Casey is the most beautiful thing Zeke's ever seen. He says this easily, because it's true. Zeke has a thing with truth. He values it more than anything because truth is rare these days. Stranger than fiction, because we're not nearly as used to it. You know, Jack Nicholson was right – people can't handle the truth. They don't want to. They don't want to hear it because when the truth comes out it means someone is guilty of something. And everyone is guilty of something.
Zeke knows his sins, and he doesn't mind telling the truth. He makes it a point to most times – to Ms. Burke, to Stokely and Delilah, to Stan, but mostly to Casey. Casey's been buried beneath bullshit for so long he wouldn't know truth if it stared him in the face.
Like right now, for instance. Zeke just told Casey that he's beautiful, and Casey doesn't believe. He's blushing and stammering and wondering what the hell is going on, trying to figure out the angle, for Christ's sake. And since when does truth need an angle?
Casey's dumb sometimes. He spends too much time worrying about what everyone else thinks, when they're the ones who are lying in the first place. They're the ones who let Delilah run the school, who let Zeke sell scat on school grounds but frown when he walks into class. They're the ones who pushed Stokely away because they couldn't pigeonhole her, the ones who beat up Casey in twenty new ways each week, so why the fuck should he listen to them and what they think is right or beautiful? Why is Casey so desperate for the approval of people like that? If their idea of love is all about lies, what kind of love is that?
Zeke never lies. And he's just going to keep repeating the truth until Casey believes it.