My friend Kevin - 2. Chapter 2

I sighed out some smoke as we stood by the bus station. We were going home to Kevin's place, it was quite a while away, but I usually did anything to get away from my family.

"You're killing yourseeeellfff." Kevin swatted at my arm like some upset five-year old and I chuckled, thus swallowing some smoke and causing a coughing fit. Kevin instantly went into mama-bear mode and worriedly patted my back while I waved a hand at him, wheezing an it's okay at him. I cleared my throat, taking another drag from my halfly lit cigarette.Damn this cold. Damn this winter.

"Damn this BUS!" Kevin jumped at my sudden exclaimation and then laughed, agreeing with my statement through nodding, shoving a few gummy bears into his mouth to chew contently.

"It's pretty late yes, but it usually is. Just relax, it'll come."

"How the heck can you always be so positive? I mean, sometimes it's almost creepy, like you're constantly on a high."

"How do you know that I'm not?" He leaned towards me, wiggling his eyebrows with a creepy smile and after a moment of silent we both burst out laughing loudly in the dark.

God, we're insane.

Kevin's place wasn't much. He hadn't really been ready to move out, but after he had mustered up the courage to tell his parents that he was gay, they disowned him. It had broken Kevin's heart, not so much because of the harsh words from his father, but because he had to leave his two young sisters with them. He did his best to go visit whenever his father wasn't around, but there was always a tension that he couldn't escape.

As Kevin opened the door, a white blur rushed out, almost tackling me to the floor. I laughed and pushed the dog off me to instead rub his back eagerly.

"Hey there Spazzy razzy Spazzrat!"

Yes, that was his name, Spazzrat. He was a young golden retriever, but I guess he didn't know it, because the only golden-ish fur he had was on his ears and at the tip of his extremely long and thin tail, hence the 'rat' in his name. The rest of him was white, except for the black nose and eyes of course. He was a lovable dog. Hyper and huge, but, sweet as can be. Just not sure of his own size, or strenght.

"Welcome to my humble abode." I rolled my eyes as I walked inside and kicked off my shoes.

"Like i haven't been here before."

"Oh I know you have darling, but it is such a fabulous home that it needs constant welcoming into." He laughed amusedly as he strolled over to the pantry in the most gay way he possible could, swaying his hips and one hand up in the air.

"Yes, a fabulous one bed one bath."

"Oh hush, details details my dear."

Soon the coffee pot was pluttering away, preparing our hot beverage. I was raiding Kevin's fridge, trying to find anything that I could make a sandwich out of. That wasn't just buttered, that is.

"Cheeeesee, why do you not have cheese? Who does not have cheese? And.. What is, this?" I frowned slightly as I picked up a strange looking plastic box which contents were.. I opened the lid and immediately closed it, groaning from the stench.

"What the fuck IS this? It reeks!"

"Is what? Oh that! God, I forgot I had that. It's chicken in tomato sauce." Kevin took the box with a curious expression, opening it, and closing it just as quickly.

"Well, it used to be chicken in tomato sauce."

We spent some time cleaning out his fridge, to make sure that nothing else uncanny was rotting in a dark corner of it. And while we were at it, we completely cleaned his kitchen, which I could tell was a great relief for him. For a perfectionist, he sure didn't keep his own place very organised.

I guess it's because he didn't think of it as his just yet. Even though a few months had passed, it was still this foreign place in which he was forced to live, because his own parents didn't want him anymore. It was lucky he had gotten this place though, because the first two weeks he had to stay at my place, and it was tiny, we barely had place enough for him, let alone a 30 kilo dog. He just hadn't had anywhere to go, but then this apartment came available, and he managed to close acontract with the landlord. And now, this was his home. Even though he probably didn't feel that way yet.

Sometimes I felt like stomping over to his old home and giving his father a piece of my mind, but then I would remember that he was a big, almost 2 meter tall man who had played american football for many years. And Kevin had told me before that his father was quite.. Short-tempered. Never with women, luckily, just men.

Kevin used to joke about his father taking all the testosterone in the family, leaving nothing for him, which made him gay. It always made me laugh, mostly because the way their family looked, it was so true.

Going back to what Kevin's place looked like. It was a simple one bed one bath with a tiny living room and kitchen in one go. We usually ate in the old but incredibly comfortable couch (comfy in the way that if you didn't focus on something, you'd fall asleep), stacking up all the dishes on the coffee table, which was burnt in certain areas. My fault I admit, I had a thing for playing with fire, and Kevin's poor coffee table had to pay for my antics.

He had a tv, a bulky old thing that I'm sure heated up the room more than the actual radiators did. It was not so neatly placed on the floor, and beside it was a playstation with stacks upon stacks of DVDs and games that we usually spent hours going through, watching and playing.

The kitchen.. If now you could call it a kitchen, it wasn't more advance than what you would find in a hotel room. It was jammed into the other side of the room, licking the corners in lack of space. Everything was rather tiny, the fridge was small, the freezer even smaller, and the oven was combined with a cooker. And yes, they were small, only two heaters on the stove. A small sink with a draining board, and there was an immense lack of chopping boards.. Mainly because Kevin felt no need for them when the entire kitchen bench was made out of hard wood.

His bedroom was more like a storage room with a bed and a computer on a desk which was squeezed into a corner. His bed didn't even have proper bed posts, and every other night it halfly collapsed underneath you and you ended up sleeping in a kind of cushioned hole.

At least he kept his bathroom tidy, very tidy actually. It was always the cleanest room of the apartment, even the floor underneath the wall-seated toilet was free of the tiniest speck of dust. But the hot water for the shower wasn't all that reliable.

It was a nice evening. We went down to the local grocery store to buy something for dinner, as we both wanted to improve the other ones' diet, and found out that they had a massive sale on old DVD movies, a dollar each. We took as many as we could bother paying for and spent the rest of the night laughing at horribly made 80's horror movies.

Oh, and the dinner didn't happen, we bought a pack of popcorn and two bags of chips and two bottles of soda. Go malnutrition.

Yes, this was going to be a very good week.