Something I keep forgetting to bring up is that, if you have a Tumblr, you can tag your reactions to this story with "coming to terms erisol" and I will find it. I'm tracking that tag!
So I'm sort of sick...I'm hungry but nothing wants to stay down which makes me afraid to eat anything, so yeah. Not happy about that. But it means I'll be doing a lot of writing to keep my mind off things.
Thanks to BlOo KiSsEs for your review to last chapter... yeah, that was it. *shoutpole*
Dave Strider scanned the occupants of the cafeteria until his gaze landed on a familiar face. Without missing a beat, he headed right for Rose's table. She didn't appear to notice him until he dropped his bag next to his intended seat, and even then, she didn't look up.
This didn't deter him, though. "Hey, Rose, you busy?"
"Extremely," she said. Upon closer inspection, he realized she had all of her knitting paraphernalia with her.
"Cool. So, listen, John got a call from Vriska during class this morning."
Rose finally looked up from her knitting needles, her left eyebrow raised. "I see. And how did our friend Mr. Egbert respond?"
Dave groaned and leaned back in his seat, running his fingers through his hair. "About as well as you'd think. He looked like someone just ran over his metaphorical puppy."
"Did he accept the call?"
He nodded. "I think so, anyway. He ducked out of class and then I didn't see him after that. It was just me and Karkat, and that was weird."
The corner of Rose's mouth twitched up into a smile. "I see." She adjusted the foot or so of knitting in her lap and set her needles, yarn and all, on the table. "So you haven't seen Mr. Egbert since he absconded from class, correct?"
"Yeah."
"Have you attempted to locate him?"
"Meh. I figure if the little bastard wanted to be found, we'd find him."
"I'm not so certain. Have you even called him?"
"Not yet."
"Perhaps you should. You remember what happened the last time Miss Serket got into his head?"
A look of disgust crossed his face. "Good point." He dug his phone out of his pocket, looped his headphones around his neck, and called John's number. As it rang, he allowed his eyes to wander over the room again, unseen through his sunglasses.
For a Monday, it was surprisingly empty. There were a few people scattered around the room—those two girls he vaguely recognized from around the campus (he thought one of them was named Aria but he could have been wrong), another girl who seemed Hell-bent on braiding her boyfriend's hair, another boy chatting on his phone—but no one he really knew besides Rose.
"Hello." John's voice was quiet, distant. Dave was immediately on alert.
"John. Hey, man. What's up?"
"Nothing."
The blond waited for a moment for John to continue, but when he realized he wasn't going to say anything else, a cold dread settled into his stomach. "What did Vris want?" he asked softly, sneaking a quick peek at Rose.
She was glancing between Dave and the more unfamiliar of the two girls he thought he sort-of recognized. She didn't show concern often, but the slope of her eyebrows hinted at it.
People often mistook Dave Strider and Rose Lalonde for siblings when they hung out together. They weren't related, but their blond hair typically confused strangers—although Dave still found it laughable since Rose bleached her hair. He'd never met an Asian, or even a half-Asian, with naturally blond hair. With her mixed heritage and his all-German ancestry, they couldn't be related any closer than perhaps half-siblings, and that was stretching it.
"She... she's transferring schools."
Dave was silent for a minute. "To where?"
"Here."
He sucked in a deep breath and closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. "I see. Is that all she said?"
"Basically, yeah."
Dave rubbed his forehead. "Where are you right now?"
"In front of the pool."
"O-kay," Dave said slowly, standing up. He hoisted his shoulder strap over his head and held his headphones out of the way so they didn't get messed up. Rose shot him a curious look as he said, "I'm heading over there. Just don't do anything insane for the next like ten minutes, okay?"
"Okay."
"Okay. I'll be right there." For a second he tilted his head back and clenched and unclenched his fist, trying desperately to think of something else to say. When he couldn't, he ended with, "See you in a few minutes."
"Okay."
Dave hung up and pocketed his phone. "John says he's in front of the pool."
"What happened?"
"Right." Sometimes he forgot that Rose couldn't actually read minds—there was a big difference between clairvoyants and psychics, one that she'd tried to explain and that he couldn't really be bothered to remember. "Well, apparently Vriska is going to be coming to our school now."
"Hmm." She looked down for a moment, as if studying her knitting. "He's not going to do something stupid, if that's what you're worried about. There's someone with him. But you should still go see him. He needs a friend right now."
"He needs to learn how to ask for help."
Rose shot him a withering look. "He has a way of asking for help. A subtle way, so subtle that not even he realizes it. He's one of those people who think they can handle everything that comes their way without help, not because they're overly confident in themselves, but because they don't want sympathy. He has a way. You should know that by now."
He knew that Rose was right, but he also wouldn't admit it out loud. He exhaled sharply and headed off toward the pool, wondering how right her prediction would be this time.
Around twelve-forty-five, Sollux saw Eridan's car zip past him on the way back to school. Ampora neither slowed down or otherwise acknowledged his presence, and part of him was relieved by it, but he also felt a little disappointed for reasons he didn't bother to fathom. Sure, Eridan was hot and all (in a hipster douche kind of way), but Sollux was definitely not attracted to him. That was just ridiculous.
The look on his face after Sollux had doused him with soda was priceless, though. He wondered how steep the dry-cleaning bill for that incident was going to be, and if Karkat was saying anything to try to smooth things over. Probably not, though. If anything, he would really just compound the situation.
Still, he couldn't help but think that maybe he'd overreacted a bit. He probably wouldn't have lost his cool like that if he'd still been on his medication.
I HOPE YOU'RE PROUD OF YOURSELF. AMPORA IS BEYOND THE REALM OF PISSED AND HAS STARTED PLOTTING YOUR EXECUTION. SHALL I ARRANGE FOR A CANDLELIGHT HATE DATE?
Sollux rolled his eyes. That a22hole 2tarted iit actually two be more 2pecific you and TZ 2tarted iit.
HOW DID I HAVE A DICKLICKING THING TO DO WITH ANYTHING?
You iin2ii2ted on "repayiing" me that'2 how and then you brought ED two.
HE WAS THE ONLY WAY WE COULD GET THERE. WHAT THE FUCK ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO, WHORE MYSELF OUT FOR A RIDE?
Poiint taken but ii 2tiill hold blame wiith TZ 2he diidn't have two 2ay what 2he 2aiid.
I GUESS NOT.
Diid you know ED wa2 a biiphobe or what
HOW THE FUCK SHOULD I HAVE KNOWN? I HAVE LITERALLY ONE CLASS WITH THE ASSHOLE. IT'S NOT LIKE WE COMPARE NOTES ON WHO'S METAPHORICAL PANTS WE WANT TO GET INTO. HE'S NOT A FRIEND.
Sollux rolled his eyes again. What diid you mean by "candleliight hate date" anyway
I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE SMART. I WAS IMPLYING THAT THE TWO OF YOU SEEM TO LOATHE EACH OTHER SO MUCH THAT IT WOULD BE A MATCH MADE IN HELL.
He groaned and resisted the temptation to throw his phone at the ground. It would do unsurprisingly little to ease his frustration and, in the long run, not fix any of his problems to decimate his primary means of communication. Still, the urge is there. Well riight now ii would be really okay wiith kiilliing hiim 2o iit would be a 2hort-liived relatiionshiip.
FEFERI IS HAVING WORDS WITH HIM ABOUT HIS "PREJUDICES." I HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT HE'S NOT ALWAYS THIS MUCH OF AN OBNOXIOUS ASSCLOWN.
Oh riight that make2 everythiing all better then.
Karkat didn't have an answer for that, so Sollux put his phone away and pulled out his iPod. At least he could listen to some decent music, unlike the dubstep crap Eridan had insisted on playing on the way over.
Dave hurried to the pool as fast as he could, a bright purple BMW cruising past him as he darted to the door, but when he got there, he thought he was too late at first. He looked around the entire perimeter of the pool and saw no one, but upon closer inspection, he noted with some relief that there were no bodies floating in the pool, John-sized or otherwise. He pulled out his phone and hit the redial button on John's number.
From a point behind him, up and to his right, he heard a tinny rendition of a familiar haunting refrain. He turned, following the source of the sound, and there was John sitting high up in the bleachers with...
Well, he certainly didn't recognize her. She was probably a student, but he'd never seen her before. For one wild second, he thought that maybe this was Vriska—but no, it couldn't be her. John sat with her like one does with a comfortable stranger, not someone who'd broken his heart countless times. Besides, Dave had a mental image of Vriska, and this girl looked too sweet to be her.
John was pawing through his backpack to locate his phone, but Dave just hung up. "Hey, John!"
"Dave!" John called excitedly, sounding a good deal more chipper than the last time they'd spoken. He waved enthusiastically. "Come on up!" He turned to the girl. "This is Dave, the buddy of mine I was telling you about."
The girl smiled at him and, somehow, he couldn't help but smile back. It was a decidedly un-cool-kid thing to do, but he couldn't stop himself. She had a really nice smile.
Dave carefully picked his way up the steps and across the bleachers, settling himself on John's other side. He decided not to say anything until John did—he'd already fucked up his cool-kid persona once today, and he certainly wasn't about to do it again.
Fortunately, John had appeared to resume his chatty self. "Dave, this is Feferi. She just got here a few minutes ago."
Dave nodded coolly as Feferi smiled at him again. He was grateful, not for the first time and not for the last time, that his shades were impossible to see through. She looked like a queen and it was making him feel a little unsettled.
"Hey, John, since your friend is here now, I'm gonna go practice, okay?"
John nodded. "Sure, go ahead. We'll watch your stuff for you."
"Thanks!" Without a moment of hesitation, Feferi stood up and stripped off her shirt and skirt to reveal a black one-piece bathing suit. She unhooked a pair of goggles from her backpack, strapped them over her eyes, and darted down to the pool. As if she were some kind of mermaid, she dove right in and crossed to the other side in seconds.
"So," Dave started once he realized he'd been watching Feferi for a little longer than necessary. "How're you feeling with the whole Vriska situation?"
John chewed on his lip for a few moments before responding. "I'm not sure. Feferi was able to make me feel a little better about it, saying I probably won't be seeing her all that much, but... I don't know. Now that she's gonna actually be at school with us... she's not really gonna go away, is she?"
"Probably not, man. Maybe that's part of growing up—dealing with shit we'd rather not. Shit, we're gonna be twenty-one soon. Maybe it's time to start dealing."
John let out a groan and slumped back against the bleachers. "Growing up sucks."
"Preaching to the choir. I don't know how Rose handles it."
After dropping off Feferi at the pool and Karkat and Terezi in front of the cafeteria, Eridan parked and sat in his car, just seething. Where the fuck did Sollux Captor get off, humiliating him like that in front of everyone? What an over-dramatic little prick. He had half a mind to find him, wherever he was on the street, and give him a good old-fashioned beatdown.
But that was too blunt. A battle of wits had just begun, and if he was going to best Captor, he would have to be subtle about it.
A course of action forming itself in his head, he felt himself calming down. He'd come out on top. No one humiliated an Ampora and got away with it.
The first order of business was to go home and shower, though. His hair was getting sticky and he needed a different shirt at least.
Imagining the clarion calls of war were sounding, he pulled out of the parking lot and headed back to Cronus's apartment.
Writing Homestuck fanfiction while listening to Homestuck music is very fun. A+, would recommend.
