Disclaimer: I don't own anyone. I name the nameless and play with them, but I'm making no money off this.
Author Notes: DJ and Geoff had a really good friendship on TDI and I could see it extending from there. I brought him in for Help and Buddy and thought I should write a piece from more of his point of view. DJ is a helper and it would hurt to not be able to, at least I think it would, so I figured I'd toy with it a bit.
Strange Sympathy
Sometimes DJ was overwhelmed by a strange sympathy for his friend. For what Geoff dealt with on a daily basis. But sometimes DJ wanted to grab Geoff by his shoulders and shake him until he realized he didn't have to do everything alone. That all he really had to do was pick up his phone and call and DJ would drop whatever he was doing to help. He would gladly hop in his car and drive the forty five minutes it would take to get there to help if only Geoff would let him. He was over at Geoff's home all the time, but for DJ it never felt like he was actually helping. And everyone knew DJ liked to be helpful.
DJ wasn't blind; he had born witness to the times that Geoff looked like he wanted to give up. It was a fleeting expression, never lasting more than a few seconds, but DJ knew. He could read it in his friend's body language. Geoff was in a situation no teenager should be in, and the fact that he hadn't given up by this point spoke volumes of his friend's character. DJ couldn't help but worry that eventually this would all become too much and overwhelm Geoff completely. Where he would finally crack and fall apart if even for a moment in the situation that was too unbearable to handle. DJ worried that it would hallow his friend out until there was nothing of the boy he once knew and only a robotic shell in its place.
DJ sometimes wondered if Geoff didn't reach out to him all that often because he thought he didn't need it or if he felt guilty about asking. DJ is pretty sure it's the latter. One thing he had learned about his friend in recent months is he had a really bad habit of taking on guilt that really wasn't his to bear. He knew that Geoff felt guilty about his brother Skylar, but whenever DJ would try and bring it up Geoff would shut him down pretty fast.
Bridgette said that he rarely ever called her to ask her to help either, even though she made herself as available as she could. DJ could attribute at least a part of that to the fact that Geoff might still be smarting from their breakup. When that had first happened, DJ had been naive enough to believe that Geoff really was ok. He had kept assuring them that he was, and DJ had believed him. He had no reason not to, but now he knew better. That had hurt, and while he was sure Geoff didn't really begrudge Bridgette the fact she couldn't handle the long distance, that didn't mean he was ready to forget the feelings they once shared.
That same strange sympathy would well up in DJ's chest as he watched his blond haired friend struggle to keep up with all his brothers' events. As Geoff always told him, his brothers came first. If that meant that Geoff was going to go without something, then that's simply what he did. In the amount of time this had been going on, the dark skinned boy had not once heard Geoff complain. He knew that Geoff was putting real effort into making sure that the other TDI alumni that sent him texts or emails got responded too, he didn't want them to feel like he was avoiding them again.
When Geoff's father had actually come home for a few days he had all but thrown Geoff out. DJ understood it was completely out of concern; Geoff was far to pale and to thin. He needed to get out and do something that wasn't oriented on keeping his family afloat. So DJ had dragged Geoff off to a party that Owen was throwing. Since it was a bit of a drive the pair decided to just crash there until the next morning. Geoff had been well received, but the majority of the alumni had no idea what was going on in Geoff's life, and he intended to keep it that way. To his knowledge the only ones who knew were himself, Bridgette, and oddly enough Gwen.
DJ hated that he could do nothing except be sympathetic to his friends plight even though he knew he could never really understand what it felt like. So DJ would do what he had always done, he would be there on the off chance that Geoff would finally open up and want to talk to him. Until then, DJ would just be his friend and wait until the time came that the pieces were going to need to be picked up.
DJ was sure he'd be really helpful then.