Comments:
dshell99: omg your comment made me laugh out loud reading it! Yes, I know, I too am seriously sick and tired of this constant crying about that stupid pinapple on pizza bull! So I felt that if I wanted a "meme" in this story, then that was the one to slip in! Personally I have never tried pinapple on pizza, but I tried banana once and was surprised that I really did like it! So, surprises everywhere ^^ And thank you for being patient! I do love to drag everything out to the point where the cliff hangers are just ridiculously cliff hangy, and then surprise the readers with something whole else :) Thank you for the comment!
SvartaAnkan: I loved seeing you commenting again! I've missed you and welcome back ^^ And yes! You were right about those ten feet, I don't know what I was thinking, even in the metric system the digit 10 would be too far away or too weird (10 meters or 10 decimeters? Who says 10 dm instead of one meter, eh?), so I changed it :) tackar! Och här kommer nästa kapitel!
Jay: Here's more! :D
Guest: Thank you for the comment! I will keep trying to make you happy!
SvartaAnkan: Är det du som är guest? Tack i alla fall för kommentaren! ^^
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The person behind the mask
Eddward
This day was turning out to be one of the best days of Edd's life. He would've never imagined that something like this would ever happen to him; that someone he liked would actually like him back. Well, something like this would hopefully happen some day in the future, but not now, and not with one of Peach Creek high school's most popular football players; Kevin Barr. Though only almost twenty four hours had passed since Kevin snuck into Edd's bedroom, this whole spending all day together felt natural and so right. It felt insane that someone like him would actually be interested in someone like Edd, and he had a few seconds to spare to reflect over this while everyone ate their pizzas in Ed's basement.
Eddward glanced at Kevin, who was talking about football with Ed, stuffing his whole face full of pepperoni pizza. Then he looked down on his own plate with Caesar salad and lactose free Caesar dressing… Like magnets, Edd had heard that opposites attract, but this was just… weird. He dipped a piece of chicken in the dressing and looked at Kevin again, analyzed him. He looked so confident, talking about his interests with a team mate, mouth full of pizza and greasy fingers that he wiped off on his swimming trunks. For some reason Edd didn't mind that; he thought that Kevin was just being typically boyish… and sort of cute.
Were they ever going to be official? What would other people think of them being so different from each other? Or was this just a secret summer fling that was going to end once Kevin moved from the cul-de-sac to his college after the summer while Edd stayed behind for his senior year in high school?
Edd knew that it was too early to think about things like this right now; they had only gone out one day, he shouldn't worry about these things in at least a few months.
"Alright, let's discuss the movie." Said Matthew, closed his pizza box and put it to the side. "Anyone that feel that he or she would like to start?"
"I can start." Said Kevin and cleared his throat. "The blood. It looked really unrealistic; both color and consistence, and it was just too much of it."
"That was exactly what I was thinking!" said Brent, Matthew's younger brother. "I mean, did the director think that the human body consists of ninety percent blood and ten percent skeleton?"
"Right? And then make it in that kind of putrid orange color?" Kevin laughed. He folded another slice of pizza, stuffed it in his mouth and started chewing it as the others agreed.
"Okay, how about this", said Landon, boyfriend to Madison, "I really love this old way of doing makeup and the special effects, right? But some of the aliens just looked sooo sloppy."
"Yes! Exactly!" Ed exclaimed.
Landon continued, much more enthusiastic than before. "I didn't want to point that out during the movie because I didn't want to ruin it for everyone!"
"We all noticed." Said Eddy and did a kind of arrogant swing with his fingers. "Some of them really looked like shit. I mean, what happened during the production of the movie? Were the ugly aliens sloppier because they were in the background as extras, and you don't have to put down any work on them because the audience wouldn't notice their fugly faces?"
"I know!"
Double D was quietly sitting there while the others discussed different notes dealing the movie and laughed about it. Kevin was sitting next to him on the couch that they had turned around and moved closer to the bed where Eddy, Ed, May, Landon, Madison and Matthew sat. Becky sat on his other side, Edd being in the middle, and Brent sat on the armchair underneath the window. Edd and Kevin were so close to each other, that whenever Kevin excitedly moved around, or waved with his hands when he said something, their bodies touched, and sent a shiver throughout Edd's back. He wanted this moment to last forever – he could openly touch the guy he was in love with, but without it feeling so intimate his burning cheeks would be exposing him, around his friends.
How many times hadn't he already fantasized about this exact moment?
"Am I doing this right?" Kevin whispered all of a sudden to his right, the others' voices being too excited and loud for anyone to eavesdrop on them.
"Yes. You can critique anything you'd like to discuss." Edd replied. "And you fit in perfectly."
"I don't know if that's good or bad." Kevin chuckled teasingly. "Fitting in with nerds, I mean."
"You're doing a great job, anyway. They like you." Edd looked at his friends, and then back at Kevin.
"You know what, dork? I think that I like your friends too." Kevin raised his eyebrows, as if he was going to say something that he'd never thought he'd ever say. "Thank you for inviting me. I'm actually having fun."
"You're welcome. Thank you for coming."
Everyone left ten o'clock except for the Eds and Kevin; who stayed and helped them clean up the pizza boxes and take all the dishes upstairs. Kevin still hadn't gotten any closer to one of Edd's best friends; Eddy; but he was doing his best. Whenever Eddy said anything mean about or to Kevin, Kevin just shrugged, and didn't show any signs of getting upset about it. It was a good strategy, since Eddy stopped after a while as if he was thinking the whole night over.
"Thanks again for helping us." Said Edd. He and Kevin walked on the sidewalk between Kevin's and Eddy's houses, they had just dropped Eddy off who lived right next to the jock. Edd wanted to follow Kevin home before crossing the street to his own house.
"No problem at all… hey." They stopped outside Kevin's house, and he looked up at Eddward with his penetrating hazel eyes. Edd's legs felt like overcooked pasta again. "If you're not too tired, maybe you'd want to follow me to the lake? It's really warm outside still."
How could Edd possibly say no to yet another extension to this date? "Sure. But how are we getting there?"
"Have you ever been on a motorcycle before?"
So much had happened during this Saturday; things that Edd would normally frown upon and strictly say no to were now things that he couldn't wait to try. He had never touched anything as dangerous as a motorcycle before, and now he felt the wind blow past him as he flew through the forest on the roads on this killing machine. The biggest reason as of why he felt safe enough was the person sitting in front of him, and he had his arms tightly wrapped around his chest. He put his head against Kevin's back and breathed in his scent that was stuck in the helmet that Kevin had lent out to him.
Edd had been a little upset over that Kevin was driving this thing without a helmet, but he was longing to be close the jock much more, so he had just put the helmet on his head (that had the most concentrated smell of Kevin Barr), jumped up on the bike behind him and forgot about everything else.
Kevin glanced back at Edd and slowed down a little, making this moment last at least a couple of minutes longer. The sun had already set by the horizon, but it was still kind of light outside, and warm. The wind blowing past them smelled like trees and asphalt, it was humid, as if it was going to start to rain soon.
Ten minutes on the road, that felt like seconds, later, Kevin turned off the engine right where the side of the road stopped, and the sand on the beach started, and leaned the beast to the side to support their, and its, entire weight with his foot. Edd couldn't help but be impressed over how strong Kevin must be in his left leg, but being the Quarterback three years straight must result in some very strong leg muscles. He carefully slid down from the bike and pulled the helmet off. Kevin waited for Edd to get off before he swung his leg over the bike as well, kicked down the kickstand and backed away from it.
He turned around and looked at Edd, and widened his eyes. Edd had no idea what he was seeing, quickly turned around to see if someone stood behind him, and then turned back to face Kevin again.
"What?" he asked him since they were the only two people around.
But Kevin still didn't say anything. He looked like he was really trying to say something, but he just seemed like he couldn't. He kept staring an inch above Edd's left eye, and Edd slowly grasped what had happened.
He dropped the helmet he was holding as his hands darted up to his head faster than an oiled lightning. He panicked – his ski hat wasn't on his head, and Kevin had seen everything! Even the emergency hairpins that usually kept his hair at least a little tame (in case he would someday drop his hat they would temporarily let the watcher think that he was normal, until he had a chance to hide it again) were gone as well.
His heart was racing and he quickly spun around to hide his forehead from the one person he least wanted to know about it. "I'm so embarrassed!" Edd crouched down as he felt the tears of shame burn in his eyes, both hands tightly pressed on his forehead and elbows pressed against his stomach as if to try and keep his body from exploding.
Some kind of fabric graced the side of his head, and Edd quickly grabbed his ski hat that was handed to him, and put it on his head, sobbing. "It got caught in the helmet when you took it off…" he heard Kevin mumble behind him. "I'm really sorry for that…"
"It's not your fault." Edd sobbed. He tried to calm down, though this whole date was already ruined.
Kevin sighed, walked over to Edd and sat down on the sand right next to him. "I'm sorry I wasn't more discreet about it, but really; you have nothing to be ashamed of."
"But it's so ugly!" Edd, who had been crouching this whole time, also sat down, pulled his knees closer to his body and hugged them with his arms.
"You know what? It really isn't that bad. I'm being totally honest here; I thought that you were hiding something really horrible underneath that hat all these years, that it would be something so terrifying I would be having nightmares about it if I ever had the chance to see it. Like-" Kevin chuckled a little. "Like tentacles or something really nightmarish… But when I turned around one minute ago, and saw your hair for the first time, I was surprised that it wasn't anything else hiding under there."
Edd whimpered; he didn't want to hear what Kevin thought about his secret, but Kevin didn't care, and continued:
"I finally saw Eddward Vincent without his icon hat… and he was stunning. He was not the monster I had imagined in my head… sorry… he was actually really, really cute… and I apologize, but I was actually relieved that I was wrong about what I was first expecting." he started stroking Edd's back, comforted him. "And what I saw was you."
Edd had never shown his hair to anyone outside of his circle before; only Ed and Eddy knew, and they'd tried to help him about his problem, but nothing seemed to be able to fix him. When he was younger, his mother had sent him to an excessive amount of different therapists about his obsession and anxiety, but just like everything else; nothing helped.
This was the first time, though, he actually believed the other person when he said that it wasn't that bad looking. Of course Ed didn't do it as much anymore… if you didn't count that whole week he stayed home from school…
"Do you really mean that?" Edd wiped his tears. He'd stopped crying.
"I really do. I don't mean to diminish your entire feeling around your hair; I get why you'd think that you look ugly; but it actually does not look as bad as you think. I, for one, like you even better now… and you're cute."
"Cute?" Edd's heart started pounding again as he began feeling angry. "You think that this abomination is cute?!" He pulled off his hat again and Kevin looked directly at his hair.
Angry tears began falling from his eyes as he stared into Kevin's face, looked for any change in it; looked for a sign of nausea. But instead of turning green, Kevin's face started turning a few shades darker and he moved. Edd jumped; he noted that Kevin's hand moved upwards and Kevin stopped; but only momentarily, since he continued reaching towards Eddward's forehead again after he'd made sure that Edd would let him.
Edd groaned again as he felt Kevin's fingers starting following the shape of the ugly, ugly bald patch in the front of his head, fingers light as feathers. The spot where Edd had been pulling his hairs, one straw at a time, whenever he felt anxious or nervous. It was a habit he had created as a child, and he guessed it was better than cutting himself or… something worse. Nonetheless; it was a bad habit that no one was able to correct for him.
Kevin puffed shakily, started combing Edd's wild black hair backwards, and then locked eyes with him. His green eyes looked unfocused at first, and then they focused again. "This is the first time I see you without the hat…" he whispered, as he couldn't believe it himself. He took down his hand again, became serious. "Is it okay if I ask questions or… I don't mind if you don't wanna talk about it either, just-"
"You don't have to ask…" Edd took a deep breath. "I wasn't born like this; I did this to myself. I've seen therapists about it but I can't seem to stop pulling my hair… it's some kind of obsession whenever I get nervous. It looks a lot better now than it did before, though; now I only pull the hairs in the front. When I was younger I plucked every hair on top of my head as well." He looked up at the jock. "I started again last week when I was staying home from school… That's why I look like this. I guess that you want to leave now… I can walk home."
Kevin raised his eyebrows. "This doesn't change what I feel about you." He stroke Edd's hair again and smiled. "I don't think that I have the power to help you stop doing this to yourself, but I can at least try. I wanna see you without that hat a lot more in the future. You're cute with it, but I like you more without it."
They both stopped to look at each other for a few seconds, and something inside of Edd clicked. The person he liked wasn't running away from him; but he was actually touching Edd's hair, without his ski hat, as if it was nothing. Kevin actually understood him, and he didn't make a big deal out of this. And now they looked at each other; with that excitement building up between them once again, that drumroll that bangs inside of your chest when you just know that maybe this is it; you're going to have your first kiss with this person. But before they leaned in for that magic first kiss; Edd gasped and held his breath.
Blood was running down Kevin's face this time; he had got the nosebleed.
The jock wiped his nose on the front of his t-shirt. "Shit, I forgot I had my white shirt today…" he looked up, and then smiled mischievously. "Oh, well, I don't need this anymore, do I?" he stood up and pulled it off together with his black leather jacket, and then he took off his red baseball cap and hung it on one of the bike's rear mirrors.
Edd didn't know what to say, but he took Kevin's hand as he reached for him, and Kevin helped him up. He didn't know where to look at first; he was too shy to look directly at Kevin's sculpted, Quarter back abs; but then he realized what Kevin meant to show him. He had long scars on his chest and stomach, as if someone had been cutting him, and now he wanted to show Edd that he had nothing to be ashamed of. Edd felt embarrassed for thinking that his own self-harm had been something to feel bad about, but after seeing the jock's scars; he had a change of mind… He couldn't even imagine what Kevin had gone through, and was too shaken up to ask him about them.
Kevin smiled a crooked smile, and turned around. His back had even more scars than his front side; it was covered in deep, pink tears, and Kevin turned around again. "We all have a past." He said. "I feel comfortable enough with you."
Kevin started pulling down his red pizza grease covered swimming trunks and kicked his shoes off at the same time.
"Oh-" Edd didn't have time to finish whatever he was going to say; Kevin grabbed his arms and quickly pressed his lips against Edd's before he could object, before his nose had the time to start to bleed again. It was a hasty kiss, but it was the best kiss Edd could ever imagine, and then it was over.
"Let's swim." Kevin said excitedly. He had no more clothes to take off; he was standing in front of Edd, only two feet away from him, butt naked; his whole body covered in scars but not at all ashamed of them.
Edd was still in shock after the kiss and didn't know what to say, but Kevin chukled and began walking across the beach and down to the lake. He looked so confident, walking like that with his muscular body… Edd couldn't stop staring at his naked backside the entire time, and woke up again only when he heard Kevin shout from the water:
"Come on, Sockhead! The water is warm!"
Once again Edd did something that he would never imagine doing in a million years – he actually did as Kevin did and started stripping down to his birthday suite, and followed Kevin down to the lake. He looked back one last time at his neatly folded pile of clothes he was leaving behind him on the ground next to the motorcycle, with his precious ski hat lying flat on top of it.
This was actually the best day of his life; this was the day he dared to be himself.
Kevin
The rain was pouring outside, once again, and it didn't seem to want to stop. But that was okay, seeing Kevin was sitting in a dry and warm kitchen this morning, sipping coke and trying to read something from a heavy book. Nazz had already figured out that he wasn't as dumb as he portrayed himself as; he did, in fact, have higher grades than the average student on Peach Creek High – he was just not showing that to anyone, nor telling anybody about it. People thought that he was just charming the teachers at school to get good grades without doing actual work; but oh, they'd been so wrong about that. It was actually a kind of an insult to even think that a teacher would fall for some handsome teenager's charming smile – of course they didn't give him good grades just because they liked him. So that had only been a rumor.
This morning though, Kevin only pretended to read the book Nazz gave him, because he was too absent minded to think of anything else than last night, when the rain was just about to start. He had been standing in the lake a few feet from the beach, the water level reaching to his belly button, and he had been looking deep into the eyes of the boy in front of him; with a bald patch just above his forehead and a gap between his front teeth. Kevin wanted to talk to him, he wanted to get to know him better but none of them had anything to say at that moment.
He looked at the boy in front of him; and he wasn't at all skinny without his clothes as he first imagined – Eddward Vincent was actually kind of fit. It looked like he had been working out (not like lifting weights, but at least doing some kind of work out), so maybe he actually had been trying out for the basketball team. He was tall and slender, and had the right muscles on just the right places… so he could be a basketball player.
After a few long, stolen kisses under the moon, the rain drops started to fall down on their bare arms and heads. They looked at each other and laughed, and then they hurried to the motorcycle, got dressed in their already wet clothes and drove on the slippery road back to the cul-de-sac. Eddward was clinging onto the jock; digging his face into his back, with Kevin's leather jacket on his body since Kevin didn't want him to catch a cold.
After one last kiss good night in the middle of the cul-de-sac and the pouring rain, they parted ways.
Kevin woke up eight o'clock this Sunday morning and straight away remembered that he had promised Nazz to have a breakfast study over at her house, and hurried across the rainy neighborhood to be on time.
They were finished eating since it had been one hour since Kevin got here, and he hadn't done much work at all. And to snap him out of his day dreaming, Nazz asked him: "Hey, what are you thinking about?" she smiled mischievously – of course she was familiar with the look on his face.
"Uh… football… and rain… I-" Kevin sat up straight in the chair, looked out the window, cleared his throat. "I need to jog, but it's pouring outside."
"Come on, you can't fool me!" Nazz took a sip on her tea. "I've seen that look before. Maybe not on your face, but I can see that you're thinking about something special… or… someone special."
"I'm not thinking about anyone- I mean anything!" his face started to feel warm.
"Aha!" Nazz exclaimed. "Sooooo… who is she?"
Kevin was surprised that she didn't behave like she was at all interested in him; hadn't she tried to seduce him only seven days prior? Or is this how girls do it? Is she testing him to see if she still has a chance with him, but tries to trick him into believing that she doesn't care?
"There is no she." Kevin said truthfully. He wanted to drink from his coke, but his hands were shaking so much that he kept them hidden in his lap under the table.
Nazz stared at him, and didn't look away once. She wanted to stare him down, and she won; Kevin nervously looked out the window again and then back at her.
"That didn't mean anything." He tried.
"Come on, Kevin, tell me about her! Please; I won't tell anyone else, I promise!" she begged.
"As I said; there is no her, there is no girl what so ever, so you can just stop this now, and go back to-"
"Okay!" she cut him off. "Alright! You win, Kevin. I actually saw you last night; and if you don't wanna tell me about it then you don't have to. For now. Because I will start, okay?"
"You- you saw me? Start what?" he began sweating, but still tried to look like he had no idea what she was talking about.
"Yes, I saw you with someone last night. That beast you're driving woke me up one o'clock, and when I sat up in bed and looked out the window I saw you and this person kiss each other in the middle of the cul-de-sac, and when the lights from your bike turned to your house, I lost the sight of your midnight mistress. You know; because of the rain and that the lights in this area shuts off whenever they get a little bit water on them." She waited for Kevin to say something, but he just looked at her with open mouth. She smiled, bit her tongue and leaned forward over the table. "Oh, my gosh; you're actually not trying to object! So it was a girl I saw you with?"
"No." Kevin cleared his throat since his no had been really weak. He started massaging his temples with shaky hands and chuckled nervously. "I-I don't know what you're-"
"You don't have to, Kevin. Not yet. As I said; I will start." Nazz's smile disappeared; she really didn't look like she wanted to tell anyone what she was going to say, but at the same time wanted to clear her conscience. "First thing first; last Saturday night… was a weak moment for me. I had been drinking, and my mind was somewhere whole else." She stopped, and sighed, started grinding her teeth a little. "There is a guy… and I like him… I mean, a lot." She looked up. "I'm sorry, Kevin, but it's not you… I was just… trying to distract myself from thinking of him and I was only fooling myself when I thought that maybe you… I'm so sorry… It wasn't fair to you. Well, now I know that you stopped me from doing what I was doing because you already liked someone, but I couldn't forgive myself if you had… I mean, what if you actually liked me? What if we had gone all the way that night?"
Kevin didn't want to correct her; he hadn't stopped her last Saturday because he was seeing someone else, but she didn't have to know that. "Come on…" He groaned. This was something he didn't want to talk about at all, but at the same time; he didn't want his friend to feel so much guilt about it. "We're past that. Okay? There's nothing to forgive. We're cool."
"Do you promise that?" her eyes were shiny, and Kevin nodded. "Okay… thank you…"
"So… this guy you like? Why did you want to forget about him in the first place? Does he know how you feel about him?" Kevin was impressed by himself, coming up with such good things to say at the moment. And second of all; he was extremely relieved that she wasn't in love with him.
"No… or, I don't think that he actually knows how I feel. I mean… I don't want to have these feelings for him, but I just can't stop thinking about him either… all the time… every day…"
"Is he, like, a teacher or something?" Kevin asked, tried not to sound too judging. Why didn't she want to like him? It must be due to her being too young for him or something.
"No…" she bit her lip. "Nothing like that."
"Then who is it? Is it someone I know?"
"Well… kinda…" she didn't want Kevin to know just yet, it seemed, and he didn't want to pressure her to say any names.
"Okay… tell me why you can't be with him instead. Is he married?"
"No."
"Is he… older than you?"
"No…"
"So he's the same age as us?" Nazz nodded. "So what is then? Does he have a girlfriend already? Does he go to our school?"
Nazz was quiet for a bit. "No… I don't think so, I actually don't know… and… he sort of goes to our school…"
"An exchange student?"
"No..."
"Okay, I have no further questions…" Kevin remembered the red thread in his own hesitation about telling her about his secret date. "Nazz… is it a girl?" he asked in a lower voice.
Nazz started laughing hysterically. "Oh, god no!"
"What?" Kevin smiled.
"I was just not prepared on that!" she laughed. "No, I'm sorry, no; it's not a girl. I'm actually in love with a guy."
Kevin stopped smiling. "Oh… you love him? It's that bad, huh?"
Nazz stopped laughing as well, and gave him a sad smile back. "Yeah… and I don't think that I will ever have the courage to tell him that."
"Of course you will! He's our age, he isn't seeing anyone and he goes to our school. What's stopping you? Is he ugly?"
"No, nothing like that." She giggled. "He's very handsome. I love the way he looks, and I love his personality… he's so… gah, I can't describe him! But I just can't… I don't want to be with someone like him…" she sighed, deeply. "It's just not me. But if I ever saw him with someone else… I think that my heart would just shatter into million pieces."
"So what is really stopping you?" From the description of this Prince Charming of Nazz's; he sounded like a catch; but something about him was a deal breaker for her. It seemed like she didn't really mind that, but other people would think less of her if she started dating him. "Is he a drug addict or something? Or a brother to one of your friends? Ooh! Does one of your friends also like him?"
"No…" Nazz sighed with a smile. "I guess that I can tell you about him. After all; I said that I would start. Okay… remember when we first started Peach Creek High?"
"Yeah?"
"I was, kind of, best friends with Jonny Grove back then. I joined the cheerleading team and quickly became friends with the popular girls in school. Guys did everything to impress me, they asked me out and tried to get me drunk every opportunity they were given. But I told them that I was already dating someone, just to get them off my back. I said that Jonny and I… that…"
"You said that you and Jonny were an item?" Kevin asked her. He didn't want to jump any conclusions yet; the story had just begun.
"Yeah… it worked; they left me alone for the rest of the year." Nazz shook her head and sighed. "I didn't know it then, but Jonny was slowly falling for me, and he actually grew up as well. He stopped bringing that old plank to school, and stopped seeing imaginary people. He was normal for once, and he got tougher as he wanted to protect me from other guys – because that was what I originally wanted; I wanted him to be my fake boyfriend and I didn't see that he was falling for real.
I started accepting dates from guys by the end of the year, because finally I was secure enough to think about love and dates and stuff like that. But I never got to the dates… they all stood me up, one by one, every time; even though they had been the ones to ask me out. I didn't know why, and I gave up. I felt like such a loser.
You know every year, the annual bon fire party on the junkyard when school ends? By the end of our first year both Jonny and I were invited to that party. At first my cheerleader friends didn't want Jonny to come, because he was weird and what not, but I told them that if he isn't coming, then I won't be there either. So I brought him, and he brought that old plank of his. I didn't know why he did that; he had been without it for almost a year; so why did he bring that old piece of wood to a party?
I do regret what I did that night…" Nazz's eyes were tearing up out of shame. "I laughed at him… I wanted to look cool in front of the cheerleading squad; so I laughed at Jonny for bringing the plank. I thought that it was some kind of joke, but I… I shouldn't have.
He got mad… so he threw it into the fire and ran off. I tried to save it, but it was too late. The fire was too hot, and the last thing I saw before the wood burned up; was that he had carved my name into it. He had carved my name into Plank, and wanted to show it to me, and I laughed right in his face."
Kevin sighed too. "So that's why… he got all… weirder? Shaved his head, got pierced and tattooed that plank on his arm with the text; no regrets?"
"Yes. It's my entire fault."
"But wait… is it… Jonny that you-"
Nazz nodded. "Well… an hour before the bon fire party started I found out that it was he who had told all those guys to stand me up. He had been threatening them to leave me alone, or else he would kill them. They thought that he was crazy enough to mean every word of it, and that I wasn't worth it if he really did. So, of course, I got mad at him, and that's why I was so mean to him. I hated him for what he had done… but when I saw my name on that burning plank, and realized that he'd done all that because he loved me… I also realized that I actually loved him too.
And now it's too late. I didn't see him at all that summer; he was gone. I asked his parents, and they had no idea where he was, and I don't think that they even cared, actually… And when he came back to school after the summer break… He'd changed. I changed him, and I can't even stand the person he is today."
"This is messed up." Kevin leaned back in his chair. "Jonny Grove… wow… I would never imagine that he was the one to get Peach Creek's girl next door."
"What are you mumbling about?" Nazz shook her head and crossed her arms over the table. "You're sick. But yeah… I really wish that I didn't fuck up all these years ago; because I haven't been successful at all in forgetting about him."
"You haven't dated at all?"
"No…" Nazz shrugged. "Well, I've been on dates, but never finished them. I haven't found a guy interesting enough since Jonny. You must think I'm mental."
"I think that you've found the one you want to be with." Kevin said, again, truthfully. "Now…" he drank the last of his coke, leaned forward and looked serious. "… we need to fix what you've fucked up. We'll call this Operation Grove."
Nazz giggled. "Stop it! It will never work. Really, Kev, I'm fine."
"You're not fine, Nazz. You love this guy; and I will help you get him back. So let's just-" he slammed the book in front of him shut, got up to fetch another coke in her fridge and sat down again. Then he took the note book from Nazz, opened up an empty page and started scramble down some words. "We need to make up a plan."
They had a fun morning together, planning out how to get Jonny to fall for Nazz again. Nazz didn't think of this as something that would truly work, but at least she was having fun with Kevin, and Kevin dodged the burning question of who he was kissing last night.
…
Kevin couldn't believe the story Nazz had told him. Of course he hadn't suspected anything of this; he'd been busy with his own life that first year, and by the end of it, while that bon fire party was taking place; he was laying on the street with cracked skull… dying. He couldn't even imagine having these normal teenage love problems that time around; and what a relief that would've been to his almost fifteen year old heart and mental health. While Jonny had been threatening Nazz's suitors to death; someone was threatening Kevin to death – and that someone hadn't been just anyone; he had been the one Kevin thought was the love of his life. But he wasn't, and because of Kevin's naive, childish feelings; James Hyde almost killed him.
It was a weird feeling thinking about his first year in High School without falling deeper down into his thoughts like he usually did whenever he was alone. Maybe it was because of Nazz and Edd, maybe he just needed people around him to talk to? He didn't have to talk about his past; all he needed was… friends.
After the jog that night (he waited for the rain to stop, and the sky cleared up by dinner time) Kevin took a long, cool shower and then sat in the living room with his family, watching a family friendly movie that his little brother Calvin wanted to see. Honey, the dog, was in Kevin's lap the whole time, but he wasn't at all interested in watching the movie with the rest of them; he was having a very interesting text conversation on his cellphone with the boy living in the white house across the street.
"Who are you texting, Kev?" his mother asked him. She and Kevin's father sat on the couch next to the armchair where Kevin was. "I can see you smiling. Is it Nazz?"
"Uh, no. It's someone from the team. He's just telling me about his weekend."
His cell vibrated, and the answer to Kevin's playful "What are you wearing? ;)" popped up on the screen:
Double Dork
That is none of your business!
Kevin chuckled; he just knew that Edd was blushing like crazy over at his own house, but he sent another text right after the first:
Double Dork
But if you really need to know; I'm wearing more clothes than what you are expecting me to say that I wear, but let's say that I'm wearing your number 12 football jersey over nothing. That's actually something I've wanted to do for a long time.
"Whoa…" Kevin whispered and sat up straight. "Uh, I'm just gonna make a quick call. My buddy is having girl problems. Be right back."
"Hurry. It's family night." Said his father as he ran into his downstairs bedroom and shut the door after him.
Kevin's fingers furiously flew over the keyboard on his phone long before he reached the bed. He jumped while holding his cell with both hands, turned midair and landed on his back on the cheats.
Me
I can come over with my whole gear tonight, and then you can host a fashion show for me.
He sent the text and bit his lip. This conversation was going better than he first thought; he never knew that Edd would say something like that… huh… maybe he wasn't a prude after all. A real devil in disguise. His phone vibrated.
Double Dork
I promise that that will happen soon enough, but not tonight. I really need to study :( I have missed a lot in school as it is.
Kevin smiled and sighed. He knew that it was too good to be true, at least for tonight.
Me
It's alright, nerd. Do your homework. But I will not let you forget that you've made this promise. And to make up to me; you'll let me decide which piece of gear you'll wear, and with which piece, I mean that it will only be one piece of the gear at a time. Like… only the helmet… and nothing else.
Kevin smiled widely. Maybe Edd wasn't a prude; but he just couldn't come up with a comeback good enough to shut Kevin up after the last text – Eddward Vincent was too innocent. He looked at the phone once it vibrated again, and had to swallow his own words.
Double Dork
I can do that, but then you have to promise me to wait for the rest of the team to leave before you take a shower after football practice tomorrow. I don't want them to see me in your helmet – that's for your eyes only.
I watched you as you came home from the jog a few hours ago, and I will fall asleep tonight, imagining that you haven't showered yet.
See you in the locker room tomorrow night, Greyhound ;)
His heart pumped his blood through his veins faster than it had ever pumped before, and it focused the most on one specific area. He swallowed the big nervous lump that was building in his throat, and felt drops of sweat running down his back and forehead. Was Eddward actually implying that he wanted to… do stuff… with the football team's captain in the locker room tomorrow? And here he thought that he was going to be the one to take the first step hinting towards something like this; but Edd had beaten him to it – and it was much, much sooner than expected.
His fingers were shaking, and he had to wipe them off on his pants before he could type his reply and send it, and was too nervous to deliver some sort of comeback – the nerd had already won this game Kevin had originally started.
Me
I'll be there.
Double Dork
Woof!
Good night, Kevin. Sleep tight.
"Oh… it's tight, alright." Kevin groaned and corrected his underwear.
That night he slept deeper than what he'd done in years; and he had a lot of intense dreams about the boy with blue eyes and a gap between his front teeth.