pulling out of his driveway, he was about to round out of the cul-de-sac when he spotted Kevin coming out of his household.
He did not have an umbrella with him and was running while holding his red backpack above his head. At the front door, Eddward could see Kevin's father calling out to him and holding out an umbrella. Kevin was on his motorcycle and braving the heavy rain as he tried to get it started.
Without thinking of it for a moment, he stopped at Kevin's house and called out, "Kevin!" The drenched male did not hear him, and he motioned towards his father. His father caught on and was able to communicate to Kevin the need to turn around. When he did, he finally said, "It is unsafe to operate a motorized cycling vehicle in these hazardous weather conditions! Please! Allow me to be of service in that respect!"
It seemed to take a moment for Kevin to register what it was that he was saying; but in the end he seemed to get it. Carpool, he wanted to carpool with him today because all Kevin had a license to drive for, was his motorcycle — with a car license being an entirely different exam and set of authoritative processes for him to register and gain — and if he had trouble walking to his car in this weather, there was no telling the difficulty Kevin would have going at 20 — maybe 30 — miles-per-hour with the wind and the rain obstructing his vision and the roads a slippery wet mess.
When he got the message, Kevin ran to the passenger side of his car. He did not bother holding his backpack above his head this time; he was already incredibly soaked and the act would make no significant difference.
When he got there, he hopped in and slammed the door shut. His freckled face was red, and his hair — his whole body — looked like he just came fresh out the shower. Instinctively, he shook his head to get rid of some of the water in his hair, and Eddward had to shield himself with his hands to keep the water from dropping onto him. Kevin went wide-eyed and looked around at the car before looking at him.
"Sorry." He said. "And after you offered to give me a ride, too. Damn."
"It is of no worry or concern, Kevin." Eddward said as he opened the small compartment in between the front seats and pulled out some thick and soft tissues. He grabbed two sheets for himself and gave two to Kevin, who graciously took it. "I was far more concerned over your wellbeing whilst operating your motorcycle in these conditions, than the potential wetness my car may succumb to." While saying this, he was scooping up and drying the few water droplets that Kevin had scattered when he shook himself like a dog, but that did not necessarily mean that his words meant any less.
Kevin dried his face and tried to do as much as he could on his hair, but knew that it was useless. He had already created a nice little puddle on Eddward's floor-liners and seat covers, and on top of that, his backpack was surely creating an even bigger mess in the backseat. He held back the urge to flush from embarrassment; he simply could not let Eddward see him so openly flustered.
"I am relieved that you accepted my offer." He said as he finally got the car in gear and fully drove out of the cul-de-sac.
"Yeah, well… thanks for offering." Kevin stated. He leaned against the window of Eddward's car; head half titled up to look at the rain pouring down. It was difficult to see through the continuous falls, and surely even more difficult to drive — for even though the windshield wipers pushed the liquid to the side, it quickly came back. Looking at Eddward, he saw the grip on the steering wheel was tight, with his eyes squinting.
"…This is one shit-lord of a storm, ain't it?" He remarked, trying to make some conversation. While he and Eddward had had their differences in the past, they both did a tremendous amount of growing-up after the situation with Eddy's elder brother brought the kids of the cul-de-sac into their favor, and a wordless friendship had been formed. Numerous times he had sought tutoring help from Eddward, and when Eddward initially struggled to find a sporting club suitable enough for him to help achieve his parents' wishes of wanting him to display himself as an exceptionally full-rounded student to colleges by enlisting in activities of the body, it was Kevin who had helped him to scope out the sports clubs at the school, and even showed him his now-favorite jogging path.
(However, as far as hanging out — spending a day together or tagging along in a group of friends for an outing — the two had never intermingled. They were on a positive basis with one another, but that just made them comfortable acquaintances; not quite friends; friendship was far deeper than that, and Kevin had yet to become to Eddward what Ed and Eddy and the Kankers were, and Eddward had yet to become to Kevin what Nazz and Rolf and even Johnny were.)
"I concur. The weather report both yesterday and today were immensely flawed. From their descriptions of this storm, it was set to be like any other — not worthy of a flood notification." Almost at the exact time that he had said that, Kevin could hear his phone buzz in his jacket's pocket; pulling it out, he came to see that it was a flood notification from the National Weather Service for the Peach Creek area. "The meteorologists must have been… inebriated or, at least, in an incoherent frenzy when they observed and made these reports."
"Right, right." Kevin said, nodding along. He fully agreed with Eddward. What idiot saw this storm and felt it was proper to name it a "light shower" both yesterday and today? "It hasn't rained like this for, like, months." He paused to take a look back at his backpack in the backseat. "My homework's probably soaked to Hell and back. God. How am I gonna hand that shit in?"
"Perhaps there would be time to manually reproduce it?" Eddward suggested. "If you were to time your classes down to the last minute and pushed through your current classwork with perfect haste, then you would have enough time to reproduce your assignments and hand them in for the class that they are due in. That is my opinion, at least, stemming from my success rate giving this very suggestion in the past."
"Oh yeah? To who?"
"It was to Eddy to whom I gave the suggestion." Eddward said; trying to correct his grammatical error in a way that was not too in-your-face.
"And did it work?"
"Well…" He chewed it over in his mind for a moment. "To an extent, every experiment has a trial-and-error period — outliers as well."
"I'm guessing he didn't really listen to you, huh?" At this time, Kevin's head was turned to fully focus on Eddward. He eyed the young man as he concentrated at driving — not crashing — the car in this godforsaken weather. It was at this time that he noticed the morning talk show that was playing on the radio at a volume that made it barely audible to his ears. He supposed Eddward, the ever-cautious driver, had turned it down to keep from distracting himself as he tried to navigate these shallow black rivers that would be called "streets" on an average day.
"I will admit: he refused to take my advice the first couple of times. Eddy is quite stubborn and believed that he could find another way out of his predicament — a dishonest way, I am sure." He had let the last part slip out and wanted to retract his statement, but continued to move forward with the conversation in the hopes that Kevin would forget what he had said or not read too much into it, later on. "In the end, after many failures, his last option was my suggestion. He took it. It worked — and it has continued having a high success rate ever since."
"Mmmm… then I'll have to try it out."
They were silent along the ride until they reached downtown Peach Creek, just five minutes away from the Kanker household, and then five back from the school. The shallow black rivers were crowded with cars going in their direction, and had the usual smooth and steady traffic (even for the downtown area), come to a complete halt.
Around them were irate drivers honking if only to get out their frustrations, as it was clear to them all that there would be no guaranteed movement from any sort of miniscule road rage, for quite a long time.
"Oh dear," Eddward said. "This is not good."
"No kidding. Class starts in like ten minutes and this traffic ain't budging." Kevin replied. He looked around in front and behind him; all his eyes saw were various cars of various models and sizes, all practically parked on the shallow black rivers like he and Eddward were. He groaned as he turned back around and sat properly in his seat. "Ain't this a bitch."
"Indeed," Eddward said; although he did not necessarily agree with the cuss words that Kevin spewed like it was his native tongue; he especially did not like the derogatory way in which that specific word made the female sex out to be. "However, I must confess to some curiosity as to why. I cannot think of any particular reason for this level of rain to stop downtown traffic altogether. Not unless—"
"Ah don't tell me. The bridge's flooded?"
To get from downtown Peach Creek to where the school was, commuters had to go over a bridge that went over a wide section of the river that gave Peach Creek its namesake. The bridge was not like the massive structures found in popular cities, but rather, a simple, low, wood bridge with its base structure enhanced with steel, that allowed commuters passage. As it was incredibly close to the surface of the water (barely five inches above it), in stormy situations such as the one they currently dealt with, the bridge was shut down due to none other than flooding. There had been a few times in the past when cars had been stuck on the bridge while the heavy flow of the water kept them from moving; once, even, when the windows on a car, on the side of the flowing river, had been cracked from the immense water pressure constantly hitting it.
"Most likely." Eddward said. "I also fear that there is no apparent escape to reverse this situation; not in our position, at least." In the right lane of the two-lane street, Eddward's car was on the furthermost right side; with its left blocked by two cars. While they could easily drive to the other lane and head back to the cul-de-sac, they first had to wait for one or both of the cars to their left and front to realize the predicament, and leave initially.
"Jesus shit Christ…" Kevin muttered under his breath; he slunk back into the car seat and crossed his arms over his chest. The clothes were heavy on him, and he felt disgusting being wet from head-to-toe at that current time. He sneezed; a sign of things much worse to come, later.
"Oh goodness — I completely forgot!" Eddward exclaimed. He reached over to the central console of his vehicle and turned on the heated air on Kevin's side of the car. The warm air blasted through the vents and almost immediately Kevin moved his cold hands in front of it, and began to dry himself properly. "Forgive me, Kevin. I had meant to do that earlier when you first stepped into the passenger's seat, but the act slipped my mind."
"S'okay, man." Kevin said as a small grin played at the edge of his lips as he finally was able to properly dry and warm himself up. "Better late than never."
Eddward gave a shy smile.
His attention was immediately pulled away from Kevin, however, when his phone rang in the inside of his jacket. He unzipped the front enough for him to reach in and grab it, and saw that he was receiving a call from Marie (among the fact that it was also now well past 8am, and that there were numerous text messages and email indications displayed).
He looked at Kevin for a moment, "Excuse me. I must take this." When Kevin nodded in response, Eddward accepted the call and put the phone to his ear. "Greetings, Marie." He said into it.
"Edd, what gives? I texted you like eight times!" Marie screamed at him from the other end of the line; although not in a too-harsh way.
"My mistake — I was too preoccupied with ensuring the lives of both myself and my passenger whilst braving the water-drowned roads to school, to even think about the messages that you may or may not have sent me."
"Are you getting sassy with me?"
"Not at all. I am wholeheartedly serious."
"Mmmm…"
"As well as a tad on the jaunty side, yes." He said with a grin.
Marie snorted. "Oh whatever. Listen, I was watching the news just now and heard that the roads were closed. Is that true?"
"It indeed is. My travels are currently postponed due to it, as we speak."
"The bridge is out, too."
"I had come to that conclusion not too long along."
"Okay Mr. Smarty Pants. Did you know that school has been cancelled for the day, as well? It's looking like it might be a freak hurricane or something and the mayor is kinda panicked."
"I see…" He said; and due to his tone of voice and facial expression when he said this, Kevin turned to him to view what was wrong. He did not want to eavesdrop on the conversation, but was curious as to what Marie Kanker had told Eddward on the other end of the line, that had him saying that.
"Yeah. It's pretty bad, man."
"I had not heard of these developments. This makes our predicament even more… restless, it seems." Kevin raised an unseen eyebrow at this; it felt like Eddward was talking to him at that last part.
"Our?" Marie asked.
"Yes. I mentioned before having a passenger with me. Did I not? Or were you too distracted by my earlier taunt to notice?"
"Oh hush you." Marie said. "I can hear the smirk in your voice."
"I will now kindly advise you that I am not smirking. Grinning. Smiling. Beaming, even, would be far better descriptive words to describe the upturned form my lips have taken."
"Hmph. Is this how you repay me for telling you these important details? Being a saucy knave with me?"
"I assure you that I have not lifted the top off of your pot."
"Oh… whatever! Just get here for a movie marathon today. May is going all out with the snacks."
"I will try my hardest to do as such, Marie."
"You better. See ya when you get here."
"Goodbye."
"Buh-bye!"
The call ended, and he locked the screen of his phone after checking the notification bar to confirm what he suspected all of the messages were about. The texts were from Marie, nine in total; the emails from various online markets he was subscribed to, with one being from the Peach Creek High notifying students of school cancellation. Marie's information had been superb.
"Classes have been cancelled for today." Eddward said as he turned to Kevin. For a moment, he was caught off-guard by coming to see that Kevin had been facing him; surely it had been for longer than just right now, when he had spoken to him at last. The thought of Kevin having stared at — and heard — him while he was having his conversation with Marie, made him rather nervous. He fought back a blush and nervous stutter. The silent Kevin had quite the intense gaze on his face, as well. "U-um… yeah. T-the bridge is also confirmed to b-be—" He cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure. "Out."
Kevin heaved a deep sigh. "This sucks."
"Indeed…" Eddward said tentatively. Now that Kevin was no longer looking intently at him, he could relax. He was always one to get nervous when under the viewfinder of others.
"I suppose you wouldn't happen to have some breakfast on you, would you? I kinda skipped." Kevin said as he put his hand on his stomach.
Eddward shook his head.
"I, too, skipped breakfast. However, if you would like… I do have an engagement coming up with the promise of nourishment for the body."
"Nah. I'll pass. Thanks for the offer, though." He said.
"Very well, then."
The two sat back in their car seats; eyes set on the windowpane in front of them as they watched heavily for any signs of moving traffic. They did not know how long it took for the car to move but an inch or two forward, at their surprise. It was not significant progress, but in this case, it was the sign of something happening in front of them, which was more than good enough given what they had been dealing with so far.
The cars to the side of them showed no signs of turning onto the empty road next to them, and heading out — nor did a single car in front of them, for that matter. If but one car made the move, they could all be out of there within a matter of minutes — yet all stayed perfectly still, as though they were content with being stuck in traffic unnecessarily, or too blind to see the way out.
"Goodness, this is dragging on." Eddward said. He looked at the time displayed on the car's digital clock and found that they had been stuck in traffic for almost two hours. He had already been dealing with all the text messages Marie was sending to him to hurry up already, and felt himself grow anxious as well for his arrival at the Kanker residence. Marie was tempting his speed with delicious details of what May had cooked and what movies they had chosen, and he was more than eager to get there — fighting back the urge to abandon his car and its other patron and walk to the trailer park, at this point, if he were to truly be honest with himself.
"I'm gonna go knock on that guy's window." Kevin said as he gestured to the car to their left, effectively blocking their way out. "I'm gonna see if he at least knows that he can leave at literally any second."
"I would advise against that." Eddward said. "There is the chance that they may not take too kindly to your… intrusion. Human patience tends to disintegrate when in situations such as these."
"Calm down, dork," Kevin said. "If the guy's pissed, I can handle myself. Besides, I'll be as polite as possible." He grinned, but Eddward was too distracted by the old, once-faded-now-dug-up, nickname that he used in reference to him, to even notice it. It took him a bit to recover from that. "Can I use your umbrella to walk out there?" Kevin asked, effectively snapping him out of his trance.
"Ah! Y-yes, of course!" He said, ruffled, as he reached into the back seat and pulled up his umbrella from beneath Kevin's still-soaked red backpack.
"Something the matter?" Kevin asked, noticing his stupor.
"No! Not at all! I mean… forgive me for raising my voice. There is nothing wrong with me at this current time — please, do go on with your plan. Perhaps it will help us." He handed the closed umbrella over to Kevin, who took it with an appreciative nod of his head.
Kevin then opened the door, and opened up the bubble umbrella. He stepped out as fast as he could, but closed the door as gently as possible that was still deemed effective, to make up for the way that he had slammed it last time. He walked around the front of the car, Eddward's eyes on him, as he made his way over to the car next to them. He headed to the driver's side of the vehicle.
Eddward watched, worried, from inside the safety of his own car. He could no longer see Kevin's form as he hunched himself over to speak with the driver of the car at their upper left. Out of years of conditioning, he chewed at his bottom lip and twiddled with his fingers; while he had certainly changed in the past years both mentally and physically, he was still not one for physical altercations to break loose. It was not that he had no faith in Kevin, but even he recognized that many times things did not go as planned, and there was no telling the type of person the driver behind the wheel in that car, was like.
Finally, his waiting came to an end as he watched as Kevin came into view. He walked, unscathed, in front of his car and then reentered it through the passenger's side; the bubble umbrella was closed and tossed to the back.
"He's gonna move." Kevin told him.
"Really?" Eddward asked out of shock and surprise. "How? Why? I mean… however did you convince him to do such a thing?"
"I mean… the man wants to go home, too." Kevin said with a shrug. "He was killing time with a crossword puzzle or whatever those things are called, and didn't even realize he could move. Like, at all. He thought he was permanently stuck, too — I'm guessing that's how everyone here feels." Eddward nodded; yes, that made an immense amount of sense. "Look," Kevin said, pointing with his finger and grasping his attention in that direction. "He's moving — you get a move on, too."
"Right." Eddward said with a grin.
As the black car made its way out of traffic similarly to pulling out of a parallel parking spot, the car behind it followed suit, and next was them. While they could not see it, more cars followed as people saw the way out — the end of their seemingly eternal imprisonment inside of their own vehicles.
It wasn't long before Eddward reached the cul-de-sac to drop Kevin off. He was happy to come to the street at last — probably more so than Kevin, who's final stop for the day was likely there. He came to a stop in front of Kevin's house.
"Thanks for the… almost ride to school, Edd." Kevin said. (For a moment he took note of the difference that came with Kevin saying his old nickname and his real name; he stored it away for later.)
"You are very welcome, Kevin. Thank you, however, for getting us out of that traffic jam. I would have never considered your actions as our best choice." He admitted. It was not to insult him, but to show how grateful he was that Kevin had been there with him. Had it just been him, he would have sat there for long hours waiting for someone else to make the move — letting the "bystander effect" unknowingly take place in a context of cars and traffic jams.
"It was nothing." Kevin said. He opened the passenger side door, and stepped one foot out of the car. For a moment, he stopped to retrieve his backpack from the back seat.
"Please hold on a moment, Kevin." Edd said. "Would you care to use my umbrella to get back to your abode?"
"Nah, it's fine, man. I can just run like last time."
The rain had not let up from how it had been over two hours ago when he had asked Kevin if he wanted to carpool with him to school, and to hear Kevin say that he would rather be pelted by rain once more than use his umbrella, made him think the young man to be unnecessarily, yet expectedly, stubborn.
"Nonsense…" He said. He grabbed the umbrella from the back seat and opened his door. Before Kevin could do a thing, he had walked over to his side and held the umbrella over them both. "I shall walk with you to more easily return the umbrella. Now come."
Kevin saw really no reason to argue, and agreed. He stood, and Eddward used his five-inch height advantage over him to better center the bubble umbrella on the both of them. In truth, the umbrella only managed to cover their heads entirely, and left much of their body to the elements, but he felt that that was more than enough. He knew that Kevin could deal with the rest of him getting wet, but the sensitive spot that was the human head was an entirely different matter.
Kevin closed the car door, and Eddward escorted him to his house. The rain-carrying wind made their dry and almost-dry pants soaked, but it was not long at all before they were finally at Kevin's front door.
"Lemme just get my keys out." Kevin said.
He moved his backpack to one shoulder to twist it around and make it easier to dig for his keys in its front pockets. Big mistake. The shoulder his bag now blessed its weight on was his injured shoulder, and he hissed and dropped the bag as he felt the prickling, burning sensation that was pain.
"Fuck!"
"Kevin?" Eddward looked down at him. He was crouched near the ground and with his head bent down and left arm resting on his right shoulder. From the looks and sound of it, Kevin was in some sort of pain. He immediately went to help him up; grabbing onto his left bicep and slowly assisting him as he rose to his feet.
Kevin let his head fall on his front door; the cool, soaked wood providing a sturdy structure for him to fully lean against and try to hide his embarrassed face.
Eddward frowned.
"You do not have to tell me what is wrong, but…" He paused. He bent down to Kevin's backpack and opened the two front pockets — the pockets he had seen Kevin go for before he hunched himself over in pain — one at a time, first. In one he found Kevin's house keys. Kevin heard the familiar jingle and instructed him on which key he sought. Kevin had removed his body weight from the front door and stood when Eddward opened the door. Eddward then placed the keys back inside their desired pocket when Kevin stepped in, and brought the backpack inside — he, however, made sure not to fully enter Kevin's home. They locked eyes. "Please, do take care of yourself on this free day."
Inside, Kevin felt a tad guilty and bitter over Eddward's statement, but could recognize the truthfulness and necessity behind it, and nodded his head. He moved his jaw around some in a contemplative gesture.
Then, a weak smirk appeared on Kevin's face as he said, "What? Are you worried about me or something?"
He had meant it as a joke, yet Eddward's face grew incredibly serious. His jaw set, his mouth pursed together as his eyes set like steel. "Of course." He said in an affirmative voice. "I am worried. That is the only proper way to respond when someone falls onto the floor unexpectedly."
Kevin's smirk disappeared from his face, and he stared back at Eddward with almost the same level of seriousness on his face. However, he could tell the difference between the two. Eddward was taller and his downward gaze looked more secure than his — who seemed to stare up at him with a hint of wonder in his eyes. Eddward's seriousness came from his concern, his came from his disbelief. He gulped down the lump suddenly forming in his throat, and looked away.
"Honestly…" He, Kevin, muttered. "You're always so worried about me…"
"Well of course! By all regards, Kevin, you are not exactly the most—"
Eddward had been unable to finish his sentence. He had meant to say that Kevin was not the most secure of people in both internal and external parts of his world, and that that only brought on his naturally worried nature. However, before he could say this, Kevin had silenced him by pulling onto the collar of his jacket and bringing his head down to make it easier for him to be kissed.
The kiss was not the longest of kisses; it lasted just long enough to wipe away any doubt of it ever having happened. There was no physical intrusion into Eddward's mouth, either, by Kevin's tongue. It was a kiss that started and ended at lips — and when his mind was finally catching up with what was happening, Eddward was the one to break it.
He leaped back from Kevin's porch and wiped at his mouth. His eyes were wide as he stared at Kevin; whose shocked face at the breaking of the kiss had turned into a downcast set of eyes and face when he looked at Eddward's response.
There was silence.
"Please… just take care of yourself more, Kevin." Eddward said. "If you did that, I would not have to waste my time worrying about you."
He left.
...Let the drama begin!
Next Chapter: Trust me when I say that this isn't the first time this has happened.
Updates Mondays and Fridays.
~ Inkle
