Day Six
Dave sees Sam briefly at school, but Sam tells him he hasn't had a chance to talk to Kurt yet. Later in the afternoon, Dave passes Kurt in the hall and Kurt looks away deliberately. It reminds Dave so strongly of how things had been the first time around that he nearly doubles over in pain.
Of course, this time, instead of the fear and the shame welling up and making him want to lash out, he just feels frustrated and sad. He wants to grab Kurt and shake him, to yell, 'Can't you see that I love you and I only have six days left to make you believe it!' but that would be crazy. Dave's not crazy. Not that bad, anyway.
Instead, he just slinks away, turning slightly to watch Kurt's retreating form, a lump in his throat.
"You got it bad, boy. It's just sad is what it is."
Dave whirls around to see Azimio smirking at him. "I don't know what you're talking about," Dave protests.
"I like this," Azimio continues, ignoring Dave. "This whole, 'you finally tellin' me what I've known for years' thing. Now I can call you out when you look at that boy like he's a porkchop. Sad, I'm tellin' you."
"I am not -" Dave starts to protest, but Azimio cuts him off with a wave of his hand.
"Nuh-uh. You can't deny that shit. You're about as subtle as a hungry dog, man. I think you had some drool."
Dave starts to put his hand up to touch his mouth before he catches himself. He narrows his eyes but doesn't comment, unwilling to fight about this, especially not in public. "Can you not do this here? I'm not exactly ready for everyone to know, okay?"
"Why not? Ain't no one gonna care. Half the football team is glee dorks, and they're just gonna try and hug you and knit you a rainbow sweater and shit. The other half listens to whatever I say. And I say the only problem we got is that you don't have enough balls to ask that Hummel kid to go to a production of fuckin' Cats or whatever it is homos do on a date. Shit, man, it's embarrassin' to be friends with you right now."
To his intense shame, Dave has to blink hard because his eyes are watering a little. He wishes it were as easy as Azimio seems to think it is, but he just... He knows it's not true. He remembers how people used to treat Kurt.
Even when they weren't cruel, there was still a disconnect. A barrier that kept Kurt from being fully accepted. People always whispered. Always kept their distance. No matter what Azimio says, things would get bad. And he trusts Azimio, he really does, but how long would Azimio be able to stick by him if people turned on them both? He just... can't.
And he's not sure now if the real problem is still fear or if it's that he doesn't want anything to distract him from his mission. Although, since Kurt isn't exactly speaking to him, it might not matter.
"I just... Let me, like, tell my parents and whatever first, okay? Then you can bust my balls in public all you want."
"You told me before you told your parents? Shit, man, I'm fuckin' honored. Now do that shit because I got about a hundred jokes stuffed up in here," he says, tapping his head, "and they're gonna have to come out soon or I'm gonna catch a stroke from the pressure."
"Fine, fine. Glad to see you have my back, man."
"Mmmhm. Now get to class before I gotta start rippin' on you again."
"Suck my dick," Dave mutters, torn between amusement and intense frustration – mostly at himself for being so transparent.
"Nah, I know I ain't your type," Azimio says with a grin, turning his back and walking away. Dave glares at his retreating form, but it's wasted as Azimio turns the corner without looking back.
On one hand, he can't believe how lucky, how absolutely blessed, he is that Azimio is totally cool with everything. It's actually a relief that Azimio's making fun of him. Although, apparently he's had a lot of time to get used to the idea. On the other hand, he's a little sad because he really thinks that Azimio is grossly underestimating the amount of shit he's going to take if he just starts telling people.
No, he's definitely not ready for that. He needs to deal with the Kurt situation first. Or he needs to tell his parents. Either one of those things is way more important than dealing with random classmates and their curious stares or hushed whispers.
Turning on his heel, Dave hurries to class, already feeling the stares on his back.
After school gets out, Sam texts Dave saying, Talking to kurt. Let u know how it goes later.
He's determined not to stress about it, though. He goes home and tries to veg in front of the television, but his mind keeps inventing scenarios that involve Kurt swearing that he'll hate Dave forever and vowing to never speak to him again.
Luckily, before dinner, he gets another text that reads, Things are cool with kurt. I totally fixed everything. You owe me big. :)
Before he can even go to reply, his phone buzzes again and it's a text from Kurt. Sorry for yesterday. Sam explained. I hope ill see you tomorrow!
Normally, Dave would be concerned about what Sam's idea of 'fixing' and 'explaining' was, but he's too busy being elated. When his mom calls him for dinner, he practically floats down the stairs.
"You look happy," his mom comments, plunking a bowl of salad on the table.
Dave grins at her and takes the bowl, dropping a big pile of lettuce on his plate. He's suddenly ravenous. "I am happy. I had an... argument with a friend, but we worked it out."
"Is this the friend you saw yesterday? The one you ran out of here to meet without introducing us?" she asks, a note of censure in her voice.
So she had noticed that. "Yeah," Dave says around a mouthful of salad.
His dad clears his throat. "Is this a... close friend?"
His mom sits down and they both look at him expectantly. It's almost comical, really, and he decides to just suck it up and stop being a wuss. "Yeah. I... I mean, if it's, like, okay with you guys, I want to go out with him. Like, as a boyfriend?" He winces at how totally lame he sounds, but his dad smiles and his mom claps her hands and gets up and hugs him.
"Oh, David!" his mom says, repeating it several times.
"Jeez, mom, it's not that big a deal!"
"It is!" she protests. "You've been so upset lately, and when we started to realize why, we were afraid you would just... not... accept it or something, I don't know. But you seemed so angry, and I didn't know how to tell you that we understood. Your father told me I couldn't say anything!"
"Well, if it hadn't been true, it might have upset you even more," his father says gruffly, defending himself.
Dave is pretty sure that if things had gone this way the first time around, he would have been beyond mortified, but being here again with his parents, both of them young and alive and beaming for him, well... It kind of makes him want to cry.
He lets his mom hug him tight for a minute, and when she finally lets him go, he says, "Things are gonna be better now, I promise."
She has tears in her eyes as she nods. He feels so guilty for what he put them through, making them worry, but he realizes that it will be better. Most of the worst stress hasn't happened yet, and now it won't. Now his dad won't have to go down to the school and talk to the principal. His mom won't have to check on him several times a day in case he's trying to kill himself or something. He hadn't realized what she'd been doing the first time around, popping in and checking on him all the time. He'd thought she was just being nosy – a pain in the ass. It wasn't until much later, shortly before she died, actually, that she'd told him what she'd been afraid of.
Now that won't have to happen. None of it will.
His mom sits back down, dabbing at her eyes. Dave affects a put-upon sigh and asks, "Can we just eat now?"
"Fine, fine," his father says, a little gruffly. "I just... I hope things will be alright now."
"We're just relieved," his mom says, and he wonders if she'd already started the suicide watch. He pushes away the guilt, though, and takes another bite of salad.
"So tell us about this boy," his mom says. Dave rolls his eyes, but he swallows his food and then indulges her.
