"For the last time no we're not!" Shouted Aaron, his eyes bloodshot with rage and frustration. "It makes the most sense Aaron." Eve shrugged her arms cradling a bottle of vinegar. "NO! It does not! God, why did I have to get stuck with you a lot!"
When Aaron realized that Eve was one of his esteemed group mates he was already apprehensive about the whole project but when Noah the kid that's always putting shit in his mouth who got caught wiping his ass in the hallway and Blake the smarter half of dumb and dumber joined up too this whole project was damned to hell.
"I'm telling you, man!" Blake started with that infamous laid-back tone that sounded like he was talking through a box fan. "If we just make a Baking Soda Volcano we can beat this project easily!"
Aaron had to restrain himself from strangling Blake as he began to explain the project for the fifteenth time. "It's a biology PRESENTATION! As in we have to do it on the COMPUTER, a Baking soda volcano isn't going to work!" Noah sneered at Aaron, his chubby finger rubbing a booger on Eve's matted sweater.
"I don't see YOU coming up with anything! We can just find a picture on the internet and put it in the presentation!"
Aaron didn't know what was worse: the fact that Noah shot spittle every time he talked because his cheeks were so fat they crushed his tongue or the fact that Eve looked so disgusted at the booger on her shoulder that her usual bronze complexion had run pale.
Actually, it was kind of a shock to the system that Eve even had emotions, she seemed almost robotic before. She didn't really say too much, and when she did speak it was ominous and creepy. Aaron guessed that she simply needed time to open up but that notion didn't stay in his mind very long.
"BIOLOGY is the study of LIFE! A volcano has NOTHING to do with that!" Blake Scoffed "Um, the light from the volcano brings the sky to life!" He said with an air of superiority. Eve put a finger to Aaron's mouth cutting off whatever his lips moved to say.
"Sorry, Aaron but you're outvoted!" She said with a super vapid smile. Now Aaron wasn't just suspicious of Eve's new energetic demeanor but he was starting to doubt her intelligence as well.
Blake, Noah, and Eve's talk of the project slowly found its way out of Aaron's ears and away from his focus as the boy's eyes wandered around the room hungrily eating away at all it had to offer. Between the faded pink paint on the walls and the fuzzy purple carpet, the four were sitting on Aaron couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia.
Not his own of course he had never been here after all but rather nostalgia for all the memories Eve undoubtedly had in this withered old chamber she called a room.
"Hey!" Aaron's observations were smashed to pieces as he found all eyes were on him expectant and impatient. "Do you have any baking soda or not? So fucking rude man, just ignoring people!" Noah nodded in agreement as Eve's head shrunk into her sweater hoping her parents didn't hear Blake's loud swearing.
"No, I don't." "YOUR USELESS AARON!" Eve looked panicked as she grabbed Blake by his jacket desperately trying to calm him down. "Guy's you can't be so loud my parents are-" Aaron stood up and puffed out his chest Blake towering mere inches above him. "How are you mad at ME for not having baking soda when you don't have it either!"
"Guys you really need to-" Blake stepped toward Aaron, his hands finally slipped out of his pockets. "Don't you snap at me Twizzler, do you even know who the hell I am!" Aaron closed the distance between the two boys, the tension between them thicker than the imprint Noah's butt left on the carpet. "Yeah, I know who you are! You're the guy who comes to school forty-five minutes late because he got detention for a crime he got no credit for!"
"You're the guy who has twinkle toes custom made because you thought the term edgy meant having your bangs cut like a sea urchin or wearing pants so tight that you have to have them surgically removed every time you have to take a leak!" Blake seethed at Aaron's comment, his face contorting into a hideous scowl.
"How do you even know about that?! Were you looking at my medical files!" Aaron donned an expression mixed with anger and confusion that made him look as though he were blinded and frantically searching for his glasses. "Dude it was a figure of speech! You could have literally said nothing and I NEVER would have known!"
Noah slammed his chubby hands on the chests of both boys, a severe expression cast on his face. "Noah…" The name slipped out of Eve's mouth in a cool whisper scarcely smelling of admiration. "Blake. Aaron. You can't do this…"
Eve sighed in relief as a dirty grin split Noah's face, his hands shaking as laughter threatened to erupt from his chest. "...without donning the proper equipment beforehand!" Noah stepped into the doorway, his back meat jiggling as he motioned for his companions to follow him.
Five minutes later the two boys were in Eve's driveway armed with Trash Lids for shields and broken broomsticks for swords. "This is a terrible idea!" Eve cried, her hands waving in protest.
Noah shushed her with a simple gesture, his teal eyes stars as they watched the two boys armed for combat and ready to fight for what was theirs. "This is your last chance to opt out! You optic bitch!" Aaron readied his shield in response, his feet kicking up dust as they spread apart securing his footwork. "I'm not even wearing glasses! En garde!" Aaron shouted as he ran forward, his stick thrusting to impale Blake's chest.
"Tch! Touche then you little shit!" The more athletic Blake easily batted away Aaron's errant strike causing the young man to lose his footing as he stumbled back into the grass, his nose bleeding from the trash lid slammed against his face.
Aaron's vision became blurry and the outside world began to fade from his ears as a bronze-skinned woman dashed across the pavement, her biting high pitched voice ringing in his ears. "AARON!" The boy could hear her no longer as he began to bleed on the grass.
"This motherfucker…" Aaron rolled to his side, his gaze falling on the sun as it began to disappear behind the horizon casting a pink haze on the sky and an orange hue on the clouds.
"Just gonna….lay…." Aaron's body felt heavy as though he was being crushed under his own weight. "...Here...in the dirt…" The boy blacked out and his vision faded. His face was warm as a thin stream of blood ran down his forehead.
He's coming from the left...
The voice tore through Aaron's mind as the metal trash lid repurposed as a shield came barreling toward him, an arbiter of his destruction. Blake's eyes were wide with purpose and his mouth had turned up in a grin his pupils dilated with insanity. The world was slow and every sound he heard was grating and intense. The sound of rainwater disappearing down the drain sounded like a raging river in a storm, the insects sounded like bullets flying through the air, and Blake's steps were booming as they ripped apart his eardrums.
"What?"
The more athletic Blake easily batted away Aaron's errant strike causing the young man to lose his footing as he stumbled back into the grass, his nose bleeding from the trash lid slammed against his face. Aaron's vision became blurry and the outside world began to fade from his ears as a bronze-skinned woman dashed across the pavement, her biting high pitched voice ringing in his ears. "AARON!" The boy could hear her no longer as he began to bleed on the grass.
"This motherfucker…" Aaron rolled to his side, his gaze falling on the sun as it began to disappear behind the horizon casting a pink haze on the sky and an orange hue on the clouds.
Picking him up with ease Eve brought Aaron to his feet, dark blood dripping onto his shirt. "Your bleeding," Eve said plainly. Aaron rolled his eyes, "Yeah because I didn't notice my head splitting open." Noah wobbled over his large fingers desperately tapping to save the recording. "Duuuuude! You just got dropped like a hot Tamale!"
Aaron groaned, his eyes narrowing at the three. "Man, I'm so done with this. Let's just do Blake's dumbass idea and fail this project." Blake's satisfied smile threatened to push Aaron over the edge, "I'm telling you man it's going to work! Now since you lost you have to go get the baking soda!"
Aaron raised his hand to speak but Eve had already grabbed it clearly uninterested in what Aaron had to say.
She's a lot...stronger than I would have thought…
Aaron remarked as the girl turned his hand loose before following Blake and Noah back inside her house. "Yeah real thanks, guys! I'll just finance this project myself then!"
Aaron shoved his hands in his pockets the crinkled twenty inside was more than enough to pay for a lousy box of baking soda, he'd be damned if he was gonna buy a name brand for a stupid idea like this one.
The sun was low in the sky now and only fringes of light broke the horizon and painted the sky pink leaving orange clouds as decoration. "Well, that's ethereal…" Minutes later Aaron was at the corner store Go and Stop, a staple of the community. If something existed this store had it. Guns and ammo? Behind the counter. Organs? Check the cooler. King Tuts Treasure? Storage room. The list goes on but the bottom line is that the store is a lot roomier than you'd think.
Finding the baking soda was a strenuous task of moving boxes and climbing onto shelves looking for the lone box of Baking soda ripped open and left on the floor. Aaron approached the counter with his bounty and caught a shifty look from the cashier mindlessly tapping away at her phone. "Uh….is that all?" He nodded. The cashier rolled her eyes and shoved Aaron's money into the register, not even bothering with the sixteen dollars and twenty-five cents owed.
"Hey um, you forgot my-" The woman put a finger to Aaron's mouth. "Hold that thought." She removed her finger and went back to her phone paying her customer no attention.
"HEY!" Aaron shouted. "UUUUGH! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" Aaron threw his arms in the air. "MY CHANGE!! It's not that hard!" The cashier angrily dove into the register and tossed a wad of cash at Aaron far more than what was owed.
"There! You happy now?!" Aaron didn't question it hoping the woman wouldn't realize her mistake. "Yep." Aaron greedily picked up the sprawled-out 20's and 50's. "Have a good one!" The young man practically bolted out of the store his quest for baking soda a fruitful one.
"I wonder how much she threw at me?" Minutes later he was back at Eve's house and the project went underway with Aaron contributing as little as possible. The rest of the night was uneventful and Ms. Payne even bandaged up Aaron's forehead before offering the group the chance to stay for dinner. Needless to say, he declined. Before heading back to his own home.
On the way back his mind went through the string of lies he'd tell his mother to explain the bandages on his forehead because just saying 'he fell' probably wouldn't convince her. It was only Monday and the week had thrown more twists and turns at Aaron than he cared for and yet that key still lingered in his mind and the more he thought about it and the longer he held the key between his fingers the more frequent a course of thought became...
...Did Eve give me that key?