The first thing that came to my attention as my body struggled to wake itself up was the sweltering heat inside the tent, the second thing was that Gamzee was no longer next to me or anywhere nearby, which of course seemed odd after seeing how reluctant he was to wake up yesterday. That at last as I pushed myself up to a sitting position, my head tried to wrap around everything, but nothing really made sense until the angry voices from outside the tent finally made their way to my ears.
"I can't believe you! You fucking bastard, I caught you red handed! Don't play this shit off!" Recognizing Karkat's voice, I grabbed my phone from the side of the tent and stumbled out into the open air to see what was going on, only for his shouting to continue. "No! Close your fucking mouth! I am not done talking asswipe! No! I said stop! Don't you 'best friend' me! If you think this is shit that a friend does, then you're even more fucking stupid than I thought! You are a piece of shit!" Even though it was obvious he was furious at something, my still half asleep mind could only conjure up the thought that Karkat actually lectured people just as much as Kankri did. (Though I was awake enough to make a mental reminder to never say that in front of him.)
"Bro, calm down, you're flippin shit over something that's not that bad! You're fuckin overreacting!" Going to make my way over to the bickering voices, something caught my arm when I was just about to step out from behind a tent, stopping me from moving forward and causing me to glance over my shoulder; only to find that Nepeta was looking at me with wide eyes, shaking her head violently.
"Don't, you'll make it worse." We stared at each other in silence for a moment before Karkat's yelling started up again, drawing our eyes towards the direction of the fighting, where the others were slowly starting to trickle over, trying to find out what was happening, just like I was. Yet from the few faces I could see, no one really seemed sure of anything, and in fact, looked rather nervous about the whole situation.
"You're shitting me? I'm overreacting?!" Ripping my arm from Nep's grasp I hurried around the tent blocking the others from my sight and found Karkat glaring daggers at Gamzee, who actually looked intimidated by the much smaller teen. That's when candy red eyes locked on me. "You!" Back stepping away from my fuming friend, he quickly caught up and grabbed the collar of my shirt, and I realized in that moment, even though he's small, he could quite possibly beat the ever loving shit out of me. "Get your fucking bag and go to the car! We're leaving! Now!" Feeling my heart pounding in my chest like a drum, I dared a questioning glance over to Gamzee, but he avoided my eyes like that plague and stared down at the ground. "John! I said, go get your bag you fuckwad!"
"O-okay…" Giving the best nod I could in my confusion, my eyes flickered over to Gam one last time before taking off towards where my bag was still sitting from arriving. Shoving everything around into it that was mine, Nepeta slowly made her way next to me, wringing her hands looking almost ashamed.
"When Karkitty woke up and found you weren't in his tent, Karkitty freaked out and started searching for you. I tried to keep him away from Gammy's tent, but he didn't listen and completely flipped out when he found you two together…" Sighing to myself I paused and stared down at the ground, then looked over at Nep with as much of a smile I could muster while closing up my bag.
"Thanks for trying anyway…" Slipping my bag over my shoulder, Karkat stormed over to us and without a word grabbed my wrist and dragged me behind him towards the car, not even giving a minute to say goodbye. Looking back towards the surprised figure of Nep, I quickly mouthed 'sorry', my eyes quickly moving back over to Gam. He now had his hands shoved deep into his pockets, staring back at me with his shoulders drooping as I lifted my free hand and waved back at him.
"Hey fuckass!" Suddenly finding myself slammed against the side of Karkat's car, the air was knocked out of my lungs almost instantaneously, and while struggling to get my breath back, his candy red eyes bore into mine. "You need to listen to me! Gamzee acts all fucking innocent, but you don't really know him! You don't need to get involved with him! He will only hurt you, and I don't want to see that shit happen!" Even though it was obvious he was just trying to look out for me, anger swelled in my chest as I shoved him back, finally raising my voice in return something flashed in his eyes as he steadied himself and stared at me once more.
"Listen here Karkat! I can do whatever I please! You are not my dad, you can't tell me what to do! If I want to talk to someone, I will, if I want to see someone, I will! There's nothing you can do to stop me!" Without another word I yanked the car door open and climbed inside, only to slam it shut afterward, and you know what, for some reason it made me feel a little better. That is until Karkat got into the driver's side and opened his mouth again, as if he was incapable of closing it for more than ten seconds.
"I know I'm not your goddamn dad, but that doesn't mean I can't try to protect you! Fuck Egbert, you're my friend, I don't want to see that shitty pot head fuck around with your feelings! He's done it before!" Rolling my eyes as the car started up with a loud whine of protest, it backed up and whipped around, flying down the drive way once more. Dust flying up behind us as the house quickly faded from view then was blocked entirely by the wall of trees as we drew closer and closer to the highway. "John look." His voice was significantly softer now, which seemed rather out of character for him and actually drew my attention towards him. "I know you think I'm the one in the wrong here, but I really do only want to help. You may be a little shit," Narrowing my eyes from behind my glasses; he sighed and glanced over with the faintest traces of a smile. "but you're my little shit friend. Just trust me, please."
Laying back on my bed the next morning with my laptop settled on my stomach, my eyes blankly stared at the screen as I scrolled through lists of programs, nothing really registered or, if it did whatever it was didn't sounds appealing at that time. Actually, ever since Karkat dropped me off at home yesterday, I haven't really felt up to anything, hence just staying in bed instead of actually trying to hang out with Dave or something. To be honest though, I didn't want to deal with Dave's horrible raps or any of the other shit he did "ironically" really. So, here I was, continuously searching through my laptops programs to find something to do that might keep my attention, only to be saved by the familiar ding of Pesterchum, alerting me to a new message.
arsenicCatnip [AC] began trolling ectoBiologist [EB]
Wait, I didn't know this handle, nor did I have any idea why it said trolling instead of pestering, but now intrigued by this sudden turn of events I sat up in my bed and quickly scanned the message.
[AC] :33 *ac pawnders if john can pawsibly guess who is talking to him right meow.*
Well then… They obviously had the right person, and upon thinking for a max of thirty seconds the name came to mind, and a smile forced his way onto my lips as I quickly typed out my response.
[EB] oh, hey nepeta! you surprised me!
[AC] :33 *ac grins to herself and giggles, then waves at john, sp33king with an 'i know something mew you don't know' tone* are we furrends john?
Taking a moment to decipher her message, my mind tried to wrap around her question, I mean, I thought so? After all, we hung out a quite a bit at the party, her being one of the few others there to actually talk to me on a normal basis.
[EB] i do not see why we would not be able to classify ourselves as friends. i mean, i could see us hanging out in the future.
[AC] :33 *ac happily clawps her paws together, her tone ch33ry* well, i'm glad mew say that, beclaws i come bearing a gift!
Chuckling to myself, I reminded myself to join in on her little game of roleplaying sometime, just to see how she would react, but maybe when I actually felt like trying…
[EB] and what would that be?
[AC] :33*ac bounces happily* gammy's trolltag!
[EB] trolltag?
[AC] :33*ac nods with a grin* it's like a chumhandle, but fur trollian instead of pesterchum. his tag is terminallycapricious!
Feeling a grin slip across my lips, my eyes flickered over to my phone sitting on my nightstand, thinking about how much angrier I had gotten at Karkat once realizing Gamzee and I had never traded numbers.
[EB] you are amazing, you know that right? karkat absolutely refused to give me anyway to contact gam.
[AC] :33*ac pouts slightly then nods, understanding.* karkitty is stubborn, it will pawsibly be months befur he talks to gammy again.
[AC] :33 *ac has just received a guest and has to abscond at this time, she wishes john the best of luck and waves goodbye* bye!
[EB] bye! thanks again!
arsenicCatnip [AC] has ceased trolling ectoBiologist [EB]
Disconnecting from the chat shortly after Nepeta left, I instantly went to the 'search' bar and typed in the "trolltag" that she had given me, and just as she said a Trollian user ID popped up, only now I was hesitating to click it. What if Karkat found out? Oh man he would be so pissed, of course I wouldn't tell him just for that reason and Nep had given me no reason not to trust her to tell, but still… What if? It's bad enough I caused problems between him and Gamzee, who knows what he would do… Staring at the ID, my heart hammered in my chest as I came to a decision.
ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering terminallyCapricious [TC]
[EB] gamzee? um, john here. nepeta gave me your tag. that is not a problem right?
Guess now it was time to play the waiting game, so to make it less stressful my screen shifted over to Solitaire with just a few clicks. I was never really any good at this game, but there really wasn't that much else to pick from, and I didn't really want to start something I'd get engrossed in and not notice if I got a reply. Though, thankfully my wait didn't turn out to be that long, as my computer let out a ding only a few minutes later.
[TC] WeLl, IsN'T nEpEtA jUsT oNe BiG mOtHeRfUcKiN mIrAcLe! :0) GlAd To HeAr FrOm Ya BrO, wE aLl WoRrIeD fUcKiN kArKaT wOuLd KiLl Ya!
Laughing nervously at his reply, I stared down at the keyboard; struggling to think of anything to say, and then decided to just go with whatever popped into my head first.
[EB] are you and karkat going to be okay? it seemed pretty serious when you two were arguing. he seemed pretty pissed off, or, more than usual.
[TC] Ah YeAh, We'Ll Be MoThErFuCkIn ChIlL bRo. He GeTs AlL sOrTs Of AnGrY aT mE oN a DaIlY bAsIs! This Time is no fUcKiN different. :0) HoNk!
[EB] okay, but can i ask why he was so mad in the first place? i mean, you were right, he totally overreacted. i have never seen him flip shit like that before.
[TC] It'S cAuSe SoMe MaNy MoNThS aGo He KiNdA, wElL, hE fUcKiN dEmAnDeD tHaT i NeVeR tAlK tO yA. i ToLd HiM tHeN hE nEeDeD tO gEt HiS mOtHeRfUcKiN cHiLl On, BuT hE dIdN't DrOp It. :0( sO i MaY oR mAy NoT hAvE pRoMiSeD mY bRo I wOuLdN't Go NeAr Ya.
Oh, I guess that makes Karkat's anger a little less random then, but why would he make Gamzee promise that in the first place? Sure he warned me to stay away yesterday, but really didn't explain it that much, only saying vague things.
[TC] ThAt FiRsT tImE i WaS jUsT tRyIn To GeT yA aWaY fRoM vRiSkA, sO hE dIdN't FlIp ShIt, BuT bRo, WhEn I NoTiCeD yOu SlIp OfF bY yOuRsElF i CoUlDn'T hElP bUt FoLlOw, CaUsE dAmN dId YoU lOoK fUcKiN lOnElY.
He followed me? I thought he just wandered upon me by accident. Thinking about that, my face suddenly felt as if it was on fire and it quickly spread to my ears, but before I could reply, he had already sent another message.
[TC] So BrO, i'M sOrRy ThAt KaRkAt YeLlEd At Ya, ThAt WaS mY fAuLt. :0(
[EB] hey! no it really is not your fault. i cannot think of one thing that gives karkat the right to force you not to talk to someone. hell! i never even got a say in it, and trust me, i want to talk to you, and i am really glad you followed me.
Quickly flopping down and shoving my face into my pillow, the laptop slid onto its side on the bed as my eyes avoided looking at the screen and finding any sort of response.
"God that was the most embarrassing thing I have ever typed…"
Ding. Oh God… Shifting to fix my laptop, my eyes scanned his reply.
[TC] FuCk JoHn, YoU rEaLlY aRe OnE aMaZiNg MiRaClE! :0)
[TC] AnD fUcK dO i ReAlLy WaNt To SeE yOu AgAiN. bRo, iS tHaT sOmEtHiN tHaT cAn HaPpEn SoOn?
[EB] yeah of course, i am seriously always free, so you can just get a hold of me anytime and we can hang out!
[TC] EvEn NoW?
For some reason his question didn't even shock me, and all I could do was smile as I typed my own response.
[EB] should i just meet you somewhere?
[TC] If Ya CaN gEt To ThE pArK, i CoUlD pIcK yA uP tHeRe AnD wE cOuLd ChIlL aT mY pLaCe?
[EB] yeah, i can get there in about ten minutes. i will meet you there!
A/N: Alright guys, there is chapter 8 for ya! I'm a little rusty with the cat puns, so don't be overly cruel about Nepeta's part, I probably missed some good chances. Anyway, this is the small insight to the drama that is yet to come. Hope you enjoyed! Imoto out~!