Edd Interrupted

Chapter 17 - Summer After Junior Year II


Double D waited a few days after the discovery of their relationship to go to Kevin’s house. It never occurred to him to call. During the summer, when they were a stone’s throw away from each other, it was easier to visit each other directly.

He rang Kevin’s doorbell and resisted the urge to peer through the glass of the door when there was no immediate answer. He waited patiently in the summer heat, alternating between knocking and ringing for ten minutes before accepting that no one was home, despite Kevin’s care in the driveway. So he went home and left a casual message on Kevin’s cell phone: “I apologize for the earlier, unseemly interruption. I assure you that I have spoken with Ed and Eddy and have rectified the situation.”

If knocking and ringing the doorbell didn’t get Kevin’s attention, the message did, because he let himself into Double D’s house that very night and none-too-gently roused him from sleep.

“The Eds. You said you talked to them. What did you say?” he demanded.

The lights flared to life and Double D rubbed his eyes. “Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy--”

“Hey!” Kevin gave him a hard punch in the shoulder. “Fucking answer me!”

That woke him up immediately. “Kevin! Physical abuse is no way to get--”

“I’ll show you abuse, you little spazz.” He gripped the front of Double D’s pajama top and hauled him out of bed. Once he had his full attention, he gave him a shake, enjoying the way the dork’s feet dangled off the floor. “What do they know?”

“Put me down this instant!”

“Tell me what you told them!” He shook him again.

“The truth! I told them the truth! You’re going to stretch the fabric!”

Kevin didn’t so much as drop him as throw him against the nightstand. The phone clattered to the floor and sconce above it flickered.

“What truth?” Kevin growled.

Double D rubbed the small of his back where it had struck the furniture. “The truth, Kevin. That we are in a mutual and loving relationship.”

“Fuck.”

“I’m not sure I see the problem. Ed and Eddy were very understanding. They didn’t seem averse to our homosexuality. They even mentioned that they weren’t overall shocked.”

Kevin eyes narrowed, not a pleased expression. “Why weren’t they?”

“Well, as you know, I am not the most . . . masculine sort of boy and with you as the dominant influence in our relationship--”

“We don’t have a relationship!” he roared suddenly. “Dammit! Do you think that’s what this was? I’m not gay!”

Double D crossed his arms with an unimpressed cock of his chin. “Your actions speak otherwise.”

“So I like a little ass now and then. Sue me. You think it’s easy finding college girls who will do anal? It’s not! And here you are, all pitiful and don’t know any better. Don’t confuse me using your ass with some bull shit relationship drama.”

Stunned, it took Double D a few moments to figure out what to say. “I don’t believe you.”

Kevin snarled under his breath, fists clenching at his side.

“You are upset by our earlier interruption and perhaps embarrassed to confess your feelings, but--”

“I don’t have feelings for you!”

“Surely you are not asking that I ignore all of the small signs of affection you have showed me--”

“Bull shit! It was all bull shit! Like I expect you to bend over like a slut if I knock you around like I used to?”

Double D wrung his hands anxiously, swallowing a few times before he could speak. “But it seemed like you--”

“I never said we were together! When did I ever say we were anything?”

“You missed me. You enjoyed my company. You laughed and smiled more than you frowned. I paid very careful attention in analyzing--”

“I enjoy potato chips and drag races and I’m not in relationships with those!”

“But . . . but when you visited me--”

“I was bored! Do you want me to explain every detail of the shit I said and did?”

“It would help, yes.”

Kevin glared harder from under his red cap. “I don’t have time for this.” He turned to leave the room. “Stay the hell away from me.”

“But, Kevin--”

“I mean it, dork!” He slammed the door on his way out.

XXX

Not to be put off, he was a modern boy after all, Double D stomped right over to Kevin’s house the next morning. If Mr. Bossy-britches-jerk-of-a-jock thought he could reduce what they shared into a casual fling, he was dead wrong. No matter what awkward phase he was going through, their relationship deserved more than that. In addition, Double D knew that whatever was ailing Kevin, he could help. The trials of life were always easier to bear when you were with the person you loved.

Rather than bother with the front door, he went through the side gate and into the back yard. Kevin was on the deck in his swim trunks, sunglasses on, a beer in one hand, casually taking a drag from a cigarette.

All previous plans and rehearsed speeches aside, Double D let out a horrified cry. “Smoking!”

Kevin jumped and turned to gape at him. “The fuck . . .”

“You put that filthy thing out right now, mister!”

But Kevin was already on him, shaking him by his shirt. “I told you to stay away from me!”

“I can’t do that!” he said, and though a part of him still feared the childhood bully Kevin had been, he couldn’t forget soft words spoken breathlessly, warm touches in the dark, the pleased groans that told the truth.

“If you don’t get out of here, dweeb, I swear I’m gonna--”

“I love you, Kevin,” he said without meaning to. “I . . . I don’t know when it happened, but I know you’re the first person I’ve ever loved. You make my heart sing the sonnets of Shakespeare. The very air comes alive when you touch me--”

“Get the hell out,” Kevin snarled and was already dragging him back to the gate. He had shoved him outside the gate, but before he could swing it closed, Double D was there, arms wrapped around his waist, face pressed against his chest.

“Please, Kevin! Think about what you’re saying! I know if you reflect upon our time together, you’ll recall how happy we were. How we both love--”

“Shut up!” With frantic, jerky movements, Kevin tried to pry him away, but the dork’s skinny arms were stronger than they looked. “Get off!”

“I can’t!” he cried. He knew he had nothing to offer, wasn’t beautiful or sexy or something Kevin could brag about to his friends, so words were really all he had. If he could do nothing else, he could talk until he was blue in the face. “Don’t make me leave and pretend we were never together, please. Please don’t send me away, Kevin. Please . . . I’ll die . . .”

Kevin didn’t loosen his grip, but he did screw his eyes shut, like he was trying to block his voice out. He opened his eyes again and saw his white knuckles clenched around Double D’s orange t-shirt. And that face was looking up at him, with his dainty chin, his tiny ears, the gap between his teeth, and those big, wide eyes looking like an animal that had been kicked too many times. What the hell was he supposed to do when the dork looked at him that way?

Before he could do anything about it, they were interrupted when a young woman’s voice called out, “Kevin? Where did you go? The margaritas are melting.”

Double D frowned. “Who . . . who is that, Kevin? If I’ve stumbled upon your lurid affair with a painted strumpet behind my back, then--”

“Keeeevin! I thought we were going to go swimming!” Her voice was getting closer.

With a panicked noise, Kevin shoved him away again. Then, in the manner of cornered bullies everywhere, he lashed out. With his fists clenched, the first blow caught Double D in the mouth. There was blood immediately when his teeth cut the inside of his lip. The second blow hit his left eye, the third his right, and the fourth his gut which had him doubled over and gasping noisily. His frail body trembled, one arm wrapped around his belly, his free hand trying to grasp Kevin’s hand, his arm, his shirt, anything for balance.

Kevin grabbed the back of his shirt, ignoring the high pitched wheezing noise that was the only thing he could hear beyond his own thundering pulse. He tossed him out the gate and into the front yard. He had enough time to see Double D stumble and trip over his tiny feet to land in a heap before he slammed the gate shut.

“There you are,” the woman said, muffled to Double D through the tall, polished wood of the gate.

“Sorry.”

“Were you talking to someone?”

“Just taking care of a neighbor kid.”

Double D lifted his bleeding head and looked around at the rest of the cul-de-sac blearily. Fearing someone would see him in his shame and humiliation, he scrambled to his feet and ran across the street, back to his house where he fished the spare key out from under the potted plant and shut himself away in the protective solitude of his childhood home.

He didn’t see Kevin again for the rest of the summer, but Kevin saw him.

XXX


Kevin saw him when he came out to get his mail the following morning. As he watched from the front window, peeking from between the blinds, Double D limped down the driveway toward his mailbox, hat pulled low over his head. Both of his eyes were black, his lip was cut, and Kevin felt nauseated.

He’d beaten up plenty of people before: opposing baseball teams, the usual scuffles with roommates, he’d even gotten into a healthy fist fight with his neighbor at the condo. He’d never hit anyone and regretted it before. Every time he remembered his fists flying into Double D’s face, he had to squeeze his eyes shut and think about something else.

The next day, Double D looked even worse. It was obvious, the way he kept his head down and his gaze far from Kevin’s house, that he was frightened Kevin would rush through the front door to beat him again.

The third day Kevin saw him, Double D dropped his mail, bent to pick it up, and stumbled. He landed on his hands and knees on the pavement. In a flash, Kevin was up and rushing to the front door. By the time he had run out onto the front lawn, Double D was already gone. He stood there for a long time, watching Double D’s front door, willing him to come out and talk to him. He didn’t, though.

Kevin didn’t see him for the rest of the summer.

                                                                                                                                   

Chapter 16 ~~~~~~~~ Back to Kevin/Edd ~~~~~~~~ Chapter 18

                                                                                                                                   

 

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