"Thanks for taking me," Eddie said as he and Venom walked back to their dorm.
"You're welcome," Venom rumbled pleasantly, setting the bags down on the floor.
"I really feel like I should pay you back for the stuff, though," Eddie said, heading over to his dresser and digging out his wallet.
"Eddie, no. I already told you I don't want you to pay me back." Venom said kindly.
"But how can I help you? I feel obligated to at least do something," Eddie replied. "I mean, you drove me, bought me ice cream, and now you're paying for my homecoming outfit. There has to be something I can do."
"Well...there is one thing," Venom said softly.
"Yeah?"
Eddie watched as Venom slowly advanced towards him. His heart began to pound and he fought to keep his gaze level with Venom's. It was just hard because the alien looked as if he knew everything about him.
Eddie couldn't think when Venom smirked and leaned down towards him. It wasn't meant to be into intimidating or creepy, Venom just wanted to be at Eddie's level.
"I'm sure there will be competition for you tomorrow night... promise me that you'll save me a spot?"
All Eddie could do was nod. Venom hummed softly and if anything leaned in closer.
"Good..." he purred.
Eddie swallowed.
"But....but you're going to take me, right? In your car?" he asked.
"I have to meet with a professor later tomorrow night," Venom replied, stepping back and standing to his full height again. "It's a pain in the ass but I have to."
"Oh. Then who do I go with?"
"Dan or Anne could take you," the alien suggested.
"True."
"If you really don't have a ride, you could ask Carlton, or Dora."
"Carlton I've known since High school, but who's Dora?"
"She's Carlton's best friend," Venom replied with a smile. "She's nicer than him, too. It seems like they have a thing for each other but neither seems to be capable of telling the other they like them."
"Wow," Eddie said, grinning. "Struggles, right there."
He paused, thinking for a moment. That sounded an awful lot like him. Why, though? He wasn't into guys. He'd never been into guys before and yet he'd only known Venom a day and Venom had given him much more than Anne had ever done in High School. Back then they weren't allowed to date, which sucked.
But seriously, he wasn't....wasn't gay, right? Seriously, though, he didn't understand how Venom didn't have girls and guys falling head over heels about him. Venom was utterly—He furrowed his brows and looked at the blankets underneath him.
"Hey."
Eddie looked up. Venom stood nearby, looking at him.
"You sure you're alright?" Venom asked, sitting down on Eddie's bed.
"Yeah, just thinking," Eddie said, his arms crossed behind his head.
"About what? Must be interesting if you're down that deep."
"Well....y'know how sometimes things in your life doesn't always go your way? Well....that happened with me."
"How so?"
"Y'know Anne, right?"
"Mhmm."
"She used to be my girlfriend."
A short pause.
"What happened?"
"Something happened over the summer, nothing bad, it was just...we didn't talk much and then Dan showed up and before I knew it, she wasn't with me anymore," Eddie said.
"Were you two dating?"
"No. Not really. We went out, sure, but we were never alone persay. Always were in a group. Dan was always there, too." Eddie paused. "I like Dan, though. He's a nice guy. Not mean or snobby like I thought he'd be. He genuinely cares for people. Something most people don't have these days."
"Mhmm." Venom shifted over a little. "How you feeling about it?"
"About what?"
"Anne."
"I've gotten over it."
"Hmm. You sure about that?"
"Possitive."
"Don't give me that, pal, I saw you giving those sad, puppy eyes when we were at the shop," Venom replied, shaking his head.
"But—"
"You still like her. Why?"
"Wow, way to expose me," Eddie muttered, surprised.
"Why do you still like Anne when you know she's obviously moved on?"
"Well...it's hard to explain."
"I can do hard," Venom replied softly. Eddie's heart seemed to skip a beat for a second before he caught himself.
"Okay...it's just....I don't see her being with anyone else but me, y'know?"
"Why?"
"Because....I don't know. I'm not very good at explaining things very well, I'm sorry."
"No. No need to be. Listen, we can drop it if you want." A large, black hand pressed gently against his bed, close to his thigh.
"Okay," Eddie said with a nod.
"You seemed sad about it, that's why I wanted to know," Venom said. He then grinned. "But we're going to homecoming tomorrow. No worries then, right, Eddie?"
"Nope. No worries," Eddie replied with an equally happy smile. "Just fun and games until we die of sleep deprivation."
Venom chuckled.
"Well, it's eleven thirty. Do you want to get a shower?"
"Yeah. But you can go in first if you want."
"I'll get one tomorrow morning," Venom said and stood up. Eddie could feel the bed breathe again, noting how the impressive weight of the alien had pressured against his blankets.
"Alright. And Venom?"
"If you try to thank me one more time...." Venom began, but then smiled as Eddie raised his hands submissively.
"Sorry, sorry."
"I might just forget the rules tomorrow night..." Venom gave him a devilish smile.
Eddie stared at him for a long moment before Venom laughed.
"Calm down, I'm not going to break any rules," he chuckled. "I don't want to get kicked out and leave you all alone here."
"I mean, I wouldn't be against it," Eddie joked. Venom pretended to be hurt and gasped.
"Take that back, you little noodle," Venom growled, playfully swatting at him with a paper as Eddie got up to get his pajamas out to go to he shower.
"I'm not a noodle, and I don't think I've ever been called that in my entire life," Eddie said, laughing a little.
"Well, now you have," Venom smirked. Just before the bathroom door closed, he added, "Noodle."
"I'm not a noodle!" Eddie called back, grinning.
Venom only shook his head and chuckled to himself.
Carlton lay in his bed on his phone. It was dark out and he was texting Dora.
Hey, so are you coming to the homecoming event tomorrow night?
Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you. My flight got cancelled and I won't be able to make it tomorrow. 😭
Aww, but who am I going to go with?
Why not your roomate?
Dora, my roomate is a hulking, eight and a half foot tall alien with teeth that would slice your face off, Drake replied. Anyway, he doesn't seem keen on talking.
I was joking, but maybe you should talk to him more. Maybe he has difficulty with interacting with others.
It's worth a shot.
Again, I'm sorry I won't be able to make it. I know you were looking forward to this.
It's alright. Don't worry about it. Stay safe and have a good night.
You too!
Drake turned his phone off and put it on charger. He glanced over and saw that the large, mercury-gray symbiote was laying on his own bed, staring up at the ceiling.
He wasn't good at starting conversations, but when he got going, he felt more confident. Maybe Dora was right. Maybe Riot was just lonely and needed someone to talk to but didn't know how.
Maybe there was something in Riot's life that was going downhill right now. Carlton didn't know but what he did know was that Riot was being very quiet and that made him think. Not even introverts were this quiet.
"Hey," he said.
"Hmm." came the acknowledgment.
"You doing okay?"
"Fine."
"You got anyone to go with you for homecoming?"
Drake watched the creature sit up and couldn't help but shudder internally when those large, cold, piercing white eyes bored into his.
"No. Do you?"
"No."
"I thought your little girlfriend was coming," the symbiote grunted sourly.
"She was, but her flight got delayed."
"Mmm, how sad," the gray symbiote sneered. "Now you're going to have to go to homecoming alone."
"Well, there's always other options."
"The sign up sheet is full. I already checked."
"Oh." Carlton was silent for a moment. "Hey, uh, with all that was happening today, I never really got to get your name."
"Riot," came the grunt.
"I'm Carlton."
"Hmm."
Riot didn't seemed interested in talking anymore so Carlton let him be. Laying back on the bed again and climbing under the sheets, he reached over and flipped the lights off.
Riot lay in his bed for a moment longer. He was sullen and a little aggravated. No one had picked him for the event. Oh, well. It was kind of his fault for not doing anything about it, but still. Maybe if he was nicer then—
No. He couldn't be. He had to keep his ego. Couldn't let a simple thing as liking a simple, stupid human get in the way of things. Symbiotes weren't allowed to like human's from where they had lived before. But now....now they were free to do as they pleased.
Riot let out a soft snort and stared up at the ceiling. Homecoming would be so boring.
But at the same time....he glanced over at the small form in the other bed across from him. What was his name? Carlton? Carlton didn't have anyone else to go with either. Maybe Riot could—
No. What if Carlton didn't want that? Riot didn't want to ask anyway. Carlton was into girls it seemed, not into males. Especially not Klyntar males.
So Riot just let it go. He would attend homecoming alone it seemed.
Eddie woke the next morning to hear his alarm buzzing. Groaning, he reached out a sluggish hand and slapped against the alarm, silencing it.
"Good morning," came a deep voice from the other side of the room.
"G'mrgn," Eddie muttered, still heavy with sleep.
Hearing a low chuckle, he tried to wake himself up more before getting out of bed. Seeing a blurry, black figure standing near the sink, he knew who it was.
"Oh, hey, Venom," he greeted.
"Did you have a nice nap?" Venom asked.
"Yeah. Thanks."
"You're welcome. The bus leaves in thirty minutes by the way."
"Okay." Eddie glanced at the clock and suddenly leaped out of bed. He could practically feel Venom's mirth as he scrambled to get his clothes out.
"Oh, my, god, I'm gonna be late!" he muttered. "Venom, why didn't you—"
He made the mistake of looking up. Everything shut down. All he could do was stare. There was Venom, his roomate, standing near the sink eating some chocolate, shirtless and wearing only boxers.
Eddie swallowed and forced himself to breathe normally. He thought Venom looked jacked with his clothes on.... Venom was completely shredded. He had an eight pack! Eddie didn't even have a pack! And those muscles in this lighting made him look—
"Eddie?" Venom asked, sounding extremely smug. "You're going to be late..."
"Uh, yeah!" Eddie said and just like that, he was working again. Venom smirked and went to throw on his clothes.
Eddie blushed furiously as he took a quick shower. What was wrong with him? He was never like this before! He wasn't into guys!
Well, maybe he was. Just a little. But seriously, Venom was so weirdly hot and attractive! And he wasn't even a human being!
Eddie quickly threw on his clothes for the morning and grabbed his pass and card for the every day meeting the campus held for the students.
Venom was gone which meant he was going to be alone most of the day. Apparently this professor needed to talk to Venom about something important. But Eddie didn't mind. At least he was going to see him tonight and that's all what mattered.
He had just exited his dorm when someone else was walking past him on the sidewalk. Eddie saw that it was another symbiote.
"Hey," he greeted.
The red symbiote looked at him and grinned widely.
"Hey," he replied.
"Are you ready for homecoming tonight?" Eddie asked excitedly.
"Oh, yes, very eager," the red alien smiled. "I don't believe we've met before, I'm Carnage."
"Eddie," Eddie said, giving him a nod because shaking hands while walking would be awkward.
Something about that name began to ring in his mind a little bit he soon forgot it once that deep, soothing voice spoke once more.
"Do you have someone for tonight?" he wondered.
"Yes, Venom's taking me," Eddie replied.
"Ah, that's nice," Carnage nodded. "He is a good friend of mine."
"Really?"
"Listen, just because he doesn't see eye to eye with me on everything, he thinks he can go around telling people lies about me."
"What kind of lies?"
"Oh, you wouldn't want to hear them," Carnage said softly. "But enough about me. What are you studying?"
"English. I want to be a journalist," Eddie answered politely.
"Hmm, interesting," Carnage mused. "I'm trying to get into the Tech department of things here."
"What do you want to do with that?"
"Cybersecurity, hacking, phishing, that sort of thing," the red symbiote explained, all the while gazing at Eddie. Eddie didn't pay much attention but if he had, he would have seen the symbiote lick his lips (if they were even lips).
"Sounds like a good class," Eddie said, totally oblivious. "I hope you enjoy it."
"I will." Carnage paused. "Listen, if you don't feel like being with Venom all night, you know who's open. I make a great night to some people," he added with a cunning smile.
"Well, that's to be determined tonight, and that's only if I want to," Eddie replied politely.
"Of course, of course," Carnage said. "What I meant was that whenever you felt like it, you could come to me and we could have a little talk. It wasn't as if I was going to take advantage of you, you know. We symbiotes take humans very seriously."
"Really?"
"We respect you as you respect us. It's a good little lesson to learn while you're still young," Carnage informed. "Well, I must be off. I have to speak with a professor about something."
"Really? Because Venom was doing the same as well."
"Oh. Must be a symbiote meeting then," Carnage said with a chuckle. "Good. Well, I'll be seeing you, Eddie."
"Yup. See you, Carnage," Eddie waved.
"Oh, I almost forgot. Do you want to exchange phone numbers?"
"Sure."
Once they were done, Carnage thanked Eddie.
"No problem, take care," Carnage heard as he headed away.
Carnage grinned wickedly to himself. If anything, Eddie Brock was a silly, oblivious little fool. Carnage would have to be careful because of others but he would be able to convince Eddie soon enough. It would just take time and patience.
He couldn't wait until the homecoming event started. Once he had Eddie in the palm of his hand...the thought made the red symbiote jittery with excitement.
Oh, he couldn't wait.