You look to your side as Gamzee sits down beside you, and you see a huge, goofy grin plastered on his face. He is the last one to arrive to the lunch table, and most of you have already eaten at least half of your lunch. Well, except for you, who are a rather slow eater when you're not starving, so your lunch is almost intact. You swallow the mouthful of lettuce in your mouth before asking about his excitement.
"Are you, okay?" You ask with a smirk, and he nods furiously.
"I all up and got a mad fucking wicked idea, bro." He says as he jumps a little on his seat, and then raises his voice to be heard by everyone on the table, above their loud chatter.
"Hey motherfuckers, what do ya'll say about going out to a motherfucking fun location of some sort to hang out and shit?" There is some silence as they look at him before Aradia speaks up.
"What do you have in mind?" She is smiling, her eyes sparkling with curiosity as she sets down her napkin.
"Oh, I don't know…" He says, his eyes looking elsewhere for a moment in thought.
"How about we go to the mall?" Sollux says. "I need to buy some CD's and another external hard drive anyways, so..."
"Oh! That sounds like a pawsitively fun idea! Maybe we can watch a movie too?" Nepeta claps her hands together, sudden excitement present on her voice, and Gamzee nods at her with a grin from ear to ear.
"Fuck yeah, that sounds like a dope ass plan."
"Then I'm going too." Terezi sticks her tongue towards Nepeta before aiming it at Gamzee. You wonder why a blind girl would want to watch a movie, but you keep your thoughts to yourself.
"Sure, what the hell, it's not like I had anything better to do." Karkat says. "But we're fucking watching 'It's him or the man next door', or I'm going to seriously reconsider it." Karkat sounds serious. Terezi begins to laugh purposefully loud as she wiggles her tongue at him.
"I am not spending my Friday watching a lame Rom Com, Karkles. Even the title sounds absolutely ridiculous"
"You better just suck it up, Pyrope."
"I think it might be fun!" Nepeta sides with Karkat, and you can't help a giggle at that. Of course she would; and for more than one reason.
"Maybe we can watch 'Tomb Raider 4'."
"No." Aradia seems a little disappointed at her choice being dismissed like that by Karkat, but she quickly recovers.
"Jesus Christ, we're not going to be able to please every fucking body, so let's just go with KK's choice and avoid a fucking massive tantrum from the cheesy 5 year old." Karkat nods and points a hand at Sollux, with an obvious 'there you go' expression despite the slight insult in that. You hear Gamzee chuckle at the show, but soon shares his opinion.
"It's gonna be all kinds of fun anyways, let's just go watch Karkat's movie. I bet the flick is as motherfucking miraculous as motorboating a fucking ninjette's wicked titties."
"Ugh." Terezi makes a face at Gamzee's choice of words, but you try to stifle a laugh.
"What time should we meet up?" Nepeta says.
"How 'bout… 6 PM?" Gamzee doesn't look too sure, but you guess it's a good enough time.
"Right. Everyone pays their own tickets." Karkat says with a tone of finality, and you swear you see a satisfied smile on his lips for a split second.
You arrive at Karkat's house far too late. Gamzee was the one driving (since he had asked Kurloz if he could borrow the car), but that wasn't the actual reason for your lateness. It had been your father's fault, who had forced your clown friend to stay and eat an early dinner with you before heading out when he picked you up from your own place. Maybe your dad found him too skinny, maybe he just didn't want his deliciously fresh food go to waste. You decide to not dwell on it; the damage was already done. He just didn't know how to take 'no' for answer.
"Way to fucking go, shitsponge, it's almost 6 PM already and the trip takes at least 20 fucking minutes from here!" The small boy basically yells, baring his teeth to seem intimidating, or so you think.
"Hey motherfucker, chill your titties." Gamzee gets off the car at the same time as you do, and walks up to Karkat before bending a little to pick up the guy to hug the life out of him.
"Goddammit, let me go right this instant you disgusting, unwanted spawn of your dad's filthy broken condom!" but Gamzee doesn't let go of him, and instead twirls him around as if to make him even angrier on purpose. "Fucking-!" You can see Gamzee kiss his cheek repeatedly as you stand there awkwardly, and that's when Karkat starts to kick him and attempt to elbow his stomach until Gamzee finally sets him free. You doubt he did much damage, though, from the way Gamzee begins to chuckle. "Fuck you. I better not get herpes or some shit, or I swear to fucking God, I will fucking shove every last one of your ridiculous juggling clubs up your ass, leaving room for your even more ridiculous monocycle." Gamzee crinkles his nose and walks towards the car, opening the back door for Karkat.
"Come on bro, don't be like that."
"Just… Hurry up." He says, and you jump into the passenger's seat again, pursing your lips at the little show they had put up. You wonder if maybe Gamzee is keeping something from you, regarding Karkat. You wonder if maybe he has a thing for him, or they have a thing, since you have a hard time remembering if you ever knew a couple of friends that were so physically affectionate with one another. Maybe that's just Gamzee being Gamzee, overly touchy and even oblivious to the concept of personal space, but you have a feeling there's something more. You find yourself wondering about that until you arrive to your destination, not really picking up on their conversation even when Karkat realized he had a grey smudge on his face and began to yell at Gamzee. You're not even sure why you care.
When you find your little group, you realize that there are two new people you know, but hadn't expected to see today. Feferi, who's sporting a pretty fuschia dress that was easy to spot from miles away, and Eridan, a guy you aren't too fond of since he is a little mean, but you guess is okay.
"Hi!" The girl greeted you three, and the guy waved weakly before fixing his glasses and looking away. You have a feeling he is trying to look interesting.
"I invited Equius too, but he had soccer practice today." Nepeta informs you when you walk to her side. They both play soccer together, and are rather good at it, but they're in different teams and have practice on different days most of the time. It's a shame that she wouldn't get to hang out with him today, seeing as they barely saw each other nowadays; he doesn't even go to your school anymore.
Your group headed straight to the movie theater, loud chatter all around you as everyone engrossed themselves in different conversations. You all bought tickets for 7:30, and decided to walk around for a while and get Sollux's CD's and hit a few stores to pass the time.
Half of you decided to go inside a clothing store that looked pretty big, while the rest waited outside on a bench to keep on chatting. You went straight to check out some jeans in the men section, since you need new ones, and Gamzee tagged along, him being the only other guy besides you and Karkat that decided to check out some clothes as well.
You decided on three pairs of jeans after looking around for a while, and Gamzee quickly grabbed a handful of random clothes that were sitting by the changing room before quietly deciding to abandon Karkat and follow you inside a small room, instead of getting his own.
You feel a little weirded out at Gamzee when he pushes his way past inside without permission from you, and maybe even a bit embarrassed, but he makes absolutely nothing of it. He instantly changes to a huge black T-Shirt that makes him look even skinnier than normal.
"Whatcha think? Should I buy it?" He jokes, or at least you think so. You crinkle your nose anyways and shake your head with a chuckle. He shrugs and takes it off, and this time you take a peek at his naked torso. Damn, his skin has never seen the light of day. You look away and focus on putting on one of the most promising jeans, and you glance back at him when he begins to laugh increasingly loud. You cover your mouth in time to catch a burst of laughter when you see he has put on a really short skirt and a pink tank top, that said "Sugar momma" on the front with glitter letters, which also left his stomach visible. You just now notice he has a purple ring on his navel, and you think it just tops off the look.
"I look like a motherfucking hooker, man." He jokes again, and you nod despite thinking it's not all that devious, really. It's a lot more girly than anything. He twirls around to let the skirt flutter, being careful to not trip over his naked feet, revealing even more of his enviable long legs covered in thick, black hairs. He ends up giving you his back and looking at you over his shoulder dramatically, popping his hip with one hand on his waist. "Would you all up and pay for me, motherfucker?" You let out a laugh and take off your jeans to try on another pair.
"I don't think, buying those clothes is a good idea, Gamzee." You tell him, and he begins to laugh softly.
"That's not what I meant." You look at him and see smirk on his face, and your face gets hot. Oh.
"Uh…" You know it's just a stupid joke, but you still feel strange buzzing in your stomach and your face burn lightly. You decide to force a mocking snort before replying with a joking tone of voice. "Oh, sure. Those curves of yours, sure are, tempting." He let's out a laugh and punches your shoulder before starting to strip again. He throws the skirt and the tank top on the floor, and you look at his body up and down, not being able to stop yourself. No curves there; Just sharp, bony edges. You meet his face again and realize that he was staring at you, and you feel caught. You feel your face get hot yet again, and you decide to hurry up and put on your actual pants. "We should, get going." You say, and he nods straight away.
"Don't wanna be all up and late to Karkat's movie."
He gets dressed rapidly and follows you out, and you see a lady sitting there, by the entrance of the changing room. She looks at you over, then at Gamzee, and her face becomes an open expression of disgust. She takes a moment before replying as she receives your clothes.
"Only one person per cubicle." She says with a flat tone, and gives Gamzee a funny look. You see him shrug and smile.
"Sorry sis, didn't know." She points at a sign on the wall that says the same thing, even with the same exact words. He shrugs again and just walks away, and you mutter an apology. You don't even want to know what she was thinking.
You meet up with Karkat over in the men's section again, finding him hunting down for a decent pair of shoes that were his size, but that also weren't for little kids. He was starting to get angry, and had even snapped at a worker that had nothing to offer except for a pair of Iron Man themed Sneakers. The guy had scurried off with the shoes in his hands and an annoyed expression, promising to come back with another more "manly" pair from storage. You doubt he would return at all. You also don't see the problem with the Sneakers, but you guess it's some sort of pride thing. They were of a brand specialized for little kid's shoe wear after all.
"Fucking douchesquatting moron! Did you see the look he gave me?" He spun around to look at Gamzee with an offended glare. Gamzee shrugged with a chuckle before ruffling the smaller guy's hair, earning him an angry grunt. "Fuckstain." The insult was directed at the worker once again as he looked after him, even if he was not visible anymore. "You know what, fuck it. These shits aren't even worth the money anyways." He began to walk away, expecting you two to follow him.
You make a left down the aisle towards the women's section, to see if you can find the girls and get out of the store. You look over the racks of clothing to find Nepeta, and as you scan the area with your eyes, you notice there is a tall guard following you. You frown, but decide to not make anything of it as you keep on walking, not yet calling out her name. You hear Gamzee chuckling a few feet away from you, and you turn your head to see what he's up to. You find him standing in front of a jewelry display, putting one necklace after another around his neck.
"Gamzee." You say as you get closer, a wide, amused smile on your face. "What, are you-"
"Here." He grabs your hand and pulls it close to him, and quickly puts a golden ring on your left ring finger. You look at it and lift an eyebrow. "Friendship ring." He shrugs, giving you a half smile. "Honk!" You take a moment before beginning to laugh, but you soon attract enough attention like for Karkat to make his way towards you and see what he was missing.
"Goddammit, you fucking cocklicker, get that shit off!" He scolds Gamzee when he sees him, and quickly begins to help him in the task of lifting the necklaces over his head.
"Aw, come on, bro." He protests, but lets the smaller guy help him by bending down a little bit. You look at the ring on your hand for a moment, seeing the cool, shiny surface sparkle as you move it around. You take it off before Karkat scolds you too, even if you aren't sure if he would do that, and put it back where Gamzee had taken it from.
"That asshole over there has been following you around the whole fucking time, I don't want him to grab your skinny ass and search you or some shit." Gamzee takes off the last of the golden necklaces and looks to the side, spotting the guard. You see him too, and the man makes no effort to disguise the superior glare he's giving Gamzee. You look at Karkat and back to the guard standing by one of the clothing racks, out of earshot.
"...Why?"
"Just shut up, come on." Karkat grabs Gamzee's hand, grabbing him as he walks towards the exit. You hesitate before following, feeling a little ashamed of yourself when you strain your ears to hear what Karkat hissed at Gamzee. You weren't able to hear a thing, but Gamzee replied louder, almost offended.
"But I don't do that shit no more, bro!"
"Whatever."
You purse your lips as you keep your eyes on their back until Karkat releases Gamzee's hand, coming up with a lucky guess of what that was about.
You get out of the store and find the rest of the group waiting on you, and you quickly leave in the direction of the movie theater. You, Nepeta, Gamzee and Karkat decide to get some popcorn and sodas, and you buy Gamzee some skittles after hearing him say that he wished he had brought along more money. You stand in line only for a few minutes before heading down the hall and entering the theater, and all of you take a seat in the same row.
Sollux sat at the very edge, and Aradia took a seat besides him to your surprise. Eridan took a seat besides Aradia, forcing Feferi to sit right next to him, to which she replied with an "Eridan!" before obliging; he was her date after all. Karkat sat right next to Feferi after eyeing Sollux for a moment, and Nepeta took a seat before anyone else could. Terezi plopped down by her side, which meant you and Gamzee would have to seat near the middle of the row. You sat by Terezi, hearing Gamzee sigh after letting himself fall on his own seat besides you, soon giving you an excited grin.
He opens up his bag of skittles straight away, holding the bag to you so you would make a cup with your hands to receive a fair share. He hesitates before giving you a playful look, and quickly reaches down to steal all of the purple skittles from your hands, popping them in his mouth one by one. You chuckle at that and let him have his way, watching him chew away his candy. He then takes some more out for himself, a lot of them being of your favorite flavour.
"The orange ones, are mine." You say with a grin, and he picks one up with his fingers before lifting his hand to you, pressing the small candy against your lips. It takes you by surprise but you let him feed it to you anyways. He cups his hand and serves himself the rest, and lets you pick out all the other orange ones.
The commercials begin and drag on for a few minutes, giving enough time for the rest of the people to get inside the theater. The movie soon begins, with the classical atmosphere of a Romantic Comedy being set in with the happy, almost cute music. You guess it doesn't look that bad. It's not your favorite genre, but it's alright. You glance over at Karkat when Gamzee looks over you to look in his direction, and you see the usually grumpy guy with a smile plastered on his face. You giggle at that, and Gamzee giggles along before going back to the movie.
You think you can pinpoint the exact moment in which Gamzee lost all interest. He begun to jump on his seat slightly, looking around as if he wanted to distract himself. He began to lift his leg up and down, but stopped when you put a hand on it to stop it, since it was beginning to annoy you. He looked over his shoulder to the back of the movie theater, and soon shoved his mouth to your ear to whisper.
"Fuck, bro, those motherfuckers are fucking!" You press your own lips together in a tight line and resist the urge to look, but you give in to the curiosity and look over your shoulder. You see some people that are closer to your seat absorbed in the movie, but you finally spot the couple on the back. On the very last row. They aren't exactly fucking; it's more like, the girl giving the guy a little favor with her face below his waist.
"Oh, God." You mutter and look at Gamzee in horror, but he is chuckling and biting his lips, completely amused by it. "I didn't, want to see that." You inform him as you breath out a laugh, and attempt to go back to the movie. Gamzee does the same after a moment, probably trying to pick it back up, but he soon gets bored again.
He grunts and begins to rub his neck until you ask him what's wrong, and he replies with a pitiful look and a simple "my neck hurts". He doesn't ask for permission to do the next thing that pops into his mind, and he just lays his head on your shoulder and nuzzles into you, crossing his arms over his own chest. His hair tickles your neck and face, and you notice it smells really good, and even feels kind of soft. He obviously washed it before going out.
He eventually lets his arms fall to his lap again, and he reaches out a hand to cup yours. You look down, a little startled by the action, and he begins to rub the pad of his thumb over each of your nails. He has a habit of doing that now when there is nothing better to do, and you didn't really mind. You guess it just feels kind of nice to him. But then he goes ahead and just lets his hand rest on yours for almost a full minute before slowly beginning to entwine his finger with yours, and you feel as if he is hesitating. You let him do it, your stomach tightening, and you have no idea if you want to pull away or stay like that.
You forget about the movie completely while your eyes are glued to your hands, watching as his thumb begins to rub against your skin softly. You want it to stop. You're not sure why he is doing that, but you can't pull away.
He shifts his head a little to look at you, still resting on your shoulder, and you can't move as he stares at you with a mostly serious expression on his face. Your phone begins to buzz and you pull away your hand instantly, moving away from him more than necessary to pull out your phone from your pocket. It's a text from your father, who felt the need to remind you that you have a curfew.
You close the message and turn off your phone, and you see Gamzee try to peer at the screen unsuccessfully. You're halfway glad that the movie is almost done.
Once the credits begin to roll, you all make your way out of the theater, the light from the hallway blinding you momentarily. It's well past 9:30 by now, and Feferi excuses herself saying something about her having to travel early in the morning. Eridan says goodbye and leaves with her, getting a free ride while he was at it. The rest of the group agrees that it's time to eat something, and you all head down to the food court in the mall.
You and Gamzee don't feel hungry since you both already had dinner at your place, so you both decide to buy big cones of ice cream. The rest buy some burgers and fries before sitting at the biggest table you all could find, and begin to eat in between silly commentaries of the movie.
"Can I taste it?" You look at Gamzee and at his pistacho cone with a small smile, and you peer at your own ice cream cone before stretching out your arm over the table to let him taste it. He leans in and takes a big lick off of your soy vanilla ice cream, and licks his lips over for a moment. "... Ain't all that bad like like I all up and thought it would be." He admits with a grin, and you let him take another lick before pulling it back to you. "Here, taste this miraculous shit." He offers, but you shake your head.
"No, thank you. It has-"
"Oh, milk, shit." He pulls it back to him and takes a bite rather than a lick. You nod, glad that he actually remembers and hadn't thought you liked soy without a specific reason. "Sorry."
"No, it's fine, actually." You assure him, chuckling at the excess of green ice cream staining his grey painted lips. He chuckles along, and just continues to eat.
The group dissolves after eating, each person saying their respective goodbyes and going their own ways. You follow Gamzee and Karkat to the parking lot, hearing the smaller boy rant endlessly about how "fantastically genius!" the movie had been. Gamzee nods and chuckles as he tries to look as if he is listening, but you can see right through him. Karkat seems determined to get Gamzee to learn a thing or two from the movie, though, so he pushes you aside to prevent you from getting into the passenger seat, saying it was "his turn", and as soon as he is inside, he resumes where he left off. You can tell Gamzee isn't all that happy about that, but asides from a yawn or two that he manages to hide from Karkat, he doesn't show any other signs of boredom. You look at him through the rearview mirror the whole time, catching the glances he shot your way that made you giggle every time from how desperate he was for another conversation topic to be brought up. He would just shake his head and chuckle along, but Karkat made sure to ignore it.
Sorry for the lateness guys, I had to rewrite this chapter two times before deciding on going with this third version. I hope you enjoyed it! Next one is coming up sooner. Way sooner. Like, tomorrow.