8 Pencils 1 Sharpener

Chapter Two

The end of the toothbrush clasped between his lips tightly, Evan Lonn stared wide eyed at the guy in front of him. He had a skinny build, with a pointed face with even stubble and short messy hair the colour of melted milk chocolate. Soft blue eyes were locked with his.

Evan let his eyes trail down, to the grey and red sleeved t-shirt, down to the tight fitting jeans and ebony socks that matched the carpet. A pile of books were scattered on the floor, dropped from shock that went unnoticed. Next to him stood a suitcase, and slung over his shoulder a pink duffle bag.

The pair stood in silence for what felt like half a minute. Finally, Evan spoke.
"Oh. Hello!" he hollered cheerfully, Nutella dribbling out of his mouth.
The stranger cringed.
"Hi, uh, I g-guess." he stammered.

Desperate to clear the cloud of awkwardness, Evan sighed as he looked down at himself, the chocolate spread splattered all over his white thermal top.
"I can explain." he chuckled, pointing at himself.
The stranger cracked a half grin. "Go ahead. I'm interested."

Evan took a deep intake of breath, only to start coughing as he choked on his toothbrush. Doubled over, he let the toothbrush drop to the floor, sending brown spittle over the white tiled kitchen floor. The stranger pat his back as Evan spluttered.
"You alright man?" he queried.
"Yeah, I'm grand." Evan smirked, wiping saliva off his plump lips.

Straightening himself, he cleared his throat and proceed to tell his story.

"Well, you see, I arrived here early this morning, and I haven't eaten in the past forty eight hours due to back to back Speech and Drama performances and non stop encores. Great fun, you'd love it. Anyway, I become a total fucking savage when I'm starving, so there I was opening every fucking door in the place.

"There was nothing in the fridge, so I was like 'Oh fuck' and then I nearly ripped off all these cabinet doors," at this, he indicated to the wooden cabinets that matched the outer walls of mint green. "searching for even just a slice of bread. So, eventually I get to the last one, and I'm like a freakin' cave man- mesolithic mind you- and all I find is two big jars of Nutella.

"So I was like 'Jackpot!' and as I grab the first jar, it slips through my fingers and falls onto the counter. Well, shit goes everywhere. I never knew Nutella could be so explosive? It gets in my hair, as you can see, and on my top...as you can see. I've cleaned up the mess, so it's grand.

"When I finished, I grab the other jar. I take off the shitty gold foil thing and I start looking for a spoon, but I didn't look too hard because my stomach was like "Feed me!" so I opened like two draws. I'm not gonna eat with my hands like an animal! I was thinking of things like spoons, and the only shite that came to mind was my toothbrush. So I raced into my room, grabbed it from my suitcase and came back down to eat...and then here we are."

There was a few seconds of silence between the two. Then, the stranger let out a giggle, then a chuckle, then a full blown belly laugh. His eyes seemed to laugh with him as he clutched his sides saying "Well, I applaud your determination."

Evan grinned, knowing he's now made a new friend. "I'm Evan. Evan Lonn."
"And I'm Ashley Landsiy." said the stranger.

They went to shake each other's hands, when suddenly they heard a distinct creak of stairs. They were not alone. Their eyes locked when they both asked
"Did you come here with someone?"

Their gazes slowly turned to the living room door, footsteps growing closer. Terrified, Evan watched Ashley grab his duffle bag, obviously planning to use it as a melee weapon against the intruder. He himself grabbed his toothbrush as a make-do sword. Hunched over, prepared for combat, a shadow appeared in the door way until they were face to face with-