With the breakfast dishes cleaned and put in their respected places, Edd looked around and sighed in the empty kitchen. As soon as Kevin finished his food he had helped him upstairs to the shower. Unfortunately as soon as he closed the door behind him, there was a crash in the shower where Kevin's body wasn't exactly strong. After some difficulty with his eyes closed, Edd secured a chair in the bathtub for Kevin to sit in while he washed. The entire situation made his cheeks blaze, and he was happy to return to the empty kitchen. However, now that his work was done there wasn't anything to occupy his thoughts and anxiety slowly crept into his bones. "Here I am in my middle-school bully's house and missing school." As the words escaped his lips, he quickly remembered how he had not called the school and they would most likely be calling his mother. "Oh dear, and I don't have my phone with me." Edd's eyes slid towards the phone on the wall off to the cabinets, and a sigh expelled from his chest.
Edd's thumbs clicked in his mother's cell phone number quickly into the phone's dial pad, and he sat softly in one of the bar stools. Thoughts raced in his head over what he would tell her. Lies and stories spun in his mind while he decided on what farce he was going to sell her with. As soon as the light feminine voice spoke on the other line he quickly resolved in telling the truth. "Hello? Who is this?"
"H..hello mother, it's me Edward." His voice was tight as his chest. There was no way she was going to chastise him once she knew the truth, but his truancy still burnt.
"Edward. Heavens! Where are you? I got a call from the school, and I told them you were home sick. That is what I assumed! Here you are calling me from an unknown home line, and you haven't answered you're cell phone all mor_" Her insistence motherly rambling was cut off as Edd spoke up in a soft tone.
"Mom, I witnessed Kevin get into a vehicular collision, and I rode with him to the hospital. I stayed with him, and then his father de…asked me if I would be able to watch over his son while he takes care of his duties on base."
"Oh, oh my. Honey, are you okay?"
"Yes mom, I'm safe and well." He smiled lightly; of course her immediate response would be to see if he was okay. She wasn't around as much as she wished she could be, but Lilian was still a wonderful and caring mother.
"How is Kevin? You said he was in a car accident?"
"Yes, some driver hit him while he was riding his motorcycle." There was a gasp of horror on the other end of the line. "He sustained a head injury and other lesions on his body. He also has amnesia, which is why I decided to stay with him. I couldn't leave him alone Mom…" His voice trailed off weakly, and his mother didn't respond. The silence filled the line as the woman took in the information, and slowly understood that her son wasn't as okay as he believed he was.
"Edward, I love you okay? I understand you want to care for Kevin, and that is very noble of you. Please, make sure you are also taking care of yourself and don't miss any more school. You're father and I will be back tomorrow night at the conclusion of this convention. He is set to give his lecture tomorrow morning; however, I can come home right now if you need me too."
"That won't be necessary Mom! I will be quite alright, stay there with father and support him. After all it is his first big award in the field. You have to be there for both of us."
"Okay, okay Honey. If that changes you tell me first thing and I will come straight home. I love you…I'm going to get off here and talk to your father."
"Goodbye Mom, love you too." With that, the phone answered with a soft click and she was gone. Edd stared at the phone blankly, and his stomach continued to knot uncomfortably. What was he supposed to do?
"Hey…so that was your mom?" A voice spoke up from the door way, and shocked Edd out of his stupor. "Sounds, like your folks are caring. That's a good thing."
Edd turned around and took in a shirtless Kevin walking towards him. His red hair glistened with water, and his cheeks burnt red. "Oh, yeah…yeah they are." Keeping eye contact with the boy was decidedly difficult, and he quickly turned to put the phone on the hook only for it to start ringing again. "Oh…um I can get this?"
"Yeah, go ahead. Not like I'm in any sort to talk to anyone." Kevin looked down and scuffed his foot against the ground awkwardly.
Edd nodded and grasped the phone. "Hello?"
"Good. I was making sure you were still there with the boy." Kevin's father's voice barked through the phone. "I contacted the school and told them that the doctor requested that Kevin stay at home for the next two weeks. He will have regular check-ins with our family physician during this time. At two weeks they will test him and if he has his memory back he will be given a clean bill of health and promptly return back to school. I also notified them at you will be aiding in his care; you are to pick up his school work and tutor him. I was told of your intelligence so I am sure this will not be an issue to you. Is all of this clear?"
Edd was taken back that he nodded his head before realizing that he was on a phone conversation. "Yes, yes sir I understand."
"Good." Then there was a hard click as the man hung up the phone without any further response; leaving Edd staring awkwardly at the phone once more.
"Well…um Kevin that was your father and he said that the school was made aware of your condition, and that you won't be returning for the next two weeks." He looked up at the ginger, and his heart sank.
"No, yeah I figured he wasn't asking how I was." He turned around and headed through the threshold into a living room. Edd sullenly followed behind him, and sat next to him on the couch. "I may not remember him, but I am still feeling all of these emotions about him that I don't understand." He stared straight ahead and his hands fiddled with the folds in his sweatpants. "I feel angry, like this has happened a million times."
Edd hung his head knowing full well he didn't know what to say to alleviate the other boy's suffering, so he just laid his hand lightly on his knee in a reassuring way. They sat there in silence for a while, until he began to shift uncomfortably in the charged blankness. "Kevin, you did a poor job of redressing your head wrappings." A light smile played at his lips to let him know that he was poking fun. "Let me redo them for you okay?" Kevin just nodded defeated, and turned towards him and wiped the smile off of Edd's lips. "Okay then, I'll be as careful as possible."
With Kevin's dressings cleaned and tight, the boys settled on watching a movie to fill the unwarranted silence. Edd couldn't concentrate as the lack of sleep began to catch up with him with every passing scene of the movie. His eyelids began to droop, and he fell deeply in an exhausted slumber. The ginger looked at this nodding head and smiled lightly. "I guess I'm blessed to have such a good friend." As the words exited his lips Edd slid from his sitting position to lying with his head in Kevin's lap. "Dork." He whispered to himself with a smile and turned his attention back to the end of the movie.
