Notes: So, this is a bit boring, but there's some needed exposition and plot here, so READ IT.

]In this chapter, Dave is paranoid while in school, and when he drives back home with his brother, things get settled, but, if for better or worst, only time can tell.

Chapter 2: Like A Teen Pop Virgin, Minus The Virginity

In the end, Dave ended up staying in his room for the rest of the night, dazed, confused and, mostly, hungry. He was pretty much starving, but he sure as hell didn't want to risk venturing through the apartment in search for food and cross paths with his brother. He would like to have his thoughts in place before such a confrontation.

For the longest time, he just laid down on his bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to make some sense out of the situation. Not that he got anywhere, but he was at least able to calm down a little and not freak out so much. It was still weird, still unnatural, but Dave figured out throwing a hissy fit over it wouldn't change anything. The damage was done and nothing he said or did could change what happened.

Past midnight, he attempted sleeping, but as expected, he simply couldn't do it. His mind was still racing and working non-stop, thinking about the avalanche of messages his brother sent his way, and Bro's last question was still echoing inside his brain. And he still had no reply whatsoever.

Dave shifted on his bed for hours, occasionally drifting off to sleep just to wake up in a jolt five minutes later. And the fact that he had school the morning after didn't make things any better. In fact, having to wake up early the next day for such a task made things even worse. He already didn't like school normally, but going there after such a shitty night just made him dread it even more.

The fidgeting and sudden waking up continued till sunrise, and when the clock hit 6AM, Dave was already fed up with those and just sat up, staring at his lap for a while before getting out of bed.

With a yawn, he unlocked the bedroom door and went to the bathroom for his morning routine. Upon looking at himself in the mirror, he realized that he looked way more tired than he thought he would. He could already tell he was going to have a crappy day. As he slowly brushed his teeth, he considered going to school all by himself. He still didn't feel prepared to talk to his brother.

Another yawn came from Dave's mouth before he proceeded to wash his face, which didn't help much with how he looked, but at least it made him feel more determined to leave the apartment.

Back in his room, he changed into his everyday clothes, and sat around for a while. It was still too early to go out, since the school gates would only open at eight. But he had to make sure to go out before his brother woke up. Knowing him, that little "incident" from yesterday didn't interfere with his sleeping at all, and he was probably still in dreamland. This, for Dave, was a relief, even if it didn't sound fair at all.

At around seven, he finally gathered his stuff, and then cursed himself when he picked up his math book and realized he completely forgot to do his homework. He was so worked up the night before he completely neglected it. With just a roll of his eyes, he angrily crammed the book inside his bag, trying not to think too much about his slip. His crabby math teacher was going to nag at him endlessly about it, but he couldn't care less about the old hag.

When Dave finished packing his things, he left the bedroom without a noise, tiptoeing through the apartment to reach the front door, and he was honestly surprised his brother didn't suddenly flash-step right in front of him, to give him both a heart attack and the embarrassment of a lifetime. If it was even possible for Dave to feel even more self-conscious than he already was.

The trip to the ground level of the building was an uneventful one, but when Dave finally hit the sidewalk, he held his breath for a second, his eyes wide as he scanned everything and everyone around him.

A sudden wave of absolute paranoia came to him. What if he crossed paths with someone who saw him at that God-forsaken site? What if someone recognized him? What were even the odds of something like that happening?

Panic took over Dave's brain as he rushed to the bus stop, eyes staring at the gray-colored ground at his feet as he waited for his bus to arrive. That nauseating feeling from hours ago returned once more, at full force, and he could barely look at the driver as he got inside the bus in a rush, going to sit in the very back, face half buried on his backpack.

Not even once while he was pondering on his bed at night he considered the fact he would have to go out of his apartment and interact with people. His mind was so wrapped up in other thoughts this notion didn't even cross his mind. But now he was out and about, and it almost felt like all eyes were on him. As if the entire world knew about what happened.

When the bus arrived at its destination, Dave left it as quickly as he got inside, and rushed to the school's front gate, barely paying attention to the people around him or if anyone was talking to him, replying to greetings with only a quick hand gesture as he made a bee-line for the classroom.

The first period was a total nightmare. Dave was literally sinking on his chair the whole time, and whenever anyone called his name, his heart would skip a beat and he would freeze in place for a second before answering.

Lunchtime came around, and Dave hated himself for forgetting to pack anything to eat before leaving home. He was still starving from the night before, and the food they served at school was far from appetizing, but he would have to make do with that, or else he would barely be able to concentrate on the following classes.

The food sucked, as he expected, but at least he wasn't so famished anymore, and the feeling of paranoia that had been washing over him all morning was starting to fade away.

No one seemed to be acting differently towards him, and everyone he interacted with was behaving as normal as ever. No weird looks or whispers behind his back. Absolutely nothing.

Because of that, second period went by a little bit better, except for the inevitable scolding from the Math teacher, which Dave listened to and nodded at, but didn't really take into consideration.

When school time was close to ending, Dave's heart started to race again, but it wasn't the paranoia. It was because he knew he wouldn't be able to avoid his brother when leaving the building. He knew Bro would be waiting for him outside in his pick-up truck, to take him back to the apartment.

Dave still wasn't sure if he was ready to face him.

The school bell rang and Dave was literally the last one to leave the classroom, walking slowly down the hallway, highly contrasting with the other kids that were passing by him in a hurry. When he reached the front gate, his eyes quickly scanned around and he tensed when he saw the back of Bro's truck.

Looking at his own feet, Dave walked to the vehicle, opening the passenger's door and getting inside, not even once looking at his brother's face as he closed the door.

"How was school?" Bro asked casually, as he started the engine.

"It was OK." Dave replied in the most neutral tone of voice he could muster, which was actually a feat, considering how things were going inside his head.

Bro drove away, and started the familiar path back to their building. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke again.

"You never answered me."

"Hm?" Dave involuntarily looked at his brother, a bit confused. "I did, I said it was O-"

"I don't mean school. What I asked you yesterday. How does it feel like to have fans?" Bro allowed the ghost of a smile to appear on lips, because he was honestly amused.

"I… … I don't really know." Dave looked away, out the window, running his fingers through his hair.

"I admit I'm as surprised as you. I wasn't lying when I said that was a temporary solution. I just needed something to distract the people who visit the site, just so I could borrow some time before I found something more… fitting." Bro finally allowed himself to smirk when they stopped at a red light. "They are more twisted than I first expected though. I actually thought I made a huge mistake after posting that photo there and that would ward off visitors instead of enticing them. Turns out I was wrong."

Dave didn't say anything in response to that small speech from his brother. What could he say anyway? He barely knew how to feel, let alone vocalize anything. The light went green and the truck started moving again, and when nothing came from Dave's lips, Bro decided to talk again.

"Did you eat anything at school?" He asked, looking at Dave from the corner of his eye.

"Just the crap they serve there and try to pass as edible." Dave crossed his arms in front of his chest, trying not to remember the awful taste of what his school classified as "food". He had airplane meals that tasted better than that.

"You didn't eat anything yesterday night. Want to go for some tacos?" Bro didn't like it when Dave skipped meals. The kid was already a bit too much on the skinny side. He didn't need more help with that.

"Hm… Well, sure, why not?" Dave shrugged, relieved Bro didn't push the subject further. As much as he wanted to clear his head about that and actually come to some sort of conclusion, he honestly didn't feel like discussing the subject at the moment.

Bro just nodded and changed directions, driving to the nearest taco-selling drive-through, while asking Dave what he wanted.

After the less than exciting process of buying food, Bro just parked the pick-up truck somewhere, not really feeling like driving all the way back to the apartment for them to eat. He did that mostly because he didn't want the food to get cold. Dave had no objections.

They sat there eating in silence for almost ten minutes, until Dave finally spoke.

"I don't know how it feels like. The 'fanbase' thing I mean. I wasn't really prepared for that…" Dave sighed before taking another bite from his taco. "I… well I feel somewhere between, like, flattered… and baffled. And a bit sickened."

"Can't say I disagree with you on the 'sick' part." Bro could enjoy a lot of dubious things, and he knew the people who frequented his site were far from being pure, innocent individuals, but he didn't know they would welcome something like that with such open arms. "Still, people liked you and this is a fact."

"I know… I just get this weird feeling when I think someone might be getting off to a picture of me, like, right now." Dave felt a shiver down his spine, and he took a sip from his soda trying to erase that mental image from his mind.

"… Yeah, that's a pretty unsettling thought." Bro couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable himself, thinking about some old, balding guy on a sweaty chair jerking off to the image of his little brother. He didn't stop to think about that and now he was doing so, he felt a quite disgusted. "OK, let's not think about that, or else I'm never finishing this taco. Instead, let's think about what we can achieve here."

"Achieve?" Dave raised an eyebrow, not sure if he wanted to see where that conversation was going.

"Creepy, old guys aside, if that little experiment from yesterday told me anything, is that you can please the crowd who goes to the site." Bro leaned back on his seat, taking a quick sip from his soda. "The messages I forwarded you yesterday were just a part from what I got in my inbox, and when I woke up today, there were even more. It was pretty crazy."

"You aren't going to tell me to start doing this, are you?" Dave asked, eyes narrowing as he looked at his brother.

"Well, shit, you got me." Bro said sarcastically, but he was actually glad Dave realized what he meant without him having to be specific about it. "Either way, I'm just saying the site counter sky-rocketed yesterday, and I don't need to tell you how good this is for our bank account."

"So you are willing to expose me to a couple of perverted old guys for a few extra bucks?" Dave sometimes had doubts about his older brother's sanity, but now he was pretty sure he had gone bonkers.

"First, don't act as if more money wouldn't bring you more luxury too, and second, it's not like I'm suggesting you to sell your body on the streets."

"Bro!" Dave almost chocked on his taco with those last words.

"Don't go flipping your shit. Besides, I'm not going to force you to do this. I'll keep looking for someone else to put on the site. I'm just saying you had a very positive effect on the site's popularity. Make of that what you will." Bro took a last sip from his soda and finished his taco, starting the engine again, as Dave stared at him with an annoyed look on his face.

There were so many wrong and illegal implications to what his brother was suggesting, that Dave was having a hard time trying to figure out if he was dead serious about it, or if he was just being his regular, weird self. It was really, really hard to tell, sometimes.

Like that one time, years ago, when they were at the zoo and Bro said he always wanted to have a pet snake, and Dave just scoffed at it, only to find a snake awfully similar to the one they saw a week earlier just slithering around their apartment one morning.

Till this date, Dave never knew if his brother stole the poor thing from the zoo or if he bought it at some store. He never actually dared asking. He also never asked what happened to it, when the unfortunate reptile just simply disappeared, a month later.

Some questions were better left unanswered.

Although, joke or not, Dave wasn't sure of how to answer. Putting aside his initial disgust towards the situation, he couldn't say the prospect of filling their bank account wasn't tempting and highly appreciated, but there were a multitude of ethical implications that applied to the case and Dave wasn't sure if he wanted to brush so closely to immorality just to make a quick buck.

As for Bro, he wasn't kidding, and he honestly wouldn't think twice before giving decency the middle finger if that meant he could a) have fun, and b) challenge society. And that plan surely would give him the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, and get a little bit richer in the process. He really failed to see the problem.

The rest of the trip to the apartment was made in total silence, with neither Striders saying anything. Dave, because his mind was a mess of thoughts again, and Bro because he actually had nothing to say. He had already put his offer on the table and was just waiting for Dave's reply. Although, he wasn't one hundred percent sure if he wanted a positive answer to that. In the end, Dave was still his little brother, still a kid, still the only person he honestly cared about in the world and the one he would actually give a damn if anything bad happened to.

Only Dave could make him hesitate, even if only a little, about anything.

They finally reached their building, Bro parked the pick-up truck in the garage and they took the elevator all the up to the top floor. When they stepped out of it, Bro pulled his key from the back-pocket of his jeans, and when he was about to unlock the door, Dave called him and he stopped to look back at the boy.

"If… If I agree on this… thing… It isn't going to be forever, right?" Dave completely avoided any sort of eye-contact with his older brother, even if that was naturally hard to achieve with two layers of shades in the way of their eyes.

"Well, of course not. We are just going to mess with their heads for a while and then, puff! You are going to disappear, the same way you appeared. No questions asked, no one knowing who you are, nothing. Don't you think that's a good hoax?" Bro used the most reassuring tone he could convene, because all in all he didn't want to scare his little brother. Maybe if they treated everything like some big, well-elaborated prank, then it would feel less like a crime.

"You aren't joking about this, right?" Dave was still skeptic about it all, but he couldn't help but be a bit comforted by his brother's words.

"Look, I can joke about a lot of things, but not this." Bro turned his attention back to the door, finally unlocking it and opening it up. "To be honest I just want to drive those suckers mad and eventually leave them begging for more. And believe me when I say that you are a perfect 'bait' for that." Bro said, as he entered the apartment, while Dave stood there for a moment, processing what was being said to him.

So, him and his brother were going to start some manner of ruse to suck money from a few poor desperate, lonely bastards? It still felt wrong, but that was a way more thrilling and interesting way to look at things. And Dave couldn't say he wasn't growing a little bit more interested.

He was still weary, yes, but terribly curious about what would unfold.