"W-WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU W-WEARING!?" I'm in a black and pink bikini with white skulls, black chains, and thick black bracelets. This is so embarrassing. I see red coming from his nose.
"Oh my god, Eridan." I lean over and grab a napkin from off of the table and hand it to him."I'm not a vampire. I don't like blood." He looks confused for a second then finally gets rid of the blood. "Now, do you know what you want? If you make any perv-like comment, I will choke you to death with your scarf." He is blushing like a maniac and stuttering. He can't get the words out so he just points to what he wants. "Okay, I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere." He'll probably try to follow me, and I'll have to kill him from staring at the other girls. Since Kanaya knows me so well, this is actually the least revealing of all the swimsuits. Even so, I'm glad my hair goes down to the back of my knees. I don't want him staring at me. I go to the kitchen and bring him back coffee, two pancake cupcakes, syrup, and non-alcoholic pinna colada.
"Thanks...I only ordered coffee and one pancake cupcake thing."
"The rest is for me. Thank you for paying for my snack, sweetie." He blushes again and looks down. "Eridan, I swear to God, if you don't stop staring at me in that perv manner, I'm going to choke you with your scarf!" We eat in silence for a little bit. I look over and see he has syrup on his face. "Just because I call you 'Eri-babe' doesn't mean you need to eat like a child." I reach over and wipe it off. I lick my finger. "It's super sweet, just like Eridan." He sighs.
"Do you talk this way to all of your customers?"
"What? No. My role is the tsundere. I have to blush a lot and act hateful. It also helps that I'm not very well-endowed. I get more customers that way. I'm also allowed to act tough, most tsundere's are." He just looks confused. "Look up anime terminology."
"Whatever." I hand him my drink. "What's this?"
"Just try it. It's really good." He hesitantly takes a sip. "Do you like it?"
"Yeah, but what is it?"
"Hah! This proves that alcohol is unnecessary. This is a pinna colada without alcohol."
"Izulo~" I look towards the door and see Kanaya. "How do you like it? Does it fit alright? Do the chains bother your skin?"
"No, everything is great. It's my favorite color and it's total rock and roll. It's awesome, Kanaya!"
"That's good to hear. Although, I seem to have forgotten something that you would appreciate very much." She holds up a sheer sparkily fabric. She comes over and wraps it around my waist. "There, I do believe that I am finished." She spins her finger.
"Yes ma`am." I twirl around for her. "I love it! It covers me up more, and it's still super cute. Thanks, Kanaya." I give her a hug, and she pats my head.
"What are you doing here?" I look up and see her glaring at Eridan.
"What's the matter, Kanaya? I brought Eridan with me. He's my new friend."
She cups my face in her hands. "Dear child, that is not a wise thing to do."
"Why not?" Why does no one want me to be friends with him? He's not that bad.
"He's selfish, condescending, a narcissist, a snob, and quite rude too. I don't want you to get in trouble for hanging out with people like him."
I take her hands off of my face. "No disrespect, Kanaya, but I don't need your advice on my friends. If I get in trouble, it's because I chose to. Eridan is a very kind and caring person. He makes the most expressive faces I've ever seen. He can be a gentleman when he wants to. He's fun to pick on because he knows they're jokes. He hasn't hurt me in any way, shape, or form. I don't understand why everyone keeps telling me it's a bad idea to be his friend. So far, he's been the nicest, most caring, funniest, and one of the most loyal friends I've had, and I only met him yesterday. He saved me today, so I don't want to hear another negative word about him. Do you understand, Kanaya?" She nods her head.
"Ah~ Love is so strong~" I turn to see Jade leaning up against the wall. "Standing up for him with such passion. It must be great to be in love. Right, Izulo?"
My face turns fiery red. "That is not it! Would you stop with that! Gah!"
"You only have to be tsundere with the normal customers. You don't have to be one around your boyfriend."
"I'M NOT BEING A TSUNDERE! I'M NOT DATING ERIDAN!"
"What's so bad about dating me?" I turn around and see him look mad and a little hurt. My heart breaks at the sight.
"Nothing is wrong with it. She did this the first time I brought Karkat here too. It's one of the things I don't like about working here. If you bring a boy, apparently, he's automatically your boyfriend. I get it if she's trying to make me open to the possibility, but I already am. I already told you 'not yet,' didn't I? Wouldn't it get on your nerves just a little if the roles were reversed?"
"I wouldn't freak out like you do. For a guy, if other people think you're dating a cute girl, that's a compliment." Did he just call me cute? He did!
"Ooh~ Look, she's all red." Jade swoons.
"I do believe she is. That scene is quite adorable." Kanaya giggles at my torment.
"Do-do you re-really mean that?"
"Mean what?" How could he not know what I mean!? This is embarrassing.
"You-you said that I was-was c-cute. Do y-you m-mean that?" I start fiddling with the pink fabric. I'm sure my face is as red as a raspberry by now. The door behind me slams open.
"Check it out~ Pretty *hic* girls." Some creepy guy walks up to me. "You're the *hic* prettiest one here." He smells like a bar and looks like he doesn't know what 'shower' means. The scent almost makes me gag. He cups my face in his hand-which is caked in dirt by the way. "You've got some nice curves, sweetheart." His hand snakes down to my hips. I've never been so scared in my life. I can't even move. "Maybe we should-" *CRACK* I look and see that Eridan punched him square in his jaw. By the sound it made, he probably broke it or dislocated it at the least. The man gets up holding his jaw and stumbles away.
I turn around and grab Eridan by his scarf. "What the hell-" I hug him. I hold on to his shirt tight enough that my knuckles begin to turn white, and my hands are shaking. He pets my head. "There there. It's okay now. I wouldn't let anybody hurt you. I'd hate to see what you would've done to him if you were mad. It would probably be worse than Cronus, huh?" I give a weak laugh and nod my head.
"Izulo, are you okay? That wasn't too much excitement was it?" I let go of Eridan and shake my head. "Well, if you want, I would understand if you went home. I actually recommend it." Jade walks over to me and gives me a hug. "Go home, okay? You've had too much excitement. I can't have one of my employees in the hospital, unable to do her job, simply because she continued to work."
"Okay, Jade." I try to take a step, but get very dizzy. I don't fall down or anything, but I freeze where I'm standing. "Eridan, come here." He walks up to me, and I lean on his shoulder.
"Are you okay, Iz?"
"Can you walk with me to the back door?" He nods his head. I wave goodbye to Kanaya and Jade. We get to the back of the store. "Oh, wait! I can't walk around like this for the rest of the day." I go behind the curtain we have to change. "Can you hand me my backpack?"
"Yeah, shore." He looks around. "Which one is it?"
"It's the only bright pink backpack."
"Oh, okay. Catch." He picks it up and throws it to me over the curtain. "You sure do like pink."
"Yeah, it reminds me of Valentine's Day and romance. It also goes good with a lot of pretty colors. There are a lot of outfit possibilities for pink. I know someone else who loves pink, but we will not mention her. I will explain it to you one day, okay?" I slide the curtain away. "All I have to do now is call my driver. You don't mind waiting with me, do you?"
"Or I could just take you home. It would be a lot easier and faster."
"No, you don't have to. You've already driven me like twice today. I don't want you to waste your gas like that."
He smiles at me, and I about have heart failure. "It's not a waste. I get to hang out with you."
"O-Okay." He helps me into his car, and I tell him my address. There is an awkward silence in the car for the first few minutes. "Hey, Eridan, what kind of music do you listen to?" He turns on the radio, and it's playing Teen Idle. This song means a lot to me, so I sing along.
-I wanna be a bottle blonde
-I don't know why, but I feel conned
-I wanna be an idle teen
-I wish I hadn't been so clean
-I wanna stay inside all day
-I want the world to go away
-I want blood, guts, and chocolate cake
-I wanna be a real fake
-Yeah, I wish I'd been, I wish I'd been a teen teen idle
-Wish I'd been a prom queen fightin for the title
-Instead of being sixteen I'm burning up a Bible
-Feeling super super super suicidal
-The wasted years, the wasted youth
-The pretty lies, the ugly truth
-And they day has come where I have died
-Only to find I've come alive.
I look out the window, and avoid Eridan's eyes
-I wanna be a virgin pure
-A twenty-first century whore
-I want back my virginity
-So I can feel infinity
-I wanna drink until I ache
-I wanna make a big mistake
-I want blood, guts, and angel cake
-I'm gonna puke it anyway
-Yeah, I wish I'd been, I wish I'd been a teen teen idle
-Wish I'd been a prom queen fightin for the title
-Instead of being sixteen I'm burning up a Bible
-Feeling super super super suicidal
-The wasted years, the wasted youth
-The pretty lies, the ugly truth
-And they day has come where I have died
-Only to find I've come alive.
-Come alive, I've come alive
-I wish I wasn't such a narcissist
-I wish I didn't really kiss
-The mirror when I'm on my own
-Oh, God, I'm gonna die alone
-Adolescence
-Didn't make sense
-The little loss of innocence
-The emptiness of being a fool
-Ain't youth meant to be beautiful
-Yeah, I wish I'd been, I wish I'd been a teen teen idle
-Wish I'd been a prom queen fightin for the title
-Instead of being sixteen I'm burning up a Bible
-Feeling super super super suicidal
-The wasted years, the wasted youth
-The pretty lies, the ugly truth
-And they day has come where I have died
-Only to find I've come alive. 3x
I don't dare look at him, as I let the rest of the song play out. We finally pull up to my driveway. "Thanks for taking me home, Eridan."
"No problem." I take out my keys to unlock the door, but it's already open. "What's wrong?" I making a zipping motion with my mouth. I slowly open the door. I hear someone in the kitchen. I tiptoe to the kitchen until I fling open the door.