Hey there! I apologize for the delay in updates and such. I've been trying to get chapters out regularly...
Anyways, a huge thank you to everyone who is reading this, and all the faves and stuff! Shout outs to StarWolf3, Guest, TheDarkRainbow, Flamingspain, Silvinukas, and Lysol for reviewing! I really appreciate it, you guys!
You're taken aback as you see Dave's arms. As soon as Dave notices that you saw his arms, he quickly pulls his sleeves over the old scars, but he knows it's too late.
"Dave," you say, reaching for his arm, your voice barely audible. He doesn't pull away from you, even as you pull his sleeve up to expose his arm again.
"Dave, why?" you ask, tears prickling in your eyes. Sure, you had barely known him for a month or whatever, and you didn't have much experience with human stuff like this, but you still felt pretty close to Dave, and worried for his well being. And you're upset to see that he had done this, for you're pretty sure isn't good, and you had no way of stopping him.
"I...," Dave began, and you lifted your head to look at him in the eyes, which you could see the vague outline of through his shades at this distance.
"John, I can't," he says, pulling away from you. He picks up his pizza and began eating again to avoid conversation.
"Dave, you know you can tell me anything. I won't judge you, and you can trust me," you tell him. He just continued eating, not giving you any answers. You sigh and stand up.
"You can just talk when you're ready, if ever," you say as you excuse yourself to the bathroom. You just wish Dave would trust you more, but you know it's going to take even longer if you pry for details he doesn't want to give. You'll just give him space, and maybe, eventually, he'll open up.
Even as John left, you stayed on the couch. You tugged your sleeves back down to cover your arms, and let yourself drown in thought.
What if you did tell John everything? How long you've been doing this, why you were doing it, how life at home was, how you still got bullied when John wasn't around, and even when he was. What if you did open up to him?
"Dave, you know you can tell me anything. I won't judge you, and you can trust me." You replayed John's words in your head. You know he was genuinely concerned about you, and you had no doubts that you could trust him. You just weren't sure if you were ready to open up, to have to remember and repeat everything that was causing you to be like you were.
Some people said that talking helped. You decided you were going to try it.
You waited patiently for John to return, and when he finally did, you stood up and spoke.
"John, I think I changed my mind. I do want to tell you," you said, letting your cool kid facade drop a bit. It was seriously difficult to hold that up all the time.
You hear John breathe a sigh of relief.
"Okay," he says, motioning for you to follow him. He leads you to his room and sits on the bed, where you join him.
"Talk," he says. "Start from the beginning."
You nod. "Alright. When I was younger, I lived in Texas. I had two parents, an older brother, and a twin sister. I was really young when a car crash took the lives of my parents. My sister got taken away from Bro and I, and we lost contact. Bro and I moved a lot, until we came here to Washington a few years ago. Since then, Bro has been struggling to hold a job, and I've been a major target of bullying," you tell him. He listens to you carefully as you continue.
"This," you say, gesturing to your arms, "Started about a year ago when Bro lost his job and things got particularly bad. Of course, he has a job now, but we don't talk much, which actually bothers me. The way things are, I know I'll be on my own by the time I'm eighteen."
"Why do people tease you?" John asks quietly.
You take a deep breath, not sure if you actually want to answer that, but you do it anyways. At least partly. "Because of my looks, lack of parents, sexuality. You know, the like."
"Sexuality?"
"Yeah. I'm bisexual, but everyone just assumes I'm gay since I haven't had a girlfriend in awhile."
"Oh..."
The room becomes silent, and you hear a car pull into the driveway. Must be John's dad. As if reading your thoughts, John speaks up.
"My dad's home. We should probably figure out sleeping arrangements," he tells you. You nod, and the two of you argue on who's gonna sleep on the floor. you win, and begin piling extra blankets and pillows on the floor next to John's bed to sleep on. Not long after, you and John exchange goodnights and go to sleep. But of course, like always, your insomnia keeps you awake.
You eventually fall asleep, but wake up just a few hours later when john falls off his bed, and right on top of you.
"Oof," he says upon impact, slowly waking from his sleepy state. You grunt and push John off of you. He sits up and looks at you.
"Oh, sorry Dave! I didn't meant to do that!"
You sigh and rub the side in which John fell on. "It's okay. Just go back to bed," you tell him.
He climbs back into his bed, but he doesn't go to sleep. His eyes are on you, sort of staring.
"What?" you ask, looking down. Oh. A few problems here. One, you aren't wearing a shirt, you never do when you sleep. Because of this, all of your scars from years of strifing with Bro are visible. The second thing wrong is you are only sleeping with boxers on. This leads to the third problem. You were having a nice dream before John woke you up. Guess where this lead you.
Straight. To. Bonerville.
You feel your cheeks heating up as you realize your situation, especially now that you're remembering you dream. You really shouldn't have been dreaming about John, but you can't help what your subconscious does. It wasn't your fault, you don't even feel like that about John. I mean sure he's funny and geeky and easy to be yourself around, and maybe he's just a bit more than a little attractive to you, but he's your best bro. You are definitely not crushing on your bro. Nope.
"Uh...Dave?" John's voice pulls you out of your thoughts. You look up at him and realize his face is just as red as yours.
"Yeah?" you ask smoothly, playing it cool.
"My dad won't be up for a few hours," he tells you. Your breath catches in your throat before you realize that he isn't implying anything. You give him shit for it anyways.
"John, don't you think that's a little forward?" you ask with a straight face.
"Dave!" John cries out, his face reddening more. "I meant you'll have time to shower if you want!"
"I know," you tell him. You get up and stretch, and you can feel John's eyes on you.
"The towels are in the hall closet," he mumbles.
"Thanks, Egbert," you say, and step out of the room to take John up on his shower offer. But all you know is that with the images from your dream fresh in your mind, this shower was certainly not going to be a cold one.
By the time Monday rolled around, you decided that you weren't ashamed of what you did. You were ready to face John today, and you went to school with that in mind.
As soon as you got to your first hour, John greeted you cheerfully.
"Hi Dave!"
"Sup John?" you responded. John started telling you exactly what was up. He said that the two of you were going to sit with Rose, Jade, Karkat, and Kanaya today at lunch. Those people were friends of John's who you occasionally talked to, but not very often without John. You used to talk to these people a lot more, but that just sort of stopped.
The day ended up speeding by until lunch came around. You didn't really eat lunch, so you just sat down and waited for the others to arrive at the designated table. Rose was the first to arrive.
"Hello, Dave," she greeted you. You nodded at her in reply.
After a short pause, she spoke again. "I heard you told John about our childhood," she said. How the hell did she find that out? John...
"And?" you ask.
" 'My sister got taken away from my Bro and I and we lost contact'? Really, Dave?"
"Rose, don't push it. You know that the cat stays in the bag or we'll both end up in foster care," you tell her.
"Dave, the matter has long been settled. And you know it's very hard to miss the resemblance between us," she argues.
"Rose, just leave it be, okay? Things are much simpler that way."
She's about to reply, but the other four are approaching your table. Kanaya immediately grabs Rose's attention, and you and Karkat exchange a few friendly insults before John calls the attention towards him.
"So guys, remember how my birthday passed a few weeks ago? Yeah, well I'm finally having a party for it this weekend. I want you guys to come, and I'll be inviting a few others too," he tells your group.
"Sounds cool," you tell him. Everyone begins conversing about the party, and you watch them, participating in the conversation every so often. It seems you are finally starting to fit in.