Whelve

Chapter Nine

Daniel

"I hate fucking humans," Ev called out as he got inside the apartment, carrying a bunch of bags and seeming rather angry.

"What happened?" I asked back as softly as I could. His dark eyes set on me and he took a deep breath.

"Went to the vet. The kitten had a microchip. Turns out she wasn't a stray. Someone adopted her about a week ago -a family- but she ran away, and they don't want her back..." he said quickly, annoyance clear in his voice.

"Who wouldn't want back a pet they lost?" I asked, not really expecting him to answer.

"Fucking no one. She clearly was more than they bargained for, cause she's a living creature and not a fucking toy, so instead of at least finding a decent home for her they threw her out!" he answered and pushed back his purple hair so it wouldn't be in his eyes.

"So where is she now?" I asked, noticing that he didn't have her.

"I left her to the vet so they could run a few more tests and I went to buy some stuff for her. I'll go back in a bit to legally adopt her," he said and leaned down to start taking out the things he had bought. "I got her some food, a litter box and a bunch of toys. Also, a small blanket so she's not sleeping in a fucking towel."

Ev sighed and put the things away. I watched him as I sat by the table and bit my lower lip, a question eating me up.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he said back, not looking up at me.

"How did you carry these with your motorcycle?"

"I have a car too..." he replied slowly and dug in another bag. "But that reminded me, I also got something else," he went on and then stood up and brought to the table a new cell phone, still in its package.

"You got a new cell?" I asked, looking at the item and then up at him.

"It's for you."

"For... me?" I muttered and pulled back a little. "You've already done so much for me... I- I don't want any gifts..."

"It's not a gift. I'm not asking anything in return, but I don't have a landline and in case anything happens you don't have any way to reach out to me when I'm at work or out. Besides, you can also talk with any old friends of yours. You've been gone for a while and they might be worried about you," he explained and went to go through his backpack.

"Friends?" I asked back, not taking my eyes away from the device that was on the table.

"Yeah, from your old school?" he said and looked back up again.

"I didn't go to school. I was- I was home-schooled," I replied.

He was still crouching down by his backpack, but he cleared his throat and frowned. Slowly, he got up and walked to the table, where he let down something he had gotten from his backpack. My eyes followed the movement and I froze. It was his ID. I looked away quickly, not wanting to seem as if I was prying, but what I caught a glimpse of made me look again.

"Hold on," I started, changing the topic. "I thought Ev was short for Evan. Your actual name is Everett?"

"Don't say it like that," he replied with a soft chuckle. "It's not a bad name..."

"No, it's not. I just didn't think of you as... an Everett," I quickly explained myself.

"But you thought of me as an Evan," he said, mimicking my tone. "For what it's worth, you don't really look like a Daniel either," he went on.