Birds Of a Feather

19. There goes my hero [part 2]

"Just a little fix here and there, huh? Well, thanks a lot, Super Mario!" Layla hissed as she was trying to stop the water flowing from a pipe under the sink with a rag.
"It was just a fucking leaking tap, how could I know hell would have broken loose?" Sara replied pacing the loft, looking for books and stuff she had left as usual spread on the floor to save them from drowning.
"This is not hell, Sara. There's fire in hell: here we have water, fucking Niagara Falls in our house!" Layla tied the rag around the pipe and looked for another one to add.
"El, I'm worried about your sudden crude language: I'm gonna tell your mum"
"Sara, I know you wanna joke a little to release tension and all but... THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT MOMENT!" Layla yelled and her friend figured out it would have been better to keep humor for herself until the disaster would end. But will it end? And how? Water was running fast and soon reached all the rooms.
"... Gotta call the guys" Layla said after she had tied the third rag around the leak and water kept on springing out incessantly.
"Who?"
"The guys, Eddie and Jeff, for help"
"WHAT?! Are you crazy?? We can handle this by ourselves, we don't need the help of those two slackers! Not to mention the fact that they may be the ones who caused this mess, as a prank"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"... It could be"
"Jeff and Eddie may have trapped us outside our door, but I doubt they have entered our loft and hammered our plumbing just to have a laugh about it" 
"Who knows? And-where are you going?"
"To change into something less revealing" Layla answered as she came back to the kitchen wearing another t-shirt, a dry one.
"If you want dear Eddie to come and rescue us faster you should have kept the white and soaked one" Sara joked again and her friend threw a wet towel at her.
<Shit, water has almost reached the door> Layla thought, going outside their apartment.

When Layla started knocking her neighbors' front door and ringing their doorbell, Jeff was in his room: headphones on, bass in his hands, he was practising on a new bassline, so he couldn't hear anything. In the meantime Eddie was watching a baseball game on tv, but he stood up from the couch and turned the volume down a little.
"Eddie? Jeff? Are you in?" the girl called for them and Eddie rushed to the door to find out what was happening since Layla sounded alarmed.
"Hey Layla, wha-" he opened the door and saw her standing there, barefoot, her jeans rolled up to her knees, messy hair and red eyes.
"I'm sorry, Ed, I didn't want to bother you but... it's an emergency"
"What's wrong?" the guy put a hand on her shoulder.
"Our apartment... I don't know what the problem is: there's water everywhere and we can't stop it, I think it's serious"
"Ok, come in and stay here, I'll see what I can do" he said, motioning her to get inside.
"I'm coming with you"
"No, just stay here: sit on the couch, have a drink, eat something... anything you want! Just stay here and relax, everything's gonna be alright, ok?"
"Fine"
"And don't cry, please, ok?" he said in the softest voice she had ever heard, smiling at her.
"O-ok"
<If only he knew what I was crying for...>

When Ed entered the girls' apartment he noticed that the problem was more than serious. He called for Sara and found her in the kitchen, trying to dry up the mass of water with a little mopey.
<Like trying to drain the ocean with a sponge> he thought as he walked towards her.
"Oh, our hero has finally arrived! Always ready to help wet damsels in distress, huh? But where's Layla?" Sara welcomed him with a smirk.
"At our place, just... just go there too and wait for me" the singer said, trying to hide a smile.
"Hahaha, sure! Like I'm gonna let you here, in my loft... alone!"
Eddie rolled his eyes: "Ok, stay here, then! Do what you want, but move away from that sink, let me have a look"
Sara pulled away and the guy knelt down, looking for the main valve to shut off the water supply to the apartment. When he found it he screwed the faucet – not without effort since water kept springing on his face – then he stood up, all soaked wet and, as he was wringing out his t-shirt, the water stopped flowing.
"Wow, I must admit you've just gained a thousand points in my personal chart" Sara cracked a smile.
"Thank you. But it's not over. Now we'll definitely need those rags, a lot of them"
"We? I thought you told me to go to your pleasant and dry apartment and just wait for you" the girl said, walking slowly to the living room to reach for the door.
"... But I could use some help now" he remarked, then noticed the apartment lights flicking for a moment.
"This ain't nothing good"
"Ok, get out of here – where's the master switch? You know, I'd like to help without dying for electrocution" Eddie told her sarcastically and the girl showed him where it was.
"... Also because the valiant knight won't get any reward from the other damsel if he dies" she stood in the doorway with a devilish grin on her face.
"Get out of here!" Eddie shouted and wanted to throw a towel at her but she ran away and closed the door behind her before he could do it.