Screamland part 7

Kedamono comes out of the public bathroom, dizzy and depressed, having thrown up from an all day nervous deposition, he goes to the front of the local diner and gets a table to sit down to get a drink of soda. His face is red from crying and the waitress notices.

“Honey, you okay?” The waitress asks as he sits down.

Kedamono nods, head in one of his hands. He had a bit of a headache, actually. “I’m okay. Just some stomach issues. Thank you,” He smiles at her politely. “May I have a soda?”

“Sure, sweetie. You have some real nice manners!” She giggles. “You want Coke, Diet, Sprite, Vanilla Coke, our homemade Lemonade?”

Kedamono sighs, his hand on his head. “I will try that lemonade. Thank you.”

“Okay, sugar. Maybe a piece of pie, too? It’ll lift your spirits!”

Kedamono laughs, but it comes out in a sputtering cough. “Uh, maybe.”

“Aww, hon. Okay. I’ll bring you that pie.”

But as she leaves, Kedamono feels nauseous again.

He knows he has to talk to Popee again; feeling bad he left the way he did in anger. He leaves money for the food and drink plus an extra twenty on the table for the waistress’ trouble and stuff he ordered (as he understands what it’s like to work in the service industry and be skunked on tips), and gets up to leave.

Unfortunately, as soon as he gets up, the waitress sets down the lemonade and pie.

“Oh, honey, here’s your pie! I made it this mornin’!”

Kedamono laughs softly, blushing. “Uh… thanks.”

He sits back down and tries the lemonade.

“Are you feeling better? You look so down.”

Kedamono sighs, and looks up at the waistress. “I’ve seen better days.”

“Why so glum?”

Kedamono hesitated to say anything, but then explains, “I had a fight with someone I care about.”

“That’s a good reason to be upset.”

“Yeah. And I left so upset,” Kedamono sighs. “I don’t know how to fix things.”

“Well, do you know this person well? What sort of thing cheers them up?”

Kedamono thinks back to their past.

Dancing, singing, juggling—-Popee enjoys those things for sure. Knife throwing. Fire breathing. Absolutely!

Speed racing too—-(thinking of doing any of those old circus stunts with Popee like that makes Kedamono even more nervous)—-

“Fire breathing?” Kedamono offers, making the waitress look at him in a deeply concerned manner. He notices this social error and changes course. “Drums! He loves it when I play the drums.”

“Hmm.” The waitress looks thoughtful. “Is this someone… is this a special sort of someone? Like more than a friend?”

Kedamono flops a bit on the table in surprise as his expressions go from quiet embarrassment to nervousness to a realization and astonishment. “He’s my best friend,” he says in a sort of begrudging way. He was still feeling a bit raw from their earlier exchange and the reveal of the new furniture —-yet the fact remained that their relationship was very important to him.

She laughs sweetly, and Kedamono hears no judgment in the sound. “Yes. And that’s why you can’t stop thinking about them. Right?”

Kedamono nods. “Right. What should I do?”

“Get him some chocolate. Play him a song with your drums. I’m sure that’ll help. Also, just talk to him.”

He thanks her for her helpful advice and support, and eats the pie, feeling better.

As he sits there looking out the large window of the diner into the town, he remembers when they first moved in and at first there were some nights he felt eerie. He’d have nightmares, and wake up in a cold sweat. Popee would awaken (put on his glasses) and pick him up, hold him and say nothing.

But, it felt so safe. So warm.

Popee didn’t press Kedamono for answers unless he wanted to tell him what the nightmares were about.

To Popee, all that mattered was that Kedamono was off the floor and not alone. And of course, safe in his arms.

And though the nightmares slowly stopped, the warmth of those memories didn’t fade. No, it only made their bond grow stronger.

Silence was sometimes more important than words, Kedamono realized.

But, now, not so much.

Suddenly, as he was slowly starting to feel a bit better(and his headache was going away), he saw something that made him go into shock.

A tall, blonde man on Seventh and Twelfth, with his thumb sticking up in the air, looking for a ride. A familiar backpack on the ground.

“Oh, no. No, no, oh my goodness no!” Kedamono says in a disturbed, almost squeaky voice. “Oh, Popee, what’re you doing?!” He signals to the waitress.

“Yes, honey pie?”

“I left the money on the table with a tip. I really appreciate your help so very, very much! Thank you! I must go now. Thank you.”

She looks taken aback for a second but understanding.

“You’re welcome. Now go get that sugar, suga!”

He nods, blushing, and runs out of the diner.

***

Popee is waiting for a ride and thinking about nothing.

He isn’t thinking about Kedamono at all.

Nope.

Even when he sees familiar purple hair running toward him and a familiar yell.

“Popee! Hey! Hey! Popee!”

Popee sighs and looks over on the other side of the road, directly across from where he was standing.

“Keda? Is that you?” Popee squints his eyes. He can’t see well without his glasses so he finds them in his pack.

Kedamono stops and waves, “Popee!!”

“What’s going on?”

“What do you mean? What’s going on with you?! What’re you doing? What do you think you’re doing?!” Kedamono says in a panicked tone.

“Leaving!!”

“No! No!” Kedamono barely looks to cross the road and runs through the street, narrowly missing a car.

“What the hell? You are going to get yourself killed!! Keda, you’re crazy!”

Kedamono laughs in a nervous titter. “No. No. That’s you. Hitching a ride with a stranger is going to get you killed! No. You can’t go. Please. Please, Popee.”

“You’re better off without me.”

Kedamono starts tearing up. “No.”

“Stop saying no.”

“The say yes, Popee. Say yes to me.”

Popee rolls his eyes.

“Popee… please. Don’t do this. Let’s go home.”

Popee looks at Kedamono finally.

“Are you crying?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I care about you.”

“Why were you crying earlier then? Your face looks pretty red.”

“Because… because…”

Popee suddenly picks up his backpack, grabbing Kedamono’s hand. “Let’s go.”

****

“So, I want you to know I’m really sorry. I’m sorry I caused this. It wasn’t your fault, and that should go without saying, Keda. But, I appreciate you. So much. Everything you’ve done. You work so hard. And you are…”

They are still holding hands as they get in their boarding room.

“Popee?”

“Yes?”

“Why did you say you almost destroyed my job?”

Popee’s face brightened in embarrassment and shame. “Keda… I went to your bar and had a fight with your boss. I didn’t plan on it! It just happened.” Popee sighs. “I told him to give you a raise and to give you better shifts. Of course, that backfired magnificently on me.”

Kedamono squeezed Popee’s hand tighter.

“You… you did that? For me?”

Popee smiles a bit. “Yea.”

“Wow.”

“And he practically fired you right then and there. But I begged him to not do it. That it was my fault. You had nothing to do with it.”

Kedamono nods and sighs in a deep breath. “My boss is such an ass.”

Popee laughs loudly and falls over, directly on top of Kedamono. Their faces touch, making their hearts beat faster.

“Keda…”

“Yea?”

“I’m, uh…”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“No. It’s okay.”

They move away from each other but sit close anyway. They hold hands again, as they accidentally had their hands separate when Popee fell on him.

“So, Popee, why were you so upset when you came home?”

“Because I almost wrecked the stability of our lives with that fight. Your job gives you so much pride and honor. And all I do is come in and destroy things. It doesn’t matter that I ‘fixed’ it. I barely can pass as a normal human being. Seeing you do something so magnanimous and selfless as building up our home and creating a wonderful living space as our provider, it made me uneasy as I realized I had almost nothing to bring to the table. I have had nothing my whole life. Seeing such grandeur—-it made me feel so lucky yet I knew I didn’t deserve it with how I used to be.”

“Popee…” Kedamono starts, leaning in closer to the other’s face. “Of course you deserve this. You deserve so much better. You aren’t like how you used to be. You need to forgive yourself or… else you’ll slip back into your old ways. Yes, you act pretty immature at times, and I act like a naive fool, but we can keep each other in check. Right?”

“It’s not so easy.”

“Yes. Yes it is.”

“Keda…”

“Popee,” Kedamono moves in even closer.

They both start to get heavy thoughts and move in closer.

“Oh, Keda… what’re you thinking?”

“I’m thinking about all those nights you held me when I had nightmares. You were so strong. And so sweet.”

Popee’s face brightens with a grin. He whispers in a teasing, almost flirty way, “You’re so cute when you need attention.”

Kedamono laughs. “You liked to give me the attention. Admit it.”

Suddenly, it is quiet and they stare at each other in a deep way.

“I love you.”

Kedamono’s heart leaps in his chest when he hears the confession.

“Popee?”

“I love you so much, Keda.”

Kedamono smiled so big and feel so warm, he can’t wait any longer. He leaps into Popee’s arms, holding him tight.

“I love you, too, Popee.”

Popee feels so happy and hugs him back.

“But I’m in love with you, Keda.”

The whisper gives Kedamono goosebumps.

“In love?”

“Yes.”

“With me?”

“Yes, dummy!”

“Oh.”

“You’re not?”

Kedamono moves out of the hug so they can look at each other.

“No, I’m sorry. Is that where you are just friends right?”

“Ugh. No!”

“Popee, then I think I am in love with you too.”

“You can’t say I think!”

Kedamono realizes what Popee wants.

He leans and says, “Ok, I know,” and kisses him on the mouth softly.

Shocked and a bit euphoric, Popee smiles in a dopey fashion.

“This is it, I’m in love with a scientist!” Kedamono says.

“Don’t expect anything too crazy from me. I will still make you fried chicken, of course.”

Kedamono grinned. “That’s all I ever wanted.”

“Me?”

“Chicken.”

“I’m gonna slap you. Chicken, he says!”

“No, you won’t.” Kedamono winks at him and Popee sighs in a silly way.

“I know.”

***