Green and blue hydrangeas

CHAPTER 2

9 o'clock couldn't have come soon enough. Kondraki looked around his small apartment for anything he'd missed while prepping. He went through his mental checklist: Dinner? Check, pierogi was cooking on the stove. Movie? Check, Netflix up and running. Clean? Check, no dirty clothes and trash taken out. Everything was set. Now all he had to do was wait. As soon as that thought left his mind, he heard Alto knocking.

"Ding dong loser! I'm here!" He shouted through the door.

"Wow Al, how rude of you. I guess you're not coming in now." Kondraki called back.

"I smell your food, lemmie in!"

"Make me." Kondraki challenged, grinning.

"Alright"

Kondraki knew exactly what this meant. Clef was going to try and bust down the door. He heard him backing down the hall, then running. Just before he collided with the door, Kondraki opened it, letting Clef into his home instead. Alto managed to halt himself before he hit the wall. He turned to face his friend.

"Ben," He chuckled."you're an ass."

"Well at least I'm not trying to bust down your front door every time I come over. So who's the real ass?"

"Still you. Anywho, what's gonna wreck my brain this friday Benny-boy?"

"You mean our brains Al. I haven't been able to choose anything yet, too busy makin' dinner".

Clef gasped, placing a hand over his heart. "I can't believe this, I had faith in you Benjamin."

This made Kondraki laugh. He really loved the way he and Alto could banter like this in private. They could be raunchier and hell, even use each other's first names without worry. Ben looked over at Alto. The blond sat in nothing but duck patterned pj's, quite possibly the world's ugliest socks, and a T-shirt on his couch scrolling through Netflix. His dual colored eyes scanned the screen before he finally picked something, a newer movie called The Gallows.

"Y'know, you look ridiculous." Ben said.

"Says the man wearing a sweater with the phrase 'Buenos dias bitchachos' on it."

"Fuck you." Ben retorted as he sat down "The fresh hell is this?"

"Some new horror, heard it was shit."

"Jesus fucking christ, can we actually watch something good for once?"

"First of all: no, the whole point of these is to watch bad movies. Second of all: don't use jesus's name in vain."

"We broke that rule last week and I'm Jewish" Ben shot back.

"OH MY GOD. Benjamin, Apollo 18 is purified shit. Stop arguing about this with me."

"It was perfectly fine and look who's using a name in vain."

"That doesn't matter right now, what matters is you think-wait how long has the food been cooking?"

"OH SHIT!" Ben shouted.

He sprinted into the kitchen. Ben found his pierogi was fine, if not slightly overcooked. He sighed in relief. His house wasn't burning down, thank god.

"Everything good?" Alto called from the couch.

"S all fine." Ben replied, putting everything together "Hope you're ready for pierogi."

"Fucking again? Is that all you can cook?"

"I can cook more than this," Ben said coming back with the food "just thought you liked it."