My Mania Ended The World Peace. ★

⋆ 10 ⋆

Saturday greeted them with some cold orange sunshine the next day. And like nearly every weekend, if they weren't sleeping at Hyde's, Hyde would stay over at Adrian's at the end of a long exhausting day.

Presently though, Hyde shuffled around Claire's until he came to a stop before an jewellery stand, nudged it, and caused it to spin to the other side where rings got replaced by beaded bracelets and ones made of fake silver.

'You know, I'd get her any of them because I have no clue what she likes, but this seems important and I'm freaking out!' Hyde panicked. 'That's like choosing which college you want to suffer through for the next three years. Big decision.'

Adrian who was scanning a similar accessory stand next to Hyde, leaned over to glance at Hyde's where the bracelets didn't seem much greener. 'Not something we'll have to worry about if skipping classes and getting kicked out as a consequence actually ruins our future. How about the pink one?'

'Pink? That's more like something my brother would like, girls nowadays prefer ballsier colours, like...blue.'

'Blue then.'

'Purple fading into blue!' Came a new voice from across the store. They both jumped, especially when their sight was greeted with two eyeballs googling from some glasses, but since they were made of plastic they relaxed back. Behind those glasses was List-up boy, and Adrian couldn't find a single decent thought to explain why he was there.

Hyde frowned, looked back at the stand and picked up a purple and blue bracelet. 'That one?' He asked anxiously.

'Sure.' List-up boy said. 'What's the occasion?'

'Need a souvenir for a girl visiting from Africa.'

Adrian's funny look towards Hyde went unnoticed as List-up boy got lost in a serious brooding state, he brought his glasses up and stared into the top ceiling corner. 'Hmm, then why don't you give Mac a visit? They sell some nice nail polish. If she's not here for long that might be a nicer present overall.'

A lightbulb went off in Adrian's head. 'He's right. They had some real shabby polish on their nails, it was cracking badly. We could buy something with better quality.'

'You think so?'

'Uh-huh.'

Hyde stared at Adrian's chest for a long moment, seemed to come to a conclusion and hooked their arms together, dragging him towards the exit. 'Okay, then let's go.'

'Glad I could help!' List-up boy called after them, and from the corner of his eye Adrian could see him putting the glasses back on. He really wondered what that kid was going to do with them.

Once the worrying after the right colour was done, they headed back home with a Blueberry 5 tossing around inside a small paper bag that hung from Hyde's wrist.

As they stood in front of Hyde's house door with sounds of playing children streaming out of the opened kitchen window, Hyde became warily to go through with their plan.

The moment he came in contact with the door handle he flinched back from it as if he'd just touched a hot surface, then wheeled around, pressing his back against the artistically-engraved door. 'Icantdoit.' He sputtered.

'Yes, you can, dammit, Hyde.' Adrian argued. 'She's probably already forgotten what hit her, open the door.'

'Kids hold grudges.'

'You're not a kid, Hyde.'

'No, I was talking about Jenny—Hey, what the fuck, fuck you!'

'Just kidding.' Adrian held his palms up. 'But really, she'll probably care more about getting the gift then what happened. Most kids aren't complex enough to hold grudges, and if they do they drop them for a nice dark-blue nail polish.'

But it was no hope. Hyde dropped onto the lowest step of seven in total, scraping his soles over the coral-pink cobblestones as he drew his heels back to pretzel his arms on his knees. So it was upon Adrian then, if Hyde wasn't going to lock the door open the intercom had to be pressed.

When the door opened with Jasper hanging from the handle, leaning far out he was met with the sight of Hyde being held in place by Adrian in the path next to the garage, which was at the front of his house, keeping him from running.

Jasper burst out laughing from the top of his lungs, and then Jamie and Jenny appeared on the square white porch, gawking.

'Ged'm, Ade!' Jasper cheered him on while Adrian laboriously made Hyde take the steps up and it was like putting a cat into a bath full of water because he allowed himself to fall back against Adrian when his foot moved one up.

'Seriously, you're only making it worse.' Adrian informed him. Hyde gave up his act and walked the rest of the stairs by himself. And because Adrian already suspected Hyde would try to ditch the next task at hand as well, he decided to at least nudge him that direction by force. 'Hey Jenny,' he said. 'Hyde got a present for you, to apologise for yesterday, do you want it?'

Jenny's eyes widened. 'What is it?'

Adrian elbowed Hyde and Hyde reluctantly jabbed the paper bag her direction with a mumbled 'Sorry.'

She plucked it from his grip, widening the opening with both hands. Jamie came over to stick her whole head inside it, while Jasper kept hopping up and down in an attempt to get a view of it.

'Lemme see! Lemme see!" He chanted away, clearly having drunken coke not a long time ago.

'Nail polish!' Jamie cheered while Jenny synchronically cried, 'It's not pink!'

'I knew it! I just knew colour would be the catch!' Hyde didn't even hear the rest of it because he was already stomping down the path, disregarding any calls from Adrian to tell him to get his ass back. He even tried to reassure him that Jenny wasn't that disappointed but it didn't help that she started bawling really uglily while the other kids, Jasper and Jamie, had their hands on the railing, slapping polish on their nails.