Beakers and Beanies

Chapter 13

There is a lot to say still. There are some things to get straight and some things to declare not "straight". They both knew this. But the time and location was the hard part.

"Edd." Is all Kevin could say after having the wind knocked out of him by a simple smile.
"Kevin... again." Edd responds a bit shy.
Kevin grins and sits beside him, a wave of defeat rushing over him.
He has pissed off Nazz and Jay- his closest actual friends and he doesn't know how to fix it.
But at least Edd's still here.

"You look cute, I like the sweater." Kevin comments, resulting in Edd crossing his arms over Alice themed Knitted Sweater . "Oh, thank you Kevin, I thought I'd match the theme... you look quite handsome yourself." Cheeks redden and Kevin leans forward only to stop and scratch the back of his hair in an attempt to keep his hands to himself.

"We should probably talk about this right?" Kevin says.

Edd smiles weakly, his mind going through multiple conversations, all not good. But why does he have so much hope? 

"I believe you're right Kevin as you still haven't made it a point to say that you're g-"

"Kevin! Bro!"

Kevin shoots up and glances around but can't see a soul. "Mike?"

Edd sits frozen, his face becoming paler by the second.

Kevin notices and lets out a sigh.

"Kevin? You back here?"
He's getting closer.

Kevin quickly bends over and kisses Edd on the forehead, "don't forget, 9!" He says right as he he turns the corner and walks over to Mike.

"Hey bro, what's up?"

...

Edd has found a bit of comfort in taking his salad to go in the video control room across the gym entrance. He comes to the conclusion that now is the time to think.

'Kevin is nice... again. Suddenly? He kissed me... that he did do, twice now. Traditionally this means one likes another but realistically it could also mean anything. This is similar to before... he spoke up against the event in the locker room... but of course is still close friends with that horrible boy. They are teammates after all. He took Nazz to prom. However, he says he doesn't have any feelings for her. Is it reckless of me to keep my hopes up? Ah well I've been plenty reckless lately.'

His thoughts come to a halt when his eyes cross the clock on the wall. 8:57.

He stands and paces the room, not quite knowing what's going to happen. All he knows is that he can feel his palms being sweaty. He pulls a hand sanitizer from his pocket and squirts it out, rubbing his palms together while holding them away from him since the smells a bit too strong. He quickly looks into a blank computer monitor and adjusts his sweater and beanie. He puts his plate and fork in the correct recycling bin and opens the door. It's much darker out now as he looks up and see a couple stars but the field's lights are too strong to make out much of anything. 

He lets go of a shaky breath and walks over to where Kevin told him to go.

He opens the gym's doors and makes out multiple random gym equipment that's not currently in use. 

'Kevin said the storage room but this whole building itself is a storage room..'

He turns left and finds the doors to the room, noticing a white glow coming from the bottom.

He knocks on the door and a loud crash is heard from within. He jumps up as the doors open and a blushing Kevin is found inside.

"Sorry, the knock scared the shit out of me and I knocked some stuff over." They share a laugh that relaxes them as Edd takes in the space. There's a single strong light bulb above Kevin's head as he holds his hands behind his back in an organized supply room.

Kevin clears his throat as Edd walks in and closes the door behind him, suddenly feeling shy as he wraps his arms around himself. 

This is contagious since Kevin shakes his head and quickly blabbers, "I am not going to assault you! I just wanted to show you something..."

Edd can't help himself from raising his eyebrows, "Some...thing?" 

Kevin laughs, "Ah shit, okay okay just- Look!"

He pushes back a cart of basketballs to reveal multiple little markings on the bottom of the wall. "So apparently, this wall is where people write down wishes... it's really lame but after that thing happened in the summer I kept thinking about you and the only way to stop was to acknowledge it and then push it to the back of my head... So, I wrote this."

Edd squinted to see a small, "K + E" written in a horribly imperfect heart. He gasps and quickly covers his mouth. "Kevin!"

Kevin moves his smile to one side, "Yea, I know... but I wish I could tell that Kevin that it wouldn't have helped him."

"Did you really?" Edd says still shocked. Kevin laughs again, "Yea, you had me pretty fucked up."

It's Edd's turn to laugh. "I didn't know." Kevin nods. 

"Well... now you do."

Edd's eyes begin to water, "I-I-I" but Kevin is quick to take his face in his hands.

 "No, no. Shhh... I really don't deserve you. Or for you to feel the same way but I'll try my best." Edd smiles and Kevin makes sure to capture it with a kiss before saying, 

"Now, you ready for the next surprise?"