Strangers

Coincidence

Edds POV

"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked as I pushed the cart behind me, climbing back into the car.
"Edd, if I hear one more pitying comment or apology from anyone, I will stab you." He slightly slurred his words as he chugged the concoction in his hand to ease the pain.
"Alright, I'm only trying to help..." I muttered as I pulled the car out of the driveway.
I will admit that I was a bit startled when I saw the two men with him, but they seemed nice, helping him out like they did. But Tom seemed a bit annoyed at the attention he was receiving.
"Yay, were home!" Matt applauded. He jumped out of the car and ran into the apartment building.
"Wait Matt!!" I tried to call out, but he already vanished. Me and Tom continued to pick up the bags and carry them into the apartments.
"Ah..you two...live here?" A gruff voice squeaked behind us. A familiar man greeted us, laden with bags full of groceries. It was Paul, With Patryk gasping as he stopped behind Paul.
"Oh, so you guys were the new neighbors I heard about!" I said, excited. By now Matt had returned to see what was taking us so long.
"So..you two now live right next to us?" Tom asked trying to process what was happening. We were all crushed in the elevator heading to our floor.
"Uh, well not just us, but yes!" Paul chuckled nervously.
"This is great! How long will you guys be living here?" Matt asked eagerly, he probably wanted to show them his collection of photos..of himself.
"Uhh...I u-um..Pat?" Paul choked and looked at Patryk for help.
"Well, it'll probably be a while...just until our lea-uh I mean our friend finishes his recovery." He said, "But we really don't know."
"Oh, theres another person living with you?" Matt asked.
"Us...hes not a very sociable person at the moment, he had an argument with some old friends. It got a bit out of hand and now he's all banged up, both inside and out. His arm got all mangled along with half of his body." Paul said seeming to choose a few words carefully.
"Thats terrible, what happened?"
"We don't know the whole story, but we had been receiving complaints from some of our old comrades, they claimed that he had stolen something from them and threatened to hurt his friends if he didn't return it. He then devised a plan, that he would make our buddies believe that his friends were nobodies, merely packmules to hide the package. But his friends took it the wrong way and ruined his plans. Our comrades eventually dropped the subject and praised him for bravery..." Pat explained.
"But now he feels awful about his friends..he is always depressed." Paul continued. The elevator was silent for a moment.
"Ah! But he will get through this..he doesn't know where his friends are now and its probably best he doesn't know." Pat said, "and the good news is that he doesn't have to get his arm amputated! The surgeon said that none of his major functioning nerves were'nt harmed! So he really only has to go through a few months of physical therapy."
"That's good, maybe one day, we could all get together to meet him and cheer him up!" I offered. The elevator dinged and we all hopped off.
"That'd be nice, but his conditions not too good now, so he'll just have to stay home with the boys for a while and rest up for the big day." Paul said as we all shuffled down the hall.
"The 'boys'?" Tom snickered from behind me , " didn't you say this guy is a socially unstable person?" I made a mental note to dump all his Smirnoff out the window tomorrow.
"Ah, his two snow leopards, Valkyrie and Tyr, both his emotional support and friends."
"Oh...I'm more of a...domestic and tame house cat sort of person." I nervously said. I hope they don't eat Ringo.
"Haha, its quite alright, they aren't violent in any way...unless they feel you've provoked them or their master."
"Oh okay, that makes me feel a bit better..." The group came to a stop as we arrived at our apartments, "well, I guess we'll be seeing each other some other time." I fumbled with the keys as Matt struggled to keep all the bags of groceries I gave to him.
"Is, lets hope its soon, see you later...Edd, Tom, and Matt." Patryk said walking into their apartment with Paul giving a small wave behind him.
We all walked into my apartment to settle all the merchandise into its place. I kept wondering about Paul and Patryk's friend...just how badly was he treated for a good deed? I pitied the guy, hopefully we can all become friends when he is all patched up.