Dents

[+] People

I kneeled in front of the mirror in my room, brushing through the wet locks of my hair. Stray droplets of water fell onto my pants with each stroke. The fresh scent of shampoo wafted out with a cloud of steam from the tiny bathroom in the corner.

Amidst my distracted brushing, a familiar melody tapped on the hardwood of the bedroom door. I smiled and knocked the accompanying harmony onto the floorboards. 2D entered.

After coffee, we went back to bed for a while. 2D reset the alarm clock. He insisted that we get pizza for 'breakfast' when we woke up. I didn't really see how it counted as breakfast if we were eating it in the middle of the afternoon. He was so adorable that I didn't object.

Despite his light weight, the floor squeaked beneath him until he stood behind me. I took him in from the reflection in the mirror. He wore a black button down polo paired with a leather jacket and jeans. A blood red baseball cap sat crooked atop his fluffy azure hair. Once our income had dramatically increased from pennies to pounds, he'd begun dressing in clothes that weren't falling apart at the seams.

I hadn't expected it to make as much of a difference as it did. Yet when I saw him walk into my room like that, carrying himself with that newfound confidence of his, I was practically ready to jump on top of him then and there.

"Yew almost ready?"

I set the hairbrush on the nightstand and dusted myself off. He patted the top of my head and held a hand out to me, lifting me from the ground.

"I'm ready. Let's go."

"Hold on. Yewr hair's all wet," he pouted, "Don't want yew gettin' sick again."

He grinned and took off his hat, setting it on my head instead. He tugged the hood of my jacket over it.

"Alrigh'. Le's go, luv."

The hallway was engulfed in a smoky, earthy fragrance. It was vaguely familiar. At first, I couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. I recognized it as aloeswood - a spicy, rich sort of smell used in meditation to stimulate the mind. There was only one person in the house that engaged in that activity regularly.

I thought about knocking on her door. She hadn't left her room all day. It wasn't like her at all.

Noodle was always so kind to me. When it came to her own troubles, she buried them away inside. I worried about her a lot.

The ear piercing squeal of the staircase muffled my thoughts.

"You think she's okay, 'D?"

"Yeh. I fink so," he furrowed his brow, "She said somefink a lil funny a while back, though."

"What's that?"

"Well, uh, when I went to ask 'er about how to - Oh," he exclaimed.

His face flushed a brilliant shade of red. He clammed up. I was confused. Then, I recalled his conversation with her when Ace left and his odd behavior whenever the topic of their discussion came up. It seemed that he nearly revealed whatever it was by accident.

"E - Enyway," he stammered, "She asked me how to run an ad campaign."

"What the... ? Why?"

It seemed very out of character for her. Noodle hadn't been interested in working on promotional material for the band before. I couldn't think of a good reason as to why she would now.

"Dunno," 2D responded, sliding on a pair of sneakers, "Sort ov weird, innit?"

"I guess. Know what I think is really strange, though?"

I stood in front of him. I leaned in close to his face. Being as tall as he was, his neck was bent downward to look at me. Despite our obvious difference in strength and stature, he looked intimidated.