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Chapter 2: == Dave: Volunteer and Meet Someone New

Summary:

What was happening just before the windowsill incident. Edited because I can't leave anything alone.

Chapter Text

Methodist Hospital is a great place to be if you're sick, you like to think. It's rated as the top hospital in the Houston area, and it's really clean and big. It's a teaching hospital, and you're used to seeing a lot of residents walking around with their clipboards making observations about the various patients in their beds. There are over 900 rooms in this hospital, including surgery wings. You've been here before as a patient when you were younger, and now as a seventeen year old junior in high school you frequent the place with your girlfriend doing volunteer work.

At first you were apprehensive to the idea of spending your weekends hanging out in a hospital trying to cheer up sick people. You didn't see why you couldn't try to do charity at a soup kitchen or some shit. Serve up soup and goodwill, fuck yeah. But your girlfriend insisted that time spent cheering up the sick and dying was a better way to go. So you went with her, and it wasn't as bad as you'd thought it would be, and you actually enjoy visiting the patients.

You both have your reasons for doing this. Jade thought it'd be a good idea to do volunteer work because she was raised to believe that it was good to help others, never mind that she dislikes others attempting to help her. She also thought it would be good to put something on your college applications that would make you look good, and you can't argue with that.

But you have your own reasons for doing this. Besides being able to put down your volunteer work on scholarship forms and college applications, you do this because you truly desire to be altruistic. This isn't some weak attempt at balancing your karma. You've been a bad person in your past, and you feel like you need to make amends with the universe. You weren't a puppy murderer or anything; you were always just kind of a narcissistic jerk who would put others down to protect your own low self-confidence.

You used to make fun of others, and taunt them when they found they couldn't measure up to your high standards. Your Bro disapproved of your behavior but couldn't strife you out of your frame of mind. Time and good friends helped you mature and grow out of that asshole phase of your life. You've been told teenagers are given grace periods so you shouldn't feel as bad as you do about your past; but every time you think about what an insufferable prick you used to be, it makes you feel horrible. So you work hard to be a good person, because you truly want to be a good person, and you never want to go back to being the awful person you used to be.

Jade always thinks you're being too hard on yourself. You think she's lucky she never met you from when you were ten until fourteen. You want to be a good person, someone noble and heroic. You want to do good in life. Even if your reasons for doing so are inherently selfish; you have hope that you can be of some help to others, if you can even do that.

Oh shit someone's calling you. It's John. You doubt it could ever be anyone else.

"Sup?"

Hey Dave you home?"

"You know I'm at Methodist right now. Why? What do you need?"

"Uh, I'm in your neighborhood with V, and things are getting pretty hot and heavy, you know what I mean?"

"Sadly, no I do not. And you know I don't, Egbert."

"Yeah sorry, I keep forgetting you're still a seventeen year old virgin."

"Dude fuck you. Anyway what do you want?" You ask.

"Oh right! I wanted to know if it was okay to use your place to um…you know?"

"Are you actually asking if you can use my apartment so you and Vriska can get it on?"

"Yes. I'd go to her place or mine, but that would take a while and we're like, right in front of your building."

"Dude there is so much wrong with what you're asking it's insane. Who does what you just did? Who asks what you're asking?"

"Um, someone who knows he can count on his best friend no matter what?"

"You're such a kiss ass when you want something."

"Shut up Dave. Look, this is happening so is it cool if we use your place?" You can hear the urgency in his voice.

"I don't even know where you'd do it, I wouldn't be there to let you in, and just in case it slipped your mind, my Bro's home, and I don't think he'd be into seeing you and Vriska getting your collective freaks on. Or maybe he would be."

"Gross Dave, gross."

You roll your eyes at John's immaturity.

"Oh wait I forgot, Bro's sleeping now. Yeah, dude spends his weekends hibernating in his room. He wouldn't even notice if you were there."

"So….are you saying it's okay?"

"Man, I don't know! I would've thought you'd gone and done it already! Why are you still talking to me when you could be getting laid?"

"Geez, get your panties out of that twist they're in, Dave."

"Just do what you need to do, and get out of there as fast as you can. Try not to make a mess."

"Wanna hang out later?"

"Sure John. I'll call you when I'm free."

"Alright thanks bye."

"Bye."

You hang up and put your iPhone back into your jean pocket. Well that conversation was certainly a first, and one you hope never to have again. Honestly why can't John just keep it in his pants? Not that you're jealous that he gets to have sex, not at all. You could totally lose your virginity if you wanted to. If Jade was actually into sex, which she isn't. You've never gone beyond a hug or a kiss with her. You aren't blaming her, no.

You like Jade a lot, and you wouldn't pressure her into doing anything she was uncomfortable with. That doesn't stop you from secretly resenting her sometimes when she refuses to go any farther than you've gone with her even though you've been together a year and she knows you're just as sexually frustrated as the next guy. You like to think girls want to have sex as much as guys so you don't know what she's waiting for.

You'd never cheat on her. You're frustrated as hell but you find ways around it. Ways like jerking it to fan fictions involving different characters from different fandoms you've been in over the years; or looking up pictures of nude models. You are eternally grateful for the abundance of porn on the internet to keep you company during the long, cold nights of not getting any which is always.

Jade comes up to you carrying two Styrofoam cups. Trailing behind her is Bec, all white fur and gross green tongue. That dog should have bit the dust a long time ago. You're positive there must be some witchcraft involved in keeping that devil beast alive as long as it has been. Jade brings Bec with her to the hospital because the kids in the pediatric unit love him, as do the elderly on their death beds. You don't' understand why. As well behaved as Bec can be, he's still a huge four-legged white fur ball German shepherd mixed with White Wolf.

Jade hands you one of the cups. Bec is sitting near her feet.

"Here Dave!" She says as you take the cup from her.

"Thanks Jade. Uh, hey Jade?" You frown as you look down into the contents of the Styrofoam cup.

"Yes?"

"This is orange juice. They didn't have any apple juice?" You ask, looking up at her.

Her smile falls; a hand rises to touch her cheek. "Oh no, I checked, but this was all they had. I'm so sorry Dave! Do you want me to go out and find you some apple juice?"

You know she's being sincere, Jade is always sincere. She's looking at you like the world will implode if you don't' get your A.J. Like getting orange juice was so bad. You feel guilty just bringing up.

You wave your hand in a gesture of no. "Nah, it's cool really. I'll deal."

She lowers her hand to cradle her drink. "Are you sure?"

"Positive." You answer.

She smiles again, and then gives you a kiss on the cheek. She pulls away, and then takes a drink of her juice.

She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand before speaking. "Bec and I are going to see the kids in the cancer ward now. After that, we can leave."

"Cool. I'm gonna spend some time helping out in the coma patient ward then." You reply.

You give her a quick kiss on the lips, and then head off in opposite directions. You watch her leave; she's in her navy denim overalls and light green squiddles shirt she wears with it. Jade is a nice girl, you just hate how easily she can make you feel bad for inadvertently making her feel bad. You guess that's the curse of having a sweet girlfriend that makes your heart melt.

You spend the next two hours following around a male nurse, helping him take care of coma patients. This includes changing bed sheets, rolling muscles and joints, adjusting positions, and changing feeding tubes. You aren't allowed to touch the catheters.

When your feet get tired, you as if you can sit and read to one of your favorite patients. The nurse needs to get more supplies, and so says yes to your request. After the nurse leaves you head over to the room where patient 0611206 is located. When you get there, you sit in the chair next to his bed, get settled in, and pull out your iPhone.

Patient 0611206, so called because of the tattoo on his wrist, came in three months ago as the victim of a car crash. No one has claimed him, and no one knows what his real name is. The damage done was so bad he's had to wear bandages that cover his entire face. You've spoken to his doctors; they don't know how much longer he's got until he will finally wake up. You enjoy sitting next to patient 061206 and reading to him. You don't' know why you only read to him, but you do, and sometimes you feel as though he can hear everything you're saying.

"Hey man. How you been? Oh me? Yeah, I'm alright. Girlfriend got me orange juice instead of apple juice. I know, can you believe it? What? Nah, I'm not blaming her. I've still got it here with me. I'd offer you some, but I don't know if you even like orange juice?"

You look at the potted plant sitting on his bedside table. You look around to check if anyone's watching you before you dump the contents of your Styrofoam cup into the soil of the plant.

"Don't tell anyone, 'kay? Alright, how about I read some Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, sound good?"

He doesn't really answer you, but you like to pretend that he is. You pull up the site onto your phone, and start scrolling until you find your latest comic. Your readership has increased since linking it with your Bro's site. You aren't that cool with having puppet fetishists reading your stuff, but the more readers you have the more money pull in from site hits and ad revenue.

You read halfway through the first comic when you hear a rustling from behind the large curtain that separates patient 0611206's side of the room from the other half. You had forgotten about that other half of the room. It's really rare that he'll have a roommate; you're used to this room being unoccupied except for him. You lower your phone to your lap and look up at the curtain. There's some movement, and then the curtain is pulled back halfway.

There's a girl holding onto the curtain. She lets go of it as soon as you've caught her eye.

"Oh, hello," She says.

You take a few seconds to look at her. She's really skinny with a narrow waist. She's wearing a teal t-shirt with a design of a red dragon on the front. She's wearing black skinny jeans that seem glued to her skin. Her shoes are red and white converse. She's got black lipstick on, and red cat eye sunglasses. She's got a pixie face, very pointy chin and cheekbones, and upturned nose. She's got short blonde hair that ends in outward flips just near the middle of her neck. You notice that in one hand she's holding a red walking cane; the handle is molded into the head of a roaring dragon.

She's pretty cute.

"Hey." You respond, trying to sound as nonchalant as you can.

"Sorry, I didn't know there was anyone else here." You say, going to stand up.

You walk over to her.

"I'm Dave." You tell her.

She smiles, grinning wide, and you swear she's got rows of tiny, sharp teeth.

"I'm Terezi." She tells you, offering her free hand.

You take her surprisingly soft hand and shake it.

She looks at the blue smock shirt you're wearing over your white record t-shirt. By this point you've put your phone back into your red jeans.

"Are you a volunteer?" She asks.

"Yeah, I was just reading to one of my favorite patients. What about you?" You ask her.

She giggles, and then pulls you over past the curtain. She shows you the bed in the other room; an old woman is sleeping in the bed, tubes are connected to her.

"I was visiting my grandmother. She fell down a flight of stairs a week ago. My mom just got her moved into this room. As it so happens, I was reading to her at the same time you were reading to your patient." She explains.

"Oh? What were you reading?"

"This," She points to a large hardback book, "A History of Texas Court Cases of Murderers and Cannibals."

You feel your eyebrows rise. You immediately put them back where they were.

"I was just reading some web comic I drew."

She looks at you and grins again. "Really? What's it called?"

"Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff," You inform her.

She gasps audibly. "I've heard of that! I've read some of them actually. You're a great artist."

"Thanks but I'm not really." You say.

She grins and waggles her eyebrows a bit. "I think you are."

You decide to change the subject. "Sorry about your grandma."

"Thank you. I think she'll be ok. I'm going to be visiting her after school and on weekends, so you'll probably see me a lot." She says.

You don't see anything wrong with that.

"Cool. So Terezi, how old are you?"

"Seventeen," She answers.

"Hey you're my age then."

"Neat! Okay Dave, I have a question. What's up with your shades?" She asks, cocking her head.

"I'll tell you about mine if you'll tell me about yours." You can feel the smirk on your lips.

Before she can say anything, your phone goes off. You pull your phone out and look at the screen. You've got a text from Jade.

Jade: Downstairs in lobby waiting for you 3

You put your phone away.

"Sorry, I have to leave. It was nice chatting with you though." You tell Terezi.

"Yeah it was pretty cool to meet someone else in this room besides coma patients and staff." She grins at you.

"Okay I guess I'll see you later, if you're here abain? Again?" You say. You can't believe how you're tripping over your sentences. What the actual Hell?

Terezi doesn't notice, she just giggles and says, "Sure thing. Later Dave,"

You let go of her hand and head downstairs to meet your girlfriend who you totally did not forget existed in the last seven minutes. Nope.

It's when you see Jade and Bec that you realize that Terezi never once let go of your hand, from the second she took it, and you kind of miss the feeling of her hand in yours. You hope you'll get to see her again. When Jade asks you how the coma ward was, you tell her everything. Except meeting a cute, giggling blonde with red sunglasses.

You are walking Jade home when you remember that there are cameras constantly streaming video to your Bro's site. You feel a sense of dread, and you look at your phone and see some unread texts from your Bro demanding that you hurry home, because there are things you need to talk about. Like how you shouldn't give your friends permission to use the apartment for their sex sessions because the cameras caught everything, and the whole thing is online now. You fucked up. You have fucked up now.