growing in and out

Kyle wanted to know what to do to have a beard. Really. It just bugged him now.

He was over at Eric's who was taking the longest time to shave.

"You're sure you're not pooping in there." The door was closed. You would think it was surgery.

"I think you'd smell it!" Eric just said. He was so quiet. Kyle could hardly stand it.

"Do you think the more sex you have the better chance you have of getting the whiskers to come in?" Kyle thought he'd take a shot at it. He had so much time on his hands. They'd waited forever to see Twilight, finally, due to work shifts and what not with Ellie and Eric.

"OW!" Eric let out a yelp, "I can't shave with you asking shit like that."

"Well, I was just thinking, you know how you used to look, and then you and Ellie got together, then summer came and you started this thing where you weren't going to shave until she came home. It was nothing like this." Kyle was thinking out loud.

Eric finally opened the bathroom door. He was now clean shaven and looked remarkably like his old self.

"Look, they say the more you shave, the more you grow whiskers, but mine's still a little patchy."

"Yeah, I noticed, I don't think you'll be of mountainman magnitude yet, but you'll get there," Kyle smiled.

"Yeah, like Ellie would want to go anywhere with ZZ Top." Eric went to slip a black sweater over his white T.

"So how are things with you two?"

"Fine."

"Are you sure?"

"What did Ellie tell you?" Eric winced with concern.

"Nothing." Just Kyle's luck he could tear them apart and not mean too. He really didn't want that.

"She changed jobs, you know."

"Yeah, I guess I forgot." Kyle had.

"She likes it, a lot." Eric shrugged. "And this guy - Elliot works there, and I don't know what's going on. He's in college."

"A college man?"

"I've just seen the way they laugh around each other, and yeah, I think-"

"Don't even say it," Kyle said. "She's just trying to get back at you because of that Penelope girl, that's all."

"Penelope?" Eric squinted. "She's dating that poltergeist guy."

"Poltergeist?"

"He's just not all there, he looks at me as if he's seen a ghost. But I stay away from her as much as possible at work, even switched where I work with this pregnant woman. She's got to be at least thirty, and she could pop anyday. Just hope her water doesn't break when I'm there." Eric pulled a face.

Kyle was sure of it now, Eric's days with Ellie were numbered.