David managed to get his ass to school a bit earlier than usual. Some of the buses were running late so he wasn’t stuck behind as many as he made his way to the student parking lot. He was actually a little pumped to be going to school today. He’d formed this whole plan to ask Davi to the movies after school tomorrow. If Davi got to their spot before the other two he’d just ask him then but if not he usually walked him to his math class so that would work too. It would be fine. He made his way to the usual spot in the hallway the group congregated in the mornings. Shirley and Marcus were already there. Marcus looked up at him from Shirley’s camera and waved.
“Hey Davey, good to see you.”
“Hey, guys, what’s up?” David asked as he dropped his backpack to the floor.
“Oh not much, I was just showing Marcus some of the pictures I took the other day,” Shirley waved the school-issued camera for emphasis.
“Nice nice, can I see?” He leaned over her shoulder.
“Sure,” She nodded.
The pictures were varied. Lots of landscapes from the park nearby her complex. A few pictures of her parents. Her dad was wearing his tallit in the pulpit of the synagogue, wait was it called a pulpit? He wasn’t sure. There were a few of Marcus, most included him doing art of his own. Some of just him hanging out. He almost looked cool in a few of them. Then there was a picture that made him inhale a bit. It was a picture of Davi, he was in profile, sitting on a grassy hill with a particularly vibrant sunset in the background. The pinks and oranges of the sky contrasted with his dark hair beautifully. His eye looked like amber. If she didn’t get an A for this David was gonna riot on her behalf.
“Holy shit, can you send me this one?” He asked.
Shirley gave him an inquisitive look, “Sure, what for?”
“I still need an image for him on my phone,” It felt weird that Davi didn’t have a contact image. Marcus and Shirley still had some stupid pictures from middle school and David assumed the same was true for him on their phones. It was just wrong that Davi still had that dumb silhouette the iPhone defaulted to.
“Yeah, I’ll email it to you while I’m uploading them in class,” Shirley said.
“Awesome thanks!” David began, “Okay so, I know I normally drive us all home and shit but I’m planning on asking Davi if he wants to go to the movies with me this Friday. Will you guys be fine taking the bus that day? I mean, assuming he says yes,” He paused, frowning slightly, “man I hope he says yes.” Davi didn’t have any reason to say no right? It was just two dudes seeing a movie. Davi had probably never had that given his upbringing. Plus, who didn’t like movies? He just wanted to do something nice for the guy. It was completely normal.
Shirley’s eyes widened and her face broke into a wide grin, “Oh my gosh David I’m so proud of you for asking him out!”
Where the fuck did she get that idea? “Hey, I’m not a fucking faggot! I just want to do something nice for the guy who never had any goddamn friends there’s nothing weird about it!” David snapped.
“Jesus Christ dude chill out. You can say it's just a friend thing without dropping the F-slur.” Marcus said as he stepped between him and Shirley.
David rolled his eyes, “It’s just a word, why so upset? Unless you’re one?”
Marcus just stared at him, “I’m not deigning that with a response.”
“I just thought, you know you seemed pretty excited about it and you two are super close and all that so it kinda seemed like…, not a friend thing,” Shirley said apologetically.
David felt himself break out in goosebumps, there was nothing weird about his and Davi’s friendship, right? They were just two dudes that got along, and everyone was blowing shit way out of proportion, “Well, it is just a friend thing, and since I haven’t even asked him yet it’s all hypothetical anyway! And I’d like us to stop talking about it. You’re taking the bus on Friday.”
“You know, I think that’s just fine with us,” Marcus glanced at Shirley.
Davi approached the group, “Sorry I’m late, missed the bus so dad had to drop me off on the way to a VA thing,” He paused, clearly taking in the awkward energy, “...Everything okay?”
David threw his arm around Davi’s shoulders and pulled him close, “Everything’s fine! Don’t worry.”
“I just uh, have the test and then the meet coming up. It’s making me a bit, distracted,” Shirley said.
“I can go to your place after school and we can study together if you want?” Davi offered.
Shirley smiled a little bit, slightly less tense in her shoulders, “Yeah that, I’d like that a lot, Davi.”
Davi looked over at David, “Wanna cut class and have lunch with us? That always cheers you up.”
David felt some sort of way about Davi pointing that out but he couldn’t exactly say he was wrong. Being around him and the others did always improved his mood, or at least it usually did. He avoided making eye contact with Marcus.
“Yeah that, I think that would be nice,” Hopefully, things would have blown over by then. The last thing he needed was to try and explain the actual reason things were so tense. The warning bell rang not too long after that and the four of them scattered to the winds.
When the proper time came instead of heading to his dumb programming class he met up with Davi and the others. They slipped into the cafeteria along with hundreds of other kids. Poor Davi still hated how noisy it was inside. He had his hands covering his ears. David put a hand on his back and just ushered him along.
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“Do we wanna eat outside or inside?” Shirley asked.
“We can watch kids do the mile if we do it outside,” Davi pointed out.
“Davide, are you mocking the unathletically inclined?” David asked in mock scandal.
“I’m not a hypocrite so no. I am commiserating from a distance since that will be me tomorrow.”
“Lmao rip dude,” David elbowed Davi,
“David…we have gym today,” Marcus pointed out.
Fuck they sure did, “Well that’s a problem for future us.”
“Us in an hour,” Marcus complained as he ate his granola bar, “besides you’re not exactly a jock either.”
“That’s what we have Shirley for.”
“Boys are weak and you three are the proof,” Shirley said as she started heading outside.
Davi made a bit of a pouty face at that but said nothing.
“I would’ve figured you were at least in decent shape Davi, what with your dad being ex-military and all.”
Davi raised an eyebrow at him as he took a seat at one of the outdoor tables, “Yeah, my dad was in the military not me. I used to go on hikes when I was younger but,” He cleared his throat, “we stopped getting deployed in places where that was uh feasible so I stopped.”
David knew that wasn’t the real reason, but he wasn’t about to make Davi dish his shit out in the open like this. He bumped his leg into Davi’s under the table, a silent expression of solidarity. Davi linked his ankle with David’s. David looked around, not too many other kids outside today, he figured it was fine to keep their legs linked for a bit. David was thankful Davi seemed to just naturally ease any remaining tension from the morning’s conversation. The group just talked and laughed like normal. Marcus gave him a few odd glances but that was still pretty typical. Davi was leaning on his fist and just kind of looking at him with half-lidded eyes, David felt a bit self-conscious at his friend’s gaze,
“There something on my face?”
Davi blinked, “What? No sorry, I’m just, really tired.” He yawned a bit and David was glad he wasn’t asking the guy to the movies today. He didn’t want to take his guy on a particularly expensive nap. Davi jolted as the bell rang. Shirley, Marcus, and Davi all waved and headed back inside. David was in no rush, this was technically when he was supposed to be arriving anyway.
Once his actual lunch period started David headed to the library. Kids were allowed up there during study hall or lunch. He figured since he’d already eaten he might as well just hang out there. Hell half the time he wound up in the library even when he didn’t cut the class before lunch. He waved at the librarian, a sweet lady named Ms. Sawyer. Ms. Sawyer’s family was originally from Saudi Arabia. She had a pixie cut and was always dressed in a snappy suit. Sometimes it was a funky color, today it was just navy blue. David approached the desk,
“Hey, Ms. Sawyer, do we have any books on like photography here?”
She started typing on her computer, still looking up at him with very wise grey eyes,
“We certainly do, but what are you looking for specifically? Photography 101? Books of photography? Things about a particular photographer?” She listed topic after topic.
“Uh, 101 stuff, some of my friends are in Mr. Pinkman’s class and I wanna like, ask them not dumbass questions.”
“Well, first of all, there’s no such thing as a dumb-butt question David,” Ms. Sawyer had been the elementary school librarian for many years before the previous one retired and she took over, sometimes David forgot she never really lost the vocab of her former station, “but I think this book would suit your needs very nicely.” She wrote down the name and decimal number of a book. “I also think it’s very sweet you’re taking such an active interest in your friend’s hobbies.”
He smiled at the paper, “Thanks, Ms. Sawyer.”
“Of course, that’s what I’m here for,” She nodded.
It wasn’t hard at all for David to find the book Ms. Sawyer recommended to him. It was on the center of the shelf, he went over to one of the more isolated tables and started to read it. Soon he’d be able to keep up with Shirley and Davi whenever they started talking about photos and crap! The language was easy and the photos were as he expected, good and crisp. He was so engrossed he almost didn’t notice the bell ring. He made sure to check the book out before booking it to his next class. He couldn’t really afford to be late the same day he cut a different class. Not to mention, more importantly, after class he got to walk Davi to math.
Class went by in a blur, that seemed to be happening a lot today. David just figured he was focusing on the mini fight and maybe a bit of nerves about asking Davi to the movies later. When the bell rang Davi was already waiting outside the classroom for him,
“Someone’s early,” David smirked.
Davi blushed a bit, “Maybe I was looking forward to seeing you, not a crime.”
“Not at all,” David said as the two of them started walking. He was glad Marcus’s class was on the other side of the school or he wouldn’t even have this brief moment of alone time with Davi. Davi and Marcus were in the same math class.
“So did you and Marcus manage to survive the mile?”
“Barely, I felt bad for Marcus, he slipped in a mud puddle on the track.”
Davi snorted, “Oh God I can imagine it getting behind his glasses and everything, poor guy.”
“Yeah I felt really bad for laughing but it was pure looney tunes shit you know?”
“Please tell me they let him shower after?”
“Oh yeah, he shouldn’t be all gross by the time you guys get to math.”
“I was more worried about him being uncomfortable than smelly, but good to know.”
“So yeah, make sure you watch out for any mud when you head to gym tomorrow. I can’t imagine a mud mask would compliment your makeup very well,” He tapped Davi’s cheekbone just under his eye.
“Right yeah! Well uh, see you later,” Davi was blushing wildly as he started to go into his classroom. David caught him by the elbow, momentarily amazed at the fact that his hand was able to envelop so much of Davide’s arm.
“Wait I, uh, before you go there was something I wanted to ask you,” His face felt warm, why the fuck did it feel warm? The school was still cranking the AC even though it was practically October already.
Davi tilted his head and took a step closer so he wasn’t blocking the door to the classroom,
“What is it?”
“Wanna go to the movies with me after school this Friday?” David asked. He had no idea why he felt so nervous. It wasn’t like he was asking the guy on a date or anything despite Shirley’s gross-ass assumption. Davi stared at him a moment, then his eyes seemed to widen as he processed the question,
“Really? I mean- Yeah I totally want to! That, that would be nice.”
“Awesome, we’ll head to the theatre after school if that’s good with you?”
Davi nodded, “I can’t wait!”
David smiled, there was no fucking way he was going to learn anything in English today but somehow he didn’t care. All he could think about the rest of the day was Davi’s excited smile.