Merely an hour after Karkat and Nepeta leave my phone rings.
"Hello?" I answer.
"Kankri! What happened?! Are you ok?! You guys just left!" Latula screams into the phone.
"Hello Latula. We are fine. His friend is very good with wounds. She had to bandage him and re-set my rib but there wasn't-"
"They broke your rib?!" She cuts me off.
"No no! Well. Yes but.." I sigh.
"I'm coming over there right now!" She hangs up.
Well that didn't go right. I tidy up a bit more before the shows up.
Soon enough she storms through the door. "Oh, I forgot to lock that." I say to myself.
"What the hell happened?" She shouts and slams the door behind her.
"The reason I was home for so long. They attacked me at school once before, I wasn't hurt to horribly besides the broken rib. Everything else healed." I explain. "What is 'everything else'?" She asks.
"A busted lip. Nose bleed. A few cuts on my arms. A scrape inside of my throat.. Some bruises pretty much everywhere.. It's all fine now though." I explain. I try to keep her calm but that doesn't work at all. I just don't want her to worry. "How the hell did they cut your throat? You know what. I'm not gonna ask. How can you be so ok with this?" She replies. I gesture to over to the couch.
"I don't like holding grudges. It's unhealthy." I say as we sit down. "So is getting beat to shit!" She shouts. I let out a sigh and look as meaningful as I can into her eyes to get my point across.
"You can't tell anyone. Any of this." I say. "But why?" She asks. She is much calmer now..
"To be honest I don't know. Karkat is worried about people hearing for some reason. And if he didn't do what he did I could be hurt far worse. I have to trust him." I answer.
"Fine.. But Mituna is behind you." She replies. I turn around and confirm, Mituna is standing next to the couch. "I'm confuthed." He says. "Who did that to you?" He asks.
"Some punks at school. But Karkat took care of them last night." I answer.
"Oh. Tho, are you coming back now?" He asks. "Yes. I'm not supposed to until tomorrow though." I reply. He smiles at me and then at Latula. "That's good! We're ditching today. So you are coming with us for some fun!" She beams and stands up with a wide grin. "Ditching school is not a good practice." I protest. "Yeah but we're not practicing it we're just doing it!" She laughs and pulls me up.
"Let's go!" She beams and pulls me along by the hand. It's strange. I didn't think that they really cared this much. "We brought you a thpare board too!" Mituna beams when we get outside.
Sure enough, there is a red skateboard sitting next to his yellow and her teal one.
"But I can't ride." I say. They hop on theirs and they both take one of my hands.
"That's what we're here for!" She replies. I step on the red board and they kick off.
It is a very good thing they know what they are doing, if they weren't holding my hands I would be falling as soon as we got moving. When the sidewalk get smaller one of them goes infringing and the other behind so we make a chain.
"Where are we going?" I ask. "The park! We're gonna show you our normal rout!" She beams. They pull me into a harsh right turn, making me wobble on the board. Soon enough we climb up a hill and quickly down it into a path through the trees. Since Latula is leading I don't have to worry about where I'm going, I look up at the light peeking trough the tunnel of trees. Feeling the cool of the shade and the glimpses of warmth from the drops of light, it's a wonderful feeling. What makes it all the better is the sparks that shoot through me when I remember I am holding Latula's hand. Those sparks are just as quickly silenced when I remember her relation with Mituna, the person holding my other hand.
They are a couple. A very happy one to my knowledge. They have been for quite some time actually.
I have liked her for just as long, but I believe it is just the want to love. I doubt I will every do anything about these feelings as they are something as simple as a crush.
But it is nice to still have them.
We exit the tunnel and the path splits in two. Latula lets go of my hand and soon Mituna does as well.
At the last second Mituna pushes my back and I drift off on to the right while they go to the left.
"Woah-what are you doing?" I shout back at them. "Have fun!" Latula shouts back.
How do I do this? She never taught me anything! I start leaning to the right to gain my balance but I start turning. So that's how you turn! Oh I'm going the wrong way! I lean left and follow the path.
After a few minutes at my speed the path merges with another back into one and I see her bending down and patting Mituna's shoulder as he lies face down. Well I can't say I wasn't expecting him to fall at some point. "How do you stop?" I ask as I get close to where they are at.
"Put your foot on the ground." She answers, then continues comforting Mituna. He sits up and yells at himself for a moment. I stomp my left foot to stop before I reach them. Which backfires when the board keeps moving quickly and I fall backwards. "Gah!" I yelp as I fall and my head hit's the ground. "Are you ok?" She asks. I cradle the back of my head with my hands and sit up.
"Yes, I believe so." I answer. "HAHAHAHA that was thuch a fail!" Mituna laughs.
"Says the one who just laid there after falling." I reply. He shuts up instantly and Latula holds back her laughter by covering her mouth. I pick up the board and walk over to them.
"Did you figure out how to turn?" She asks and stands up along with Mituna.
"Yes. If I didn't I wouldn't have made it over here." I chuckle. "Hahaha!... Where do you want to go next?" She asks. "I don't know, I wasn't planning on going anywhere in the first place." I reply.
"Good point.. Tuna?" She turns to him. "Can we get lunch?" He asks. "Sure!" And answers.
Lunch was strange. At one point I had begun to go on about the health choices of the place and they stopped me before it reached the point where someone sighed. And it wasn't in the way that I'm used to either. Normally someone would scream at me, or cover my mouth, or slap my arm, but Tula just shooshed me politely. I know it is a result from everything she has learned about me. But it was still nice.
Now we walk down that shopping street next to the park. It's actually funny how we haven't left the general area at all. The trees blocked my view of the street for so long I forgot it was here.
It seems we are just strolling to pass the time now really, nothing seems to be catching their eyes since there isn't a skate shop around here.
…...I spoke to soon...
"Excuse me for a moment." I say and swiftly move out of our little trio and over to a book stand.
In just a minute I return to them with 3 books in my arms. "Proceed." I say and we start walking again. "What ith with you and bookth? They're tho boring." Mituna asks.
"On the contrary reading is the thing that Karkat did to pass his English exam." I reply.
"I personally find them enjoyable. And quite the learning experience." I finish with my nose in the air.
"What kind of bookth are thothe then?" He asks and grabs one out of my folded arms.
"No no no no no!" I shout and fight to get it back. "What even ith thith?" He asks.
He has a very strong grip! "Let it go!" He yells. "No! Give it back!" I shout back.
With both of our arms extended fully this is a hard battle to win. I put a foot on his stomach and try to push him back. "Cheater!" He yells. "It's my book!" I shout. "Oh my god your guys are hilarious!" Latula laughs. She is almost doubled over with laughter. I have to wonder how ridiculous we look to everyone around. "Give me my book!" I yell and lightly kick my foot against him, breaking his grip and sending both of us to the ground. "I suppose I should have expected that.." I say to myself as I ruffle my hair to get the dirt out of it. The gravel on the rode is quite annoying now.
"Fucker!" He yells as we both get up. "Tuna! Calm down alright babe?" She says and puts her arm around him and her hand on his shoulder. "Fine." He pouts. "Thank you." I reply.
I wonder if he was glaring at me just then.. I can't see past his helmet shades. Even without it his eyes are covered by his curly and at the same time straight hair. It's impossible to read him that way.
"Lets go." She says and we start walking again. I can't help but feel envious of him at this time..
She kept her hand on his shoulder and is resting her head on the other with his arm around her waist.
And then me, holding books. We walk around a little while longer before Latula breaks the silence.
"Really, what are those books about?" She asks. "Nothing." I answer and look away with my nose in the air. "That sounds suspicious Kankri. Tell us tell us tell us tell us!" She replies.
"No." I say. I glance back at them and Mituna has a very wide smirk. He read the title..
"What kind of romance bookth are thothe anyway?" He asks. I blush slightly.
"Your like Karkat aren't you? Oh my gosh you guys could totally swap notes or something." She beams. "We tried once. It didn't go very well." I reply, and then realize that I just admitted to liking romance novels. "So I have to ask. What is the big appeal to those stories anyway?" She asks.
"Well. I suppose it is so that those of us without someone to love can still feel the, as Meulin says, 'feels' of the relationship pairing." I answer. "Oh. Well I guess everybody needs to feel the feels at some point. That's why I got you Tuna." She replies with a smile. "Da da da da! I got the babe!" He jokes and hugs her. "Hahahaha! Love you Tuna." She laughs. "Love you too Tulip." He replies.
I smile softly and look up at the trees. I heard Karkat talking with Nepeta last night about the trees outside out house and how they are similar to these. She said they were easy to climb. I'm curious how that works. I see her point, there are some low to the ground branches and plenty going through the entire tree, most of them look sturdy. And some of the thicker ones curve around and should be easy to walk or sit on. I might have to try climbing someday...
"Ever wonder what it's like to be at the top of a tree?" I ask quietly. "What?" She asks.
"Nothing. Just speaking to myself." I reply, not taking my eyes off of the trees.
"Tulip, ith that your board? Are thothe all of our boardth?" He asks, this breaks my thoughts and I look over to where he is pointing. We left them at the park didn't we?
"Hey! Ath hatth! Give thothe back!" He yells and starts chasing the teenagers.
After he catches them they get into an argument and Latula soon joins them. Then I find it necessary to join as well. "Excuse me but if I may intrude on your current argument. I believe those are ours and I do apologize for the confusion as we forgot them at the park over there when we left to get lunch. As I am not very interested in the small vehicles, my friends here take them very seriously and I would appreciate it if you gave those back." I say with my arms folded. "Who the fuck are you? Your giving me a headache douche, back off." One of them snaps. "That is a very rude and is a quite triggering statement. I feel I should warn you of other triggers that might come up and I hope you will be so kind as to avoid them in the conversation Triggers include but are not limited to-" I begin.
"Oh my god shut the fuck up." One of them cuts me off with a sigh of annoyance
The triggering sentence stabs the back of my head and my eyes open in shock.
Latula and Mituna look at each other with confused looks then at me and back at each other.
It hits them. I open my mouth to continue agitating them but before one sound can come out Mituna grabs the boy's shirt and Latula grabs the other's. "Why don't you little bratth back off and drop our thtuff?" He snaps. "It just so happens that he is in fact our friend. So if you say one more bad thing to him I will snap your little nooby neck." She glares at the boy. I see the fear in the young boys eyes.
"Fine god! Take your stupid boards back!" One replies. They hand over our things and take off running. "AAAAAWWWW YEAH." Latula and Mituna yell as they high five.
"Showed those punks!" She laughs. "Was violence really necessary?" I ask.
"When they have our shit it ith!" He answers. "Nobody disses the Kan anymore!" She says and throws her fist in the air. I blush slightly and look away. "Thank you." I reply.
"Come on man!" She says. I look back and they both have a fist in the air that are ready for a bump.
I smile and join them in a 3 way fist bump.