Eddy's parents arrived back with the rest of Matthew's stuff. He was given the task of wiping everything down while Eddy had to lift parts of a waterbed and help his dad lift a dresser and various other items into his brother's room. Eddy laid down on his own bed from the exhaustion from having to move his brother back in, "I was thinking, Double D."
"Yes, Eddy?" Edd sat in the white and purple ball chair across from Eddy's bed. Once Eddy had a pink polka-dotted chair where the ball chair was, but Ed broke the chair by accident two years previously. Eddy blew his top at Ed over it and Ed frantically trying to beg Eddy for mercy. Eddy calmed down after a few minutes when he seen Ed crying that Eddy's "dark side" scared him. Edd had to admit, the ball chair does fit the retro theme of Eddy's room.
"I was thinking that we could get some extra cash selling booze to the other kids in the neighborhood," Eddy was already formulating how he would be able to pull off the sales without getting caught.
"Eddy, reselling alcohol to other minors is illegal and would tarnish our good reputation." Edd walked over to his friend and laid next to him, taking his hand between both of his to plead with stockier teen, "please reconsider your brother's proposition, Eddy. You have your whole future ahead of you. You're going to be a great business major, Eddy."
"Gee, thanks mom." Eddy rolled his eyes, "there's still nothing you can do to change my mind though. So, quit being a killjoy already. I've got plenty of places to do and see before we graduate. It's not like I'm forcing you to come along with me."
"No, but your brother is," Edd sighed, "even if he wasn't, I couldn't just leave you alone while you willingly throw yourself into the lion den."
Eddy had no idea how to respond to that. He and Edd were called to the dinner table. His friend's words repeated over and over again in his head while he walked wordlessly to the kitchen table. Edd would stick by his side even if he believed what Eddy did was foolish? `Why would Sockhead do that? Why does Ed do it? Why have they been by my side for so long? What's in it for them?' Eddy's thoughts were interrupted by his mother's command for him to sit at the table. Edd sat next to him and Matthew sat at the other end of Edd away from his parents. The savory smell of his mother's homemade calzone tempted Eddy's nose and he took a bite of the meal.
He looked around his family members and Edd. Edd was quietly taking small bites of calzone into his mouth and chewing them slowly. His dad was eating quickly, shooting glares at his brother. Eddy turned to his brother, surprised that the man was not eating. Instead the man was also shooting the patriarch of the house dirty looks and turning towards Edd and giving the teen a look that Eddy couldn't read. Was his own brother planning on scamming his best friend? Eddy's mother was in the same position as Eddy was; looking between his father and his brother and hoping that the two didn't start an argument.
"Shouldn't Sockhead be eating with his folks?" Matthew questioned Eddy and their mother.
"Who's Sock- oh!" Eddy's mother put down the fork for a bit and wiped her mouth with a napkin, "Eddward's parents went missing six months ago and he's been staying with us until his parents are found."
"Whose room has Eddy's little girlfriend been sleeping in?" Eddy's groaned at the "girlfriend" comment and Eddy's father didn't look very pleased.
"He's been sleeping in Eddy's room on his bed," Mrs. McGee answered.
Eddy's brother burst out laughing, causing the rest of the table just to stare at him "is that so? Well -"
"If you're going to turn this conversation into an inappropriate one, you can just take your plate and leave to your room!" Eddy's father barked, a vein bulging out of his forehead.
"You want an appropriate conversation, old man?" Matthew snarled, "okay, you old fuck, you're about to get one. I didn't tell ya this, but tonight seems like a good night to break the news to you. You're a piece of shit dad!"
"What did you call me?!" Eddy's father yelled.
Eddy's mother had quickly shooed Edd and Eddy out of the kitchen with their plates and instructed them to eat in Eddy's room. She didn't want them in the middle of an argument between Matthew and his own father. Eddy led Edd into a spacious broom closet when his mother wasn't looking andwatched the scene with concern.
Matthew grinned cruelly, "You need your ears cleaned out, you old prick? You're a piece of shit dad! There! Let's talk about that for a few minutes. Let's talk about how you kicked me out of the house when I was Pipsqueak's age. That would be a great place to talk about what kind of parent you actually are!"
Eddy's father grabbed Matthew by the front of his shirt, about to push him into the wall when Eddy's mother stepped between them, "Matthew! Honey! Stop it!" She turned to her husband. "Please, dear! Your health isn't what it used to be. We both agreed that Matthew should stay here until he gets a place of his own. Please just try to be civil with him."
"No Margaret! You agreed to have him stay in our house," Eddy's father started stomping away from the kitchen, "I'll be eating in our bedroom if you need me."
"You go do that," Matthew snapped. He noticed his mother shakily reaching into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a cigarette. Matthew took a lighter out from his gray jeans and lit the cigarette for his mom, "take it easy tonight, Mom." He patted his mom on the shoulder before going into his own room. Edd and Eddy crept into his room without being noticed.
The next few hours went by quickly. Neither of the teens spoke about the hostility between Eddy's father and his brother. Eddy sat on his bed reading his "Jiggy Uncensored" magazine while Edd read an encyclopedia on diseases. Edd excused himself from the room for a bit, not mentioning much else about where he was planning on going.
Edd gently rapped at the wooden door of his destination. Loud rock music had played from behind the door. The room was in the upper level of the house as it always had been. A gruff voice answered from behind the door, "Come In." The music was shut off a second before Edd opened the door. The room had looked a bit different from when he last viewed it back when he was just twelve. The walls of the room were the same color with light gray carpeting and a black throw rug in the middle of the room. The room still had the odd decorations such as the large stuffed camel, the harp, and the robotic arms on the wall. However the room did contain some changes. In spot where the car that Ed, Eddy and him destroyed when they were only twelve years old used to be was a large king-sized waterbed with plain black blankets. A stereo system and the large box Eddy was threatened over stood in front of the bricked off window. A nightstand with a red lava lamp stood in place of the bed that folded up into a refrigerator. Other than that, the room was just about the same as he remembered it.
The owner of the room laid on the waterbed in just his boxers. Edd pulled his sockhat over his face, a deep red blush formed on his cheeks. "Please make yourself decent! I have something imperative that I need to talk to you about."
"My room, my rules, girlfriend!" Matthew leaned back against the metal headboard of the bed, smirking.
"Ugh!" Edd pulled his sockhat away from his eyes and tried to only focus on the man from the neck up. "L-look here! Eddy has a promising future ahead of him. He doesn't need any immoral distractions to get in the way of that. Please, let Eddy become an adult first before you have that type of brotherly bonding."
"Too bad, Sockhead Princess," Matthew smirked, "I'm not changing my plans for showing you and Eddy around the fun parts of this dump of a town. Though, I have a couple of questions to ask you since you like to stick your nose into my business."
"I was not prying into your personal affairs," Edd huffed, "what do you want to question me about?"
"Well, the first thing I want to know about is whose kid you are. You can't be this much of a pain in the ass without learning it from some bitch. So which one of these cul-de-sac housewives is your bitch mom? I doubt that one of the trailer trash cunts from Park n' Flush is your mom."
Edd folded his arms, "my sweet, adoring parents are Sam and Marian!"
"Marian, huh?" Eddy's brother rubbed his goatee, trying to place the name with a face, "oh yeah, I remember that dark-haired, stuck up bitch. Mrs. Doctor Bitch thought she could bitch at me for smoking whenever she came to my house for coffee. I let it slide though. She was one of the women I peeked in on when I was twelve. I peeked in on her changing quite a few times until her douche husband caught me outside of their bedroom window. I also peeked in on this Aurora cunt a couple of times too. This was before I started sneaking porn into my room." Eddy's brother smirked at the teen again, "in fact, you do look a lot like your mom!"
"You invaded the privacy of my mother and Ed's mother?" Edd asked, aghast. The only Aurora in the entire cul-de-sac was Ed's mom. "You're appalling! You're an absolute lecher! My mother is not some object for you to gawk at!"
"I can look at whatever bitch I want to look at," Matthew replied. Edd could only purse his lips tightly to prevent himself from saying anything else to the man. "I got another question for you, Sockhead. What's under your hat?"
"It's none of your – desist!" Edd felt a hand try to reach for his hat but quickly dodged it. He tried to run towards the door, but Matthew gripped his bony wrists to prevent him from getting very far. He was pushed to the floor and was pinned down. He tried to fight against Matthew, but the feeling of breeze upon his head stopped him dead in his tracks. The bobbing pins that held his hair into place fell to the ground. Matthew had gotten Edd's hat off without very much effort.
"So that's what you keep under there," Matthew traced the scar tissue on the right side of Edd's head. The two inch long scar tissue had left a bald patch on the side of the teen's head that was never able to grow back. He felt like a specimen that was getting prodded and gawked at. Matthew wouldn't stop staring at him. Edd couldn't stand to be stared at like that. That was the main reason why he wore the sockhat in the first place. Once Matthew released him from his hold, the embarrassed teen bolted out of the room, not caring if he left his hat in that man's room.
Once he got back into Eddy's room, the other teen was already in bed asleep. Edd grabbed another sockhat that was in his clothes and pulled his protective barrier against hurtful stares over his head. He changed into a pair of pajama pants and a loose t-shirt and slipped under the covers next to Eddy. He watched Eddy sleeping peacefully next to him. He could tell that Eddy was in the midst of REM sleep. He resisted the urge to take Eddy's hand into his hand as he resisted the urge every night when he shared Eddy's bed. The only difference being that night, the urge was stronger from everything that happened that day. He felt his eyelids grow heavy and fell asleep a minute later.