Of course Eddy was the last person Kevin wanted to speak with, but he couldn't think of anyone else with answers. It had been a few years since they spoke, now in their Junior years in high school, that meant they hadn't spoken since seventh grade when Eddy was last in attendance to Peach Creek Junior High. He now went to a high school in the city, Ed had moved states. It was possible that the loneliness from his friends had caused the shift. Kevin admitted he himself had changed as a person, but did they really become so different?

Knocking on the apartment door, Eddy answered, still the same stout boy he knew, Kevin looked down slightly at him.

"The hell do you want, Shovelchin?" Eddy hissed.

"Calm down, okay? I need to talk to you. It's important." Kevin sighed.

"About what? Ain't nothing I want to talk to you about."

"I'll give you five dollars."

That seemed to change his mind. "Yeah sure, what do you want?"

"It's about Double D."

He huffed. "What about that jerk?"

So Eddy disliked him too? "See that's what I'm talking about, what happened to make him so… mean?"

"Hell if I know what happened, he just started spazzing out on everyone and eventually he snapped. Told Lumpy to get lost and for me to 'zip my trap' and just… started crying. We didn't really speak much after that because he kept getting so uptight and nasty."

Kevin frowned. "Crying… and he wouldn't tell you why?"

"I didn't care to ask."

"Well clearly there was something wrong if he just snapped and told you all to leave him alone… I would have."

"Maybe you're right, but I ain't you, dumbass."

"Eddy it's important. What was going on with him around that time?"

Eddy pondered that for a moment. "Y'know… there was this guy who kept showing up to his house… I didn't really think about it, pretty sure it was a relative but after he started showing up, Sockhead seemed to just slowly deteriorate… aw shit… if that had anything to do with it I'm going to hate myself…"

"You should, he was your friend and you kinda abandoned him."

"Like you have room to talk! You treated the lot of us like shit! You didn't help him one bit!"

Kevin winced, yes he'd been a hateful little boy but he'd grown and matured with the rest of them, apologising and gradually becoming meeker as Edd grew more violent.

"Well thanks for your help, Eddy, I'll let you know if I find anything out about what happened."

"Why do you even care about him all of a sudden?"

"I just remembered he used to be so nice… no one changes like this without a reason."

~.~.~

Edd was furious. Suddenly he gets a call from Eddy, a friend he hasn't spoken to in years, asking about his personal shit?! Apparently Kevin was interested in… the event. He'd teach the little runt a lesson about poking his nose into his business. Edd didn't like fighting himself, he prefered to leave the dirty work to Johnny, but he couldn't very well tell those two about this little conflict, they'd ask too many questions. He found Kevin heading to class, grabbing him by his sweater and dragging him off to the locker rooms. The gym was empty this period so they would be uninterrupted.

"Edd what- let go!" Kevin squirmed to no avail, Edd's grip too tight for him. Eddward threw him against the lockers, pinning him up to the cold, red metal.

"You think sticking your nose in my business is funny?!" He hissed, hand on Kevin's throat.

"E-Eddward, let go!" The pleas weren't heard through the rage.

"ANSWER ME!"

"N-no! It's not funny!" He choked.

"Then why are you doing it?" Edd's teeth were grit, grinding together.

"I w-want to help you."

"I'M PERFECTLY FINE, KEVIN, THIS ISN'T YOUR BUSINESS." He tightened his grip, Kevin's face starting to change colour to red.

"L….et… go… E….Edd!"

He obliged, Kevin dropping to the floor. "You want to find out what happened? You wouldn't care if you did." Eddward turned, leaving the locker room with Kevin gasping for air. So something had happened… Kevin was on the right track if Eddward was already furious. While it wasn't his business, he still felt like if he could do something he should. He headed out of the locker room and went down to the cafeteria for lunch, taking his usual seat by Nat and Nazz. He explained the situation and they were both quiet for a while.

"I think you need to step out of this, Kev, you're gonna get hurt…" Nazz tried, she'd long given up trying to convince Kevin to quit. She was really worried now, however, he was getting into something he really shouldn't…

"I can't Nazz, think about how many people have given up on him already. I won't be another one. He already knows I'm looking, so if I give up what is that saying? I know I'm getting into trouble here but… I can't bring myself to give up…"

"Aw cute~" Nat chimed, Kevin shot him a glare. "What? You care~ It's cute~"

"I care about him as a person, Nat, nothing more."

"Suuuuure."

"Keep it up and I'm taking your cookie."

"Fine fine, but it's still cute."

"Hey, Kev… what if he wasn't angry…" Nazz said slowly, staring at her train with a fixed frown.

"What do you mean?" Kevin was confused. He seemed mad… it couldn't be anything else could it?

What Nazz said then broke everything wide open and changed the light on the situation entirely.

"What if he's scared?"