Sam could handle the "rules" of dating Dave. He was okay with not holding hands, hugging, kissing, or even making eye contact in public. What he couldn't take was the way Dave's personality suddenly switched when he was with his jock friends.
He tried to focus on his English teachers lecture, but every time she talked about the main characters battle for acceptance his mind threw him back into what had happened in the hall yesterday.
He'd been walking to Algebra, a class he was actually good at, when he saw Dave walking with some hockey buddies. He immediately averted his eyes and planned to keep walking when a particularly husky boy, that seemed to have the IQ of a peanut, called out to him.
"Hey, pretty boy. Where ya headed?"
"Erm.. Math?
"Going to count your gay?" The boy cracked, reaching out to high five Azimio, who seemed to think this was the wittiest thing he'd ever heard.
Sam let his eyes lock on to Dave's, silently pleading him to do something. The other boys noticed the look and turned to Dave, confused.
"What are you looking at fag?" Dave's face was expressionless, showing no signs of remorse. Within seconds Sam felt his back collide with the metal lockers. "Queer."
The group of boys laughed, disappearing down the hall, and Sam watched them go with hatred boiling in his veins.
Now it was the next day and he still wouldn't return Dave's calls. When Sam had switched on his phone that morning there had been 24 missed calls and 16 text messages, but he refused to answer any of them. Why should he? He'd already forgiven him once for his craziness, why should he do it again?
Because he needs you.
There it was again. The part of him that terribly wanted to answer the phone, that wanted to give in and run back into Dave's arms. It was the same part of him that thought it was a good idea to forgive him in the first place, and look where that had gotten him.
No, he wouldn't forgive him this time.
After school that day Sam was finally confronted in the empty halls.
"Leave me alone, man." He said when he felt Dave's shadow over him.
"Why won't you answer your phone?"
"I don't know Karofsky, why don't you stop beating up the people you like?"
Dave looked like he'd been punched.
"You called me Karofsky…"
"Maybe because the person I see in font of me isn't the Dave I know. That boy that shoved me into a locker? That's not the same person that held me in the park last week." Sam slammed his locker shut and stared into the bigger boys eyes. "Who are you?" He pushed past Dave and rushed out of school.
Karofsky sat in his room bandaging his hand, which he'd pounded into his wall moments ago. Lately he just couldn't control himself. His anger problems were getting worse every day that Sam ignored him.
It wasn't really his fault that Sam was in the wrong place at the wrong time. What was he supposed to do? If he hadn't shoved him it would have been obvious something was up, and then BOTH of them would have gotten more than a just few bruises.
It didn't help that Sam wouldn't talk to him either. He'd managed to get him to answer the phone once, but instead of talking they just fought.
"It's time to make up your mind, dude." Sam had told him. "You have to decide between being the big homophobic bully, or being my- being my boyfriend."
It wouldn't bother Karofsky if Sam had yelled at him. He would actually prefer it. Instead he just sounded hurt.
Maybe it would be best if he left Sam alone. Maybe he should just give it a rest and avoid making Sam's life any worse. Karofsky was the one that decided to be the bully, he was the one that had chosen to threaten Kurt, and now it was time to fix it.
He had to make himself better before he could ever love anyone.