KevREV!Edd Part 2

That evening, Kevin was laying on his bed with his shirt off. He glanced at the clock feeling drained. 7:15pm. He sighed, thinking he should get ready. He sat up and looked out the window. His heart skipped a beat as he recognized a face in the window across the way. He jumped up and watched Eddward as he sat at his desk, which was apparently adjacent to the window. He was leaning close to something Kevin couldn’t see and moving his arms enthusiastically over whatever it was. Kevin smiled as he watched. Edd sat back suddenly after what seemed like a few minutes. He looked at his wrist, then turned and looked over at Kevin's house, and Kevin hurriedly hid behind the curtains. His heart was pounding as he slid to the floor. He sat in silence for a while before he heard a knock on his bedroom door.
“Kev?” His father said quietly.
“Yeah?” Kevin stood as his door opened and Edd stood there with his dad. Edd looked Kevin up and down and looked away.
“You were supposed to be at Eddward’s at 7:30?” His father asked, eyebrows raised.
Kevin looked at the clock on his bedside table again. 7:37. Kevin looked back to Edd. “Sorry. I guess I forgot.” He shrugged.
His father frowned and sighed. He gestured Edd into Kevin’s room and closed the door behind him. Edd looked around and grimaced at the mess. Clothes all over the floor, unmade bed, dusty shelves and window sill. “Sorry about the mess,” Kevin said, guessing why Edd looked annoyed. Edd closed his eyes and stepped further into the room. He cleared a space on the desk and set his bag down. Kevin hastily cleared clothes and his backpack from his desk chair and offered it to Edd. Edd looked surprised, but sat down anyway. He adjusted the seat- his legs we longer than Kevin’s- and pulled up to the desk. Kevin pulled out his notebooks and textbooks as Edd retrieved his own.
“Let me look over your notes if you would.”
“Oh, Kay, here,” Kevin handed him his old notebooks and his new notebooks for this semester.
Edd read over the notes quickly. It was interesting to see the difference. Last semester his notes were sloppy and half unreadable. Clearly he didn’t usually look back over them very often. His notes so far this semester were neat, although the hand writing wasn’t. There was repetition. A lot of it. Behind him, Edd heard Kevin shifting self-consciously on the bed. “They said repetition will help me learn new things and remember old things.” Kevin looked down, “It was kinda hard at school cause the teacher would say stuff and I would write it down, but then I look at what I wrote and I’m like, when did they say that?” Edd glanced at Kevin. He was still shirtless and now he was fidgeting with the hem of his basketball shorts. He was unsmiling and unguarded.
“It’s not unusual. Regardless of what sitcoms would have the general populous believe, a case of retrograde amnesia cannot be cured by a frying pan to the head. Both long and short term memory are affected. Exposure to familiar stimuli may help recover old memories, and repetition may help improve short term memory, but some may never be recovered and you may always have trouble learning new material depending on the severity of the injury.”
The thought gave Kevin a chill. He flopped back on his bed. “It’s hard you know? They say to do things that I would normally do. Visit places I’ve been. Talk to people I know, but I can’t remember anything. I don’t know what’s supposed to be normal and what’s not, you know? Like, I must have had secrets right? I guess they went to the grave without me, and like, I wonder how much of me was secrets? People say I’m the same, but I’m different. So what does that mean?”
Edd sighed. “Pardon, but I didn’t come here to listen to your problems outside of pre-calculous. I have practice in the morning, and I need to finish this early enough, ensuring my eight hours of sleep.”
Kevin laughed as he turned on his side and reached to grab his math text book. “You know yours is the only face I’ve remembered so far. My dad cried when we got home.” Edd slumped in his chair, resting his elbow on the desk, and his chin in his hand.
“Did you not hear me at lunch today when I stated that I hate you?”
“Yeah, I heard it. Doesn’t seem fair though. I can’t remember why you hate me. It’s like you just hate me for no reason.” Kevin jumped as Edd slammed his books shut. He stood and stared down at Kevin, something akin to rage blazing behind his eyes.
“Fair?” He hissed as Kevin stood to face him. Blue eyes bore into green as Kevin regarded Eddward. “You should ask your subjects how you see fair, oh king. To you fair is and always has been unheard of. You pick on the defenseless, and you get angry when they grow up and start fighting back. To the point of.. of..” He was breathing hard and snarling again. Kevin’s eyes widened.
“Do I bully you?” He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at his bare feet. “Aw, man, am I that kind of asshole? I’m sorry.” He looked up at Edd in time to see a fist flying at him, but not nearly enough to dodge it. He turned and caught the left hook on the jaw. He stumbled back and caught himself. As he had the other day, he dove at Edd, catching him mid chest. True to his reputation as a star football player he easily swept Edd of his feet. Edd recovered quickly, kicking out and sending Kevin reeling on his side. Edd was on top of him, hitting him round the neck and head. Kevin tasted blood as he caught Edd’s wrist and flipped him over onto his back. In a moment he had Edd pinned. Edd struggled, but this time, Edd’s lower body was trapped under the bed and Kevin had his hands firmly wrapped around Edd’s wrists.
They were both breathing hard, and Kevin was staring down into Eddward’s eyes. Finally Kevin took a deep breath and leaned forward. Edd’s eyes widened and he gasped. The barely audible sound broke into Kevin’s foggy mind and he paused. Less than a centimeter his parted lips hovered over Eddward’s. He looked again into those blue eyes before he closed his own and gently, softly pressed their lips together.
There was a moment of stillness, when Kevin’s mind cleared and there was a moment, just a moment, when he felt like himself—whoever that was. The moment was gone in an instant however when he felt Double D bite hard into his lip, drawing blood again. He yelped and drew away, and Edd took the opportunity to head-butt Kevin as hard as he could muster from this angle. Kevin released Edd and was pushed aside as he clutched his head in pain. Edd scrambled away from him and pulled himself up on the desk.
“God-damn, dude! The fuck’s your head made of??”
“As if you could talk you snake!” Eddward spat something at him in what he assumed was French as he grabbed his books and hurriedly put them in his bag. Kevin stood up slowly and gently touched his lip where it had been broken. “Are you even listening to me you inconsiderate, insensitive, inhuman, predator?! Invasive! Filthy!” Kevin watched him pull hand sanitizer from his pocket and rub it all over his hands and arms.
Kevin smiled. “What? How am I supposed to listen while you’re speaking French? You gonna put that crap on your lips too? Although you might want to actually. You have my blood on you.” Edd wiped his mouth angrily as he pushed Kevin roughly aside and stormed from the room. Kevin heard him stomp down the stairs and exchange heated words with Kevin’s dad before the door slammed.
Kevin fell back onto his bed and closed his eyes. He was asleep before his dad made it up the stairs to chastise him. It had been a long day.
----------------------------
Marie was waiting for Edd outside the boys’ locker room. She was pretty. She wore her hair in a short bob which she had died blue. She usually wore mostly black, and today she donned a black cami top with a red plaid skirt, black tights and boots. She texted her sisters May and Lee while she waited. She asked Lee how the baby and the baby daddy were doing. They were fine, Lee said. The baby was sleeping all night now and the baby daddy made manager. Marie and May argued over whether they would have pizza or pasta for dinner.
A shadow passed in front of Marie. She snapped to attention to see a large blonde beady eyed dimwit leaning over her. She recognized him, but not from the swim team. He smiled. “You’re cute.” He said.
“You smell.”
He laughed and backed off hastily. “Do I? I was just... working out…” He flexed his muscles as he “stretched.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You busy?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re just standing here.”
“Yeah.”
“Come on, don’t be like that.”
“Look, thanks, I’m flattered,” not really, “but no thanks. I’m spoken for.”
“By who!?”
“By John-noneofyourgoddamnbuisiness-Doe. Leave me alone.”
The hulk stood to full height and he got angry. “What the fuck? Why are you being such a bitch!?” He reached for Marie and grabbed her arm. She winced as he squeezed her arm. What’s with this fucker??  
Suddenly Marie felt an arm around her waist. A hand smacked the hulk’s away and pulled her back toward a solid male body. Marie expected it to be Edd after his swim practice, but smelled Old spice instead of chlorine. She looked up and squeaked in surprise when she saw Kevin Barr glaring at the guy, with a protective arm around her waist. Kevin stared at the hulk and the hulk stared back. “The fuck!? Stay off her, man!”
The hulk sunk back after a moment and stalked away. Kevin watched him, holding firmly to Marie. When he was out of sight, Kevin turned to her. “You ok?”
“Yeah. Thanks, Kevin.” Marie smiled sheepishly. She noticed the bruises on his right cheek and jaw and the busted lip.
Kevin’s smile faltered. “You know me?” Kevin sighed. He should have known. Apparently he was pretty popular.
“Yeah. I’m Marie…umm.. Kevin?
“Hmm?”
“Your arm? Uh, could you let me go?”
Kevin jumped away from her and rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry.”
“What are you doing here, Kevin?”
“I was just passing by,” Kevin said nervously. That was when Marie noticed the notebook under his arm. Neatly labeled on the cover and with different colored tabs poking out of the top and sides. She recognized it.
“Is that Eddward’s?”
Kevin stepped away and grabbed the notebook defensively. “He.. forgot it at my place yesterday…” Kevin confessed.
“You were coming to give it back?” She was genuinely surprised.
Kevin sighed. “Do he and I really not get along that much? What did you think I would do with it?”
She shrugged. “Hide it? Or burn it or scribble on it or something.” She took the book as Kevin offered it to her. “Hey, I’m meeting him anyway. Want me to give it back?”
He beamed at her. “You’d do that? Choice! Thanks, uh.” He paused.
She smiled. “Marie.”
“Oh. Haha, thanks, Marie. Hey! Here’s an idea. Nazz wants to throw me a welcome party. She invited a bunch of people from the neighborhood we grew up on and a bunch of people from school. You should come.” He bowed to meet her eyes and grinned at her. She smiled too.
“S-sure. Nazz you said? That blonde girl you hang with, right?”
“Yeah. She said she’s known me since we were kids. I don’t remember it, but she’s really nice. I like her.”
Marie smiled at the thought. “I knew you guys were close. We hardly ever saw you two apart before you left. She was always really down while you were in the hospital. Hey, is it cool if I bring Double D?”
Kevin thought about it and shrugged. “It’s Nazz’s party but I guess so. I doubt he’d go though. Doesn’t seem like his kind of thing.”
Marie shrugged. “Do you want to exchange numbers then?”
“Sure. Here,” He keyed his number into her phone, then texted himself to get her number. He passed her phone back and continued chatting for a while longer.
“You getting used to being back?”
“Kind of? Classes are a little hard. I don’t really get everything and seems like when I do, I can’t remember it when I get home. Especially freaking math.” He frowned.
“You should ask Edd to tutor you. He’s probably gonna be Valedictorian next year.”
“Don’t we hate each other?” and hasn’t someone already tried this?
“Well, he probably still hates you. But it doesn’t seem like you hate him.”
Kevin shrugged. “I don’t see why I would.”
Marie laughed sadly. “I don’t think he ever did either. He and his friends Eddy and Ed used to pull like, pranks all the time…what did he call em? Scams! Like legit, trying to get money from people that lived on your street. Double D was just the brains, and going along with his friends, and you bullied all of them because you hated Eddy.”
Kevin looked surprised. This was the first he’d heard of any of this. “Did I?”
“Yeah. You called them all names. Dorky, Dorkzilla, and Double Dork. Double D hated it. I mean, I used to pick on him too, but that’s because I had a crush on him.
Kevin thought of the kiss and his stomach churned with butterflies. In the heat of the moment, and even as his lip had been bleeding, the kiss had seemed like a good idea. Now, in the stark light of day in reality, it seemed foolhardy at best and a little rapey at worst. He shuddered. He wanted to clear the air. Maybe give Edd a clear shot at his face as payback or something. Anything to alleviate the guilt. He forced a laugh at the nicknames. “Aren’t those not as bad as they could have been? I mean, I’ve called him worse just since I’ve been back I think.”
“Yeah, well, when you get an entire middle school populous calling him by one mean name; it starts to hurt pretty badly.”
Kevin cringed. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, You got a lot meaner in middle school. I don’t know why. I just kind of stayed out of your way, but a lot of people joined in instead. Especially toward the Eds. Then in 8th grade--”
“What’s quite enough, Marie.” She gasped and turned to see Edd dripping in his tight swim shorts and swim cap. He leaned close to Maries looking venomous. The other members of the swim team filed into the locker room. Kevin noticed that many of them seemed afraid of Edd. “I would ask that you refrain from continuing with story time Marie. Edd stood straight and looked down at Kevin. He smirked at the sight of the bruises and the lip. “Black and blue does look good on you, Barr.”
Kevin felt a tug of annoyance. He smiled deviously. “You look good in red,” Kevin said quietly as he brushed touched is own lips lightly.
Color rose in Edd’s cheeks, and his eyes narrowed. Crisis was averted when Marie held up his notebook. “Slipping up, Mr. Vincent. Kevin was just coming to give this back and became my white knight.” At Edd’s confused look, she continued. “Some creeper wouldn’t leave me alone.” This was then Edd spied the bruise on Marie’s arm. He pulled her arm up to inspect it.
While he looked at her, Kevin was trying not to look at Edd. His body was long, lean. His skin was smooth and pale. At the moment, this visage was marred only by the bruises on his ribs. Kevin felt an odd pang of regret. The thought struck him in that moment that he should ask Nazz if she knew anything about his inclination toward men and women.
“Kevin?” Kevin snapped back to attention.
“Huh?”
“I was saying we should hang.”
Kevin smiled. “Choice! Yeah, we really should!” Edd gave Kevin one last death glare before he slipped into the locker room to change. It was then that Kevin caught sight of something. Scars across Edd’s back. He wanted to ask, but Kevin decided he’d rather leave before he came back. He gave Marie a warm one-armed squeeze and said good-bye. He really liked her. He wondered if they really hadn’t spoken all these years just because she was friends with Edd.