Victor Morgendorffer (Pt. 11)
Saturday during the day for Victor was turning out to be a lazy day; he slept until noon and only woke up because his mother had come in and opened the blinds on purpose.
After some grumbling, Victor washed up and changed, secretly relieved that airing his room out along with the incense kept her from noticing the distinctive scent of pot.
He had bounded downstairs a little while later with an overnight bag slung over his shoulder and found that the TV had been taken over by Quinn and three of her friends.
Victor found himself wondering why they weren't raiding a mall somewhere even as he made a beeline for the kitchen and grabbed a banana, he took a minute to write out a note and left it on the refrigerator before walking out through the patio door.
He barely even noticed that his father had been sitting at the table with a small lunch in front of him, Jake had stared at his son the entire time he was in the room and seemed to struggle to say something, anything.
But by the time he had come up with the word 'Hi', Victor was already gone.
"Yo Danny my man!"
"Vic!"
The two boys gave each other a brief hug in the doorway before Danny Moreno let in in the house.
"So your parents are cool with you spending the night?" Danny asked as they walked through the Moreno's home to Danny's bedroom.
Victor shrugged, "Dunno, I just left a note on the fridge."
Danny stopped in his tracks, "What?!"
"I left the rents a note and the time when I'd be back, I've done it before." Victor answered as if this was normal behavior.
Danny chewed on that before saying, "Dude, my Dad works like a dog but if I tried to pull that crap I'd be paddled so hard I wouldn't sit right for a year!"
Victor's face fell, "At least it means that you have one parent that cares."
Danny had no idea how to respond to that statement.
So he just led him to the bedroom in silence.
The walls of Danny Moreno's room was covered completely in posters of hot chicks, motorcycles, hot chicks on motorcycles, and every kind of rock band imaginable, the ceiling had banners proclaiming the glories of the Sturgis biker rally.
"And if there's a way to put posters on the carpet I'm sure Danny would be all over it." Victor mused to himself as he finished taking this in.
Danny very carefully opened the door to his closet and one peek revealed why. Danny's closet was packed to the gills with clothes and accumulated junk.
His friend seemed to steel himself before he started to dig through the mess, and the tremors from the objects inside had Victor worried that he'd have to dig Danny out of an avalanche.
However Danny emerged a few minutes later with a beaten up sleeping bag and said, "Sorry, it's the best that I can do."
Victor glanced at the sleeping bag and suppressed a sigh and said stoically, "I'll make do."
Danny glanced at the sleeping bag with a pensive look and then made a study of his bed and offered, "Well if it won't freak you out, you can sleep with me. I mean in my bed."
He said the last very quickly to ward off dirty jokes.
It was in vain.
Danny was very thankful that Link and Damien weren't there, since Victor had a pretty good repertoire of dirty jokes and puns accumulated from years of hanging around the Ianzzui's.
It made the afternoon highly entertaining, once Danny got over his humiliation and joined in.
Later that night, the Moreno household was inundated by Damien Hebuca and Link Gingold, who along with Victor were introduced to Danny's father, Luke 'Mo' Moreno for the first time.
Luke looked the part of a grizzled grease monkey who was starting to go past his prime, however Luke had a pleasant inviting demeanor and a big belly laugh that could make anyone feel right at home.
"So you're my son's new friends." Luke commented as he took a seat at the dinner table, "It's good to see you happy again Danny."
"Huh?" Victor thought to himself but before he could ask the obvious questions, his thinking was interrupted by the arrival of Jesse Moreno banging in through the kitchen side door, still in his work uniform.
It was the first time that Victor had seen him wearing a shirt.
"Oh, hey guys." Jesse said as he kicked the door shut behind him, "Is dinner ready yet?"
"No!" Danny said with a laugh, "We haven't called Pizza Prince yet."
Jesse smirked, "Well little bro you'd better hurry, we've only got a few hours before the Spiral is set to perform."
Luke laughed and shook his head, "So you kids got roped into helping Jesse and his friends set up?"
All four of them nodded and Luke laughed again, "Well just remember to have fun in between the hard work. Not that you won't be able to find it on Dega Street."
As Luke then motioned for Jesse to toss him the phone, Link and Damien's eyes lit up.
"Duuuude!" They went in perfect harmony.
"What?" Danny asked with a tilt of his head.
"We've never been allowed on the DS before man." Link explained, devilish glee in his eyes.
Damien's grin would have given old women an early ticket to that heavenly abode, "My sister always catches me before I can do too much, oh she's gonna flip when she can't do shit to me this go around!"
Victor gave a Mona Lisa grin and was glad that he called them earlier and asked if they wanted to pitch in.
A trip to the Zon on the weekend was clearly what the doctor ordered.
As Daria waited for Jane and her brother to pick her up for Brittany's party, her hand clinched around a crumpled up note.
It was the only sign of emotion from an otherwise statuesque figure.
When she saw a blue bomb of a car pulling up she stuffed it in her coat pocket, muttering that if her brother came home in one piece she was going to dress him down for not telling her about staying over at a friend's house before bailing on the family.