Gideon and Fredrick

Deon listened to Violet talk animatedly as they walked back to her house.

"Were you even paying attention to the movie?" she chuckled when he only kept nodding at the cool scenes she talked about from the movie.

Deon nodded with a smile, caught in her excitement. "Why wouldn't I?"

Violet laughed, not believing him but too excited to stop talking about the movie. She stopped as soon as they arrived at her house though. Heaving a sigh, she thanked him for the day. "Thank you for the invite today, I enjoyed every bit of it."

'That makes one us.' Deon chuckled inwardly, not necessarily serious about it. He was fine as first but became extremely stressed when the straddling incident occurred. He'd prevented himself from grabbing her before she went back to the edge of the couch. Immediately she got off him, he stood and went to the fridge to get something cold to drink. Wiping the images of them together from his head, or at least trying. It took him a few moments to calm down. Not long after that, she stated that she had go home and he didn't even try to get her to stay.

"It was great having you," he said and meant it. Nodding, he gestured for her go in.

"Right. Good night."

Deon watched her enter and lock the door behind her before turning to go. However, instead of walking towards his apartment, he walked in the opposite direction. Walking down the well-lit street to a car waiting around the corner.

"Gideon." a man in dark clothing greeted him as he entered through the passenger side.

"Fredrick." Deon acknowledged his greeting before smiling at his friend.

"Well you look good." Fredrick grinned.

"Just drive." he chuckled.

He'd been friends with Fredrick ever since their freshman year in the Freeman University of Science in the Western part of the country.

"Why is your AC even on? It's already cold outside." Deon sighed, opening the pigeonhole to get gloves because he knew Fredrick wouldn't put off the AC or reduce it.

"My car my rules." Fredrick chuckled.

As soon as Deon opened the glove box, a piece of metal caught the reflection of the one of the street lights. He paused for a moment before taking the gloves out. Fredrick caught his reaction briefly before looking back to the road. They didn't talk about the content of the compartment and Deon shifted his attention to the window, resting his head on the seat as his mind traveled to the past.

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

It was the middle of Gideon Sanders' first year in Uni when he he was walking home one day and a smiling face popped out in front of him out nowhere.

"Hi. I'm Fredrick." The boy with sandy hair waved. An uninterested Gideon ignored him, sidestepping and walking on ahead.

"Ha." Fredrick laughed, grabbing Gideon's hoodie and pulling. The hoodie fell to reveal a boy with bruised lips and swollen cheeks. "Ah!" Fredrick's face lit up. "I thought so."

A fuming Gideon stopped in his tracks and turned to Fredrick with a glare. "What the hell?" he yelled.

"You can talk, I've been wondering since you're always so quiet in class." Fredrick gasped, unbothered by Gideon's anger. He put his arms around Gideon who shrugged it off. "Are you heading home? Let's go together."

"No thanks." Gideon walked faster.

"Hmm." Fredrick hummed, still following. "My friends and I train at a gym not far from the school, you should come."

Gideon walked on home, leaving Fredrick staring after him. When Gideon got to the front door, he took a deep breath before opening the door. Looking around the living room carefully, he let out a breath when he saw that his mother was nowhere in sight.

There were empty bottles of alcohol on the tea table in the living room and Gideon picked them up, disposing them in the trash back out at the back. He quickly cleaned the house because he knew his mother would be angry if it wasn't squeaky clean when she came back. After doing that, he made dinner and went to read but dozed off just as soon as he started.

A loud crash woke him up from sleep and he woke up to hearing his mother yell out his name. Gideon stood up immediately, going to the living room. "Welcome m–" before he could finish, a bottle flew past his head, shattering next to the wall beside him and a shard cut his still swollen cheek.

"So you don't have any respect for me anymore? I come back home and you can't come and greet me? Afterall I've done for you."

Gideon stared at his mother quietly as he knew better than to speak. This was the usual routine with his mother, she'd come home from drinking, scream, throw things and have her boyfriend for the week beat him up.

"You're just a useless son. Look at your brother, he's rich and well respected."

Gideon pursed his lips at the mention of his half-brother whom he wasn't really on speaking terms with. "I'm sorry mom." he said when his mother sat down in the sofa. "I made dinner, shall I set the table?"

"Yeah, set for three, my friend is coming over."

"There isn't enough, I cooked the last pack of rice and–"

"Is it enough for two?"

"Yes."

"Good," she dug into her purse and took out some coins. Throwing them at Gideon. "Get yourself dinner and don't come home till midnight. I need the house."

Gideon stared at the coins on the ground, angry that he waited for her to get back only to not be able to eat what he'd cooked and also because he knew the coins wouldn't get him anything worth eating. He picked up the coins and went back in his room to get some of his savings from a part-time job hence worked on the weekends.

Doing that, he grabbed his hoodie and made his way out the door. But not before hearing his mother refer to him as "Disgusting bastard." Gideon steeled himself, preventing the tears from filling his eyes and he was all too glad to leave the house because sometimes, his mom's 'friends' tried to establish some sort of dominance over him with their fists.

Putting on the hoodie, he made his way to the convenience store in the cold night. Getting a cup of instant noodles, he sat down by the window to eat.

"There you are, you were kicked out weren't you?" A familiar voice called when he was halfway done with the meal. "What are you eating?" Fredrick peered over Gideon's shoulders.

Gideon slurped the noodles, acting oblivious to Fredrick's presence.

"You are really determined to not speak to me it seems."

Sighing, Gideon placed the wooden fork on the table. "What do you want?"

"I want to help you."

"Help me with what?"

"Your home problems as well as school." Fredrick sat opposite Gideon. "I know you're on scholarship, and that means you don't have any money."

Gideon pursed his lips. "So?"

"Well, I can help you earn money."

"What type of money?"

"Are there types? Money is money." Fredrick laughed.

Gideon simply stared at him, thinking it was a scam and if it wasn't, it was probably nothing good either.

"Also, you should come with me to the gym. My friend teaches boxing, you can learn something. Besides, doesn't it piss you off when you get beat-up?"

Gideon's face fell for a moment as certain memories filled his head. "Where is the place?"

≈≈≈≈≈≈

"We're here." Fredrick's voice drew him back to the present as they stopped at the foot of a warehouse.

"Right." Deon got out of the car, stretching his shoulders.

"Hey." Fredrick called out to Deon.

"Yeah?"

"Keep your eyes open."

***

MONDAY

"Hey, you lied, you said you were coming to the party and you didn't."

"Right?" Violet shook her head at Lucy who was staring her down in the lecture room as they waited for the lecturer to arrive. "I always say that though."

"You left Cole feeling so disappointed."

"Did I?" Violet shook her head again in mock self-deprecation "I should speak to him–"

"Yeah, he deserves an expl–"

"–and let him know that I don't intend on getting close to him." Violet finished with a grin, ignoring Lucy's interruption.

"Hey Cole's a good g–" Lucy frowned.

"Is he?"

"And he likes y–"

"Does he?"

"Why are you being so difficult?"

"Am I?" Violet sighed, putting her arm around Lucy's shoulders. "I know you have good intentions but Cole and I won't work, he's... interesting. I listened to him speak during the blind date. It was like Woooow, until he opened his mouth." Violet acted out her reaction when she made the last statement.

Lucy but her lips to hold back a smile. "Ya, Cole is my friend."

Violet simply shrugged with her hands, sending her friend a quick smile.

"You know, he's not that bad."

"You're not the best judge of character you know." Violet sighed.

"What does that mean?"

"It means I love you." she grinned just as the lecturer entered the hall.

"Good morning class."

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