#* chapter one

     “I haven’t eaten anything since like eleven, I’m starving.”

     “Man, you must floss like every five minutes.”

     “You’re gonna get sick.” Eddie is boiling in this sweater but if he takes it off he’ll be too cold. The middle ground is a mythical construct. “And you always get nightmares if you eat cheese before bed.”

     He’s swinging his legs back and forth until he becomes aware that he’s swinging his legs, and then the sight of his sneaker moving this way and that in the corner of his eye starts to annoy him. He goes still. There’s a bean pod in his mouth and it squeaks against his teeth when he crunches it. “Hey Ken. Ken. Kennedy. Ken. Kennnnn. Ken. Hey Ken.”

     eddie gemini-taurus cuspbrak: mikes birthday is in 2 weeks      eddie gemini-taurus cuspbrak: surprise party y/y

     “But it’s gone, it’s just gone, like - like it never even existed in the first place which I know isn’t true because I used it this morning!” He’s torn the entire place apart - respectfully, which really just means moving some pillows a little and getting on his hands and knees to look under the sofa - in the hunt for his inhaler, but — “It’s just gone!”

     “Did he also tell you that I have pills at four and five that I have to have with water and also I can’t eat before then? And that I have pills before breakfast and before lunch too? And that I have to have two inhalers in case I lose one?” His feet are swinging back and forth, in time with a thrumming undercurrent of anxiety. “Because it’s - it’s important. I dunno if he told you that.”