The Degenerates - Under Edit

t w e n t y f i v e

Rain began to pour shortly after I arrived at Trey's door. He emerged in grey sweatpants and a black hoodie, his face quizzical, "Did we plan something?"

"No," I answered quickly, "I just feel like I can't breathe in my dorm."

Trey opened his door and gestured me inside, closing the door behind me, "You're not wet,"

"What?"

"You usually walk here, you're not wet."

I side-eyed him, "I beat the rain,"

"Then who drove off?"

I blinked, calculating my next answer. I played it off casually, "Theo," I said innocently.

Trey's face scrunched, "Theo? Are you fucking kidding?"

I waved him off, "He was hanging around campus, seriously, it's fine-"

"What did he say?" Trey demanded.

I sighed, "He wanted to know if you were going to set him up,"

Trey pressed his hands to his forehead, silent for a moment, "Okay,"

"I said no, obviously, he just needed some extra convincing.."

Trey dropped onto the lounge, still with one hand pressed to his head in exasperation, "Just try to avoid him, please?"

"Okay," I obeyed, falling onto the lounge with him. It wasn't like I go around looking for ways to interact with Theo, but he just appeared in places that I was.

Trey's unit was warm, he must have had the heater on. The temperature dropped dramatically when the rain started, at least a couple of degrees or so. I wrapped my arms around myself until I felt warm and comfortable.

"Have you eaten?" Trey asked eventually.

"I had a late lunch, but no I haven't since."

We ordered dinner, it took at least twenty minutes longer due to the rain, and we sat under a blanket watching a crime documentary that had recently come out on the Discovery channel.

"You know, Brad and James don't have parents?" I told Trey when the documentary had finished, which was about a boy who had committed mass murder, however the documentary heavily focused on his childhood growing up. He had parents who weren't active in his live when he was just a boy, and eventually passed when he was a young adult.

Trey looked over at me, "How do you know that?"

"Lila told me, she's wanting to plan a memorial."

"That's probably a good idea, eventually. I just hope they catch the guy first." Trey commented, ignoring the parents comment.

"But maybe the whole losing parents ordeal had something to do with James turning out the way he is, or Brad's drug abuse-"

"Well if that were the case, then everybody is fucked up, because nobody's childhood was perfect." Trey declared and stood up, taking our containers to the bin.

I wanted to press him for details, but I got the hint his childhood was not something he liked to talk about.

"Mine was," I said anyway. I wanted to show him that not all parents were bad, that sometimes, the children were the bad ones.

"Well, Neijla, I am so glad to hear that." He retorted from the kitchen, not facing me.

Maybe mentioning that wasn't a good idea. I didn't plan on him taking it that way at all; making him feel like he was an outcast was not the direction I had planned this conversation.