Maroon Sweater (Immortalanex fanfiction)

11. Frozen Koi Fish

Today's song: Help Our Souls (Urban Contact Remix)

See end of chapter for more notes

//

It is Saturday morning. Kevin opened his eyes, but didn't move his body. His right arm was wedged awkwardly under his shoulder and pillow, legs pulled up to his chest. He hadn't fallen asleep curled up like this for a long time.

After laying down, observing the small streams of light peeking in through cracks in his curtains, Kevin got up, stretching his tight muscles and cracking sore bones. He groaned at the satisfying pop sounds they made.

He'd left his phone charging overnight, and he unplugged it. Immediately, his phone screen lit up to reveal a row of text messages and a few miss calls.

He had a few expected message from desperate girls whom the names of he couldn't even be bothered to try and remember, all flirty texts offering themselves and/or asking him out for a frisky date. For once, he felt too tired even to give them a half-hearted response. Honestly, those girls were so dumb and irritating. Did they seriously think they had a chance with Kevin? He smiled painfully to himself. No matter what they do he'd always end up cutting it off with a girl before shit got serious between them. He didn't do that kind of stuff, the whole relationship thing. It won't work out anyway, the girl would dump Kevin she second she got to know him, because damn, Kevin thought, I am an ass.

He deleted all their useless and lusty messages without so much as a proper glance, and moved on to his other texts and missed calls.

4 texts from Just Aleks

2 missed calls from Just Aleks

Kevin tried to will away the dorky smile on his face. It was so unfair. Why did even the thought of Aleks make him feel happy? He thought back to his previous thoughts about the irritating flirty girls. Surely this must feel the same?

But it doesn't. With Aleks, it feels better, cleaner, more refreshing somehow. He didn't feel like his skin was crawling, didn't have to be afraid of an open door, needn't worry about dumb issues he thought were important...

He opened up the messages.

>>Hey kevin

>>Are you up?

>>can we talk im super bored and cant sleep

>>fine nvm i guess you really are sleeping :'(

Kevin's gross smile grew even wider, if even possible.

God, you're acting like such a mess right now, pull your shit together.

He called Aleks. He answered on the first ring, and Kevin wondered if he'd beein waiting on him.

"Aleksandr?"

"Good morning Kevin, um. Please don't call me that, ever, please. Thank you."

"Right, right, okay. Just Aleks, what's up, dude?" Kevin cringed at how forced the dude sounded, but refrained from slapping himself.

"Uh, a lot of things actually. I mean, not a lot, but it's kind of a big thing. Well a lot of things happened that led up to this thing, and-"

"For fuck's sake Just Aleks don't get too distracted," Kevin smirked against his phone, could almost hear Aleks' cheeks go red.

"Okay, okay. Can we meet up? Anywhere? I wanna talk... with you,"

This time, Kevin's cheeks turned pink.

"O-oh, um, sure. But I literaly just woke up so give me a moment to fix myself so I don't look like shit," Kevin wiped his chin, prayed there was no drool there, "and I'll drive by your place? If you like we can go to Larry Park?"

"That crowdy park you brought me once to meet some boring girls? Not what I was thinking. Is there like a more... secluded place?"

"There's my bedroom."

Kevin heard a choking, sobbing sort of noise on the other end.

"Okay, no, I kinda wanna be outdoors. I don't know. It's dumb, but I'll feel better and... safer, I guess? If we were outside and my words could like... flow out... and be released... and not trapped in an indoor area... you feel me?"

"Just Aleks, okay, yeah, calm down, I got it. How about an abandoned park? It's mostly secluded and only a few people 'round here know about it. It's outdoors, sound good enough for you?"

"Perfect."

"See ya."

"See you later, Kevin."

//

When Kevin picked Aleks up, his face was pale(r than usual), thin pink lips tight, shoulders tense. The casual, comfortable aura that usually hung thick around Aleks, and made Kevin's insides bubble, was gone. Instead, when Kevin offered his 1000-watt grin that he usually reserved for pretty girls, Aleks simply lifted a corner of his lips, shrugged, and got into Kevin's car silently.

And that's how the rest of their car ride continued on, Kevin trying to joke around, Aleks giving the cold shoulder. Kevin sighed, focused on the road, and drove on to the promised place.

The place was an old playground, nearby there was a small river that was now more like a pond. There were few koi fish around, and Kevin was suprised that they were still alive. The two of them sat down side by side, facing the pond. Kevin leaned forward and dipped his hand into the icy cold pond, scaring the koi away.

The weather had warmed significantly over the week, but the water was still freezing, and already Kevin couldn't feel the tips of his fingers. He shivered, pulled his hand out, wiped his fingers loosely on his shirt and hid them in his hoodie pockets.

"So, Just Aleks," Kevin started, looked over at Aleks, who was staring at the ripples in the pond. "What big thing did you want to tell me? Big enough that I had to drive you to this secluded place, and to have you give me the cold shoulder?"

Aleks didn't move.

"You're impossible sometimes."

"I think I have a crush on you."

"I mean everyone thinks you're some genius nerd, but you're like a mysterious genius."

"Are you hearing what I just said?"

"Wait, what?!"

//

dun, DUN, DUN!!! Cliffhanger, kind of. I'm in a really write-y mood so BOOM another update! Honestly this is like my all-time favorite song and I just highly recommend reading this chapter along to that song ;) Hope you enjoyed reading this, leave a vote and comment if you did, and remember to follow me for more updates? :)