Derek Haig

When someone mentions Derek's name, words like jerk, annoying, and short come to mind. Derek can't help the way he acts; it's just the way he is. He's all right with it - in public. After a long day, when Derek finds his way onto his mattress, his dreams are questions he asks himself and answers he doesn't know. He would run through millions of faces, trying to imagine his mother's. When asleep, Derek wonders if she has brown hair like he does, or if she has his blue eyes. Derek has gone through about a billion faces in his lifetime, but he never recognizes any of them. On nights when he isn't shuffling through human features, he dreams about Danny - about how they shadowed each other before drifting apart come senior year. Derek loves Danny like a brother, but there was no way he would ever say that out loud, because saying the word "love" to a guy would instantly mark him with a "homo" status. So he'll have to tell him with punches on the shoulder and dry humor.

Derek, like any other normal person, has the occasional nightmare. He dreams of his future - of what would happen if he completely screwed up these last few semesters and didn't get into a good college. But that's just the lesser of two evils. On bad nights, Derek dreams the night his mother gave him up. He doesn't know if she died or just couldn't take care of him, but in nightmares, the worst suspicion always comes out. He would imagine the look of disgust on a face he could never remember as it cast him away. Derek would very often wake up in the middle of the night after this and try desperately to remember that face, but he never could. Danny was never in his nightmares. There was nothing bad about him.

His dreams aren't really dreams as much as they are memories and his lust for memories.
His nightmares aren't as much nightmares as they are signs desperation.

I imagine Derek must get tired of sleeping.

Next: Mia Jones