Chapter Eight
Monday morning Dave, Finn and I drive to school together. We have a plan of sorts ready to explain Dave's presence with us for the worst scenario, which was getting caught leaving the car together. Of course the worst of the worst happened and Azimio of all people drives up and parks beside us as we are all piling out of our vehicle.
"What the fuck are you doing with those losers?" Azimio shouts to Dave as he gets out of his car.
"Well hello to you to Azimio, and are you this fine morning?" I answer.
He completely ignors me and glares at Dave waiting for an answer to his question.
"I had some issues at home with my mom so I had to leave. The Hummel-Hudsons were kind enough to take me in."
"I'm your friend, you could have phoned me up. I would have taken you in. I thought I was your best friend; I have your back. You know that." Azimio says, obviously hurt by the slight.
"I know that Az. My father has become close friends with Burt Hummel over the past month. He asked Kurt's dad to take me in for a little while." Dave answers, carefully keeping to the plan we came up with, which was tell the truth but be very vague.
"What the hell kind of trouble are you in?"
"It's personal. I'd rather not say."
"You can't tell your best friend, but these two jokers know all about it." Az huffs.
"I'm sorry Az. They are involved." Dave shifts his weight uncomfortably. It was obvious he is holding a lot back.
Az stares at for some moments watching Dave squirm, finally he shrugs, letting it go. "So can we hang out in the cafeteria before class or are you going off with your new best buds?"
Dave relaxes, all the tension leaving his shoulders. He smiles and nods,"Sure we can hang out. That will be great!" He turns to me and Finn, "Well see you later I guess."
"Okay," I answer, smiling encouragingly. "We have Glee practise after school so you'll have to wait for us."
"Don't worry about me,maybe I'll take a stab at homework in the library."
"I text you later." I reply.
"Well isn't this very sweet and domestic. Maybe you want to kiss your boyfriend goodbye." Comes Az's annoyed response.
Dave looks abashed and turns to follow Az; suddenly he stops and turns back to us with a devilish smile."Great idea Az, why don't I kiss my boyfriend." He then moves towards Finn with his arms out. "How about it Finn honey? Give me a kiss."
"Get out! Leave me alone!" Finn laughs quickly backing up to stay out of Dave's arms.
Dave looks crushed, or at least he tries to but he keeps smirking."What's the matter? You weren't so cold towards me last night when we slept together."
"I like to be romanced, I'm not in the mood this morning." Finn replies laughing still managing to avoid Dave's clutches.
I'm laughing as well watching their antics. Suddenly Dave reaches out and hooks my head with his arm and pulls me in so I'm squished under his armpit. "Kurt's not so flighty, he'll give me a kiss."
"No way! Get off you Neanderthal! Why would I kiss an ignoramus like you!" I pretend to struggle valiantly.
Dave pulls my head up while he lowers his and gives me a peck on the top of my head, then lets me go.
"If you have slobbered in my hair, you'll pay for it!" I yell acting like I'm really upset. Secretly I'm thrilled to death he is showing me affection publically, even if it is in the form of a joke.
"Are you through? Can we go now?" Az grouses unimpressed with our silliness.
"Sure Az." Dave leaves with his friend without a backward glance.
"I hope he'll be alright." I remark as Finn walks beside me as we follow the pair at a distance.
"Don't worry Kurt. He'll text you if something comes up."
After walking a while, Finn speaks. "I'm really rooting for the both of you, ya know. You two will make the best couple."
"Thanks Finn. If we can get through this trouble with his mom, I think we will make a great pair too."
"You really love him a lot, don't you."
"Yeah, but I don't want to scare him, so keep it to yourself, okay?"
"Sure thing. Though - he'd have to be blind if he hasn't figured it out yet."
All morning I resist the urge to text Dave. I don't have any classes with him so there is not chance of seeing him. I know I might see him at lunch in the cafeteria and I stress over my response. Do I acknowledge him or ignore him? Will I end up embarrassing him or slighting him?
In the end my delemma was rendered moot because over the intercom Principal Figgins called Dave to his office just before lunch. So no Dave in the cafeteria when I get there. I shoot him a quick text and I just have to bide my time and wait. I sit with the gang of Glee and find it difficult to care about the current drama (whatever it is) that is happening in Glee. I'd been through it all before; admittedly from far away in (Dalton Academy)but I know that it will be resolved. Whereas Dave's situation can still end tragically no matter what I do. Finn noticed my anxiousness and shoots me empathizing looks and smiles and I appreciate it.
Later in the afternoon, I finally receive a very ambiguous text from Dave. "Mom showed up at school. I'll tell you what went down when we meet up." All it did was make me worry even more.
"So what happened?" I ask Dave as soon as we leave school grounds. I've been on tender hooks all afternoon watching the clock and waiting for school and Glee practice to end so I could find out why Dave's mother had come to the school.
"Man it was nuts!" Dave explains, "I went to the office and there was my mother and her pastor. They wanted to take me out of school and take me to some exgay camp. My mom has reserved a bed for me there out of state and she had a pair of plane tickets her hand. She was going to accompany me there and get me settled in."
"Can she do that? Wouldn't she need your dad's agreement?!" I ask anxiously.
"You know Figgins, he folds at a drop of a hat. He didn't want any trouble, he just wanted me to go with her and sort it out off school grounds."
"But she is basically abducting you!" I shout. I was glad now that I allowed Finn to do the driving. I wanted to give Dave my full attention but this kind of news would have me driving irratically.
"Neither Dad or I had thought to block her from the school or put any stay to stop her. You need a lawyer's letter or something."
"What about the fact that you didn't want to go with her?"
"That's why her pastor was there, to explain to me how sinful gay life is. I told them that if I could have prayed away the gay, God would have made me straight years ago. I told them that I'm finally accepting that I was gay and I didn't want to go them."
"And Figgins? What did he do?"
"All he could say was, you're gay? You don't look gay. Are you absolutely positive you're gay? I'm sorry but you are still a minor I can't stop your mother from taking you."
"What an idiot! What about the fact that your dad would be dead set against you going."
"I explained to Figgins that my dad was away at a conference and that he had entrusted my care to your dad, while he was away. I told him that my dad wanted me to stay with you guys so I wouldn't be left alone with my mother. I told him that the reason my mom is here at school today to take me away was because she knew that my dad would be unreachable. I asked him to phone your dad and he'd explain everything. But Figgins just kept saying his hands were tied, that on paper my mom was still my legal guardian and he wasn't going to act on a seventeen year old's assertion that Burt Hummel had guardian status."
"How did you manage to stay in school then?" Finn asked.
"Sue Sylvester of all people, stopped my mom. She had charged into the office in the middle of our meeting to yell at Figgins about some other thing. But when she realised what was going down, she stepped in and took charge. It was amazing! She lambasted my mom and her pastor over aversion theapy; ripped into Figgins and threatened to bring in lawyers to sue him and the school and promised to call the authorities and report kidnapping, abuse and child endangerment.
"You know that thing she does where she free associates as she rants and you just can't keep up with her random connections and obsure insults to the point that you have no idea what she has said, but you know that you have been well and truly trashed? Sue definitely made a meal of them and then spit them out. She was magnificent! Well my mom just stood there open mouthed, totally speechless and the pastor looked like he was going to wet himself he was so scared. In the end, they backed right off and my mom said she would leave the decision to me on whether go with her or not. Figgins suddenly gets a back bone and said that he would need my dad's or your dad's agreement as well before I could leave school property. Since I did not want to leave school with them it wasn't an issue anyways."
"So does this mean you're like officially out?" Finn asks.
"No way! I asked them all to keep it tp themselves. I made it clear that I am not ready to come out yet. Of course my mom made some snarky remark like 'if you want to be gay so bad and there is supposed to be nothing wrong with it, why do you want to keep it a secret?' I told her I don't want to be gay, I just am gay and I'm still working at becoming confident and strong again before coming out."
"Are you sure your mom won't say anything?" I ask, suddenly worried that she could cause a lot of damage if she outed him now. I haven't met the woman yet but I know I don't like her and I certainly don't trust her.
Dave looks at me annoyed. "I know you think my mom is some kind of monster but even at her worst, she just wants to help me. She just doesn't understand that I can't change my sexual orientation." Dave's expression slumps and he looks very sad. "Besides, she's extremely protective of her standing in the church; she's too ashamed of me to out me publicly. She won't want her friends knowing her son is gay."
I bite my tongue and nod affirmatively even though I do think she is a monster and rail at the idea that she has beaten him down so much that he feels it's his fault that she feels embarrassed. I decide to change the subject.
"How was Az? It must drive him crazy not knowing why your're staying with us."
Dave smiles weaky and shakes his head. "Poor Az, he's really put out and is really hurt that I can't trust him with this personal stuff."
"Why don't you just tell him? Maybe he'll surprise you and accept it." says Finn.
"It doesn't look like that's going to happen." Dave replies sadly. "He was really grousing today, wanting to know why I would want to hang around with a fag. I asked him not to use the term "fag" anymore in my company and told him that Kurt is really cool and lots of fun to hang out with. He asked me if I was scared that Hummel might try something. I told him that if a gay guy come up to him and propositioned him, all he had say was 'thanks, but no thanks, I'm not interested.' He got really angry and said that if a dude came on to him he'd beat the crap out of him. So I said, if a gay guy approaches you, it's not because he thinks you're gay, it's because he thinks you are attractive, he's just taking a chance that you might be interested, so why not be flattered instead of angry. So Az says to me, is that what you have learned from you six week indoctrination on how to be gay? Hummel might have you fooled, but I know that the idea of two guys fucking was disgusting and wrong. If you are turning gay then you can forget staying friends in the future." Dave sighs,"I couldn't tell him the truth about me, I chickened out. Sooner or later though, I will lose him as a friend."
"He's not much of a friend if you ask me," I respond sourly.
"Kurt, he has been a great friend. When I lost my brother in the car accident, the other kids avoided me, like they would catch death and tragedy from me or something. Az was one of the first kids to reach out to me. He told me later that he wanted to be my friend bacause I looked so sad and lonely and he wanted to make me feel better. He's a good guy, but just can't get his head around homosexuality."
"It's a shame because he'll be the one losing out in the end. You're great guy too, and I'm sure losing you as a friend will hurt him just as bad. It seems so pointless." I answer sadly.
"Well look on the bright side," Finn says, evidently channelling Pollyanna, "It can't get much worse!"
"Oh great Finn! Like we don't have enough angst and drama without you going and tempting fate!" I say angrily. Honestly, if he wasn't driving, I'd give him a hard smack on the back of the head.