Dave wasn't really surprised on Sunday night when Kurt called to tell him he needed to look at Jacob Ben Israel's blog. A quick glance at facebook proved that pretty much everyone had seen the photos. His wall was overrun with messages, most of them confused and many of them hateful.
When he arrived at school he was greeted with universal incredulous stares, numerous vicious whispers, and a smattering of disgusted insults hurled at him from all directions. He wasn't in the building five minutes before he was slushied by his former hockey teammates. As he was trying to clear the stinging syrup from his eyes, he felt a hand grab his arm. He started to pull away before he heard Kurt's voice say "It's me, you idiot."
Kurt led him into a bathroom and helped him clean the slushie from his face. When he was able to open his eyes properly again he realised Blaine was there too.
"Are you ok?" the former Dalton student asked him.
"I'll live."
"I wasn't just talking about the slushie," he said sympathetically. "A similar thing happened to me at my first high school. I know how difficult it is to be outed before you're ready."
"I'm ok. There's nothing I can do about it now anyway. I just have to deal with it."
"Well if you need anything, we're here, ok?" Kurt offered.
"Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it."
"Do you have a spare shirt?"
"Yeah, I brought a few just in case."
"We'll leave you to get changed then."
Dave's morning went as well as could be expected. He was late for his first class because of the time he spent cleaning up after the slushie attack. He was followed everywhere by stares and whispers. On the bright side, all the school's homophobes were so focused on him they didn't even notice Kurt and Blaine holding hands in the hallway between first and second period.
He didn't bother heading towards the cafeteria at lunchtime. When people saw him sitting by himself they'd just torment him more. He ducked into the empty locker room, the place where everything had started to go wrong (or right, Dave wasn't really sure which anymore), to call Alex.
"I love you," he said as soon as his boyfriend answered the phone.
"I love you too. Are you ok?"
"I think so. I just really needed to hear your voice to remind myself why this is all worth it."
"I'd give anything to be there with you right now."
"Could you meet me here after school? I think I'm still going to try out for the football team this afternoon but I should be finished by the time you get here."
"Of course I can."
"I guess I'll see you this afternoon then."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
Dave hung up the phone and flinched as the locker room door opened. He was relieved when he saw that it was Blaine.
"There you are. Kurt's had me searching the whole school for you." He pulled out his phone. "I found him, honey; we're in the locker room… Ok, we'll meet you there." He hung up the phone and turned back to Dave. "Come on."
Dave reluctantly followed Blaine out into the hallway.
Kurt met them just outside the cafeteria. He grabbed Dave's arm with a firm grip that made it clear protesting would be futile and led him to the table where the rest of the glee club were sitting. They were staring at him with expressions that contained varying degrees of curiosity, resentment and sympathy. Rachel stood up to address him, clearly speaking on behalf of the group.
"We'd like you to know that we're sympathetic to your situation. While most of us aren't ready to forgive you for your past actions, Kurt has convinced us that you're at least worthy of a second chance." It was clear from her tone that she at least was nowhere near ready to forgive him. However, quite a few of the other gleeks appeared considerably less hostile. "You're welcome to sit with us, and to join glee club if you wish, but you should know that you'll be considered on indefinite probation until such time as we can all agree that you've earned our trust." She sat down again, and Dave allowed himself to be pulled into a seat between Blaine and Finn.
There was an awkward silence where everyone stared at Dave with a mixture of curiosity and caution. After what seemed like forever, Blaine took pity on him and drew him into a conversation about football which Finn joined in happily, followed more warily by Puck and Sam.
Dave couldn't believe he was actually going to try out for the football team when he was pretty sure most of the other players hated him. At least he seemed to have the glee guys more or less on his side. He supposed that if they could cope with being constantly ridiculed by their teammates, by Dave mostly the previous year, then maybe he could too. He was just about to head into the locker room when he heard a voice from behind him.
"Dude, what the hell?" It was Azimio. Until now, Dave had managed to avoid him.
Dave shrugged, trying not to let his (former?) friend see how nervous he was. "I'm gay."
"Yeah, that much I figured out. Since when?"
"Since always. I just refused to accept it before." He somehow managed to keep his voice level.
Azimio shook his head vehemently. "You can't be. Not you. You're not some pansy-ass fairy. You play football, you talk normal, you dress normal. You're a dude."
"Yeah, and I happen to be into other dudes." Inside, Dave was trying desperately to convince himself that he didn't care what Azimio thought of him.
Azimio's mask of emphatic denial slipped, revealing complete and utter confusion. "I really don't know what to think right now."
"Think whatever you want. It won't change who I am."
"I… I need some time to get my head around this. It just doesn't make sense."
"Well… let me know when you figure it out, I guess."
Azimio nodded and headed into the locker room.
Dave stared after him. He had expected his former best friend to be disgusted by him. He assumed Azimio would treat him the way the two of them had treated Kurt. This reaction was far from ideal, there was still a good chance Azimio would decide he hated Dave, but it was infinitely better than anything Dave had dared to hope for.
Football tryouts went surprisingly well. He received a few glares and slurs in the locker room but the glee guys backed him up and once Coach Bieste appeared everyone kept their mouths shut. Azimio stayed uncharacteristically silent the entire time, occasionally glancing at Dave, looking conflicted.
When Dave was finally able to leave he was relieved to find Alex waiting for him in the parking lot. He immediately ran over to envelop his boyfriend in a fierce hug.
"Are you ok?" Alex asked.
"I'm certainly a lot better now you're here."
"I'm so sorry about all of this. We should have been more careful. I should never have made you come on that date."
Dave pulled out of the hug a little so he could look Alex in the eye. "You have nothing to apologise for. If I really hadn't wanted to go on that date with you I wouldn't have. I stopped being careful because I don't care anymore, not that much anyway. Yeah, I'll admit today sucked, but everyone will get bored of picking on me eventually. At least now I don't have to live with the constant fear of being discovered. It's out of my hands now. People are going to think whatever they want to think, and I seem to remember you telling me that anyone who can't accept me isn't worth my time."
"Wow. You're handling this really well."
Dave shrugged. "Everyone who's important to me has already accepted me. My parents support me, I have friends, I have an amazing boyfriend. What the rest of the world thinks of us doesn't matter. All that really matters is that I love you, and that by some miracle you love me too. As long as I've got you, I think I can cope with pretty much anything."
"Well I'm certainly not going anywhere."
Dave leaned down to kiss Alex tenderly, not caring who saw them.
It was possible that two or three of the departing football players did see them, and that they started moving towards the couple but hesitated when they saw Finn, Puck, Sam, Mike and Artie glaring at them warningly. It was also possible that Azimio distracted them by suggesting they plot a way to steal Jacob Ben Israel's video camera instead.
If any of those things happened, Dave didn't notice. He was far too preoccupied to be aware of anyone but Alex.
~FIN~
A/N: Thankyou so much to everyone who has read this story. I hope this last chapter lived up to your expectations. If it didn't, feel free to let me know what you didn't like.