A crash rang through Danny's ear.
Danny flinched, the noise not entirely expected, before returning to his previous composure.
There was a brief period of clatter on the other end of the line. Eventually, the scraping stopped and was replaced by an obnoxious "WHAT?"
"I told you, Tuck," Danny said, plucking a can off of the shelf and putting it in his cart. He continued down the air-conditioned aisle explaining, "They were actually nice to me. No—stop. I'm being serious! By the way, did you really just drop your phone?"
An indignant voice cut in, "First of all, they are the last people I would expect to move out of Amity. Remember how obsessed they were about the stupid place? Also, while we're on the topic of remembering shit, remember how they—oh, I don't know—kicked our asses every day in school?"
Danny rolled his eyes, scanning the signs for the bread aisle. Jake would be pleased by this. They've been out of bread for nearly a week after forgetting to restock last grocery trip. He shrugged, forgetting Tucker couldn't see him, before adding in, "People change."
Tucker sighed. "Yeah but it's still a little surreal. Who would have thought, you know? I guess we've all grown up since then."
"Yeah, I guess. They were both drunk the first time I ran into them though. Kwan was sober the second, but he was also always nicer than Dash, if only a little. And you remember how he'd always revert back whenever Dash showed up. So I guess I've never seen them both sober at the same time. There we'd probably see how grown they really are," Danny said, turning into the breads aisle. Now to find the right kind...
"Does that mean you're gonna see them again?" a curious voice asked.
Danny grimaced. "Not sure yet. I was thinking of, but I don't know how Jake would feel."
"Still with Jake then, I take it?"
Danny strained his ear attempting to read Tucker's voice on the line, but failed. Tucker had expressed his mild displeasure in the man in the past, but generally kept himself neutral now. That was, if they even talked about Jake at all. Early on in the relationship, Danny had expressed his frustrations with a few of Jake's "quirks," like the fact that Jake forced Danny to use pet-names on him, how he didn't want Danny to hang out with his friends, and how sexually-demanding he was. Tucker's reaction was less than satisfactory, and Danny's small ranting-session soon turned into a full-fledged argument. Tucker was saying that those were unhealthy and that Danny shouldn't "put up with his insecure bullshit," and Danny argued that Jake was actually a really sweet guy if you got to know him. Now whenever Tucker asked about him, Danny would reply with a quick "Things are going really well!" and the topic would drop immediately.
Putting on a smile even though this was just a phone call, Danny babbled excitedly, "Yeah, things are going great! We had a date-weekend last weekend. It was fun."
"You always have a date-weekend," Tucker deadpanned.
Danny's smile faltered, his eyes widening momentarily in panic. Catching himself quickly, he forced out a giggle and said, "Isn't he the cutest?"
"I guess," Tucker said. "How about that dude from work. Quinn? Hang out with him lately?"
Danny sighed, finally letting his grin drop. "No."
"Are you planning on it?"
"Probably not."
"Why not?"
"Tuck!" Danny frowned, his face flashing red and eyebrows knitting together. "I can't just—"
"Why not?" Tucker repeated smoothly. "Dude, he's straight as an arrow. I know that and I've only met him once."
"Yeah but it doesn't matter," Danny walked down the aisle of the grocery store, bread in the cart. Now all he needed was eggs and he could go home. "You wouldn't get it."
"Why not? Because I'm straight? Danny, if you've forgotten, Alisha's bi and I don't bat an eye when she wants to hang out with someone, no matter their gender. Hell, you used to hang out with Sam all the time when you were dating Valerie, and she didn't care! Your sexuality shouldn't restrict you from being with friends."
Danny remained silent, suddenly focused on attaining the perfect carton of eggs. Tuck didn't get it. He didn't understand what their relationship was like. Just because he and Alisha were so goddamn perfect for each other didn't mean every relationship was like that. And besides, Alisha had her flaws. Just like everyone else does. Wasn't she struggling with body-image? Maybe not as much now as before, but Danny distinctly remembers some late-night conversations with Tucker about his girlfriend's constant desire to lose weight. Everyone had their thing, their own insecurity. So what if Jake didn't want Danny to hang out with other guys? Danny could deal. There were plenty of other things he could do instead.
"Whatever dude," Tucker's voice sliced through Danny's raging thoughts. "As long as you're happy. I just think you should maybe text back Kwan and Dash. See if they want to chill or whatever. It might be good for you to take a break for a night."
"Yeah, I might," Danny admitted. "Just to see what they're like now. It's been a while since high school and Kwan was...you're not gonna believe it...he's a total nerd now."
Muffled laughter came through the end of the line. "For real?"
"Yeah! Literally could not stop talking about engineering to me. It was insane."
"Damn, that must have been so weird," Tucker said. "Alright, thanks for filling me in but I godda get back to work before my boss kills me. Talk to you later!"
"Right," Danny replied, mentally slapping himself for forgetting about the time-zone difference. "Sorry for holding you up! See ya!"
Danny hung up his cell, grinning to himself as he made his way to the register. Truthfully, he was still pretty shaken up from yesterday's encounter. How does one react to their high school bully ranting about math for ten minutes? Sam had always told Danny she thought Kwan was a closet-nerd, but Danny would never have guessed it was true. In hindsight, it made sense. A bit. Kwan did display some dork-like tendencies back in high school. From the way he'd start expressively waving his arms around when presenting a project in front of the class, to Sam's rants about the time he went to poetry-night with her, Danny could look back and put the pieces of the puzzle together. Although, it only made him wonder: if Kwan turned out so much different from who Danny thought he was as a teenager, what was Dash like now?
Was Dash nerdy? Would he have a soft side?
Stepping in the checkout line, Danny smirked to himself. Had he forgotten so soon? Of course Dash had a secret soft side. Hell, he had freaking stuffed animal bears in his closet as a teenager. There's no way he was exactly as Danny remembered him to be. Just like how Danny wasn't anything like what they thought he was.
Damn, Danny thought as he slid his items onto the register. I guess none of us really knew each other despite growing up in the same town.
He internally rolled his eyes at himself. It was so naive of him to believe that just because he had a double-life—although his was quite literal—no one else in the town could have one too. Was anyone who they presented themselves as? Probably not. Not even Sam, who prided herself on being, "The only fucking real person in this god-forsaken city," was truly herself in school. Even she was a bit more reserved inside the brick walls. They all were different in and out of the school. They were too afraid to let their peers see their true selves so they hid themselves behind lower-resolution personas of their own creation. Sam hid behind the epitome of teen-angst, Tucker hid behind an overconfident ladies-man, and Kwan hid behind a stereotypical jock. As did Dash.
What about you? A voice whispered from the back of his mind. You say you hid behind a weak loser, but isn't that all you are? Aren't you still weak? Afraid? Too complacent to do anything to better your own life?
Didn't you submit a long time ago?
Danny shook his head, brushing aside those thoughts. He couldn't deal with them right now. He was too busy. He didn't have time to play therapist right now.
Do you ever?
Shut up.
"Jake?" Danny winced as the door creaked open.
"Hey baby," Jake's muffled voice came from inside the apartment. There was shuffling and the couch groaned before a clearer version of Jake came through the air. "What happened, get lost on your way home?"
"Sorry," Danny slid his shoes off and shut the door. He turned around to see the tall, olive skin surrounding deep, brown eyes. "I stopped to get groceries on the way home. Must have taken my time after that."
Jake smiled, warmth spreading through his features. "It is a great day out. Too bad we had to spend it at work!"
Danny put a hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter. "You're right."
"Aww," Jake engulfed him into a hug, his bulky arms all but hiding Danny from the world. Protecting him from his corrosive thoughts. "Don't tease me and cover your smile like that! It's so cute!"
"Jake, stop it," Danny felt his face redden as he buried his grin into his boyfriend's neck. He closed his eyes focused on Jake's cologne, the way his arms steeled themselves around Danny, the way his soft maroon hoodie felt against Danny's skin, the paper bags tight against Danny's fingertips.
"Haha, you love me," Jake unwrapped himself from Danny and took the bags from Danny's loose grip. He guided Danny inside the kitchenette and set the bags on the off-white countertop, peeking inside. "Nice, you got bread! Points to the best boyfriend ever! I keep forgetting to grab some. But now we can make sandwiches for tomorrow's lunch."
Danny merely nodded and turned his face away to hide another incoming blush. How was he supposed to bring up Dash and Kwan if he couldn't get ahold of himself?
"Whoa, baby, something wrong?" Jake paused his ramblings about Danny's grocery haul and peered under Danny's bangs.
Danny blinked, snapping himself out of his thoughts. "Oh no, I'm fine!"
"You sure?" Jake's thick eyebrows scrunched in concern. "You look a little off."
"Sorry," Danny apologized. "It must have been a long day. I'm probably out of it."
Jake's large eyes scanned Danny's face for a second longer. Danny suppressed a squirm. He felt as if he were under a microscope. Eventually the intense eyes dropped back down to the food, leaving all focus off the dark haired boy.
Danny let out a silent breath, pushed himself off of the fridge he didn't know he was leaning against, and got to work on dinner. His fingers were quick and flowed with ease that only years of cooking experience could bring. Jake wasn't one for cooking, although he did make some good breakfast foods, and by now he knew not to try to help with the process. Attempting to help wasn't the same as actually helping, as Danny loved to poke at the taller male. Jake readily agreed after his last attempt of "helping," involving a floor full of sugar and ant problems for weeks after, and was more than happy to stand off to the side and tell Danny about his day.
After dinner the couple sat across from each other and sipped coffee, neither one of them ready to do the dishes yet. Danny shifted in his chair and tapped his mug with a stubby nail. It was a black mug he got from Sam last Christmas/Hanukkah* with the molecular structure of coffee in white. Although Sam was far out of her goth phase, black was still by far her favorite color. Apparently, she'd been looking for this type of mug for a few years but hadn't found any ones in black until then. Danny remembered laughing at her antics, because of course Sam would refuse to buy a simple Holiday gift until she found the perfect one.
"Ok, spit it out," Jake folded his arms on the table. "What's bothering you?"
Danny cursed to himself. Jake knew him too well. "It's really not a big deal."
"Well if it's a big deal then there should be no issue telling me," Jake blinked innocently.
"Okay," Danny huffed, avoiding Jake's stare. "It's just...I ran into one of my old high school friends today."
"Oh?" Jake looked surprised. "I didn't know Sam and Tucker were in town."
"No—wait, that came out wrong," Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "He wasn't exactly my friend."
"He?" Jake's eyebrows rose.
Danny's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. He held his hands up, "No, no, no! Not what you're thinking! I—I wasn't out then." Danny took a deep breath and slouched in his seat, folding his arms against his chest defensively. This...was not going well. This was not going well at all.
"Then what was he to you?"
Danny could feel Jake's glare.
"He...he was...um...he was my...bully."
"Oh."
Danny's eyes shot up to meet Jake's much softer, more sympathetic ones. No, his concerned eyes. Jake was concerned. "He didn't give you a hard time, did he?"
Danny shook his head. "No...it was much weirder. He was nice."
"Nice?"
"Yeah. I, uh, well I was at Starbucks during my lunch break and I kind of ran into him there. He was telling me about himself, that he was an engineer now. He designs prosthetics. You know, something like that that didn't fit him at all. I mean, it didn't fit who he was when I knew him. I don't know," Danny took another deep breath. "It was weird. The whole thing was weird. Not in a bad way or anything, just weird."
Jake bit his lip and nodded, unsure of how to respond.
Danny took this as a sign to continue, "But he wasn't even my main—the guy who was the biggest asshole to me. The guy who was the biggest dick, his name was Dash. He was the captain of the football team, the quarterback, had the mathletes do his homework, that kind of guy. He supposedly is this dude's roommate. And apparently, according to the first guy, he's a super nice person now too. Like, they were the two biggest assholes in school. And now apparently they're actual people."
"I mean, people change," Jake's concerned expression never left his face.
Danny ran a hand through his hair, "Yeah, you're right."
Guarded relief melted onto Jake's features. "Everyone changes. Even you! You used to be a nobody, right? Now look at you, you have me!"
A weak smile appeared on Danny's face, "You're so full of it."
Jake rolled his eyes, "You love me, admit it. Anyways, I don't see how this is a big deal. Of course it's a big deal to you, but you shouldn't have to hide this stuff from me, Danny. We're a team. Teams need to work together in order to function. You need to tell me this stuff."
"You're right," Danny said. "I should trust you more."
"Exactly."
"Ok," Danny's eyes glazed over. His stomach clenched. He needed to trust Jake. Everything would be okay. "He invited me over."
Silence.
*I'm pretty sure it's cannon that Sam's Jewish. So I always imagined the trio has a "holiday gift swap" rather than a stereotypical "Christmas swap" or whatever people call it. Ya know, cuz they care about making Sam feel included and stuff.
I was actually going to finish the scene but I'm evil so I copied and pasted what I had written onto a new chapter. And now you get a cliffie. You're welcome!
Huge shoutout to Rosie dragoneel, Marsetta, KodiakWolfe13, and Anon for reviewing! You guys keep me motivated!
In News: I'm currently writing Ghost Speak (yes, you heard me right, I'm writing a full-fledged ghost language for the DP universe) on a sideblog on my tumblr: ghostspeak. I've just finished phonology so there's no actual published words yet in the language but if you wanna follow that, you know where to find it. My main DP blog is lexosaurus. Pretty easy.
See you guys soon!