They're at Howard's house, because they're always at Howard's house. The longest amount of time that Howard's ever been at Orc's is about ten to fifteen minutes. Ten to fifteen minutes of fidgeting with hands in pockets and head ducked because Orc's dad is scary as hell. Because Howard met his eyes once and never wants to again.
But they're at Howard's, in his room at three in the morning trying to stay quiet enough so that the parents don't come in and tell them to go to sleep. Howard's got a decent collection of comic books, but his real pride and joy is the X-box hooked up to the tiny little TV that used to be in the living room before they got the flat-screen. Problem is, Howard's a lot better at video games than Orc and Orc makes a lot of noise when he loses so Howard's playing like shit on purpose (though he's steadily getting worse as the hour grows later) and it's not any fun. But he doesn't want to go to sleep and Orc wants to play video games so he lets his mind wander while hitting random buttons.
After this last defeat, he drops the controller and rolls onto his back. They're both lying on the floor, carpet patterns pressed into the skin of their elbows and an empty bag of Doritos in front of them. Orc glances at him.
"What?" he says, and Howard presses his forearm into his eyes.
"Man, I'm sick of this," he says. Orc nudges him with an elbow and Howard glances over at him. When Orc doesn't talk right away, Howard gets annoyed, his usual tolerance with Orc minimized by the late hour. "What?"
"Can I come over next weekend?"
"We talked about this," Howard says. "I got a wedding to go to. And, no offense, but you're not exactly invited. They don't know you. I barely know them. My mom's cousin, or something."
"Then why are you going?"
"Because I have to," Howard says. He stares up at the ceiling. He feels really weird saying no to Orc when Orc wants to stay over. He'd only seen the guy's dad hit him once, and he'd been pretty sure that Orc's dad hadn't really know he'd been there – they'd stopped at Orc's house so that Orc could drop off his backpack because he didn't want to carry it around, and Howard had stood in the entryway shifting from foot-to-foot and on the way back from his room Orc had knocked into something breakable and the father had come out of nowhere and smacked him. Orc had just kept going, and grabbed Howard, who was watching all of this with wide eyes and hands that were sort of starting to shake.
So long story short, he feels like he needs to say yes whenever Orc wants to stay over.
"Hey, Howard," Orc says, turning over onto his back with a grunt. Howard glances at him. He's looking straight at Howard, a sort of bemused expression on his face. "Some of the guys say you only hang out with me 'cause you'll get beat up otherwise."
Howard snorts. "Someone actually said that?"
"Yeah," Orc says. He looks uncomfortable. Howard's sure as hell feeling uncomfortable, and not just because it's totally true. "I told him to shut up. That he was wrong. That's right, right? That you don't just hang out with me 'cause you'll get beat up otherwise?"
"'course," Howard says. "Man, you're my best friend. Don't overthink it."
"Did you get beat up a lot when you were little?"
"Do I look like someone who got beat up a lot when I was little?"
"Yeah," Orc says. He looks pointedly at Howard, who is at least six inches shorter and forty pounds lighter than Orc. Howard scowls.
Howard shakes his head. "This is stupid," he says. He stretches, wincing a little when his back popped. "You want me to sneak down and grab some more chips? I'm starved."
"Okay," Orc says. He sits up with his back against Howard's bed and peruses the comics that they'd abandoned at the beginning of the night, and Howard shakes his head and heads out, shivering a little at the blast of air-conditioning that seems to reach everywhere but his room. He tiptoes downstairs and toward the kitchen; he really doesn't want to wake up his parents, not at all-
There's a thud from the stairs and Howard winces.
A few minutes later Orc's face is visible in the moonlight from the kitchen window. Howard shakes his head.
"The idea was that you were going to stay in my room," Howard hisses, and Orc shrugs. He doesn't say anything to defend himself, so Howard just rolls his eyes and goes to cabinet-hunting. Maybe his parents slept through it. Maybe they won't wake up and come down and chew them out. Maybe those footsteps coming down the stairs aren't them.
The kitchen light flicks on and there's his mother, a bathrobe wrapped around her. She just looks at Howard, who shifts ever-so-slightly to stand a little bit behind Orc. "It is three in the morning," she says. "You should be asleep."
"C'mon, mom" Howard says. "It's-"
"Three in the morning. It is three in the morning."
"Well, yeah, but-"
She ignores him and turns to Orc. "Why don't you go upstairs? I'd like to talk to Howard alone."
Orc leaves before he can see Howard's 'please stay here' stare.
"Sit down."
It's not a request. Howard sits.
"I heard your conversation," his mother starts, and that's when he drops his head to the table, his forehead making a dull thunk. He doesn't want to talk about this with anyone, let alone his mother. He'd take anything over what's happening right now.
"So?" he mutters, and his mother rubs his back and he jerks away. She sighs and he keeps his head on the table and thinks that if he stays like this for any longer he's going to fall asleep.
"Do you think that maybe you could find a better friend? One that you actually like?"
Howard groans. "Mom, I like Orc. Orc's my friend. And, anyway, the answer is 'no.' I cannot find a better friend, because the only one stupid enough to be my friend is him. Can I go?"
His mother hesitates and he lifts his head off the table, his vision a little blurry because wow he's exhausted, but she nods and he goes upstairs and Orc's passed out on the floor so he throws a spare blanket over him and turns off the light and gets into bed, falling asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.
…
Howard didn't know how he did it, but Orc followed him back to town without too much of a fight. They even got some work done, which is a lot more than Howard was expecting. And Orc just picked up the bottles when they were done, so Howard has a spring in his step that he wasn't expecting to have.
They didn't talk much on the way home. It was awkward, really awkward, after that last conversation. It's not like it was the first time they'd had that conversation, but Orc normally dropped it after that initial question. Howard tried to focus on better things, like the fact now he didn't have to give Jamal shit and now they could get the rest of the booze in the cabinets, but it was hard. It was really hard.
Orc hesitated once they got to the edge of Perdido Beach. Howard didn't notice until he was about six steps ahead of him, and the realized that he wasn't hearing the heavy thuds of Orc's steps. He turned around. "C'mon," he said. "Shit's crazy without you around."
Orc followed him. Howard, who was still freaked out by the 'quarantine' thing and the resulting quietness that pervaded the town, kept talking.
"So, I was thinking we get our hands on a ladder, right? And then you hold one edge and I crawl over that hole in the floor so that we can get our hands on the stuff that's in the cabinets we can't get to. And then we figure out where we want to live, because I don't want to live in a place where I keep expecting death threats."
Orc stayed quiet. Howard wondered how drunk he still was, and kept talking.
"A lot of stuff happened," he said. "Albert nearly died. What's rest of the Human Crew, you know, going after him now. Apparently. I don't really get it, but whatever. Makes me glad you're back, though."
They reached their house with the door still hanging off the hinges and Jamal sitting outside. Howard guessed that it was the next day; he totally could have just slept the rest of the day and the entire night, but he'd been too focused on finding Orc to really care about time. But when Jamal saw him, he jumped to his feet.
"Where is it?" he asked, and Howard quirked an eyebrow.
"Where's what?"
"Don't be an idiot. The pineapple."
"What? There is no pineapple," Howard said. He grinned, confident with Orc behind him. Jamal took a step toward him, and Howard crossed his arms. "Really? Did you really think I was telling the truth there?"
"You-" Jamal took a swing at him. It didn't connect. In the next few seconds, Jamal was on the ground clutching his arm, which was pointed in a way that it definitely should not be. Orc stood in front of Howard, his big gravel hands balled up into fists. Jamal let out a choked sob. "You – you just – you-"
Howard crouched down beside Jamal. This was what felt good. This, Orc's back and he could say whatever the hell he wanted to whoever the hell he wanted feeling. "Hey," he said. "A little word of advice, brother. When Orc's around, you don't mess with me. You don't even try."
Jamal tried to push himself to his feet but only managed to get to his knees. Tears were leaking out of his eyes and Howard's stomach rolled a little when he saw bone sticking out of his arm. But he kept the grin plastered on his face because even though the sight of the bone sickened him, the sight of Jamal's tears did not.
"I'm gonna go in," Orc rumbled, pushing past Jamal, sending him back to the ground, and marching up the steps to their house. Howard nimbly lept over Jamal's legs and followed. It was all good now. Orc was back. Drake was not in their basement. And, hell, maybe he'd be able to forget how it felt to kiss Edilio Escobar.
Okay, so I'm in a big Fall Out Boy mood right now, and it's like, "I've Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth" works wonders for Howard and Orc, so that's what I've been listening to on repeat for the duration of working on this chapter.