Pain, Pudding, and Pride
Title: Pain, Pudding, and Pride
Pairing: Javid
Rating: Um… high T, because drugaddled!David really likes bad words… And Jack makes a really, really gross joke.
Word Count: ~3,200
Summary: Only one thing can make having your wisdom teeth taken out less fun: having your ex-boyfriend try to take care of you. Fluff.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Seriously. Not even pudding. Or wisdom teeth. (I never got any! I am a freak. Send me to the circus.)
“Mornin’, sunshine,” Jack said, beaming down at him.
“Oh my god,” he said, still extremely groggy. Well, really, it sounded more like a bunch of gurgling. His head was spinning and his mouth was very full, very painful, and very wet. He didn’t remember very much, but he knew something very important had just happened. He started talking, sputtering about things like “What are you doing here?” and “Why do I feel like death warmed over?” and “Why the hell can’t I talk?”
“Davey… Davey would you take the-Hold on. I’ll help you. Here. Open up. You gotta take the cotton out. Then we can talk and then I can put new gauze in. Okay?”
It sounded like a very long line of gibberish to David’s ears. It was gibberish coming from a not-unattractive boy. It was gibberish coming from a boy who had broken up with David not too long ago. It was gibberish coming from a complete and total prick.
Other than the random syllables coming from the mouth a fucking bastard, David wasn’t sure what was going on. He was trying to put the pieces together-why he felt like shit, but still really awesome, why someone he never wanted to see again was sitting in his room, why his mouth tasted like a mop-when Jack plunged his hand into David’s mouth.
He didn’t need words to make Jack back off. He screamed. He screamed in a way that he would not normally be proud of, but Jack went away and that was really all he wanted. Jack’s hand flew away from David’s mouth instantly, mostly because he was afraid that if he didn’t, he was going to get bitten. And not in a fun way.
“Dave, would you stop? I’m here to help you. You are still under some anesthesia, but you have to take your pill soon-”
David groaned. It all clicked. Very slowly and in a very swirling sort of manner, all of his confusing clues linked together. Earlier in the day, David had gotten his wisdom teeth taken out. He had been dragged there, saying that he was sure he could live with the pain and crooked teeth. Then he had been drugged up and dragged home, silly and sloppy. Then he’d been put to bed. He was awake now. He was still very drugged up.
He groaned again. He was hallucinating. Jack was nothing more than drug addled memory. “Fuck,” he said through the cotton.
“Hey, watch your mouth,” Jack said with a smirk, looming over him. “You want me to help you with that gauze now?”
David said something and turned around and stuck his fingers into his mouth. Then he let out a yelp of pain. He flung his head back onto the headboard, giving up with the gauze. He was not supposed to be in this much pain, because he was on drugs and drugs were supposed to mean no pain. His jaw was starting to hurt so much that he wondered if they forgot to give him drugs. Then he saw Jack standing there, tall and grinning like an idiot, which meant that he was hallucinating which meant he was on drugs.
He hit himself on the headboard again. He was having visions of his ex-boyfriend coming to the rescue. Even in this state, he knew that this could in no way be a good thing. Jack had broken his heart and not cared. David had decided that he didn’t care either. David was over Jack. He was over the fact that his best friend had broken up with him in the most humiliating way humanly possible. He was over the fact that his best friend could just give up and decide that it was too much and not want to do it any-He was over it.
It did not mean that he was up for being within ten feet of Jack.
“You want help?” Jack asked again with that goddamn smile that got him whatever he wanted.
“No.”
“Whatever, Dave, but you don’t have it out in,” he stopped to check the time on his phone, “fifteen minutes, I’m going to have to do it by force.”
David wanted to scream. David wanted whatever sort of sick hallucination he was having to fall off a cliff. He wanted Jack to fall off of a cliff. A tall one. David wouldn’t have even minded falling off the cliff after Jack, because he was in pain, he was apparently spiraling back into the undertow that was Jack, and he was torn between feeling very hungry and like he might throw up on Jack’s feet.
He plunged his fingers back into his mouth and experienced another world of pain with absolutely no satisfaction. Then he started laughing again because that was what his entire relationship with Jack had been like. He closed his eyes and thought that if he concentrated he might be able to will his hallucination away.
He opened them again. Jack was still standing over him and smirking and looking way too good-looking and shockingly sweet.
David closed his eyes and tried again. No, his will power was not good enough to rid him of Jack, but it might just be strong enough to die. He willed himself with all his might to stop living but it didn’t seem to work, though he could never be sure, because he wouldn’t know what it was like to be dead.
“Okay. Davey, I know you don’t want to, but I’m going to try to take the gauze out. Now, after it’s done, you can talk a little bit. Then you can take your pill and put new in and go back to sleep, okay?”
David refused to look at him. He didn’t want him here. He didn’t want the gauze to get pulled out. He especially didn’t want Jack to go around sticking his fingers in his mouth. He didn’t want Jack sticking his fingers anywhere in him. The thought of Jack touching him made him cringe.
That didn’t really stop Jack. He rested his right hand on David’s shoulder and gently pulled down his chin with the other. Then he pulled out a piece of gauze with the long fingers of his right hand. David stared down at them. He breathed in a wished to god that he hadn’t.
“Fuck,” he winced, not because it really hurt.
“Sorry,” Jack looked into his eyes with a sheepish, “I’m sorry” smile that David hated more than just about anything in the world. It was a smile that said, ‘I know this is hurting you. I really do. I really don’t care. Don’t hate me. I’m cute.’
And if David weren’t afraid of it hurting him more than Jack, he would have bit down on his fingers. Hard. He should have hurt Jack a long time ago. And he shouldn’t bother with it now because he was a fucking hallucination.
Jack raised back to his full height with a handful of bloody cotton in his hand that made David’s stomach turn. “I’m gonna go throw these away. You want anything else?”
“Water.” David was surprised because even with the gauze out, he still felt like he was talking through gravel. He touched his cheeks and felt that they were still huge. He probably looked like a chipmunk. He slammed his head back again. There was really very little that was good about this situation.
Except that it couldn’t possibly get any worse.
Jack reached down and pushed one of David’s curls off of his face. There was a look in his eye that David liked way too much and didn’t trust at all.
Well, shit.
This could definitely get worse, he thought as Jack went into his kitchen. This could get a lot worse.
***
Jack came back and gave him water. He was definitely not a figment of his imagination. David didn’t know whether to be relieved or concerned by this.
“I’m just gonna set your pain pill right here on your dresser. Must hurt like a sonuvabitch, don’t it?”
“Why are you here?” David almost sobbed. “Seriously. This world is full-fucking full Jack-of… of places! And you could be in those places instead of being here. Why the fuck do you have to be here?”
“Sarah asked,” he chuckled a little. David did not see anything for him to be chuckling at.
“What do you mean ‘Sarah asked’? Why would Sarah ask you of all people?”
“Well, Davey, who else she gonna ask? You got somebody else who’d come?”
Had David been in his right frame of mind, he might have sensed the weight of that question. He might have responded. He might not have. He might have let Jack sweat a little. Seeing as how David was not in his right frame of mind, he answered as such:
“Why isn’t Sarah here? Aren’t big sisters supposed to take care of their brothers after stuff like this?”
“She had a date,” Jack shrugged off.
David’s eyes went wide and wasn’t sure he’d ever been so mad at one of his family members in his life. He hadn’t even been this angry when Les broke a baseball through his computer and practically killed him in the process. David was going to beat Sarah. No, David was going to kill her.
“She… She left me? She left me drugged with you because she had a date? You? She left me with you? No one else would come?”
“Well, Davey, I don’t think she called anyone else,” Jack laughed at the furry Dave was getting himself into. “You’re kinda cute when you’re this angry.”
David narrowed his eyes. If he thought he wouldn’t kill himself, he would have tackled Jack. He deserved it, damnit. If Jack thought he could just come back into his bedroom and call him cute and be charming and Jack, well, he had another thing coming.
“Don’t. Just don’t, Cowboy.”
Jack put his hands up like he was surrendering and pointed to David’s worn out desk chair, “ I’m just gonna sit here. If you need anything, just tell me.”
They sat in silence for a while until a very large problem came up for David. He threw the covers off of himself and swung his legs off of the bed. As he moved to push himself off of the bed, Jack spoke up.
“Where the hell you think you’re going?”
“Well, Jacky-boy,” he spat, “water has to go somewhere. It’s a little something we call ‘cause and effect.’ Maybe you’ll learn about it someday.”
“Uh-uh. You’re not going alone. You’re drugged enough to tranquilize an elephant,” Jack grabbed his elbow.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Ok then. Get up.”
After a minute of struggling, David pushed himself to standing. He had just enough time to get a smug expression stamped to his face when he fell on his butt back into bed.
“Yeah. Thought so,” Jack hoisted him up by the elbow and then swung David’s arm over him, so he could guide him to the bathroom.
“I hate you, Jack,” David said as they made their way to the bathroom.
“I know, Davey.”
***
“Well… fuck,” David said once he had gotten himself settled back into his bed. That was not fun. That was very strong on the side of “humiliating.”
“Dave, listen to me, I just wanted to come over cause your sister asked me. She and I still get along…” he dropped off like he was hinting at something. “So I’m gonna stay and make sure you’re going to be alright, whether you want me here or not. So, you want me to keep you company until you can take your meds and go back to sleep, or you just wanna sit here and stare at each other?”
David’s eyebrow knotted and he went over his options in his head. The only really good option was Jack leaving, but as Jack was as stubborn as a mule, he knew that wasn’t going to happen. “I guess we can talk. But don’t try to like, fucking make out with me or anything,” he sneered.
“Dave, I’ve seen your mouth. It’s gross. If I wanted to put my tongue in gaping, bloody holes, I’d save myself the trouble and just date girls.”
David took a minute to process Jack’s comment. He then proceeded to get very disgusted. “That’s… that’s just fucking gross.”
“I had this theory that maybe you’d find stuff like that funny when you were high.” He caught David glaring at him, “I guess I was wrong…” he scratched the back of his neck.
“You’re wrong about a lot of things about me. Damn wrong. About so fucking much.”
“You sure cuss a lot when you’re high.”
“I am not high. Stop saying that.”
“You’re high, Davey. It’s okay, but it’s true. Happens to the best of us,” he said, referencing quite a few nights were David had to take care of a very intoxicated Jack. “Even more when we get our teeth pulled out of our skulls.”
“Dug.”
“What?”
“Dug. They dug my teeth out of my skull. They were impacted,” he slurred and sputtered at the word.
Jack let out a long whistle and then started staring at David again. Not in the same way as before. He ran into the bathroom and came back with a disposable cup and a washcloth. He kneeled down by the bed. “Spit,” and David really did follow, because his mouth was full of spit and blood and pus. Jack wiped the mess off of his chin and looked at his ex -boyfriend and -best friend. He cleared his throat and hopped back into his chair suddenly.
“You want anything Dave? You hungry? You want me to read to you or something?”
David didn’t want to cave. David was hungry. Jack was adorable. David was high. David was hungry. David caved.
“Before I went under, I know someone said something about pudding.”
Jack laughed and sprinted into the kitchen. He handed David a pre-made cup and a spoon. David ignored the feeling he got as their fingers brushed again. Jack sat down and started to tell some story about riding a horse or a car or a woman or something. It wasn’t as interesting as Jack would like to think. David was sure he’d heard it before.
“Hey, who said you could eat my pudding?”
Jack stopped with a spoon halfway to his mouth. “I-I um… I just assumed. I’m… well, sorry, Dave.”
It was David’s turn to laugh. “I’m just joking Jack. Help yourself to whatever. Thanks for coming and helping me. I’m pretty sure that Sarah would have abandoned me.”
“Nah, Sarah-” Jack started, but he was interrupted.
“Ow,” David, holding face and looking very surprised that he was in pain. “Fuck. Pain. Ow. Damnit.”
“Oh yeah,” Jack grabbed the pill from the top of the dresser. “Here,” he placed it in the palm of David’s hand and gave him a glass of juice that he had gotten at the same time as the pudding.
“Thanks,” David said again, sounding genuinely grateful.
“No problem, Dave,” Jack sighed.
Jack started telling a story and before he was even to the exciting part, David was asleep, snoring softly.
***
Jack had pulled a book out of David’s shelves. They were stalked but Jack knew that the section at the bottom, shoved in with the “useless” dictionaries and modern romances and Steinbeck were books that David had gotten for Jack. He knew this because David didn’t read westerns. Jack laughed a little because they hadn’t been burned and then felt like shit because he should have felt like shit for making David so upset and ruining something he couldn’t get back and-
“Jack,” David mumbled in his sleep.
“Yeah, Davey?” Jack flew to the bed to listen to David whisper in his sleep. “You need something?”
“No,” he grabbed Jack’s hand without opening his eyes. “I miss you.”
Jack put one of David’s curls back in place and sighed. “I miss you too, Davey.” He kissed one of David’s hands. “I miss you too.”
David smiled through his chipmunk cheeks. “Good,” he said and scooted over to make room for Jack on the bed.
***
“Have a good time?” Sarah smiled wryly and leaned in the doorframe.
Jack smiled and held up his fingers to his lips. “Shh… He’s sleeping. Don’t wake him,” Jack carefully got out of bed and walked with Sarah into the hallway.
David could overhear everything.
“So, you two kiss and make up?” you could almost hear her eyebrow arch.
“No. Well, you know how I feel about the bloody mouth thing,” he made a shuddering noise.
“Yes Jack. Not what I meant.”
“He said he missed me… He was really drugged, but he let me lay with him.”
“Well,” her tone changed, “get this straight Jack, you don’t push him. You let him decide. You be nice. And goddamn it, if you break his heart again, I will break every bone in your body.”
Sarah hadn’t been too upset when Jack broke up with her. Sarah had even acted like she was really happy when Jack and David got together. Sarah was furious when Jack broke up with her baby brother. Sarah, it seemed, was trying to get Jack and David back together.
Sometimes David really loved his sister.
***
It had been a few days since Jack had talked to David. David felt terrible and wanted to burn Jack’s hair off again. He hated that it got to him again. He hated how hopeful he was again. He hated Jack and he hated Sarah and he hated the painkillers but mostly he hated himself.
As he slammed his locker shut and went to catch the bus home, he hated himself all over again. It was a week since he had woken up to Jack, high and miserable, and he had officially given up. He turned around and flung his bag over his shoulder. The hall was pretty deserted and he was probably going to miss the bus. Great. Just great. He sort of missed cursing.
He ran into someone. Looking up he saw Jack, grinning down like an idiot. He took a step back and tried to bolt, but Jack grabbed his elbow. “I miss you Dave,” he whispered into his ear. “I messed up. Big time. I know you probably don’t want to take me back. But… Goddamnit, I love you Davey. I don’t want to not have you in my life. And you’re my best friend. I know you probably can’t forgive me, but… if we can’t be together, can we be friends again?” He stepped back and showed off what he was hiding behind his back. “I brought pudding.”
David laughed at the look on Jack’s face. It was the closest he could think to Jack begging. David was dumb. David was going to hate himself later. The swelling and bruising in his cheeks had just gone away. He roughly kissed Jack on the mouth. You couldn’t really hate a guy that brought you banana pudding to apologize.
A/N I love Javid. I love Javid more than life itself. In the process of “should be doing other things” I wrote this. And I decided that it was meant to be, because while I was writing the last scene, “In Your Eyes” came on. And that song equals epic romance. Which I think says something unhealthy about me. Thanks for reading, dearie!
Oh yeah, I love BA older sister Sarah. She’s kind of awesome in that context.
Pairing: Javid
Rating: Um… high T, because drugaddled!David really likes bad words… And Jack makes a really, really gross joke.
Word Count: ~3,200
Summary: Only one thing can make having your wisdom teeth taken out less fun: having your ex-boyfriend try to take care of you. Fluff.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Seriously. Not even pudding. Or wisdom teeth. (I never got any! I am a freak. Send me to the circus.)
“Mornin’, sunshine,” Jack said, beaming down at him.
“Oh my god,” he said, still extremely groggy. Well, really, it sounded more like a bunch of gurgling. His head was spinning and his mouth was very full, very painful, and very wet. He didn’t remember very much, but he knew something very important had just happened. He started talking, sputtering about things like “What are you doing here?” and “Why do I feel like death warmed over?” and “Why the hell can’t I talk?”
“Davey… Davey would you take the-Hold on. I’ll help you. Here. Open up. You gotta take the cotton out. Then we can talk and then I can put new gauze in. Okay?”
It sounded like a very long line of gibberish to David’s ears. It was gibberish coming from a not-unattractive boy. It was gibberish coming from a boy who had broken up with David not too long ago. It was gibberish coming from a complete and total prick.
Other than the random syllables coming from the mouth a fucking bastard, David wasn’t sure what was going on. He was trying to put the pieces together-why he felt like shit, but still really awesome, why someone he never wanted to see again was sitting in his room, why his mouth tasted like a mop-when Jack plunged his hand into David’s mouth.
He didn’t need words to make Jack back off. He screamed. He screamed in a way that he would not normally be proud of, but Jack went away and that was really all he wanted. Jack’s hand flew away from David’s mouth instantly, mostly because he was afraid that if he didn’t, he was going to get bitten. And not in a fun way.
“Dave, would you stop? I’m here to help you. You are still under some anesthesia, but you have to take your pill soon-”
David groaned. It all clicked. Very slowly and in a very swirling sort of manner, all of his confusing clues linked together. Earlier in the day, David had gotten his wisdom teeth taken out. He had been dragged there, saying that he was sure he could live with the pain and crooked teeth. Then he had been drugged up and dragged home, silly and sloppy. Then he’d been put to bed. He was awake now. He was still very drugged up.
He groaned again. He was hallucinating. Jack was nothing more than drug addled memory. “Fuck,” he said through the cotton.
“Hey, watch your mouth,” Jack said with a smirk, looming over him. “You want me to help you with that gauze now?”
David said something and turned around and stuck his fingers into his mouth. Then he let out a yelp of pain. He flung his head back onto the headboard, giving up with the gauze. He was not supposed to be in this much pain, because he was on drugs and drugs were supposed to mean no pain. His jaw was starting to hurt so much that he wondered if they forgot to give him drugs. Then he saw Jack standing there, tall and grinning like an idiot, which meant that he was hallucinating which meant he was on drugs.
He hit himself on the headboard again. He was having visions of his ex-boyfriend coming to the rescue. Even in this state, he knew that this could in no way be a good thing. Jack had broken his heart and not cared. David had decided that he didn’t care either. David was over Jack. He was over the fact that his best friend had broken up with him in the most humiliating way humanly possible. He was over the fact that his best friend could just give up and decide that it was too much and not want to do it any-He was over it.
It did not mean that he was up for being within ten feet of Jack.
“You want help?” Jack asked again with that goddamn smile that got him whatever he wanted.
“No.”
“Whatever, Dave, but you don’t have it out in,” he stopped to check the time on his phone, “fifteen minutes, I’m going to have to do it by force.”
David wanted to scream. David wanted whatever sort of sick hallucination he was having to fall off a cliff. He wanted Jack to fall off of a cliff. A tall one. David wouldn’t have even minded falling off the cliff after Jack, because he was in pain, he was apparently spiraling back into the undertow that was Jack, and he was torn between feeling very hungry and like he might throw up on Jack’s feet.
He plunged his fingers back into his mouth and experienced another world of pain with absolutely no satisfaction. Then he started laughing again because that was what his entire relationship with Jack had been like. He closed his eyes and thought that if he concentrated he might be able to will his hallucination away.
He opened them again. Jack was still standing over him and smirking and looking way too good-looking and shockingly sweet.
David closed his eyes and tried again. No, his will power was not good enough to rid him of Jack, but it might just be strong enough to die. He willed himself with all his might to stop living but it didn’t seem to work, though he could never be sure, because he wouldn’t know what it was like to be dead.
“Okay. Davey, I know you don’t want to, but I’m going to try to take the gauze out. Now, after it’s done, you can talk a little bit. Then you can take your pill and put new in and go back to sleep, okay?”
David refused to look at him. He didn’t want him here. He didn’t want the gauze to get pulled out. He especially didn’t want Jack to go around sticking his fingers in his mouth. He didn’t want Jack sticking his fingers anywhere in him. The thought of Jack touching him made him cringe.
That didn’t really stop Jack. He rested his right hand on David’s shoulder and gently pulled down his chin with the other. Then he pulled out a piece of gauze with the long fingers of his right hand. David stared down at them. He breathed in a wished to god that he hadn’t.
“Fuck,” he winced, not because it really hurt.
“Sorry,” Jack looked into his eyes with a sheepish, “I’m sorry” smile that David hated more than just about anything in the world. It was a smile that said, ‘I know this is hurting you. I really do. I really don’t care. Don’t hate me. I’m cute.’
And if David weren’t afraid of it hurting him more than Jack, he would have bit down on his fingers. Hard. He should have hurt Jack a long time ago. And he shouldn’t bother with it now because he was a fucking hallucination.
Jack raised back to his full height with a handful of bloody cotton in his hand that made David’s stomach turn. “I’m gonna go throw these away. You want anything else?”
“Water.” David was surprised because even with the gauze out, he still felt like he was talking through gravel. He touched his cheeks and felt that they were still huge. He probably looked like a chipmunk. He slammed his head back again. There was really very little that was good about this situation.
Except that it couldn’t possibly get any worse.
Jack reached down and pushed one of David’s curls off of his face. There was a look in his eye that David liked way too much and didn’t trust at all.
Well, shit.
This could definitely get worse, he thought as Jack went into his kitchen. This could get a lot worse.
***
Jack came back and gave him water. He was definitely not a figment of his imagination. David didn’t know whether to be relieved or concerned by this.
“I’m just gonna set your pain pill right here on your dresser. Must hurt like a sonuvabitch, don’t it?”
“Why are you here?” David almost sobbed. “Seriously. This world is full-fucking full Jack-of… of places! And you could be in those places instead of being here. Why the fuck do you have to be here?”
“Sarah asked,” he chuckled a little. David did not see anything for him to be chuckling at.
“What do you mean ‘Sarah asked’? Why would Sarah ask you of all people?”
“Well, Davey, who else she gonna ask? You got somebody else who’d come?”
Had David been in his right frame of mind, he might have sensed the weight of that question. He might have responded. He might not have. He might have let Jack sweat a little. Seeing as how David was not in his right frame of mind, he answered as such:
“Why isn’t Sarah here? Aren’t big sisters supposed to take care of their brothers after stuff like this?”
“She had a date,” Jack shrugged off.
David’s eyes went wide and wasn’t sure he’d ever been so mad at one of his family members in his life. He hadn’t even been this angry when Les broke a baseball through his computer and practically killed him in the process. David was going to beat Sarah. No, David was going to kill her.
“She… She left me? She left me drugged with you because she had a date? You? She left me with you? No one else would come?”
“Well, Davey, I don’t think she called anyone else,” Jack laughed at the furry Dave was getting himself into. “You’re kinda cute when you’re this angry.”
David narrowed his eyes. If he thought he wouldn’t kill himself, he would have tackled Jack. He deserved it, damnit. If Jack thought he could just come back into his bedroom and call him cute and be charming and Jack, well, he had another thing coming.
“Don’t. Just don’t, Cowboy.”
Jack put his hands up like he was surrendering and pointed to David’s worn out desk chair, “ I’m just gonna sit here. If you need anything, just tell me.”
They sat in silence for a while until a very large problem came up for David. He threw the covers off of himself and swung his legs off of the bed. As he moved to push himself off of the bed, Jack spoke up.
“Where the hell you think you’re going?”
“Well, Jacky-boy,” he spat, “water has to go somewhere. It’s a little something we call ‘cause and effect.’ Maybe you’ll learn about it someday.”
“Uh-uh. You’re not going alone. You’re drugged enough to tranquilize an elephant,” Jack grabbed his elbow.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Ok then. Get up.”
After a minute of struggling, David pushed himself to standing. He had just enough time to get a smug expression stamped to his face when he fell on his butt back into bed.
“Yeah. Thought so,” Jack hoisted him up by the elbow and then swung David’s arm over him, so he could guide him to the bathroom.
“I hate you, Jack,” David said as they made their way to the bathroom.
“I know, Davey.”
***
“Well… fuck,” David said once he had gotten himself settled back into his bed. That was not fun. That was very strong on the side of “humiliating.”
“Dave, listen to me, I just wanted to come over cause your sister asked me. She and I still get along…” he dropped off like he was hinting at something. “So I’m gonna stay and make sure you’re going to be alright, whether you want me here or not. So, you want me to keep you company until you can take your meds and go back to sleep, or you just wanna sit here and stare at each other?”
David’s eyebrow knotted and he went over his options in his head. The only really good option was Jack leaving, but as Jack was as stubborn as a mule, he knew that wasn’t going to happen. “I guess we can talk. But don’t try to like, fucking make out with me or anything,” he sneered.
“Dave, I’ve seen your mouth. It’s gross. If I wanted to put my tongue in gaping, bloody holes, I’d save myself the trouble and just date girls.”
David took a minute to process Jack’s comment. He then proceeded to get very disgusted. “That’s… that’s just fucking gross.”
“I had this theory that maybe you’d find stuff like that funny when you were high.” He caught David glaring at him, “I guess I was wrong…” he scratched the back of his neck.
“You’re wrong about a lot of things about me. Damn wrong. About so fucking much.”
“You sure cuss a lot when you’re high.”
“I am not high. Stop saying that.”
“You’re high, Davey. It’s okay, but it’s true. Happens to the best of us,” he said, referencing quite a few nights were David had to take care of a very intoxicated Jack. “Even more when we get our teeth pulled out of our skulls.”
“Dug.”
“What?”
“Dug. They dug my teeth out of my skull. They were impacted,” he slurred and sputtered at the word.
Jack let out a long whistle and then started staring at David again. Not in the same way as before. He ran into the bathroom and came back with a disposable cup and a washcloth. He kneeled down by the bed. “Spit,” and David really did follow, because his mouth was full of spit and blood and pus. Jack wiped the mess off of his chin and looked at his ex -boyfriend and -best friend. He cleared his throat and hopped back into his chair suddenly.
“You want anything Dave? You hungry? You want me to read to you or something?”
David didn’t want to cave. David was hungry. Jack was adorable. David was high. David was hungry. David caved.
“Before I went under, I know someone said something about pudding.”
Jack laughed and sprinted into the kitchen. He handed David a pre-made cup and a spoon. David ignored the feeling he got as their fingers brushed again. Jack sat down and started to tell some story about riding a horse or a car or a woman or something. It wasn’t as interesting as Jack would like to think. David was sure he’d heard it before.
“Hey, who said you could eat my pudding?”
Jack stopped with a spoon halfway to his mouth. “I-I um… I just assumed. I’m… well, sorry, Dave.”
It was David’s turn to laugh. “I’m just joking Jack. Help yourself to whatever. Thanks for coming and helping me. I’m pretty sure that Sarah would have abandoned me.”
“Nah, Sarah-” Jack started, but he was interrupted.
“Ow,” David, holding face and looking very surprised that he was in pain. “Fuck. Pain. Ow. Damnit.”
“Oh yeah,” Jack grabbed the pill from the top of the dresser. “Here,” he placed it in the palm of David’s hand and gave him a glass of juice that he had gotten at the same time as the pudding.
“Thanks,” David said again, sounding genuinely grateful.
“No problem, Dave,” Jack sighed.
Jack started telling a story and before he was even to the exciting part, David was asleep, snoring softly.
***
Jack had pulled a book out of David’s shelves. They were stalked but Jack knew that the section at the bottom, shoved in with the “useless” dictionaries and modern romances and Steinbeck were books that David had gotten for Jack. He knew this because David didn’t read westerns. Jack laughed a little because they hadn’t been burned and then felt like shit because he should have felt like shit for making David so upset and ruining something he couldn’t get back and-
“Jack,” David mumbled in his sleep.
“Yeah, Davey?” Jack flew to the bed to listen to David whisper in his sleep. “You need something?”
“No,” he grabbed Jack’s hand without opening his eyes. “I miss you.”
Jack put one of David’s curls back in place and sighed. “I miss you too, Davey.” He kissed one of David’s hands. “I miss you too.”
David smiled through his chipmunk cheeks. “Good,” he said and scooted over to make room for Jack on the bed.
***
“Have a good time?” Sarah smiled wryly and leaned in the doorframe.
Jack smiled and held up his fingers to his lips. “Shh… He’s sleeping. Don’t wake him,” Jack carefully got out of bed and walked with Sarah into the hallway.
David could overhear everything.
“So, you two kiss and make up?” you could almost hear her eyebrow arch.
“No. Well, you know how I feel about the bloody mouth thing,” he made a shuddering noise.
“Yes Jack. Not what I meant.”
“He said he missed me… He was really drugged, but he let me lay with him.”
“Well,” her tone changed, “get this straight Jack, you don’t push him. You let him decide. You be nice. And goddamn it, if you break his heart again, I will break every bone in your body.”
Sarah hadn’t been too upset when Jack broke up with her. Sarah had even acted like she was really happy when Jack and David got together. Sarah was furious when Jack broke up with her baby brother. Sarah, it seemed, was trying to get Jack and David back together.
Sometimes David really loved his sister.
***
It had been a few days since Jack had talked to David. David felt terrible and wanted to burn Jack’s hair off again. He hated that it got to him again. He hated how hopeful he was again. He hated Jack and he hated Sarah and he hated the painkillers but mostly he hated himself.
As he slammed his locker shut and went to catch the bus home, he hated himself all over again. It was a week since he had woken up to Jack, high and miserable, and he had officially given up. He turned around and flung his bag over his shoulder. The hall was pretty deserted and he was probably going to miss the bus. Great. Just great. He sort of missed cursing.
He ran into someone. Looking up he saw Jack, grinning down like an idiot. He took a step back and tried to bolt, but Jack grabbed his elbow. “I miss you Dave,” he whispered into his ear. “I messed up. Big time. I know you probably don’t want to take me back. But… Goddamnit, I love you Davey. I don’t want to not have you in my life. And you’re my best friend. I know you probably can’t forgive me, but… if we can’t be together, can we be friends again?” He stepped back and showed off what he was hiding behind his back. “I brought pudding.”
David laughed at the look on Jack’s face. It was the closest he could think to Jack begging. David was dumb. David was going to hate himself later. The swelling and bruising in his cheeks had just gone away. He roughly kissed Jack on the mouth. You couldn’t really hate a guy that brought you banana pudding to apologize.
A/N I love Javid. I love Javid more than life itself. In the process of “should be doing other things” I wrote this. And I decided that it was meant to be, because while I was writing the last scene, “In Your Eyes” came on. And that song equals epic romance. Which I think says something unhealthy about me. Thanks for reading, dearie!
Oh yeah, I love BA older sister Sarah. She’s kind of awesome in that context.