AN: well only a few reviews! Though quite frankly I'm very happy I got any at all with my long absence of writing! -bows- Thank you everyone who read and reviewed or kudo'd it if you are on AO3 :)
Grumbling under his breath he stomped noisily around like a toddler hell bent on throwing one of the most fiercely epic and loud tantrums that he could muster up down the lonely deserted hallway.
His level of maturity might have slipped down a notch or two, or maybe three.
But who's counting?
Not that he'd ever seriously admit to it to anyone mind you.
He had a reputation of coolness to uphold within the school you know?
Though cutting class and blowing off a major test, now that would more than probably come to bite him in the ass later with his mom; but at the moment he couldn't really bring himself to give a rat's ass about any of that anyway.
Letting out a growl of frustration he tore off his signature red baseball cap and stuffed it harshly into his back pack.
Normally he'd have been more careful with it seeing that it was all that he had left of his father now that his mom and him were divorced.
Then again he honestly didn't know why he still kept the goddamn thing anymore considering why they split up in the first place, but deep down some part of him couldn't just trash it.
There were sentimental memories and crap in the whole damn thing.
Sighing he tried letting out a more calming breath but only ended up blowing out air angrily as he carded a well callused hand through the messy mass of spiky auburn tresses he called hair.
Before he knew it his body had auto piloted himself to his locker, where he practically threw the books and folders he knew that he wouldn't need inside with a resounding thunk/smack to the bottom of it before slamming the door shut.
So maybe he had a bit of anger management issues he needed to work on, and yeah maybe he wasn't handling it the best way he could.
But school work was one of the furthest things from his mind right now; that much was certain.
He trudged down the hall his body slumped forward, with his hands thoroughly stuffed into the worn out jean pockets of his pants.
The red head made his way outside not even bothering to put his orange hoodie on, he squinted at biting cold and the light flurries of snow that had begun to fall around him in extreme dislike.
He had to admit though you love the stuff as a kid; but when you get older it just gets wet, cold, and freaking annoying as hell to shovel when all you wanna do is sleep in cause it's fucking freezing outside.
Looking down at his digital wrist watch he internally groaned.
The numbers twelve thirty blared back at him in neon green.
Grimacing he remembered that he had promised his mom to make sure that the dork got back to their house safely today.
Gahhhh why did he make promises he didn't wanna keep anyway?
Oh yeah...
Maybe it was 'cause his mom was evil and turned into a scary ass demoness wielding a frying pan when angry.
Rubbing his face he grimaced.
So that put a complete shut down on his skipping school for the day.
His brain suddenly veered and screeched to a massive jumbled halt as his train of thought came right back to the petite looking teen that had suddenly been thrown into not only his life but his house as a semi permanent guest.
Blinking his eyebrows furrowed together in thought.
Wait a sec...
Didn't they have morning classes together or something? Why hadn't he seen the dweeb in school?
Come to think of it, Double D's locker was right across from his own and he hadn't seen the dork at all.
An icy block of fear fell into the very pit of his stomach shooting clawing bouts of anxiety up his chest.
He suddenly remembered flashes of finding the teen bruised and unconscious in the alleyway the day before.
What if something happened to him again?
He was rushing back into the school within seconds.
Panting he ran up and down the halls, scaling stairs in leaps and bounds as he checked the boys bathroom only to find it completely and disappointingly empty.
Mentally checking off places in his head he kept looking frantically.
His panic mounted as the rubber soles of his sneakers smacked loudly echoing off the floor as he sped up trying to calm his mind enough to think properly to where Edd could possibly be.
He balled his hands into tight fists at his sides and screeched to a halt his shoes making a protesting squeaking noise beneath him.
And then it clicked, suddenly dawning on him as the memory of Jacob Talbet aggressively throwing the small raven haired teen into one of the main dumpsters behind the cafeteria at the beginning of the year.
It all came snapping back into his mind like a broken record stuck on repeat.
Hurrying back outside he ran to the back of the school nearly slipping and sliding on a thick patch of hidden black ice, cursing colorfully all the way he went.
Skidding right in front of one of three dumpster's behind the cafeteria, his emerald eyes zoned in on the middle one almost immediately.
Which unlike before today had a crowbar wedged in the front of the brim effectively blocking off any hopes of escaping or of opening said dumpster if you had been the unhappy and unwilling participant thrown in and trapped inside.
The stink was really starting to get to him, he felt decidedly nauseous now; not to mention his whole body was shivering from the cold.
His eyes watered tearing up at the edges.
No one would ever find him at this rate.
Marie would go home and be worried sick.
And Kevin...
Well...
Kevin probably wouldn't care regardless.
Sniffling he gagged at the smell around him as he accidentally forgot to breathe through his mouth instead of his nose.
The sound of metal scraping against metal jarred him from his pitiful musings.
Followed by the thudding clang of something falling and hitting the ground outside.
Without warning the hinges of the dumpster creaked as the lid was wrenched open flooding light into it making Eddward wince at the sudden brightness.
"Shit I should have known you'd be in here! Damn dude you smell rank." Murmured a deep familiar voice from directly above him.
Dazed blue eyes came back into focus and met with vibrant worried but amused green.
The words tumbled around his head a moment before having registered in his temporarily addled brain, red blotches of color tinged his cheeks in anger, "Well, let me see you coming out smelling fine and dandy after being thrown into the icky stinky goo of last week's lunches!"
"Icky huh?" Snorting Kevin heaved the shorter teen out of the heap of garbage before the ravenette could so much as protest.
He was set down on his feet gently as he tried to scowl up at the taller male.
The red haired jock brushed off a banana peel from the nerd's shoulder, "You sure get into a lot of trouble..." He voiced lamely as if not knowing what else to say.
Edd rubbed his bare wrists absently out of pure nervous habit, "Yes well, I always tend to attract all the wrong kinds of attention it would seem."
Frowning a bit Kevin felt like there was a glaringly obvious double meaning to Edd's words.
Blinking he remembered the task he was give that morning and dug around in his hoodie pocket pulling out the two white and black checkered wrist bands.
"Here, Ma said you'd feel better with these on." He held them out awkwardly.
Timid small pale fingers brushed against bigger tan well callused ones hesitantly snatching the bands away pulling them on hurriedly.
Edd smiled gently down at his wrists rubbing the bands before speaking "Rosemary is very thoughtful...thank you for helping me and returning these to me, I know you don't wish to be around me longer than necessary."
Frowning Kevin was about to open his mouth to retort when he was interrupted by someone pushing him up against the wall of the school before giving him a powerful right hook to the jaw.
The jock saw stars burst in front of his vision before they only cleared enough for him to see the dark infuriated ice blue eyes of Marie Kanker.
"You asswipe! No one messes with Edd but me! Yah here me?!" She gripped the front of his orange hoodie tightly in a bruising hold.
"M-Marie! No! Kevin didn't do it! I swear!" Pleaded Edd's voice in the background as Marie was tugged out of his line of vision.
Shaking the remainder of stars from his eyes he blinked a couple times, "The fuck was that for Kanker?" He glared long and hard at her his emerald eyes shooting daggers.
Marie sneered and brushed off her charcoal gray cargo zipper jeans, "Easy mistake what with your past rep and all, how was I suppose tah know you didn't harm him? Hmm? You were here weren't you? 'Sides he looks cross between shitting a brick or bursting into tears."
Sighing the smaller of the three tugged on Marie's navy hoodie sleeve, "Come along Marie...I need to go to the boy's locker room for a much needed scrubbing. Icky Icky germs..."
He proceeded to shudder and rub at his arms with a discontented look on his face.
"Oh hell no you're not getting away with punching me."
"Whatcha gonna do about it pretty boy? Gonna fight a girl?" She batted her eyelashes mockingly at him.
The red head growled under his breath and lowered his gaze to Edd's skittish form, "Meet me out front after school, by the flag pole."
And with that he stomped away without giving poor Edd a word in edgewise.
If the red haired jock had been a cartoon character there surely would have had steam erupting from his ears in anger.
The tall willowy form of Marie moved in front of her best friend, the goth's dark blue gaze now somewhat more gentle and soft around the edges filled with concern.
"Geez Edd..." She rubbed her face letting out a sigh.
"My apologies for worrying you Marie...it truly was not my intention at all, I just had a slight altercation with..well...you know.." The raven trailed off and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
Growling her eyes narrow into silts as she stomped her foot hard against the gravel, "I'm gonna gut him this time, I swear to whatever goddamn deity that will listen, he will be in severe utter agony by the time I am through with his fucking sorry ass!"
"Oh please Marie...don't do anything that will get you into trouble...you're...you're the only one I have left at this point in time..so please...I beg you to behave?" His eyes clouded over in tears.
Her anger evaporated very quickly at the sight of Edd suppressing tears.
There was one thing you learned about Eddward Vincent a.k.a Double D very quickly; he did not cry in public or in front of others.
Marie could count on one hand how many time she's seen him even muster up a single tear in her presence; that was back in middle school in the seventh grade when Double D had taken his first ever sick leave, it had been for two whole weeks.
Everyone noticed, but no one was close enough to him at the time other than the Ed's to even ask and even they didn't know what was going on.
She had visited his house after school at the very end of the second week, there had been no cars in the driveway as per usual but somehow she knew he was home and very much alone.
This day ended up marking the very beginning of their strange friendship.
Turns out, Double D the shiest of them all, the happy go lucky inventor of those knuckle head Ed gang was actually the most lonely and depressed in the Cul-de-sac and had landed himself in the psych ward at Peach Creek General Hospital because of it.
There was much more to it than that involving his parents, that much she was sure of, but she had never really been able to get the whole details of the matter out of him.
Confronting him about his absence had been the saddest experience she could remember experiencing besides her deadbeat parents up and leaving her and her sisters to fend for themselves at age ten.
Memories of red rimmed dark circle lined blue eyes, extremely sickly pale skin, and bandaged wrists echoed in flashes in her mind.
No she wouldn't let that happen again not if she could help it.
Needless to say Edd didn't cry very often so this scared the fuck out of her.
Her long pale arms were wrapping around the slighter shorter teen in seconds of him voicing his sorrowful plead.
Tears gathered in her own eyes, "Double D...what happened really? Please tell me, I won't do nothing I promise, I just wanna help okay? I ane't going anywhere I swear, you're stuck with me remember?" She brushed his bangs out of his eyes.
Letting out a soft sob he melted into her embrace, "It burns...it hurts so much...like I'm drowning in a sea of feelings both good and bad...oh how I sometimes wish I were just numb...perhaps it would be easier to be numb..." He murmured into her shirt.
Tightening her hold on him despite the lingering scent of rubbish clinging to his form she leaned down and kissed his forehead, "Come on D I think you need a good warm long ass bath, and then we're both cutting school and you are explaining everything, and I mean EVERYTHING."
"Bu-but what about Kevi-" He started asking only to be rudely cut off.
"Fuck carrot top, something tells me he's half the problem anyways." The bluenette grumbled as she gently dragged Edd toward the boy's bathrooms.
It was his turn to sigh this time.
Kevin was going to be extremely pissed for lack of better words.
Why couldn't he have a good day for once?
Or at least the proper ending to a bad one..