"Gamzee! Hey, Little Brother, wake up!" Kurloz screams my name from downstairs causing me to jolt motherfucker can be loud when he wants to. I roll out of my futon and onto the floor. The stench of sweaty clothes waft in my nostrils causing me to gag a little bit. I should get somebody to wash them soon. I stand on my knees, searching for a clean pair of pants. Spotting some over by my desk, I stumble over to them. They're my favorite pair of black pajama pants, with little gray poka-dots all over them. When I snatch them off the chair, I forgot I was hiding my bong under them from yesterday, making it fall to the floor.
"Shit," I swear under my breath. As bong water gets all over my floor.
"Gamzee? Are you awake, bro?" The stairs creak as Kurloz comes up the stairs. Hurriedly, I throw some more clothes on top of the stain and hide my bong in the closet next to my sports trophies. Kurloz's heavy steps echo as he quickly jots up the stairs. The door opens before I could close it fast enough.
"Gamzee?" Kurloz pops his head inside the door. His hair still unbrushed and fluffy. "Oh, you're awake. I wasn't sure if-" He glances behind me, spotting my hidden treasure.
"There's no way I'm letting you use it."
He ignores me and makes a beeline right to it. My bong's a wicked dark purple, with a Capricorn insignia. It curls in a loop about halfway down the middle, and at the very top it has a golden ring. It's around three feet long, too. He costed me around two hundred dollars, but it's perfect.
"You can not possibly be that selfish," Kurloz reaches up to grab it, but I slam the door closed.
"No, but you never give my shit back when I let you borrow it," I start shoving him towards the door. "We are going to have smoke it together."
"Yeah, but," Kurloz stops himself on the doorframe and looks over his shoulder back at me. "You know Dad's suppose to be coming home today?"
"What?" I let go of him. "He wasn't suppose to come back for another three weeks!"
Kurloz shrugs his shoulders and stands aloof against my door frame. " I thought so too, but he called me this morning saying to pick him up at the airport at eight o'clock tonight."
I sigh. I can't let him see I have that in my room. "If you're lying, I'm going to strangle you," I storm back over to my closet and snatch it carefully off the shelf.
It seems like a longest walk back over to the door. "Here. I spilled the water, so you might want to refill it later."
"Sure thing, Little Brother." He doesn't even look at me as he disappears down the hall to his room. With a heavy heart I start towards my closet.
"He better not motherfucking use it, or I swear," I shake the thoughts from my head. I have other things to think about. Like my date. I have to make sure I look great today. I rummage through a barrage of outfits. Finally settling on a tight, low cut, black V-neck, some loose fitting, indigo pants, and a matching beanie. Dressed and ready to leave, I head downstairs into the kitchen. Kurloz is already sitting at the table, hair still eschew. He's sitting in a pair of dirty shorts and a black tank top. He's trying to enjoy his last few hours of laziness before he has to actually do something. I pull up a chair and sit besides him.
"Is Ms. Paint suppose to stop by today?" I reach across the table motion for him to pass his cup of coffee He nods his head while swallowing a piece of toast.
"I'll have her clean up everything. She's pretty quick at cleaning." "Alright," I take a quick sip of coffee and jump up from my seat.
"I'm going out. I'll be back later."
"Just be back before seven-thirty. We have to go greet Dad." I'm already at the front door before he finishes his sentence.
"Okay, I will be here by seven." I let the door slam behind me. I wasn't expecting Dad to get here so soon. Hopefully, he won't be home for too long. He's always up and snoops in my business and I don't need that. He's got too many restrictions for me to follow. I pull out my wallet to grab my bus card as I make it to the bus stop. There's a few minutes until it's suppose to pull up. The arcade where I'm suppose to meet Karkat isn't too far from the next stop.
"Oh my God," The realization hits me. "I'm hooking up with Mr. V." This rush of pure excitement pulses in my veins. I whip my phone out of my pocket and scroll through to find his number. It's big as day on my contact list. The bus pulls up and I get on. It almost seems surreal. My phone buzzes in my pocket. I get my phone out and the screen flashes a text from Karkat.
Are you here? I can't see you.
I quickly respond to him saying I'm almost there. As surreal as this seems, it's actually happening. I can hardly believe it. There's a seed of nervousness starting to grow in the pit of my stomach as the bus pulls to a stop. I thank the buss driver as I get off; the arcade is about half a block away from here. I start to jog to make up for wasted time on the long ride over. The place is packed full of kids ranging from elementary to high school.
"Gamzee!" I turn on my heels. Karkat comes walking up to me wearing a small smile on his face and a dark gray muscle shirt. His cologne drifting into my nose smelling like cherries. "I'm glad you showed up."
"I am too," I reach up to the nape of my neck, holding it awkwardly. I don't know what to say. I'm a little lost for words.
"Do you," He glances away for a second "Want to go and get something to drink?" His eyes widen for a second. "Well, not anything alcoholic. Like a coffee or something."
I have to laugh. And Karkat laughs along with me. He is just as nervous as I am. I can almost feel the ice break from underneath the both of us.
"Yeah, I would like that." We stop by a corner store and grab two iced coffees. I pulled out my wallet to pay but Karkat shakes his head. "Don't worry about it. I got it."
"Are you sure? I don't mind paying."
"It's fine, Gamzee." The cashier hands him the change. "Thank you."
The store door closes silently behind us as we go down the street. Karkat and I stop on a park bench to finish off the coffees and enjoy the afternoon sun.
"So," I turn to him with my arm resting my knees. "Why did you become an English teacher?"
"What do you mean?" Karkat replies.
"I mean, out of all the jobs you could have chosen, you choose to be a high school English teacher. There has to be some reason."
He snorts a little bit. Leaning back a little in his chair, he stays quiet for a moment. "There's no good reason; but if I had to put a finger on it, it would be because of my twin brother."
"You have a twin?"
Karkat nods. "His name is Kankri. The annoying little shit is a few seconds older than me."
"Why do you say it's him?" My curiosity peaks.
He takes a couple more seconds to gather his thoughts be fore he starts. "Kankri and I rarely ever got along. It's not like he didn't get along with me, I just didn't get along with him. He always thought he was something so damn amazing," He waves his hands up in the air on amazing. "And he would always rub it in my face. Not intentionally, but I didn't realize that until I was older. So to compensate, I tried to out do him in everything he liked. Just to prove some point. I joined the debate team, when he joined the debate team, I joined speech, when he joined speech, I even joined an after-school book club to out do him,"
"Did you like any of it?" I inquire.
"God, I hated it all at first," He laughs "Only because I couldn't win. He thought it was great we were having some brotherly bonding. Even still, he would come in first. He joined book club after me and when voting came around, I got vice presidency while Kankri got to be President. I just couldn't win. All the way up till we graduated high school," Karkat takes a deep breath and stare up at the sky for a few seconds.
"What happened then?" I cross my arm, being really interested in hearing ending to his story.
"Our father sent us off to college," He begins again "I had no idea what I wanted to be. but Kankri did. He wanted to be a teacher. So, I thought I wanted to be one too. It was sometime when I was working to get my masters that I realized that was bullshit and quit school. I had my bachelors already, so I was set. Kankri was a little upset; he wanted us to graduate together. I worked some odd jobs for a little while after. But, it didn't feel right. It felt like I was wasting all those years learning English on nothing important. So I went back to school to become a teacher,"
"What about your brother?"
Karkat chuckles. "He's an English professor at the college." The wind blows, whipping our hair along with it.
"I guess out did you again."
"Oh, please," He laughs "I could never do that. Besides, he loves to talk. A lot more than me." He stretches out his arms, one landing on the back of the bench.
"Okay, now I have a question for you,"
I turn to him,"What is it?"
"Why do you try out for so many sports teams?" Karkat's red eyes flash along with a smirk on his face. "I mean, you try out for every team, every year. It has to get a little boring."
I shrug. "I just really like sports."
"Don't give me that," He rolls his eyes "There has to be more to it than that." I laugh a little bit. He is right.
"Well, my brother,"
"Kurloz, right?"
I nod my head. " Our family has always been athletes. My grandfather was the strong man in a circus when I was younger and my dad was MVP on his swim team in college. So it's expected of us to like sports, even if we don't. When we were younger, our dad would always make us try out for teams. Soccer, t-ball, basketball, whatever team he could toss us in. I never understood why, till I got older. But it was fun for awhile. Kurloz and I would always be on the same team, though he was a few years older than me. We would be unstoppable. We made an awesome team together, we never lost a game."
"It started getting boring in middle school. Kurloz was already in high school, so it was my first couple of years not having him by my side. It was weird. I depended on him like a crutch. Now my crutch was gone I didn't know what to do. It was up and hard at first, but I motherfucking managed. Besides, he would practice with me at home. Then, one day I came home and my brother was arguing with our dad. Kurloz was going through this motherfucking rebellious stage, so he quit all the teams. My dad was furious. So, he sent him away for couple of years. He came back when my freshman year. Kurloz hasn't been the same since. I just don't want to end up like him. All he does is sit around the house and go out driving. So I'm on every team I can qualify for."
Karkat looks a little shocked. I worry that I scared him for a few seconds before he says "Do you two still play together?"
I turn to Karkat and think about it. I cant remember the last time we did. "No, I haven't asked him to."
"Well," He gets up and motions for me to join him "Maybe you should."
As we start down the street, the afternoon sun begins to settle down for the night. We stop by in front of Karkat's apartment building as he pulls out his gate key. I check my phone's time to see it's seven forty-five."Shit,"
I mumble to myself. Karkat turns around, now having the gate open. He catches the look I have on my face realizing how late it is."Is there something wrong?"
"The last bus to my house stopped running a at seven thirty."
"Well, I would give you a ride, but I took my car to the shop this morning," Karkat looks down towards the ground, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I guess I should probably start walking then," I cross my arms, not looking forward to a six mile walk home.
"How about you spend the night?" There's a ring of hopefulness in Karkat's voice. " I don't mind."
"I don't know,"
"It wouldn't bother me any. I can sleep on the couch."
"I don't want to kick you out of your bed," Who am I trying to kid? Spending the night at Karkat's house? This must be a motherfucking prank, that or I'm dreaming.
"Well, we have shared a bed before," Karkat says, flashing back to our camping trip. "It's big enough."
"Alright," I finally agree.
He chuckles "I didnt think I had to talk you into that," He waves his hand for me to follow "Come on."
We get into an elevator and he hits the fifth floor button. Then go shooting up as the gears creak and grind to our stop. The doors slide open to a hallway with just one door at the end. It's lime green with a red plaque reading: VANTAS RESIDENCE. GO AWAY UNLESS YOU'RE A GIRL SCOUT.
"Nice touch," I giggle.
"Hey, I fucking love Thin Mints." Karkat pulls out his keys and unlocks the door. "It's not much but it's home." I look around his apartment. It's bigger than I imagined. But what really grabs my attention is the bath tub in the middle of the floor. I look back towards him for some explanation.
"I bought the place with it there. Honestly, I use it as a bookshelf and dish rack." Karkat informs me. "I can't get it removed." I walk around it, an amused smile placed on my face. "I don't know. It gives your place some character." Karkat gives me a huge smile and I think I see a small blush, but he turns his back to me before I could get a good look.
"Here, I'll show you where the bedroom is."
((()))
Through the darkness I can hear my phone buzz. I groan, not wanting to move from the comfortable space beside Karkat. My head resting on his chest, and his arm cradling me. My arm reaches out to grab the glowing screen on his nightstand. The time flashes 9:52 in the morning. I have a couple missed calls and messages. All from my dad.
"Motherfuck!" I jump out of the bed. Causing Karkat to startle awake.
"What? What is it?" He yawns out loud. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes. I look for my pants in the dark, feeling the ground for my jeans.
"I forgot I was suppose to be home last night to greet my dad from the airport." He crawls to the edge of the bed to help me look. I find them and quickly slip them on. He's going to kill me. I'm about to start towards the door but I pause in my tracks. Karkat is awake now, still a little tired, but awake. "Thank you," I tell him "I had a lot of fun."
"Yeah," He sits up in bed. Dragging his fingers through his bed head. "I did too. I hope we can do it again sometimes soon."
"How about next weekend?" I smirk.
"Alright, same time," He hugs onto his pillow causing my heart to flutter from how cute he looks "Same place?"
"Okay then." I come in close to his face, biting my lips. "I look forward to it."
He swoops in close and kisses my lips. "Me too." He whispers when he lets go.
It almost hurts when I walk out the door.
When I get to street level, I whip out my phone again. I quickly scroll down to John's contact number and hit call. It buzzes a few times before he picks up. "Hello?"
"John it's m-"
"Gamzee?! Dude wh-" He stops for a second before dropping his voice down to a whisper. "Hold on a second." I hear shuffling on the other end of the phone and a door close quietly. "Okay, I'm alone."
"What's going on?"
"What's going on is your dad is chewing out my dad downstairs. Seriously where are you?"
"Shit," I mumble. I shouldn't have been asleep that long. " Has he gone to Tavros' yet?"
"No, but he's probably going there next." John's voice is low and gruff. I can tell he's irritated. He was probably not expecting an early morning wake up call like this.
I'm practically jolting down the street to the nearest bus stop.
"Can you call him? Say I'm on my way."
"Why can't you do it?"
"Because I'm about to get on the bus. I can't get a signal on there." I round the corner just as the bus comes to a stop.
"Gamzee where are you?!" His voice grows, but he drops it realizing how loud that was. "Seriously, this isn't funny."
"I'll tell you Monday. Tell Tavros I was spending the night. Bye John." I quickly hang up and jump on the bus. I take a seat in the back of the bus and slouch in it. I flash back to yesterday and the time I spent with Karkat. I have to cover my mouth to hide how big my smile is. I really like where this is going.