It was Wednesday morning; Matthew's appointment with the parole officer was tomorrow. The dream from the night before still haunted his mind. There was no rhyme or reason to the recent dreams he had been having. The worst part was that he had no one to confide in his dreams. He would've probably been called a pedophile by anyone who he confined in, a laymen's jargon umbrella term for anyone attracted towards minors. He did not dare to confide in the man next to him about the man being the subject of his dreams. Matthew would've assumed that Edd had very amorous intentions towards him and would try to coax Edd into performing fellatio on him again. He was alone to deal with the bizarre dreams.
Matthew held him like a child snuggles against a large teddy bear. It would have been cute if it had not been done by a man who had done so many terrible things to him in the past. No amount of sympathy Edd might feel for Matthew can take back the things that Matthew had done. The physical abuse Edd suffered personally at the man's hands when he was just twelve and sixteen years old, Matthew physically abusing Eddy for a majority of Eddy's life, Matthew leaving Eddy to almost die from an overdose at that one party they were taken to, and Matthew locking Edd in his room in a fit of jealous resentment. There were too many traumas that made Edd leery of Matthew in general.
Edd rolled off of the bed not so gracefully to get started on his morning routine. Niels Bohr was point blank trying to ignore Edd whenever Edd would bestow attention upon the cat, more so than usually. Niels Bohr must be a bit miffed by not being able to sleep by Edd's feet last night. The only thing Niels Bohr could not ignore was the sound of food getting poured into his food dish and the sound of water being poured into his water dish.
After showering, cleaning, and fixing himself breakfast, Edd decided to investigate the cause of his dreams. If anything were to point him in the right direction, it would be the papers of Matthew's various psych evaluations that were located in a box in the garage, one of the few things that Edd didn't bother to have brought in.
Once Edd got into his garage, he sat on an old chair and pulled the box towards him. There were enough psychiatric papers to fill an entire encyclopedia. Edd pulled out a random paper and read it carefully. The psychiatric doctor noted that Matthew was sexually acting out at the age of 12, between talking in great detail of sexual matters, inappropriate sexual behavior towards peers, trying to coax a female orderly into performing fellatio on him, and even excessive masturbation. It was recommended that Mr. and Mrs. McGee remove anything inappropriate that might be influencing his behavior. Such a vague term that most likely meant to remove whatever pornography or questionable media content that may have lurked within Matthew's room, given the time period when this document was written. Matthew had all of the classic signs of a child who had been sexually molested, but it was overlooked as a possibility by so-called professionals.
Edd quickly put the papers back into the box. It was not as if he could not read a considerable amount of Matthew's psychological papers within one sitting. It was the morose subject matter of the papers that Edd only wanted to read in small doses. It was as if Matthew was placed within a controlled setting, but was only observed, only to be given drugs if he acted out of line. No aftercare was given and the doctors did not probe Matthew's background enough. The doctors did not know that Matthew was forced to take the role of assailant against his friends Seth, Lucas, and Sasha, and then was molested by an unknown male abuser. It doesn't get any more traumatic than that. While Matthew had enough free will over his own actions and choose be abusive towards anyone he regarded as weaker than him, the trauma in his life has not helped.
Edd walked back into Matthew's bedroom, hoping that the man was wake enough to engage in a small casual conversation with him without Matthew trying to pursue him again. Matthew was still snoozing when his phone rang. Matthew growled tiredly and stared at the phone, his eyes blinking tiredly. `Incoming call: Asshole 1' was on the Caller ID. Matthew groggily grabbed for the phone and flipped the phone open. "It is 7 am in the morning, you dick!"
"So what, wake your lazy ass up," Seth's voice can be heard from the phone's tiny speaker. "I don't have any clients today."
"Whoop-dee-doo for you! That still does not explain why the hell you woke me out of a good sleep," Matthew sneered, sitting up.
"We talked about it, yesterday. Raven needs a play date and it wouldn't kill you to see your own damn kids," Seth said, matter-of-factly. "Besides, it also wouldn't hurt you to have coffee with me."
"And what if I had other plans?" Edd rolled his eyes at Matthew's question to Seth. Matthew did not have plans for the day.
Apparently Seth knew about Matthew's almost nonexistent schedule as much as Edd did, "what plans you have today that doesn't involve sitting on your ass?"
"Fuck you!" Matthew retorted.
The humor can be heard in Seth's voice, "so meet you at 10, Mattie?"
"If I don't kill you before then," Matthew replied, hanging up the phone. Matthew groaned and tossed the cell phone onto his nightstand. Matthew turned and noticed Edd in the room with him. Matthew patted the space between his legs, gesturing for Edd to sit on his thighs. Edd sighed and sat in Matthew's lap like an overgrown child. The hair on the man's thighs tickled his legs as he sat in the man's lap. The humidity was strangely high for the season, so Edd decided to wear shorts.
He regretted his decision to wear shorts when he felt the man's fingernails rake across his bare legs. "All of the things I could do to you if only I didn't have to play daddy today." Matthew purred, crushing him in a tight hug, nuzzling his neck. "I can think of something fun to do before I have to get ready. You can't fault a man for wanting his fix for the day."
Edd flailed trying to get away, "Haven't you had enough from the night before?"
"No Princess," Matthew cooed, "I need a little bit more from you. Maybe this time I can leave a little love bite on you."
To Edd's horror, Matthew removed Edd's hat and latched onto the skin near his hairline. "No!" Edd loudly protested, "Don't mark me! Get your foul lips off me! I said no!"
Matthew left a trail of saliva upon his neck. Then Edd whimpered when he felt teeth graze the flesh of his neck. Matthew was giving him a hickey and he was powerless against him. The only good thing about it was that Matthew marked an area of his neck that his hair and hat could easily conceal. Though that meant he would be exposed if he ever undressed in front of Eddy. Edd frowned bitterly at the realization that that certain scenario is unlikely to happen anytime soon, which is why Edd is even Matthew's embrace in the first place.
After marking him, Matthew massaged the visible scar tissue on his scalp. Even after so many years of first receiving the scar, it still was visible to whoever lifted his hat up. Edd had no idea why Matthew or anyone for that matter was fascinated with it. Edd uttered a sigh of relief when his hat was put back on top of his head.
Matthew then lifted himself up to complete his morning routine of showering, dressing, and drenching himself in cologne. While Matthew was out of the room, Edd skimmed through an old anatomy textbook he had. Matthew had called up his exes and asked to have the kids for the day. While surprised, each of his exes agreed to let Matthew have his daughters for a few hours. Within just a half hour, all three girls arrived. Before then, Matthew scribbled out a map for the girls. Just like one of his despicable maps which lead Ed, Eddy, and him into trouble a couple of times.
The girls were still hopelessly naïve regarding Matthew's absentee parent approach to raising them. Edd wondered if the girls would grow to resent Matthew when they get older and wiser or if they would try to delude themselves that Matthew had a good reason other than spiting his own father by not raising his own kids and sheer laziness. At least the girls had each other to rely upon when Matthew wasn't around and productive hobbies to keep them busy. Bonnie participated in pageants solely for what she considered to be easy money. Dani was in a soccer team and participated only for the trophies. From what Edd could gather from Edna's sign language, she played video games for the purpose of making unlimited virtual cash within the game. Despite their hobbies, the girls still stuck to scamming people to make a quick buck. The McGee tradition was still alive and well.
Seth and Raven arrived an hour later and Raven was introduced to the three girls. Raven chased Niels Bohr around the house while Matthew's kids sat in front of the TV, much to the cat's probable irritation. Matthew grinned impishly at Seth and then at Raven, "Would you like to hear a story about an ex-junkie King and an ex-stripper Queen who fell in love?"
"Yes please!" Raven nodded eagerly, "what's a junkie and a stripper?"
Seth cleared his throat and handed Raven the map Matthew drew up, "Raven, why don't you go on a treasure with your new friends."
The McGee girls perked up when they heard the word treasure and fought over the map, until they were pacified and sent outside to begin their treasure hunt. Edd can only imagine that the girls would react similarly to how Eddy did when he was sent on a false treasure hunt – both times. He was not looking forward to the state of mind the girls are going to come back with.
"The girls should be alright. Nothing ever happens on Rethink Avenue." Seth remarked as the girls left. Before Seth arrived to his house without wearing a shirt, Edd did not know the extent of how heavily tattooed the man was. While he was aware that the man's arms contained a sleeve of assorted tattoos, he had no idea that the man's chest and back were also covered in tattoos.
A particular set of tattoos rested upon the man's chest right above where his heart would be. A red rose, a pink rose, and a pink carnation symbolizing his wife, his daughter, and his mother. Edd was pretty sure that is what the flowers symbolized given his knowledge over the symbolism of flowers. Three dagger tattoos rested above the flowers. One of the daggers contained angel wings, a dark red jewel upon the dagger's handle – possibly garnet, and the word Roy written upon the dagger's blade; Seth's deceased uncle that he mentioned in the restaurant. The other two daggers were obvious, given the gemstones on the handles representing the person's birth month. A dagger with a topaz birthstone and the dagger with an emerald birthstone represented Lucas and Matthew. The flowers and daggers, the men and women in Seth's life.
Seth's loyalty to Matthew was both admirable and terrifying. Even if Seth didn't blindly support whatever decision Matthew made, Matthew's decisions still affected Seth just like whatever decisions Ed and Eddy made affected Edd both directly and indirectly. Given Matthew's and Lucas' unstable and pathological personalities, Seth might end up in some trouble in the future due to his association with them.
Seth chatted with Matthew about his tattoo business and about Seth's own mother who still lived in Park 'N Flush. Given Edd's unwillingness to step foot in that trailer park, mostly due to the Kanker sisters, Edd never met Seth's mom. He imagined that Cynthia Kanker, the mama bear herself, probably had coffee with her distantly related cousin at least a few times.
The front door suddenly opened and in flew Lucas with a blanketed bundle in his arms. Lucas shoved the bundle into Edd's chest, causing Edd to quickly grab up the shrieking bundle before it fell to the ground. Lucas stormed to the kitchen and flopped down at the table like an unruly child that was told to go eat dinner. Lucas brooded at the table much to the bewilderment of his friends.
Edd brushed the yellow blanket with cutesy turtles back, revealing a tiny grimacing face. A baby, Lucas threw an actual baby at him and not a baby simulator that is used during a child development class to teach teenagers the responsibilities of parenthood. Edd rocked the infant gently in his arms to get the baby to calm down. He pushed the blanket off of the baby, revealing the gender of the baby. The baby donned a blue floral print bodysuit dress. Edd estimated the infant girl's age to be at least four months old when the infant tried to grab his hat.
"Is that a real baby? What are you doing with a baby?" Seth asked while staring at Edd and the baby, puzzled. The absurdity of the situation certainly needed an explanation. Lucas barging into his home without knocking and then shoving a baby onto him was like something out of a strange surrealist comedy movie. Then it dawned on Edd, the child could be a biological daughter of Lucas' or Lucas' father succeeded at siring another heir.