Plattenbau - 13. Chapter 13- Knock Knock

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It had taken Alex almost three weeks to finally gather up enough courage to finally confront Ed about what had happened at the party. He knew he had to apologize to the older man for his terrible behavior and that he had almost pulled on his shoes. But, regarding his confession, he was still unsure on what to do.

Sure, he could have easily blamed it on the alcohol and said that he didn't mean it, but he doubted that Ed would actually believe him. Especially not after their passionate kiss. Besides, now that the cat was out of the bag, he rather felt like standing up to his feelings, even if it would ruin their already somewhat fragile relationship forever.

"Come on, you can do this." He mumbled to himself. And, with a trembling hand, he pressed the doorbell. The teen held his breath, listening closely to the sound echoing through the apartment. But he couldn't make out any other sound from behind the door.

Alex sighed and pulled out his new mobile phone, knowing by now that Ed almost took forever to answer the door. He turned on the camera and tried to fix his messy, black hair so it would look at least somewhat styled. When the door suddenly opened, it almost gave him a heart attack. With his heart still pounding like crazy, he looked up, expecting to see Ed's grumpy face but to his shock it wasn't his bear. The stranger was around Ed's height but way more chubby and unkempt to the degree one would have thought he’d never even heard of the word ‘hygiene.’

"Who the hell are you?!" Alex demanded to know, and looked the guy up and down.

Completely unimpressed, the hobo blinked slowly and scratched his almost completely bald head. "I could ask you the same thing, cupcake." He replied, his voice sounding rough, almost like he smoked two packs a day and gargled with gasoline or something similar in the morning.

Unlike Ed's deep, soothing voice that always gave Alex tiny shivers down his spine, this guy's voice made the hair of the back of his neck stand up, instead, and gave him an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. The stranger squinted his eyes and leaned down to Alex, who barely managed to suppress a gag because the guy stank as if he hadn't bathed in weeks. He quickly took a step back to get a little bit more space between him and the creep.

"Wait, aren't you Ed's boy? Axel or something?" The guy then blurted out.

"It's Alex." He shyly corrected the older guy who, in return, rolled his eyes and snarkishly replied, "Right."

The hobo shook his head, making the few greasy strains of hair sway around like wet noodles. Then a wide, nasty grin spread across his face, showing his yellow, crooked teeth that had probably not seen a dentist in ages. Before Alex had time to react, the guy had grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, while loudly laughing and telling him to get his ass inside of the apartment.

The guy had shoved him so forcefully that Alex stumbled, making him almost fall face-forward onto the dark blue, worn out carpet. When he found his footing again, he quickly spun around, not wanting to leave the creep out of his line of sight for even a second. To Alex’s horror, the stranger had closed the door and was now leaning against it, blocking his only way out.

The teen swallowed hard and then meekly asked where Ed was, praying that he wasn’t alone with the guy and that Ed was just in the bathroom or something. But, his hopes were crushed when the creepy guy shrugged and said, "How the fuck should I know? He only asked me to stay at his apartment for a while and to take care of the furball."

Alex took a few steps back in order not to be in arm's reach in case the guy tried anything. Even if Ed, for whatever reason, trusted this hobo to look after his place and Lilly, that still didn't mean he had to trust him, too. After all, he had heard enough horror stories to know that this guy was checking all the marks when it came to someone you should definitely not trust or be alone with.

"But... then why did you drag me in here?" Alex asked weakly, hoping that he would at least get an explanation for this guy's suspicious behavior.

But the guy only tilted his head, seemingly thinking about what to say for a moment. After a moment, he then asked with a toothy grin, "Do you want a beer?"

Alex could feel his body tense up. There were already too many red flags. But now this guy even wanted to get him drunk, probably so he could do who knows what with him. He frantically shook his head.

"No, I want to leave." He whimpered and stepped back even further. Panicked, he looked around for another way out. He was familiar with the layout of the apartment because he had spent quite a lot of time there in the past few months, so he knew that there was only the front door to get out. But with it being blocked by the creep, it was not really an option. With that realization, his panic increased tenfold. Then, a thought came to his mind.

Ed's balcony and his were only separated by a slim concrete wall. So, hypothetically, it was possible to get from one to the other. Alex wasn't the most acrobatic so there was a high chance he would end up falling down. Is it possible to survive a fall from the ninth floor? He thought to himself. But before he could continue to think about his possible neck-breaking escape, the guy sighed in defeat and grumbled.

"I'm not gonna bite you, kid. I just want to talk to you for a bit." Then, to Alex's surprise, the guy stepped away from the door, signaling him that he could leave if he wanted.

Relief washed over Alex and he rushed over but when he was about to open the door, the guy put his arm in front of him blocking his way once again.

"You know, I didn't mean to come off as a fucking creep or something. I just… well you are Ed's boy, so I thought you maybe wanted to hear some old stories about the shit me and Ed did when we were your age." The guy apologetically said and took his arm out of the way again.

The mentioning of stories from Ed's youth made Alex reconsider. He really did want to know more about his grumpy bear. But with Ed being so tight lipped, it was almost impossible. Alex felt definitely intrigued by the prospect of getting new information regarding Ed. But on the other hand he still felt a little bit frightened by the older man.

"So, you really know Ed for that long?"

The guy grinned, showing off his disgusting teeth again. "Hell yeah, we grew up in the same town. We have been best buddies since forever." He then put his hands in the pockets of his stained, gray jogging pants and asked, "So you wanna know some dirty secrets of the fucker or not?"

Alex nervously fumbled around with his sleeves and nibbled on his lip. Con: the guy is shady as fuck. Pro: I get to hear things about Ed that the grumpy bear would probably never willingly tell me. Alex waged his options for a moment but, in the end, his desire to know more about the man he loved won, making him nod.

"Uhm...yes that would be nice, mister...." He said, trying to sound polite to show his appreciation. But the older guy just laughed at his stiff behavior and walked off while telling him, "Just call me Wilhelm, kid. No fucking need to be so stiff."

Alex took one last unsure look at the door before shaking his head and following Wilhelm to the kitchen. When Alex stepped into the kitchen, he saw Wilhelm rummaging through the fridge. With a 'Here you go,' the older man then pulled out two cans of beer and pressed one into Alex's hand.

"Uhm I don't really drink." Alex said and tried to put it back. Before he was able to do so, Wilhelm already had closed the fridge and leaned against it.

"From what I heard, you do." The older man joked and cracked open his beer can. He took a big gulp and then added with a cheeky grin, "Besides if you only ever drink at parties, you will never build up a tolerance for it and continue to throw up on people's shoes. So, bottoms up."

Alex finally understood what Wilhelm was implying. He blushed, and shyly asked "He told you about that?"

"Oh, he sure did. He actually told me a ton about you, loverboy." Wilhelm replied with a wink, making Alex blush even harder.

Alex nervously took a sip from the beer in the hopes that it would lessen his nervousness. "So, what about those stories?" Alex asked, hoping to change the topic of their conversation.

"Hmmm... where do I start?" Wilhelm mumbled to himself and tilted his head, lost in his thoughts for a moment. But then, he slammed his hand onto the kitchen counter. "I know! How about the story of how me and Ed stole all the garden gnomes of the entire town and then put them onto the roof of the school?" He blurted out.

"You are kidding, right?! There is no way Ed would do something like that."

"Oh he sure would, princess. You really got a lot to learn about the bastard. You better sit down, this could take a while."

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