// me coughing up blood, my fingers cramping like no tomorrow, and surviving only on caffeine: lol here's the next part enjoy baby
come on eileen !
oh i swear (what he means)
at this moment,
^^^^ \\
TORD POV
I sat at the edge of the boardwalk, pulling my jacket closer to my body in an attempt to keep out the cold. My legs dangled down over the frothy sea, and moved slightly with the breeze.
Edd was late by a minute or two. I didn't really mind, it was colder out on the ocean anyway, but I couldn't manage to keep my anxiety at bay. As water lapped up against the wooden supports, my mind wandered from possible inconveniences, to troubling thoughts, to doubts. I jumped a little when I heard footsteps approaching from behind me.
Edd wore a lime green windbreaker that was awfully painful to look at, even in the dark. His countenance was a seemingly unchangeable look of grit, and his brown wisps of hair danced in tune with the wind. I realized I was staring.
"Hey," I said dumbly, "What's up with the jacket?"
"What's up with your boyfriend only appearing once in a blue moon?" He snapped.
"Well, first of all, he's not my boyfriend," I chuckled wearily, "And second of all, he's busy. Only comes 'round at night."
Edd sighed as audibly as he could, then reached out his hand, offering it to me, "Get up. I just wanna meet him and go home."
I took it, and he pulled me to my feet. His hands were warm, in contrast to my freezing ones, and felt soft in my sandpaper palms. He let go once I was standing, and a heavy silence hung in the air between us. His face was inches from mine.
In an attempt to break the silence, I said the first thing that came to mind. The first awful thing.
"No homo, bro," Came flying out of my lips, too fast for me to stop, too stupid to ever be excused.
Edd stared at me for a long moment.
"No... Homo... Bro?" He repeated, drawing out the words with long pauses. My face went red.
"I'm so sorry- It was the first thing I thought of! You were just .. So close and-"
Edd busted out laughing, sounding a chorus of his unsurpassable joy, and my achingly terrible misery. He repeated the cursed sentence over and over between giggles, holding onto me for balance, and burying his face in my shirt. All the while, I was horribly embarrassed, and had no idea what to do with my hands.
"But- but aren't you gay?" He managed to say through wheezes.
"No!" I could feel the heat returning to my cheeks, "Why would you even.. No!"
Edd fell into another spiral of endless giggling, mumbling as he did so, which mostly consisted of, "You're so gay," and "Closet case".
In other words, the night was going great.
After an enormous effort of coaxing, and talking, I got Edd in the boat, who was still wearing a huge shiteating grin. I rowed us off into the sea.
As a breeze lifted the air, I ran a hand through my hair, pushing loose strands out of my eyes. Edd sighed, letting his smirk fade into his resting face. The only sounds for a while were the creaking of the boat, and the inky black water washing up on its sides.
Edd broke the silence, "So is he a cryptid or something?"
I hesitated before answering, "He hunts fish."
Edd raised his eyebrows, amused, "Excuse me, hunts? Is your boyfriend a caveman?"
"He's not my boyfriend," I said quickly, "We're just friends. I don't know how many times I've said that at this point."
Edd shrugged, that grin returning to his cheeks, "Whatever you say."
I shot him a look, then averted my attention to the sea. It was a bit restless tonight, the waves were more aggressive than usual, but that wasn't saying much. Of course, I couldn't see anything past its surface, but that was a reliable constant the ocean kept steady.
I could Edd was growing impatient, as the minutes rolled by he became more and more disinterested.
"So what drove you to wear that horrific jacket?" I questioned, trying to spark conversation.
Edd didn't miss a beat, "I didn't want to get run over."
I nodded, "But you seem to be forgetting- it's four in the morning."
Edd shifted a little in his seat.
"I didn't want to risk it, Tord."
"You didn't want to risk getting run over in the early morning hours of a tiny seaside town during the fall? Really?"
"Oh, shut up. You're wearing bright red jacket."
"Bright red? I wouldn't call this bright red."
"Well," He scoffed, "Red's a noticeable color!"
"So is green."
"Whatever. Bet you're freezing, anyway."
"Correct. But-"
Before I could finish, Matt had surfaced from above the water without a sound, just a few inches from Edd's head. The corners of his mouth lifted slowly, revealing his sharp teeth, and he placed a finger on his lips. I swallowed hard.
"But what?"
"Huh?"
"You were saying?"
"Oh, um, yeah. Your jacket. It's bright."
Edd nodded slowly, "Uh huh. Wonderful observation ski-"
Matt grabbed Edd's shoulders suddenly, yelling in his ear. Edd jumped, yelped, then fell to the bottom of the boat.
Matt was laughing wildly, almost in the same way Edd had before, but more sinister.
"What the fuck!?" Edd shrieked, "Who are you? What are you?"
"This is Matt!" I said hastily, making a bee line to the other side of the boat, and wrapping an arm around Matt.
"Okay, great, but what is he? Specifically?" Edd demanded.
I shared a nervous glance with Matt.
"I'm Tord's boyfriend!" Matt chimed. My heart dropped to my stomach.
Edd raised his eyebrows, and seemed to forget all of his previous concerns, "Boyfriend? You're his boyfriend?"
"Uh.. Yes."
"And... You kissed. And dated. And are a thing."
Matt looked back over to me, his eyes filled with some unreadable emotion, and nodded.
"That's," Edd paused, "That's hilarious."
Matt frowned a little, but still held his smile, "I guess?"
A painfully awkward silence passed us by.
"Anyway, what are you? Are you like a fisherman or..?"
"Oh," Matt glowed in the attention, "I'm a merman."
"Siren," I corrected.
Edd's amusement drained in an instant.
-
"I cannot believe this."
We were standing back on the dock together, and the sun had just begun to rise over the horizon. Edd's face was painted by its colors, and sheer outrage.
"You're going to die, Tord!" He hissed, "You need to stop this before you get hurt."
"Edd, please, he wouldn't ever try to hurt me, I know-"
"How? How do you know? You're absolutely insane, and so is he!"
"Then.. Maybe our crazies match. Maybe we're meant to be."
"You think that about everyone."
"I do not!"
"You do! I can see it when you look at Tom, at me, at-"
Edd froze. He stopped mid sentence, harsh words hanging in the light morning air. Tension stood between us like a roadblock as we waited for the other to say something.
"I have to go," He mumbled, "But we should talk about this later."
"Yeah."