Ned Gets Stood Up

Chapter Two

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THREE YEARS LATER

December 23rd

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CHAPTER TWO

NED

Ned's side split in two and his breakfast threatened to explode out his top escape hatch.

"Lena," Ned pleaded, holding onto his side to keep his spleen or whatever was on his left side from falling out and hitting the sidewalk. It'd freeze over in this weather and, knowing him, he'd stomp on it and shatter it to pieces. "Go on without me. I won't make it."

"Ned," Lena groaned, clearly not amused. She jogged back to Ned, arriving with her hands on her narrow hips. Her usual black curls were compiled into a bun on top of her head, apart from her curly bangs that she talked about regretting at least once a day. Lena had cool black skin and huge brown eyes, framed by the thickest lashes Ned had ever seen.

"We can still see the neighborhood sign," she said with the slightest lisp from her brand-new braces, which she fought against for a while until she realized she'd rather be a junior with braces than a college freshman with them.

"Yeah," Ned said, collapsing into the closest yard. "And it's mocking me."

"Ned, you didn't even try."

"What do you mean? We ran to the sign."

"We walked here. Not ran. You showed me a bunch of dog tiktoks."

"That you obviously didn't appreciate," Ned grumbled and laid on his back as he caught his breath. The sky was empty and gray, getting his hopes up for some Christmas snow. Ned always wanted a white Christmas. Lena kicked his sneaker in retaliation.

"You promised to go on morning walks with me during the winter break and we already skipped the weekend."

"Did you get it in writing?"

"Ned," she grunted and kicked his shoe again. This time, Ned feigned injury and curled himself into a ball as small as he could manage and, being 6'2, he was about as small as a stilt walker.

"Okay, okay. How about we start after Christmas?"

She rolled her eyes, not buying an ounce of Ned's bullshit. "As if you're going to awaken from your food coma before New Year's."

"Fine, then what if we wait for the Lunar New Year?"

"Which is when?"

"February." Ned grinned.

"I hate you," she lied and offered Ned her hand. Their fingernails matched with every other nail being green and red. Ned spent all yesterday watching the best Christmas movies at Lena's house while gorging on cookies and drinking enough hot coco to suffer chocolate hangovers.

In this neighborhood, Christmas lights and decorations outnumbered the people by nearly a hundred times. Caravans of people across town came to walk their sidewalks at night to take in the decorations. In the daylight like this, Ned could only dream of the exuberance.

"Come on," Lena grumbled. "Let's run back to my house."

"Can I talk you down to a brisk walk?"

Lena sighed, but matched his snail's pace. They discussed story ideas about the next project they wanted to start. Lena wrote while Ned drew the comics. They had never finished a project, but they were always optimistic about the next one. This trickled into discussing tonight's plans. Ned mention meeting someone later, but he didn't go into the details. If she could hear the nerves in his voice, she avoided pointing them out. Lena was the opposite of a pressure cooker. She never forced Ned to spill his secrets too quickly. She let him simmer until he was well and ready to serve.