Edd had returned to the McGee residence after he walked Ed home. The home was quiet as a ghost town. All of the lights were out and nobody was in the kitchen or the living room. Edd flipped on the switch and called out, "Eddy? Matthew? Are you two here?" The thought occurred to Edd that Eddy could still be upset with him and would not answer him even if he was home.
He spotted Matthew walking down the upstairs hallway. Edd was kind of relieved that someone was home besides himself. Relief was quickly replaced with discomfort when he seen that the man was walking around shirtless. Silently cursing his overactive traitorous hormones yet again, he caught himself staring at the man. Edd hated to admit it, but the man was attractive. Edd had seen the man shirtless before when the man stolen one of his hats, but after the special "attention" he had received from the man, the sight had left him tongue-tied.
Edd quickly turned around to avoid facing the man, "Oh hello Matthew. Have you seen Eddy around?"
"Yeah, he's in his room." Matthew replied, "Though I doubt you're going to be sleeping in there tonight. Pipsqueak's been acting like a drama queen since he got back and locked himself in his room. He won't even let me in."
Edd turned around to see if Matthew was deceiving him. The man looked like he was telling the truth, "I'll go talk with him." Edd rushed to Eddy's room and knocked on the door, "Eddy, it's me! Open up!"
"Take a hike, Double D." Eddy snapped.
"C'mon Eddy! I told you before that I have nothing to hide." Edd knocked on the door again.
"Bullshit," Eddy retorted, "I know that you're hiding something from me! I don't know what it is yet, but I'll find out!"
"Eddy, can't we discuss this like mature individuals?"
"I don't wanna talk it over. I don't want to see you tonight. I just want to go to bed, so leave me the hell alone!" Eddy yelled, "out of all of the people I expected to keep secrets from me, you and Ed are the very last people I would've expected that from!"
"Eddy, just listen to me," Edd heard loud music coming from Eddy's room. Eddy obviously turned his record player on full blast so that he didn't have to listen to Edd. Edd sneered at the door and threw up a rude gesture at it as he left to figure out a solution to his bed problem. Eddy's parents' room is padlocked to prevent anyone from entering. The lime green couch in Eddy's living room would not provide his back with adequate support. His idea of sleeping at his own house for the night was quickly dashed when he realized that the key to his own house was in Eddy's room.
Making up his mind about sleeping on the couch for the night, he searched around the house for a pillow and a blanket. After searching every corner of the ground floor for a pillow and a blanket, his search came up empty. Another problem was that his clothes were in Eddy's room and his laundry was in the one room that he couldn't get to. It seemed that luck was not on his side.
He sighed, realizing that he didn't have a choice but to sleep on the uncomfortable couch in his clothes for the night. He walked towards the living room where Matthew was lounging on the place where he wanted to sleep. "Please remove yourself from the couch. That's my current sleeping arrangement."
"On this old thing? It murders your back. I'm telling you," Matthew replied.
"Well, I've only got a limited number of options to sleep in this house."
"Is that so?" Matthew flashed Edd a half-suggestive, half-serious grin, "Ever consider my bed one of those options?"
"I apologize, Matthew, but I'm going to have to decline your offer," It was completely improper for a grown man and a sixteen year old to share a bed. His mother and father would've never approved of such a notion. The man also made his amorous intentions towards him quite clear. The terrifying part about all of it was that he felt some kind of lustful infatuation for the man as well. He couldn't allow himself to completely abandon his own morals though.
Matthew snickered, "are you sure about that?" Matthew laid back on the couch to prove his point. He grimaced as he experienced sharp pains in several parts of his back. He was definitely going to need someone to walk on his back later; hopefully a certain scrawny teen would be the one that did it. "Help me up." He extended his hand towards Edd.
Edd was hesitant in taking his hand. He checked to see if Matthew was going to pull a prank on him or grope on him like he had been doing for a few days. He sighed and tried to pull the man up. Tried would be the best word for it. He could barely even help lift the man up with his strength or lack thereof.
Matthew gave him an amused chuckle, lifting himself off of the couch with some difficulty, "Christ, you're weak."
"E-excuse me? There is a bit of a contrast between our weights."
"You can say that again," Edd did not like that glint in his eye. He was either planning on humiliating him or doing something perverted again. How much of his diminishing willpower was Matthew planning on testing? "First of all, you look like you weigh 120 pounds soaking wet." Matthew pressed himself closer to Edd and snaked his arm around Edd's waist to keep him in place. "Your arms are as skinny as twigs." Matthew purred in Edd's ear as he caressed the skin of his arm. The man's touch actually felt nice, but he wouldn't let Matthew know that. The hand that was used to caress his arm moved towards his torso where the man continued his caresses, "you're also pretty scrawny. Not that I mind."
"Yeah, I bet you don't," Edd replied, sarcastically.
Matthew laughed harshly. Anything that came out of Edd's mouth only seemed to provoke Matthew's lustful desires. "You still got it, Princess." Matthew pinched Edd's nipple through his shirt, eliciting a squeak from the other male. "Damn, Sockhead. You seem to be enjoying yourself more that I thought you would." Matthew's voice was getting huskier. The insides of Edd's thighs were Matthew's target for slow and sensual torture.
"Cease your groping! Eddy might emerge at any given moment from his room and catch us in our current position," Edd gasped out between moans. His heart raced when he realized that they were both sitting on the ground and he was sitting on the man's lap with his own legs spread. He could feel the man's body heat behind him.
"I doubt Pipsqueak would come out for the rest of the night." Matthew's hands moved up his legs towards his crotch.
Edd quickly stood up to save some of his dignity and self-respect. "Not tonight, Matthew. I'm pretty exhausted."
"Alright," Matthew wiped the sweat from his forehead with his arm, "Pipsqueak threw some clothes at me to give to you for bed and for tomorrow. Man, if I didn't know better, I would've sworn that you two are an old married couple."
"Ha ha!" Edd crossed his arms, not amused by the old married couple comment, "Just give me my pajamas."
"Alright, sheesh! Just head towards the bathroom and I'll get your clothes." Matthew headed towards his own room. Edd made his way towards the bathroom and waited for Eddy's brother. He sat on the side of the tub, staring at the powder blue painted walls.
He yearned for the times when things were much simpler, when the biggest thing he had to worry about was numerous failed scams, schoolwork, chores, and the pursuit of knowledge. Now, it feels that his life is filled with confusion over his relationship with his closest friends, his wanton desires, and the disappearance of his parents. He read in several books that everything he was experiencing was perfectly normal and natural even. However, the variety of emotions that came with puberty did not feel natural to him. The only thing he could use describe what puberty was like for him was the book Lord of the Flies. It seemed like law and order was quickly being replaced by barbarism like what happened on that island in the novel. He was fighting a losing battle with his id. The id part of him just wanted to break down over the disappearance of his parents, give in to his own sexual desires, and be more open to his own friends about what was going on.
Matthew came into the bathroom and handed him his clothes. "Thank you, Matthew." Edd sat the clothes on the counter.
"Not a problem," Matthew said, inspecting his fingernails for dirt, "I'm also having my kids over for the day tomorrow. If everything goes over smoothly, I have a surprise for you both afterward."
"I can hardly wait," Edd didn't know what kind of surprise the man had in order, but he was already suspicious of what the man had planned. The pizzas and movies from a couple of nights ago were nice, but who's to say the next surprise would be just as harmless. Edd also feared how exactly Matthew would interact with his own daughters. Being a blood relative of Matthew's didn't spare his friend Eddy from years of physical abuse. At least he would be there to at least get the girls to Kevin's house if Matthew beat up on his own daughters.
Edd went through his clothes to check to see if he had everything that he needed for the night. Instead of his own boxers, he found an item that he would never consider wearing in a million years; Neon green snake skin printed low rise boxers made from Lycra fabric. There's only two people in the whole world that he knew of that would wear something that gaudy; Eddy and Matthew. "I'm not wearing this." It was as showy as the polka dotted swimsuits of Matthew's that Eddy, Ed, and he wore to Nazz's pool party one year.
"Why not?" Matthew chuckled at his reaction to the underwear.
"It's gaudy and looks uncomfortable!" Edd spat, exasperated.
"That's too bad. Pipsqueak only gave me one pair of your underwear and that's the only pair of mine that I knew would fit your scrawny ass. You don't seem like the type to wear the same type of underwear to bed that you wore all day."
"Quite observant of you," Edd responded dully, "Where is my underwear?"
Matthew pulled the plain black boxers out of his back pocket. The way that he did it oddly reminded Edd of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. "Damn, Princess! You such boring tastes in underwear."
"Go put it back with my wardrobe for tomorrow!" Edd shrieked.
"Calm down, Princess," Matthew grinned, "so you're actually going to wear the underwear?"
"Does it look like I have a choice?" Edd gently pushed Matthew out of the bathroom. He shut and locked the door behind him, "Shoo Matthew, I have to get changed." Edd quickly changed into the underwear that only someone as flamboyant as Eddy or Matthew could wear. He put on his pajama shirt and pants, thankful that no one would have to see it on him. He then followed his usual routine of brushing his teeth and washing his face for the evening.
He headed into Matthew's room once he was dressed for bed. His boxers that Matthew taunted him over were sitting on top of his clothes for tomorrow. Matthew was already lying down on the waterbed. Edd quietly laid down on the other side of the bed. "I suppose you don't have anything educational to read, do you?" Edd sighed when Matthew shook his head, "Never mind."
"If you can't sleep, you can question a few personal questions that I have for you," Matthew suggested.
"Quid pro quo, Matthew. I'm not telling you anything unless you tell me something in return." Edd responded stubbornly. Eddy was starting to rub off on him a bit, "I get to ask you the first question though."
"Ask away, Sockhead."
Edd thought for a moment of what to ask the man, "have you been married or engaged?"
"No, I haven't." Matthew answered, "I don't see a point to getting married to some broad or gutless sap of a man that's just going to act like Dad does in a couple of years and try to change me. Now for my question, have you engaged in any type of sexual activity?"
Edd balked at the question, but wasn't surprised by it, "No, I haven't. I'm being completely honest." Edd thought for a moment about his next question, "What caused you to become estranged from your own father? I mean, I'm aware of the fact that you were kicked out of your own home before you were of legal age, but there had to be some kind of catalyst before that."
"Well, it just wasn't one that led me to realize that my dad was a controlling, hypocritical tyrant. It was how he reacted to the several things that I've done. He had it in his head that I was a loser from the get-go, but I didn't find that out until I was nine. Everything I had done after that was more proof in his head that I was worthless. It started with the harmless pranks and scams I performed as a kid. Then I had gotten into alcohol and cigarettes before I attended junior high. Teachers called my house at all hours of the day regarding times I was caught smoking or drinking on school property, whenever I gotten bad grades, or when I beat up someone in school. In junior high and high school, it had gotten worse. That was when I started sleeping around and experimenting with hardcore drugs. My so-called bad behavior lead to the big fight Dad and I had and he kicked me out of the house." Edd had no idea what say about what was revealed to him. Matthew could've been rehabilitated if his parents had nipped his bad behavior in the bud before it had progressed. However, he was not a parent and didn't know Eddy and Matthew's dad's side of the story. Matthew just wanted someone to listen and that's what Edd was going to do, "So, Sockhead. What are your family issues besides the fact that they're missing?"
Inhaling sharply, Edd knew that he had to be perfectly honest with the man, since Matthew seemed to not hold anything back from him. Edd revealed to him about how his parents were too busy with their careers to spend any time with him and how he had only seen his parents a few times a month before they went missing. He told him about the endless sticky note tasks he had to do growing up. How the two people that he seen the most of throughout all of his life had been Ed and Eddy. He also went into detail about how he had met Ed and Eddy for the first time when they scammed him with the "bottomless Ed" scam.
"I hate to break it to you, Girlfriend, but I doubt your parents really gave a shit about you. They could've found a way to make time for you, but they didn't." Matthew stated.
"You take that back! My parents do care about me! Why would you even say something so horrid?" Edd snapped, feeling offended by Matthew's cruel words.
"Look, it's up to you if you want to live in denial over your parents, but I was just tellin' you what I think about the situation."
"I don't want to discuss this with you anymore." Edd replied curtly. He did not speak to the man for the rest of the evening.
He woke up just before sunrise, pleasantly surprised that Matthew did not try to grope on him in his sleep. As Edd completed his morning routine, he thought about how to make peace with Eddy. Edd strolled down the Cul De Sac, thankful that he was back to wearing his own underwear. Lycra underwear was just so uncomfortable. Matthew's words swarm in his head like angry bees. What if his parents really didn't care about him? If they ever got found, the only things that would've changed would be that he would be living at his house again doing endless chores for them.
He made a couple of stops to the Candy Store and AKA Shoes on Main Street. With his purchases in hand, he walked back to the house. The Cul De Sac was quiet during the early hours. Not even some of the elderly neighbors were up yet. He wondered if it was too early to try to discuss things with Eddy. There was only way to find out. He knocked on the outside door of Eddy's room and waited for Eddy to answer the door. He was going to try his damnedest to make things right with Eddy.