Chapter 44

Maybe Kwan was right with his advice, as he usually was. Maybe kissing Fenton like that was too aggressive a move while Fenton was trying to let him down gently. Dash scratched a hand through his blond hair, staring impatiently at the clock for the time to wind down to the final bell so that he could get out of class. Fenton did kiss him back though. Of that much he was sure. Dash sucked in his lower lip, biting on it as he recalled the kiss he shared with the other man. It was an impulsive move. Kwan always warned him that he acted without thinking too often, but Dash thought maybe, if he could just get Fenton to see how much he liked him somehow, then perhaps Fenton would stop trying to push him away and give him a chance.

When the bell rang at last, Dash scooped up his books and bolted for the door with the rest of the class. Maybe he was trying too hard with Fenton. Dash frowned as he walked down the hall with his head bowed. It was a lot easier impressing a woman into dating him than a guy. But he didn't exactly have a lot of experience with the whole dating another guy thing. He only came to realize his interest in men before school started, and Fenton was the first man to really attract his attention. Kwan joked that Dash secretly liked Fenton the whole time but was in denial and that was the reason he kept picking on the man. Maybe there was some truth to that. Dash wasn't completely convinced about it though.

His phone buzzed, and Dash reached into his back pocket to retrieve it. He stared at the message from his mother asking if he could pick up his sister. His father would still be at work, and she had an appointment that she had to get to that couldn't be delayed again. Dash quickly sent back a message letting her know that he would pick up Lily. After shoving his phone back into his pocket, he headed to his locker. Kwan was strangely absent, but Paulina was loitering around chatting with Valerie, who looked a lot happier now that she was able to talk with the other woman again.

"Hey," Dash said as he grabbed a few books from his locker. "I got something to do. Think you can give Kwan the heads up?"

"Sure thing," Paulina answered with a bob of her head. He never had to explain things with Paulina and Kwan because they knew about Lily. As soon as he said he had "something to do," they knew exactly what he meant.

"See you later, Val." Dash waved to them as he departed, heading for the parking lot.

His walk slowed when he spotted the other jock sitting on the hood of his cherry red sports car. If Calvin Williams left any sort of mark on his car, Dash was going to pound the man into the pavement. Deciding the best approach to dealing with the other jock was simply to ignore him, Dash continued on the way to his car like usual, unlocking the driver's side door to climb in. Williams, apparently, had other plans, slamming the door shut nearly on Dash if he hadn't jumped back in time to avoid it.

"What the hell, Williams?" Dash shouted, hands curling into fists. The other jock was lucky they were still on school grounds or Dash would have decked him for that move.

"Did you really think no one would find out?" Williams wore that irritating smirk that usually crept onto his face whenever he thought he had some particularly juicy dirt on someone to spread around the school and cause maximum humiliation.

Dash narrowed his eyes at that expression, wary of exactly what the other jock wanted. "Find out what?" His brow knitted as he pressed his mouth in a tight line. He didn't have the time to waste playing head games with Williams.

The jock snorted as he pulled out a phone from the pocket of his letterman jacket. "It's pointless to act like you don't know," Williams said, sneering at Dash, who genuinely didn't know about what this confrontation was. "You were caught in the act." He held out the phone for Dash to see the screen that displayed a picture of the kiss he shared with Fenton during lunch. Dash blanched as he turned his blue eyes back onto the other jock, wondering what Williams planned to do with that picture. "It makes a nice background, don't you think?" Williams smirked, turning his phone back around to stare at the picture. "Maybe I'll blow it up and posted a few copies all over the halls for everyone in school to see." A cruelness entered his eyes. "Who would have guessed the great Dash Baxter, star of the football team, king of the school, was gay for the stupid loser Fentonweenie?"

Dash resisted the urge to roll his eyes. That was Williams' big plan to humiliate him? It hardly seemed like a well thought out scheme to create humiliation on a massive scale. "You say that," Dash snatched the phone from the other jock's hand, "like I'm going to run off crying." He snorted, tossing the phone in the air and catching it neatly while Williams frowned at him. "Did you think you'd just come up to me, show me this picture, and somehow make me bow down like your slave to prevent you from spreading it around the school?"

Dash tossed the phone into the air again, but this time he didn't even attempt to catch it. His eyes remained trained on the other jock, who realized a moment too late that his phone was plummeting to the hard asphalt of the parking lot. Williams dove for the phone, but he failed to catch it in time. The phone bounced off the asphalt with a clatter, the screen cracking on impact. Williams ground his teeth as he shot a glare at Dash, who crouched down in front of him.

"You want to tell the whole school I'm gay?" Dash asked slowly, using his most intimidating stare as he remained just high enough to give him the height advantage over Williams. "Go right ahead. I'm not scared of what everyone will say about me. Football season is over, so you can't run me off the team for my sexual preference. But you lay one hand on Fenton," his voice turned deadly as his eyes narrowed darkly, "and I will make you regret it."

Dash stood, leaving Williams to pick up his phone. When he opened the door of his car again, it came inches from smacking the other jock in the face. It was sorely tempting to hit Williams, but Dash didn't want to get in trouble, and there were plenty of witnesses around the parking lot. He pulled out of his spot, not missing the glower Williams sent him before he tore out of the parking lot.

Dash sighed as he drove to the hospital. Today simply didn't seem to be going well for him. He had high hopes when Fenton asked to talk to him in private. His heart pounded nervously in his chest when they walked through the halls together. Sadly, he had thought many times about Fenton rejecting him, mostly the other man telling him that he was straight or that he was in a relationship with Manson. Most people in school thought the two were a couple anyway. That, however, didn't stop him from dreaming of Fenton actually returning his feelings for him. It still puzzled him that Fenton rejected him so adamantly when he clearly felt something during their kiss. Dash understood wanting something beyond just physical attraction, he wanted that too, but he didn't get why Fenton wouldn't give them the chance to have that deep relationship beyond something that was just a physical thing. He frowned as he thought about Fenton's words. Why did Fenton keep saying that Dash deserved better than him?

After parking in the garage at the hospital, Dash headed into the building. A large part of his life involved getting dragged to the hospital whenever his sister had to go in for treatment, so he knew the place almost like the back of his hand. He headed up to the floor where Lily would be waiting for one of them to pick her up. His mood didn't improve when he reached the room and found his sister sitting on the bed with a twelve year old boy. Dash knew Jeremy from all his prior visits to the hospital. Jeremy was a pretty nice guy, but that didn't stop Dash from going into protective big brother mode.

"You two look awfully cozy," Dash said, folding his arms and leaning against the doorframe as he gave Jeremy a look that made the boy gulp.

"Dash!" Lily whined with a blush on her cheeks, and Dash didn't miss that the two of them were holding hands. "We were only talking."

"I should probably head back to my room anyway," Jeremy mumbled as he stood. With an embarrassed look, he bowed his head and rubbed at the back of his neck. "I guess I'll talk with you later, Lily."

"I'll see you next time, Jeremy." Lily climbed off the bed. Then after a moment of debating, she leaned in toward the boy and gave him a quick peck on the lips. Both of their faces burned red after the brief kiss, and the tense moment was broken when Lily darted toward her brother and grabbed his arm as she raced out of the room.

Dash managed to give Jeremy the patented big brother death glare before he was yanked away from the door to the room. "You kissed him," he stated bluntly, turning to frown at his sister, whose face looked like it might be permanently stained that dark shade of red.

"I like him," Lily mumbled quietly, her hand squeezing around her brother's arm.

Dash could see it plain as day between the two of them. They liked each other and he wanted to be happy for his sister, but he also wanted to protected her from being hurt. "Just don't rush anything like your idiot brother." He looped an arm around her as they left the hospital together.

Lily tilted her head up and frowned at him. "What did you do now?" It was odd when she could look so wise at such a young age.

"Ah, you don't want to hear about your knuckle headed brother's big snafu." As they reach his car, Dash pulled his arm away from her to unlock the doors.

"Dash," Lily said sternly, giving him the usual look when she wasn't going to let him get away with something.

Dash groaned as they got into his car. Leaning back against the driver's seat, he stared up at the ceiling of the car and remained silent for a moment. "I kissed Fenton," he confessed, his mouth pulling into a frown. "But he rejected me."

"Good."

"Excuse me?" Dash snapped his head around to his sister. His brow creased in confusion as he stared at Lily.

"He's all wrong for you."

"You've never even met him!" Dash argued, flabbergasted by his sister's response. He expected Lily to call him an idiot for rushing into kissing the man. He didn't think she would be happy that he was rejected.

"You really are an idiot." Lily shook her head as she sighed. "You're so blind, chasing after the wrong guy when the right one is right in front of you."

"What are you talking about, Lily?" Dash was completely baffled by her comment. "Kwan thinks I should keep trying. Just, you know, not stupidly grabbing Fenton and kissing him like that. He says I should try showing an interest in things he likes and, you know, getting him to warm up to me instead of being all aggressive."

Lily groaned, rolling her head away from him as one her blonde pigtails slipped forward past her shoulder. She wore one of the shirts that Paulina picked out for her with a lower neckline than Dash approved of, but whenever he argued with her about that type of clothing, Lily usually got pretty pissed off at him. He tried not to start too many fights like that because he knew Paulina picked out things that would be cute but still offer some physical appeal to boys Lily's age but not in an inappropriate way. Dash was sad to say that he saw some girls around Lily's age that showed off way too much skin sometimes to impress boys.

"You two are so ridiculously stupid sometimes," Lily complained as she looked back to her brother.

"You're not making any sense, Tails." Dash reached over and prodded her in the forehead.

Lily pouted as she swatted at his hand. "You know I hate when you call me that." Her eyes narrowed at him. "And I'm talking about you and Kwan." She sighed dramatically in exasperation. "I can't believe how impossibly stupid you're both being about this. How can you be so blind to the fact that Kwan likes you?"

"I think you're confused, little sis." Where was that even coming from? Dash really couldn't figure out why Lily would think that Kwan liked him, in any way beyond as just friends. "If Kwan liked me, why does keep insisting I go for it with Fenton?"

"Because he's being an idiot," Lily said flatly. "Don't you get it? Kwan isn't fighting for you because you said you liked this Fenton guy, so he's stepping back so you can be happy." She lowered her eyes with a miserable sadness. "Can you even imagine how that must be hurting him? Having to support you and give you advice while you chase after someone else, and all the while he probably wishes you would look at him instead."

"No, that can't be right." Dash shook his head, not believing his sister's words. "Why would you say something like that?"

"Because you're too thickheaded to notice it yourself." Lily stared dully at him, her mouth pressed in an unhappy line.

"Buckle your seatbelt," Dash instructed as he started the car. He didn't want to think on that topic anymore. Kwan liked him? He didn't want to know something like that! Now he had a guilty feeling settling inside him, twisting uncomfortably as he thought about all the times that he talked with Kwan about how he felt about Fenton. He never once noticed any sign that Kwan might be hurt during those conversations. But of course he wouldn't. Kwan was always good at masking his emotions. He could put on a dopey smile and act like he was a cheery man. Dash suddenly hated himself because he only thought about his own feelings without thinking of how that affected his best friend. As he drove them home, a question circled around his mind: Was that the reason Kwan always denied having someone he liked?

Anon: XD Well, the boy does pull it off.

midnight: =( *pats Tucker* It's okay. It was an accident. It's not like you shot your best friend in the chest with something that could potentially kill him on purpose. Haha, that's advice that Tucker should definitely keep in mind next time he's around any sort of weaponry. XD;;

Sammi: The tech bros are bonding~ 8D

maltese: Aw~ D: I'm sorry! That must be a horrible position to be in. =( I really like to think that if things had progressed to senior year, we might have gotten more of the A list and the trio becoming friends. Well, I can believe that's how it goes. XD;;

Just Will: Haha, no they do not. XD;; My friends and I always wore sweat pants under our skirts when we had to wear uniforms in grade schools and it was winter time. We're getting close to things now~ I think. XD;;; *stares at characters* Unless they start trying to push stuff back more. Kwan just wants to curl up and cry. orz But he just throws on that happy face and tries to power through the pain. I don't think it's working to well for him though. =( Tuck and Kwan will definitely be watching Danny like a hawk now to see if anything comes of that "weak link."