Ch. 4
Double D and Eddy's morning
6:47 a.m. Monday morning.
Eddy Skipper McGee trudged from his bedroom to the kitchen. He was clad in only a loose white wife-beater and blue striped boxer briefs camouflaged his cut exterior. His smoky-grey eyes were half-lidded and he was, as they always were in the early morning, half-asleep. The fridge light met his eyes and he removed a red-label carton of milk. A displeasing smell emitted from the open carton and wafted around Eddy's nose. He shook the carton and groaned while he heard the running water in the background shut off.
Shortly after, a damp Double D padded into the kitchen and greeted Eddy with a melodious tune. He was in the process of removing a clean white plate from one of the well-organised cabinets.
"Good morning, Eddy!"
"Yeah, hey, sockhead," Eddy greeted in response before closing the door to the refrigerator and beginning his way to the trashcan, "Hey, you need to pick up some more milk. Ed somehow clobbered it," the facial-coated brunette's tone was a mix of aggravation and a dry rasp.
Eddy stuck his thumb in the air, pointing in the direction of where Ed was passed out on the couch, snoring loudly and himself and his surroundings littered with food items. Double D's shining navy eyes followed his shorter friend's thumb to see the lump on his back on couch. The mess laying all around him made Double D frown and so did the moving picture on their modified television. The raven-haired intellectual turned back to Eddy.
"He does know he's wasting mother and father's money, doesn't he?"
"I'm pretty sure he has no idea what he's doing, sockhead," Eddy exclaimed loudly, irked by the meer mentioning of the tallest Ed. Between the all-night party of Nathan Goldberg's and the blaring of the t.v. thanks to Ed last night he was having trouble holding back his rage what with so little energy.
"There is absolutely no reason to take your problems out on me, Eddy. I was simply trying to make casual conversation," Double D sassed, "By the way, why are you so on edge this morning?"
"Shovelchin!"
"Kevin," he inquired in disbelief with a questioning tone, "How he could possibly have any part in keeping you up at night is a mystery to me. Please, if you would, enlighten me as to how_."
"Him and Nathan Goldberg through a party last night and the cops didn't come by to break it up so it lasted until three in the goddamn morning!?"
The taller male slowly began the short journey from the tiled kitchen to the brown carpeted living room. His anxiety was being fueled not only by his thoughts of the mess he was going to have to clean up, but also the fact that he might end up being late to his first class of the day. He stopped walking when he reached the couch and crouched down with the intention of picking up an open box of recently bought fortune cookies.
There were crumbs all around the couch and Edd bit his bottom lip in irritation, "Oh dear," he whined, "Just look at this mess! I'll have to vacuume, clean up each individual piece of trash he left from his binge, properly shampoo the carpet, and surely there will be an absolute multitude of dirty dishe_."
"Double D, forget about it," Eddy spoke in the midst of his complaintant mumbling, "I'll take care of it all before I head out to deliver.. You just go ahead to class. Get there early, that's something you like to do anyway."
Double D couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face, nor the light of happiness that shone from the tops of his dark navy irises. He picked up the box with glee and swiftly glided over to the trashcan that was occupying the kitchen floor by the drawerless counter.
"Thank you, Eddy," he called out as he passed by the shortest Ed.
"No problem, sockhead," Eddy uttered, a yawn sweeping out from his throat in the process, "Listen, I need to borrow your car, I'll get it back to ya in one piece."
Double D faced him and looked him in the eyes, "Why would it ever be necessary for you to take my car? You have Ed's and though it is a complete wreck, not to mention mess, you've never had a problem taking it before."
"Yeah, that's the problem, sockhead," He said while food; breakfast specifically, came to mind and he decidedly maneuvered over to the fridge, pulling out the box of farm-raised brown eggs he continued, "I've got a few drop-offs to make today, they all texted me early around three a.m., and Ed's car isn't exactly inconspicuous."
He headed over to the stove and glanced back at his friend, "Want an omelet," he asked with a smile.
"Uh, s-sure."
"The usual, I presume?" He readied himself to make a quick reach for the onions and spinach.
Double D looked down and began picking at the skin on outlining his nails, "Yes, that would be lovely. Thank you."
Eddy turned after thinly oiling the pan with organic extra virgin virgin olive oil and threw the fridge open a bit sloppily. He grabbed the white onion and the spinach from the fridge and placed them on the countertop next to the stove. In the oven on a clear glass tray was an array of cheeses, he mitted his right hand and opened the hinged door with the other.
Double D watched as the shaggy-headed brunette pulled out his favorite: swiss cheese, during this time he considered sitting down to wait for his meal. Eddy whistled, turning on the burner and Double D sighed out of slight boredom and took a seat at the small kitchen table.
"Yes, Eddy. I'd be happy to lend you my car for the day," he stated with a smile, "I'm curious, though, as to why so you're blessed with so many customers today."
"It's fourtwenty, sockhead. And blessing doesn't do it justice," he said enthusiastically, "Today's the day almost all of them will be buying bud in large quantities. That means I'm going to be driving around all over the city with a few pounds of dank. I need to be extra careful today. By the way, I'll make sure I fill 'er up for ya."
Double D wasn't too happy about it, but after biting back his agitation with the whole idea he put his foot down with himself and firmly decided to stick with his idea to leave his silver 2010 Nissan ellure to Eddy for the day and hoped to Albert Einstein and a few deceased philosophers that it was safe.
.. ..
7:43 a.m.
In the front of the room of Kevin Anderson's poetry class stood Mrs. Pressley. She was a substitute temporarily filling in for a short period of time due to the previous teacher up and quitting one unpredictable day. The elderly grey-haired substitute was going over the directions of the projects Mr. Phillips had left for his class to do for the day's date when suddenly a portly gentleman of average height entered the room, causing the woman to stop wording directions to class.
She turned her head to face Mr. Duluth, the middle-aged principal less than half the students were eyeing. He spoke so quietly that neither one of the students caught onto what he was saying. At the end of their conversation Mrs. Pressley chirped an "Okay." and ambled over to the desk chair to grab her worn prada bag before exiting the classroom.
Seconds after she entered the hall, a man of 6"2 professionally walked into the room. He wore designer clothing that was fitted closely to his body, allowing the on-lookers to get a good idea of his physique, and a warm-grey beanie atop his head. His shiny black locks that were razored across his forehead were noticeable as were his clear ice blue eyes which were so cold they were chilling.
He stood straight and still, so straight he appeared to be stiff, by the principal.
"I take it you've got it from here," Mr. Duluth asked, staring up at him.
Eddmond Voclain turned, exposing his dark and sexily designed features to the man, "Yes, I believe I can handle it from here, sir. You may take your leave."
Mr. Duluth closed his eyes and smiled at the man, "If you have any questions I have no problem with you showing up at my office."
"Of course, however I will be sure to give you a warning before I wander over."
They exchanged good-byes and Mr. Duluth left the new professor alone in the silent classroom. Most of the students at a loss for words, others waiting in boredom as they awaited the man's next move.
The man looked like a model with his thin, lean frame, dressed like one, too. It may as well have astounded the class. Neither believed the university, though a good one, held good enough walls to hold a man of his well-bred exterior.
He chose not to introduce himself, leaving the class in the dark about who he was. His choice was different: To neglect the class knowledge of any further idea of himself and reach into his dark bag and pass out his own assignments for his 1st period of new students.
Cecelia Totten a platinum blonde cheerleader near the middle of the square of desks twirled her hair, attention fixed on Eddmond. He ignored her, finding nothing charming about the way she gazed at him nor the thoughts she likely had in mind. Quietly, he walked around the room and expertly placed a packet of papers on each student's desk and then went back to his original placement at the front of the room.
..
11:34 a.m.
Kevin Barr was sitting in the same spot he sat in every day already eating at his lunch when Nathan Goldberg dropped his tray of garlic pesto spaghetti and side salad down in front of him and plopped down in the seat beside him, jarring the copper-shimmered daywalker out of his conversation with Kyle Oaks. Kevin looked at his his best friend. There were bags under his eyes, he had stayed up all night because of the party no doubt, and his usual spiked teal hair was disheveled.
"Man, you've got to stop pulling all-nighters all the time," Kevin said before turning back to his meal, then to Kyle.
"I know.." he let out a regretful breath of air.
As if out of nowhere, a flash of dark-brownish red caught his eye. He raised a brow and looked up to see puce dyed hair about eight feet from him, walking in the opposite direction of where he was seated.
"Hey, baby, were you lookin' at me!?"
"No," Rave shouted over his shoulder.
Then, a shorter male carrying a napkin covered purchase strolled past, "Oh? Hey, cutie! Fancy seeing you here, Double Delicacy!" Nathan whistled which caught Edd's attention.
Politely, he turned to face Nathan.
"It is you~," he sang, "I knew I'd notice that cute little booty of your's anywhere!" this causing him to get elbowed in the side by Kevin.
"Owoach," came his exclamation whilst rubbing his side and sending a signature gold side-glare the redhead's way.
"Why, hello, Nathan. Is there anything you might be in need of he_."
"The only help he needs is a smack to the head," Rave said bitterly through gritted teeth simultaneously latching onto Edd's forearm and gently yanking him along.
Double D gave a small frown and sent a wave to Kevin which Kevin returned.
Kevin blushed when Edd waved his hand through the air for him and smiled as his green eyes danced with joy, watching him be pulled away by Rave. Kevin was captivated, his eyes locked on to the retreating sight of Double D and a couple of his teammates noticed.
"Hey, so where's Nazz today, Kev," Nat asked, looking over at his friend in wonder with his head tilted to one side in order to look into his eyes.
"Uh, I dunno. She kinda dumped me last night and wasn't outside of her door when I rolled over to pick her up so I've got no idea."
Nat's mouth dropped a bit and he angled his head to the side, "What?"
Kevin's team had heard his response and he
"S'cuse me."
Kevin looked up to see Colton Jordan staring at him with warm brown eyes.
"Were you just making googly-eyes at that little nerd?"
Anger hit Kevin and for some strange reason he couldn't deny that he felt something for Double D. He respected Edd and the feelings he had for him because of him, "So, what if I was," he questioned tone big and confident, he came off as big and he felt it.
Colton stood up and looked down into his eyes, "I'm not playing. This isn't a game, it's not a joking matter. Answer me honestly, are you a fucking fag," his tone was serious.
Kevin couldn't bring himself to say it, "So what if I am?" This had Colton sighing in frustration and rolling his eyes.
Andre Myer started laughing, "Are you really?"
Kevin turned to him, who was seated next to Colt Fischer, laughing. Brown saw honesty amix anger and determination in the moss-green eyes of the daywalker. He was about to respond to Andre when a calloused fist came into contact with his right cheek. That one hit took him down. He fell to his side and hit the floor.
"Yeah, this fool's a little faggot," Colton told Andre, the statement sounded utterly derogatory. Then, he added, "And I won't have a faggot on my team!"
Kevin pulled himself off of the floor and stood, a fiery glare aimed at Colton, "Oh, yeah?"
Colt Fischer stood.
"Yeah," Colton replied clarically, staring down at the shorter man, "I always assumed Goldberg, but you? I'm not putting up with a fag being on my team."
"Yeah, faaag," Colt said, his voice sounded douche-y as always and started laughing.
Nathan rolled his eyes with a fist under his chin and ignored Colt, "You dumbass, I am pansexual." His tone was as if it was just so obvious and it kinda was.
Confused, Colton looked down at Kyle with confusion, "It means he likes every gender," Kyle informed.
Colton gave a nod and took in that information, "Thought you were just picking on people," he muttered. He looked back at Kevin, "I'm going to talk to the coach. I'll get you two removed. I'll be damned if I'm gonna have a couple of fags on my team," he spoke clearly as always. His voice held no anger though it was raised.
"Oh, yeah," asked even though the more he pushed it the more intimidated he felt. He felt intimidated by both Colt and Colton. Each of them were a good bit larger than himself and all the other members of the football team with the exception of Miles who had lunch with his girlfriend.
"Yeah," he said as if to say, "Yeah, I am serious." and looked to his left to see a few tables full of people watching on in interest. Kevin Anderson was one of these people, "I won't have a pair of fudge-packing queers getting a taste of my training."
Some people 'oooed' at the word fudge-packing.
"You tell 'em, Colt," Colt said proudly and gave a big smile as he nodded his head like, "Yeah, yeah. I'm so proud to call him my best friend."
"Shut it, Colt," Colton ordered, "I'll have you both kicked off first chance I get. I refuse to have either," his pointer finger trailed from Kevin to Nathan, "of you gawking at my ass nor taking any of my training. What you do isn't right and if I see either of you looking at my ass or anyone else's while they're changing, I'll kick your ass."
"I'd like to see you try," Kevin challenged before jumping the much larger football captain.
The cafeteria filled with the various chants of, "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" before an all out fight broke out between several members of the football team and the lunch lady fleed from the room to get help.
..
Rave pushed through the double doors of the cafeteria and released Edd from his hold before lowering his seethrough shades from the top of his head. The intellectual stumbled trying to properly walk as he followed in behind the bold actor-to-be. Rave was making a bee-line for the exit and just about as irritable as ever.
"Uhhg," he voiced, "Why did you have to come in here anyway," Rave questioned without facing his friend.
"W-well, I figured I'd buy a brownie for Ed and they're cheaper here than at the cafe," came his reply as he stared ahead at the taller male. He watched feeling somewhat offended at how Rave had treated him before.
Edd knew he was often ill, but in Edd's opinion one should never pose injustice on a person much less one who's innocent.
Rave pushed open the front door of the school, not waiting for the young ravenette to catch it and speedwalked towards the parking space Edd payed for at the beginning of the year. Double D gave a grumpy sigh as the clear glass door almost slammed in his face and pushed it back open using quite a bit of effort.
"What is this heap," Rave hollered at him making a power-ambled motion towards the old blue ford. He was staring straight ahead at the ivory complected man from behind his favorite shades.
"It's Ed's car, Rave. It's four twenty today and as you know, Eddy is a drug dealer. I allowed him to use my car today so he could have a much easier time not getting caught."
Double D stopped in front of the dented "heap" and unlocked the front left door. He slid in, placed the napkin-wrapped dessert on his lap and leaned over to unlock the passenger door for Rave.
"It's certainly not the best vehicle, but it will get us where we need to go and_."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Its useful." Rave supplied to get him off the topic.
"Alright, well, shall we?"
"Just drive, Edd," Rave rolled his red-brown eyes and hit a button on his green mp3 player.
Double D shrugged and started the vehicle. He backed out of the parking space, his destination was the road before heading over to his apartment.
"I'm going to drop the brownie off at my apartment before we go to the cafe," Edd informed and Rave barely heard it over the loud music that filled his ears. He nodded.
Every day since the two had met last semester, they'd been going to Psychedelic cafe for lunch. An absolutely luminous designed cafe-restaurant with an array of supplies neither of the boys had seen anywhere else. It sold homemade sugars, pies, souffles, and delicious cakes. They even had garlic bread pies filled any Italian dish you can name. All anyone had to do was put in an order and someone in the back would be ready to make it.
The kitchen was fast-paced. With all the orders coming in so frequently and how long each dish took to prepare the cooks had to be swift and freely able to juggle anything someone threw at them. And they were. Psychedelic cafe was on the map and Double D believed that many of his coworkers were partially the reason why.
Double D parked the car, looking over to Rave for a quick inspection to see if he needed to explain anything. Rave was simply bobbing his head to the music that radiated from his headphones and into the car. He shook his head with a small smile and over to the warm white and brown building he lived in.
.
The driver slowed down, double-checking his surroundings before pulling into the parking lot of Psychedelic. He found an empty area to park on the second row and slid in smoothly. The old car rocked forward some causing Rave to be jerked forward just a tad before it came to a stop. The puce-haired bigender and occasional crossdresser groaned before clutching the side of the car, unlocking the door and making his way out of piece of junk.
This time he followed after the smart Ed and inside of the restaurant where he waited patiently in behind him.
Double D waited in line behind a much taller customer. It shocked him slightly that Micheal Beaty was at the register instead of the usual employee of the hour, Bret Sawyer. Even more peculiar he caught a glimpse of Malachi Saluja his boss who worked the night-shift along with him. Behind Micheal, a feminine blonde walked forward and handed the merchant a rich brown drink with pink cream on top. Micheal smiled at the customer and told him to have a nice day before setting his eyes on Edd.
"Hey, Edd, what brings you here?"
Double D stuck up his hand and waved with a happy-to-see-you smile, "I'm here every day for lunch."
Suddenly, something felt wrong, "Where is Bret, if you don't mind my asking."
"Huh.. He didn't show up today and Malachi came in and told me I had to work over."
Micheal was a morning worker and the fact that Malachi had called him was even stranger news to the young Ed. Something wasn't right and Edd's lips pursed in thought.
"Is there any possibility he's sick," Edd questioned, voice sounding unsure.
"Honestly, I dunno. Couldn't tell you if I did, but I don't. You can ask Mal' if you want," the cashier offered then cranned his neck to look behind Rave. Seeing the customers pile up he said, "Anyhow, ready to order, I've got more customers to take care of."
Double D jumped.
"Yes, yes of course. Sorry about the time."
Edd ordered a hot green tea, a rose smoothie with natural passion fruit heavy whip topping and vegetarian chili with extra lime. Rave opted for minestrone, lemon clam chowder, a large Romanian salad, a sweet cinnamon cider, and a white chocolate berry blend milkshake. Double D's eyes widened at all the food the server had left on Rave's side of the table.
Nonetheless, he as he often did, struck up a conversation and the two chatted through their meals until the check came.
..
7:56 p.m.
Kevin stood outside of the east side hospital with a girl with a wavy Asian mullet who was enjoying a cigarette. He turned his back on the girl wearing loose-fitting faded black sweat pants and put the phone to his ear when he heard the first few rings. He himself was in his leather jacket, Hell's Angels logo on the back with a misfits tea underneath, jeans under the tea and his signature red baseball cap with his copper-shimmer hairs poking through the space in the back of the cap that sat above his forehead.
The person on the other line picked up abruptly and Kevin quietly whispered a request for a cigarette from the short girl behind him. She nodded, wincing at the small aches coming from the side of her neck as she did so and stuck a cigarette in between his fingers.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about calling you so late," he spoke, situating the menthol on the top of his ear then checking his pocket for his bic. He pulled out the orange lighter that looked like coffee with three shots of half and half in the dark lit area.
He heard Double D inquire to him as to where he was with the given information that he hadn't heard his motorcycle pull up outside of his apartment all day and that Double D was starting to get worried.
"I'm fine. Well, mostly," he struck up the cigarette and paused, sucking in the unhealthy smoke into his lungs, "I kinda got into a fight today."
On the other line Double D started going off about how unintelligent, actually he used the word vacuous and Kevin didn't exactly know what that meant, but he had a pretty good idea, it was of him to get himself involved in such situations before asking Kevin if he was alright and the whereabouts of his current location.
"I'm at the hospital."
"What!?" Kevin held the phone far from his ear to avoid his shrill shriek, "Are you alright," his ear-splitting voice was loud and filled with a blend of worry and anger.
"I kinda got beat up," he provided, feeling slightly ashamed he caused the ravenette so much concerned.
"How bad is it," he heard Double D inquire on the other line, "Kevin," he started seriously, Promise me you'll never do something so careless ever again."
"I-it's not me," he said avoiding the question. He was not going to lie to Edd. The redhead doubted he could sway him from the truth anyway. "Some grunge girl stepped into the fight and tried to pull me out. One of the guys didn't time it right and hit her in the neck."
Double D hummed in understanding and a thought came to mind making him forget that he'd asked that Kevin promise to make future attempts at following acceptable safety protocol. That's what he had had in mind anyway.
"You didn't get yourself checked out, did you," his tone held a biting accusation within it.
It was times like these that Double D really had Kevin on-edge.
"No, Double D. I didn't," Kevin replied with a breath to relieve himself.
"Kevin," and there it was, he knew Double D would criticize his less than ideal decisionmaking as soon as he heard the news. No, his decisions weren't of the best quality nor even satisfactory, in fact they were faulted even, and he knew he was about to get hounded on, "Without a proper examination from an experienced physician how is one able to correctly discern any problems you may have? If no one checked on you how can you rule out that you aren't ridden with complications? You need to be properly assessed, in order to make a fool-proof detection, Kevin!"
"I'm fine, alright? I'm sorry for concerning you. I know my choices aren't always the best quality and seldom," he said with a slight snicker to his tone to tease his friend some, "meet your standards." Kevin flicked the butt to the ground and started to mosy towards his bike. The grin garnishing his face was unpreventable, he knew that would up his crush's spirits.
The grunge girl began following his lead as he listened to the sound of Double D's voice.
Double D could be heard trying to stanch his laugh as he spoke, "That is undeniably correct, Kevin," he stated and Kevin could tell he wore a smile. "Your decisions of today were absolutely not adequate in anyway nor even passable." He laughed a genuine melodic laugh, "They hardly ever are one with my ideal expectations."
Kevin joined in on his laughing then asked, "So, I know it's late, but can I come over?"
"I suppose so. Afterall, I am free the majority of the day tomorrow."
"Alright. Well, I'm going to drop this girl off and then head over."
The two said their good-byes and Kevin mounted his bike followed by a helmeted auburnette and sped off into the night.
..
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