Behind the Net: Across the Distance (A Sequel) - Chapter 32
Title: Behind the Net: Across the Distance (A Sequel)
Author: shmorgenheigen
Chapter: Thirty Two
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Pierre/David
Word Count: 6574
Summary: The continuation of the story Behind the Net, picking up right where the original story left off. David and Pierre explore their new relationship while navigating a long distance relationship. While Pierre is in Anchorage in his first year of college and playing college hockey, David is stuck back in Juneau to finish his senior year of high school. When an unlikely person from David’s past shows up and forces their way back into David’s life, things take a turn for the dramatic. Will David and Pierre be able to maintain their love for each other while separated and stave off those pesky feelings of loneliness, jealousy, and depression?
Disclaimer: Don't know, don't own, didn't happen!
Author's Note: When I started to re-write Behind the Net from Pierre’s perspective, I started to think about how much story there would be to tell when Pierre went off to college, leaving David alone in Juneau. I became obsessed with the idea of writing the next chapter in their story and now that it’s finished, I am absolutely in love with how it turned out and the original characters I added into the story! If anyone reads this, leave me a comment and let me know!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
David was nervous as he got himself ready for school the following Monday, unsure if Ezra would be showing up to pick him up or not, not knowing if the other boy had been suspended for the fight but thinking it was likely. He made enough breakfast for the both of them as had become his habit but after waiting about ten minutes past when Ezra usually picked him up and the other boy not being there, he was pretty certain what it meant. He wrapped up the extra breakfast sandwich he’d made and threw it in his fridge, figuring if nothing else he could eat it the following morning. He grabbed his keys, put his hand in his pocket to hold his taser, and made his way out to his car which he hadn’t driven much in the last two months, the only time he ventured out of the house outside of school being to get groceries and fabric for dresses. He locked the door behind him and went to his car, glancing around for any sight of Hunter. If Ezra had been suspended David was certain that Hunter would have been too, but would that really stop him from going to David’s house if he decided he wanted to do so? Somehow David just couldn’t see it.
When he got to his first period class that morning and Ezra wasn’t there, David knew that the other boy had definitely been suspended. He sat in his seat and pulled out his school things, feeling guilty over what had happened and the fact that Ezra had clearly gotten in trouble over it, especially considering it was all over him. If it hadn’t been for the sad smile Ezra had shown him as he’d passed by him in the Principal’s office, David would have wondered if the other boy regretted being his friend or offering to help him as much as he had. That smile had been given to him before Ezra had been punished, however. What if getting into trouble changed his mind? David chewed on his bottom lip and looked absentmindedly at the papers on his desk as he thought of it, knowing he wouldn’t be able to blame the other boy if he decided that it was all too much and that it wasn’t worth the effort anymore.
As David went through his morning he heard his, Ezra’s and Hunter’s names whispered everywhere he went. He was too aware of the eyes on him and even though he did his best to not pay them any attention, he couldn’t help the way their words penetrated his thoughts. It was exactly as he had feared, that the fight from the previous Friday would make everyone all the more certain that he and Ezra were messing around, the rumors only made worse by the fact that David had talked so openly all year long about being with Pierre and that he now wore his ring on his left ring finger. He heard the words ‘cheating’ and ‘two timing’ and ‘home wrecking’ thrown around carelessly in tandem with his and Ezra’s names and it made him want to just go home and give up but he knew he had to stay strong for the last three weeks of school. He would keep his head up and wouldn’t allow these baseless rumors to tear him down, no matter how hard it felt.
When he got to lunch it was to find Ben and Noah sitting at the table alone and David approached them cautiously. He sat with them, nervous that they wouldn’t want him there, but he was too curious about Ezra’s punishment and he sat down with them in spite of these fears, regarding them both nervously as if he was afraid they were going to tell him to go away. They didn’t, however, and instead both gave him a nod and quiet greetings.
“Do you know how much trouble they got in?” he asked, skipping any small talk and moving right to the question he was dying to ask.
“Not too bad, Ezra got a week suspension for fighting, Hunter got two weeks for fighting and bullying,” Ben replied.
David chewed on the corner of his bottom lip and looked down at the tray in front of him, his feelings conflicted as he processed this news. He felt an immense sense of relief hearing that he would be Hunter-free for the next two weeks, but Ezra’s week-long suspension weighed on his conscience. Hunter had finally pushed him so far past his breaking point that he just snapped, unable to take another word from him. He wondered if Ezra would have still tackled and started punching Hunter if he hadn’t said something so disgusting, or if he would have been able to let a lesser insult roll off his back. Was it protectiveness over David, or had Hunter simply pushed and prodded Ezra so far that anything would have set him off? As glad as he was that Hunter had been punished for his behavior, he hated that Ezra had been too. His feelings conflicted painfully inside of himself and he didn’t react much to the news, his brow furrowing and giving no response except for a nod.
“You can’t keep blaming yourself for all this stupid shit Hunter’s doing,” Noah told him.
“It’s really hard not to,” David admitted, his eyes down on his lunch. “I should have just stayed away from you guys. Hunter wouldn’t have dragged you all into this and all this drama wouldn’t have ever happened to you.”
“Yeah and instead when he went after you again you would have been all alone,” Noah retorted without hesitation. David looked up at him, his eyes sad and hesitant. “It’s not like we’re sitting here thinking ‘Oh man, I wish we’d never been friends with David’, so stop making yourself feel so bad about everything. Yeah, if you hadn’t started hanging out with us, Hunter wouldn’t be bugging us right now, but he’d still be bugging you, and I’d rather we deal with him as a group than you have to deal with him all alone, especially after what he did to you.”
David blushed as he listened to Noah talk, having never heard him be so serious before. It was possibly the nicest thing Noah had ever said to him and it meant more to him than he could ever express. His eyes got a little teary and he didn’t speak, wanting to express his gratitude but not knowing how to say it. Noah seemed to see this on his face and a look of mild panic overtook him. “No, no, don’t get all emotional. Ezra’s the one that knows what to do with that and he’s not here,” Noah said, sounding a little desperate as he did and not at all mean.
“Sorry,” David said quietly, blinking hard and looking away. After the year he’d had, he felt like all of his emotions were sitting right at the surface and the slightest thing could bring them out of him. There had been a time that David never cried but between falling in love with Pierre, having to say goodbye over and over to him, and all of the drama with Hunter, David had cried more in the last year and a half than he thought he had in the whole rest of his life.
“I’ve seen Ezra and Hunter fight before, but never like that,” Ben said, and David turned to look at him, seeing that he was shaking his head slowly. “It’s always been petty and stupid, but this time they seemed like they really wanted to hurt each other.”
“They’ve never yelled at each other like that,” Noah agreed, looking back at Ben.
“When Hunter started being a dick about me and Ezra, I thought he didn’t actually believe what he was saying and was just being an asshole because he was mad that you guys became my friend after cutting him out but after Friday and how wild and hurt he was…” David trailed off, his eyes on his food in front of him as he recalled Hunter’s face distorted in anger and betrayal, and the things he had screamed, the way he had accused Ezra of falling in love with ‘the only person he’d ever had feelings for’ and the way he’d screamed ‘You know what he means to me!’. “I think he really believes Ezra’s in love with me.”
Neither Ben nor Noah said anything in return and David looked up at them, seeing the way they were looking at each other, looking uncomfortable. David watched them, thinking they seemed to be speaking to each other with their eyes, sharing a look that almost looked like they agreed with Hunter. David had seen this look on their faces before when it came to Hunter’s comments about him and Ezra and it made him anxious. “You guys…” David started, seeing how Ben and Noah looked back at him quickly. “You believe there’s nothing going on with me and Ezra, right?” he asked hesitantly.
Noah and Ben’s eyes darted back to each other in a nervous sort of way as if they couldn’t help it and they both nodded too hard and fast, and their voices were too high when they responded, “Yeah!” and “Sure!”
David just stared at them, completely at a loss for what to say to them. Hunter seemed to think it, Pierre seemed to think it, and now even Ben and Noah seemed to think it. Was David kidding himself that Ezra didn’t have feelings for him? “You guys suck at lying,” he said. “There’s REALLY nothing going on,” he added firmly. “Ezra is NOT in love with me!”
“Sure, if Ezra says he doesn’t have feelings for you, then he doesn’t have feelings for you,” Noah said, though David could hear that he was lying to try to make him more comfortable. “Right?” he asked, turning to look at Ben.
Ben nodded and looked back at Noah, giving a simple, high-pitched, “Right!”
“He’s not even into guys!” David reasoned with them.
“I mean… I don’t know how much you really count as a guy,” Noah said, and Ben quickly kicked him under the table, a move that was too obvious.
David dropped his head to the table with a thud and covered himself with his arms, choosing not to respond to what he could have considered an insult, even if he understood Noah’s meaning. “You at least believe that I don’t have feelings for him, right?” he asked, his voice muffled.
At the same time Noah said, “I mean, yeah,” and Ben said, “Oh yeah, for sure,” both of them sounding completely normal and not uncomfortable, awkward, or like they were lying at all.
David pulled at his hair a little, his forehead pressed hard into the table as their casual, honest reactions registered in his mind. So they both thought that Ezra had feelings for him, but believed that he didn’t return those feelings? Suddenly he regretted ever asking. David shook his head under his arms, wondering how he had gotten himself into this mess and regretting almost every decision he’d made that year, except for the ones involving Pierre. He dropped his arms back to his sides and sat up and back in his chair, looking off to the side in a defeated manner, not knowing how to respond. How was he supposed to respond to finding out his friends thought that their other friend was secretly in love with him? Instead, he just changed the subject. “Is he in trouble with his parents?” he asked without looking back at them.
“Eh, no more than usual,” Noah responded. “Do you have his number? You could text him if you wanted to.”
David thought about it but something told him to hold back and he shook his head, his eyes still hazy and looking across the room as he said, “Ya know… I’m thinking it’s probably best if I don’t.” David’s boy drama meter was already past its capacity and he shuddered to think what could end up happening next if he did lean in closer to his friendship with Ezra and if it did turn out that the other boy had fallen in love with him, no matter how unlikely he still thought that was. For once, he was going to try to proactively safeguard himself against any future drama and thought that keeping his distance was the best place to start.
“Fair,” Ben replied, and no one spoke for several minutes after that. Soon Noah changed the subject and David just listened, allowing their conversation to go in one ear and out the other as he tried to numb his senses and let his mind be empty of all thoughts.
The rest of the week was quiet and somber and though he sat with Noah and Ben, David didn’t speak much and spent most of the day in silence. He had reverted to avoiding conversations with his classmates, knowing that they were all talking about him and Ezra and Hunter and not wanting to see the looks they had to give him or to feed the rumors any more than they already had been.
Jenny surprised David and came to see him at his locker Thursday morning, having heard everything that had happened and wanting to check in on him as he hadn’t come to see her or tell her about it at all.
“Sooo… You have two boys fighting over you, huh?” she asked, earning a heavy sigh from David as he stashed his afternoon books for the morning in his locker.
“It’s not like that. I mean, Hunter thinks it’s like that, but it’s NOT actually like that,” he told her, sounding exhausted.
“What actually happened, then?” she asked. “The rumors right now are out of control and I know there’s no way even half of them are true. There’s no way you’re cheating on Pierre with Ezra, I know that for a fact.”
He looked at her gratefully, forcing a smile as he said, “You have no idea how much I appreciate that. You’re one of the few people that actually believes that.” David closed his locker door and turned to look at her fully. “Hunter’s just been really jealous that I’m friends with Ezra. He’s been bugging us a ton, making stupid comments like ’Are you having fun dating my ex’ and calling us a ’cute couple’ and stupid shit like that. He finally went too far and made a comment about ’Some other guy putting his dick in your boyfriend’ and I think Ezra was just at the end of his rope,” he explained, putting on a stupid, deep voice every time he quoted Hunter, demonstrating his true disdain for the other boy. “He just tackled him and hit him and that’s what started the fight,” David recalled, shaking his head slowly. “At first I thought all his stupid comments were just because he was feeling like Ezra picked me over him so he was being an asshole, but with everything he said when they were fighting I realized he actually believes that Ezra’s in love with me.”
“What did he say when they were fighting?” she asked curiously.
“Hunter was all, ’You fell in love with the only person I’ve ever had feelings for! You know what he means to me!’ and Ezra was like, ’I don’t have feelings for David! You’re being stupid!’ and Hunter was all, ’That’s bullshit! You’re a bad friend!’ and Ezra was like, ’You’re a bad person!’ which, honestly, truer words have never been spoken,” David recalled, making Hunter’s voice sound significantly more stupid than Ezra’s as he quoted them. “And after that the teachers broke them up and got them to stop. But even in the Principal’s office, at first they tried to have all three of us in there to explain what happened and even in front of the Principal they got up and yelled and tried to fight each other! Ezra tried to say that I shouldn’t have been in there because I didn’t do anything and Hunter was like, ’You would defend him,’ and Ezra literally told him to shut the fuck up IN FRONT OF THE PRINCIPAL, and they stood up and started yelling at each other. It was CRAZY.”
Jenny stared at him with wide eyes and muttered, “Boys.”
David gave another sigh and muttered, “Boys,” in agreement. “Life was so much easier when you were my only friend,” he complained, his voice sounding as tired as his eyes looked. “I thought it would be safe to make friends with a bunch of straight guys but look at what a mess that’s turned into.”
“Stop turning the straight boys gay,” she joked, earning a scoff from David in surprise. “I told you before, you’re a catch,” she added, smiling at him innocently.
“Not you too,” he said, shaking his head. “I didn’t turn Ezra gay! He’s NOT into me!” he said strongly, though when she just continued to stare at him with a wry smile and her eyebrows raised, he realized that she didn’t believe him. “Am I literally the only person that doesn’t think Ezra’s in love with me?” he asked incredulously.
“I meeeeaaan, if you’re the only one that thinks something…” she responded carefully.
David sighed and turned to crash his head into his locker, his eyes squeezed shut. “I’m just gonna shut myself in my house and I’m never coming out again,” he muttered dramatically. “I’m never talking to another boy except for Pierre for the rest of my life. I can live a simple life as a hermit, a quiet life, and everything will be peaceful and nothing will be dramatic.”
Jenny patted him on the back. “It’s gonna be okay,” she told him earnestly.
“That’s easy for you to say, you’re not the one that’s apparently cheating on your fiancé in a love triangle with two ex-best friends,” David muttered darkly.
Jenny laughed a little and said, “It’s very Bella Swan of you.” David groaned and pulled his head back a little to bang it once more against his locker. “Look, the school year’s almost over and none of this will ever have even mattered,” she told him, rubbing his back now.
David turned around and leaned back against his locker, letting his head come to rest against the metal and looking out across the hallway with dead eyes. “Yeah, I know. I keep telling myself that same thing.”
“At least you get two weeks without Hunter bugging you,” Jenny offered and David nodded weakly. “Stop looking so defeated,” she told him sadly.
“I’m just tired,” he told her, his expression unchanging. “I’m worn out by all of it. This has been the longest year of my life.”
“Two more days and Pierre will be back,” she reminded him, and for the first time all day David smiled, a genuine smile that spread across his lips without being able to help himself.
“It’s the only thing keeping me going right now,” David admitted. The bell rang and he pushed himself off of his locker, giving her a hug before they split off and went to their own classes. As he sat in class, David couldn’t keep his mind off of the slightly amused but very skeptical look on her face when he’d said that Ezra wasn’t in love with him, or the words she’d spoken. If you’re the only one that thinks something… David swallowed hard, faced now with yet another person who thought Hunter’s accusations were true. Was he really just that blind? Could it actually be true and he had just been unable to see it?
He started to think back on every interaction he’d had with Ezra that he could remember, overthinking the things that had been said or looks that had been given. He found himself questioning the way Ezra would suddenly appear whenever he was in distress, the way he was always aware when David was sad and came to check on him, the way it was always him that was reaching out to get David to sit with them and hang out. Ezra was always quick to squeeze his shoulder, to hug him, and to tell him everything was going to be okay. He had thought that it was because he was weak and triggered an instinct in the other boy to protect him, but was there more to it than that?
Ezra had never once seemed jealous or uncomfortable when David talked about Pierre, however, and had even playfully teased David about being all alone with Pierre in his house the day that he got himself suspended. That had to mean something, right? He never had a problem saying ‘your boyfriend’ and asked about him earnestly, never using a petty tone or rolling his eyes or being a jerk the way Hunter used to. He seemed genuinely happy for him and his relationship, and supportive as a friend. Those weren’t the actions of someone who was secretly harboring romantic feelings for him, he thought.
David tried to shake the thoughts away though they plagued him all night. He kept going back and forth frustratingly in his mind, replaying memories with the other boy that both supported and disproved the theory that Ezra had feelings for him. He thought of the way Ezra was with him compared to Ben or Noah or even Hunter when they had still been friends, and he couldn’t deny that the boy’s behavior toward him was different than with the others. He was softer, he was gentler, he was supportive and kind, but David reminded himself that he was nothing like the other three in personality and quite often was emotional and fragile and required a softer hand than Ben, Noah, or Hunter. It wouldn’t have made sense for Ezra to try to hug or comfort the other three because they never outwardly showed that they needed it, whereas David wore his emotions on his face and quite often struggled to keep his feelings below the surface. It only made sense that Ezra was different toward him.
He thought back on the times that he and Ezra had been alone, something which had become a daily occurrence for them. He thought about the day Ezra had taken him to his house and just held him until he stopped crying, or the way he’d sat and played video games with him until Pierre had called. His mind went back to Ezra teaching him how to shift the gears in his truck, and the way he’d continued to do that throughout the weeks until David could easily and without looking shift gears for him whenever he playfully told him to take over. He poured over conversations they’d had during their free fifth period together and the way Ezra was constantly filling the silence with words, making jokes and teasing David as if getting a rise out of him was his favorite thing to do. He knew that all of those things looked at through the right lens could be viewed as evidence of romantic feelings for him, but David had never gotten that vibe from Ezra and didn’t think there had ever been more to his comfort or his jokes or the times that he touched him. He had just never once gotten the feeling that Ezra was in love with him, despite how it all sounded when said aloud.
David hated that he was sitting there questioning the other boy’s friendship, and hated even more that suddenly he didn’t know how he was going to look at him on Monday when he would be back at school. What if it was true and it ruined their friendship? If it was true David didn’t want to know, but he uncomfortably reminded himself that ignoring a boy’s feelings for him for the sake of maintaining a friendship had been what had gotten him into such a mess with Hunter. The difference was he knew that Ezra would never force himself on him or hurt him the way Hunter had even if he had fallen in love with him. Instead, if Ezra did love him and David ignored it and continued being his friend, the only thing that would happen would be Ezra getting hurt, which somehow felt worse.
Then he wondered what would happen if it wasn’t true and Ezra could see that David was questioning it. Would he be upset? Would he feel betrayed as a friend? Would it be the last straw in their friendship and he would become angry and offended? Ezra had said over and over that it wasn’t true, after all, and that he didn’t have feelings for David. If he looked into David’s eyes and could see that he was questioning his honesty about that, wouldn’t that hurt him, too? Was David arrogant to even consider that Ezra could be lying about his feelings? He’d just been told by so many people close to him and close to Ezra that they didn’t believe him that David didn’t know what to think anymore. He could certainly look through their short history together and pick out moments that made it seem like Hunter’s accusations were true, but he could also just as easily pick out moments that proved that Ezra was telling the truth. He hated that he couldn’t make sense of any of it anymore and didn’t know what to believe or think.
That night when Pierre called, David was quiet and distracted, having a hard time pushing away his thoughts and the guilt he was feeling over them. He felt like he was hiding things from Pierre again exactly as he had with Hunter, though this time he thought his uncertainty was far more warranted. Where he had a deep emotional, romantic, and physical history with Hunter and Hunter had been actively flirting with him and being snide and rude about the fact that he had a boyfriend, Ezra had never done any of that. What if he told Pierre the confused thoughts he was having and it made Pierre dislike Ezra the same way he had disliked Hunter? He knew Pierre had been entirely justified in hating Hunter, but Ezra? David knew he didn’t deserve to be hated, whether he had fallen in love with him or not. He still just thought it was so unlikely that he didn’t want to bring it up, didn’t want to add more drama to the pile on top of everything else that had happened. He ultimately ended the call with Pierre that night not mentioning Ezra at all, reminding himself that there were only now just over two weeks left in the school year and soon he would never be seeing Ezra again, anyway. In the end, he thought it wouldn’t matter.
His thoughts were tormented again the next day, despite the fact that Pierre would be coming back the next morning and he should have been able to think of nothing but that. He was just so confused and conflicted and terrified of the possibilities that he struggled to think of anything else. He hardly spoke that day, his thoughts spinning in his head, back and forth, one moment telling himself Hunter’s accusations were completely unwarranted, and the next moment thinking, But what if…? His own bad track record with Hunter and even with Pierre at not seeing their feelings for him until it was way past obvious made him doubt himself more than anything. As Pierre had pointed out to him on this exact topic, he wasn’t exactly the best at seeing when people had fallen in love with him. He ended the night feeling worse than ever and beyond stupid for more than one reason.
When David woke the next morning, suddenly the reality of what was coming that day dawned on him and all other thoughts were pushed from his mind. It was as if it had suddenly become real to him that Pierre was coming home for good, and that in less than an hour he would be picking him up from the airport. Suddenly he could think of nothing but Pierre as he got himself ready, showering and brushing his teeth, eating breakfast and changing his outfit multiple times, feeling oddly nervous and wanting to look perfect. He fussed with his hair but skipped the small amount of eyeliner he often put in his waterline under his top eyelashes to make them look thicker, worried he would cry it off and end up a mess. He knew there was no way he wasn’t going to cry the moment he saw Pierre; already he had teared up several times that morning just thinking about what it was going to be like to see the other boy walk up to him at the airport and know he wouldn’t be leaving again.
When he left the house and headed to the airport, he could feel himself shaking with anticipation. His heart was thumping wildly in his chest and emotion was already welling up inside of him, filling him to the brim with a nervous energy that he couldn’t quite contain. He parked his car and went inside, standing outside of the doors he knew Pierre would come through with a nervous bounce. He found it difficult to stand still and he bounced and swayed and fidgeted with his hands as he waited, repeatedly checking the board that hung on the wall for the moment the word ‘arrived’ would appear next to Pierre’s flight. He chewed on his lip and struggled to control his breathing and his trembling.
He noticed within seconds once the board had updated to show that Pierre’s plane had landed and he felt his heart jump in his chest. He squeezed his hands together to keep them from shaking, all of the pain and the longing of the last nine months tearing through him, mingled with joy in a way that made him feel light headed and outside of his own body. Time seemed to tick by too slowly as he waited to start seeing people walking out the doors, knowing the plane would have to taxi, that passengers would have to be allowed to deplane, that people would be grabbing their carryon bags from compartments and it would take time for everyone to be able to slowly meander off, and that Pierre would still have to walk from the gate down to the sliding glass doors that separated those who had been through TSA from those who had not. He tried his hardest to be patient but he felt that the wait was eating him alive and he bounced nervously on his heels.
And then people began to walk down the hall and through the doors and David’s heart began to beat harder. He watched the furthest end of the hallway that he could see, waiting for the moment that he would see Pierre come around the corner, feeling disappointment with each new person that wasn’t him. He continued to lean forward subconsciously on his heels with everybody he saw round that corner, leaning back a little when it wasn’t Pierre. And then the moment came that it was finally Pierre and it was like everything around him stopped. He saw his shaggy brown hair, his long, muscular body, and his big brown eyes, and his eyes filled with tears and he began to tremble, though Pierre hadn’t seen him yet.
And then Pierre turned his head in just the right direction and found him, and they made eye contact through the glass. David’s eyes widened and everything seemed to move in slow motion. Recognition dawned in Pierre’s eyes and his entire face lit up, and before he’d even walked through the doors separating them, tears were falling from David’s eyes and down his cheeks. This was it, the end of their year apart, it had finally come to an end and Pierre was walking ever closer to him, and like a dream he’d had hundreds of times it didn’t feel real.
For the first time David couldn’t move as Pierre walked closer, feeling like he was watching him approach from outside of himself, frozen in place in his disbelief that he was actually there, afraid to believe it could be real for the pain he would feel if it turned out to be nothing more than a good dream. Pierre rushed the last few steps between them and scooped him up, lifting David into the air and pulling him against his body. David clung to him and closed his eyes tight, feeling as Pierre spun them on the spot in his elation, Pierre’s overjoyed laughter ringing in his ears and filling him with a kind of happiness he’d never known before. He didn’t think to feel embarrassed as he broke down and sobbed, or as Pierre dropped him back to the ground and grabbed his face to kiss him. Nothing else registered but the overflowing warmth inside of him, and the painful happiness that made his heart feel like it was expanding in his chest.
Pierre pulled back and held tight to David’s face, staring into his hazel eyes and feeling like everything was suddenly right and the world had clicked back into place. “We did it,” he whispered, his thumbs rubbing against David’s cheeks. “We made it.”
David nodded up at him, searching his chocolate eyes desperately, wanting to never stop looking at him or touching him. “I’ve been so lost without you,” David whispered back, feeling like he could admit it now that it was all over and behind them.
“I’m not going anywhere ever again unless you’re coming with me,” Pierre responded firmly.
David moved forward and hugged him tightly again, completely outside of his ability to control his emotions or his desires in that moment. He couldn’t believe that it was finally over and he was standing there in Pierre’s arms, and that this time he wouldn’t be leaving in a few days or a week, or even two. He was going to wake up tomorrow to Pierre in his bed, and the next day, and the day after that. Week after week, month after month, and year after year Pierre was going to be there. All of their goodbyes were officially done. It didn’t feel real, somehow.
Eventually David found the ability to calm himself down and to stop crying, and together they went over to the baggage claim area to wait for Pierre’s bags. As they stood there, David remembered the ring in his pocket and feeling dazed and like he was in a dream he pulled it out, giving Pierre’s hand a squeeze and gently tugging on his arm to get his attention before handing the box to him. Pierre dropped David’s hand in order to open the box and see what David had picked out for him and he smiled when he saw it, thinking that he couldn’t have liked it more. Though he hadn’t given much direction, Pierre wouldn’t have liked anything complicated with heavy design elements or mixed materials. A simple, polished gold band was everything he could have wanted.
“I know it might seem like kind of a traditional choice but… I really just felt like it suited you the best. It’s classic and timeless,” David explained, feeling nervous and self-conscious that Pierre would think he hadn’t been creative enough, or that he thought he was boring. He didn’t know how to explain why he loved it so much, but he just saw it on Pierre’s hand the moment he set his eyes on it and had known immediately that it was the one for him.
“It’s perfect,” Pierre said with a soft smile and he took it out of the box and slid it onto his finger, grinning at the way it looked.
“I thought… it’s bright like you,” David told him, feeling a little lame and cheesy as he said it.
Pierre tucked the ring box in his pocket and turned to look at David, touched by the other boy’s words. He leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on David’s forehead before pulling back and looking down into his eyes. “Thank you, I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
David blushed and nodded, unable to tear his eyes from Pierre’s. When Pierre looked back to the baggage conveyor belt, David let out a shaky breath and grabbed his hand again, waiting a second before he leaned his head to rest against the taller boy’s shoulder and let his eyes fall closed. They stood there silently for several long minutes until the bags began to appear and Pierre had to be on the lookout. Once his bags were retrieved and they headed back out to his car, David grabbed the keys from his pocket but his head spun a little and he looked over at Pierre. “Will you drive?” he asked, still feeling outside of his body in a way that he couldn’t come back from. Pierre smiled and took the keys from him and together they got in the car to head back to David’s house.
As they drove, David continued to look over at Pierre’s left hand on the wheel, his eyes going to the shiny gold ring on his finger and a sense of excitement coming over him. He kept telling himself that it was all real no matter how much he felt like he was dreaming and would wake up at any moment. Pierre held the steering wheel with his left hand and reached his right hand over to grab onto David’s knee, having a difficult time keeping his eyes from wandering over to soak in the sight of him. Every time they made eye contact, Pierre’s grin would widen and David would blush, both of them giving nervous laughs.
As soon as they were in the house they were grabbing and kissing each other, incapable of waiting, desperate for each other. It had been a long two months since they had seen each other last and the fact that all of the pain and separation was behind them now drove their desire for each other. They spent the night wrapped in each other’s arms, kissing whenever they felt like kissing, touching whenever they felt like touching, and reveling in the fact that this never had to end and there would be no goodbye that followed. For the first time in nine months, everything felt exactly right, and there was no underlying sadness between them. Now that they were back together and it was permanent, there were no feelings between them but the deepest joy either had ever experienced. It was beautiful and perfect and they looked forward to experiencing it for the rest of their lives together.
Author: shmorgenheigen
Chapter: Thirty Two
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Pierre/David
Word Count: 6574
Summary: The continuation of the story Behind the Net, picking up right where the original story left off. David and Pierre explore their new relationship while navigating a long distance relationship. While Pierre is in Anchorage in his first year of college and playing college hockey, David is stuck back in Juneau to finish his senior year of high school. When an unlikely person from David’s past shows up and forces their way back into David’s life, things take a turn for the dramatic. Will David and Pierre be able to maintain their love for each other while separated and stave off those pesky feelings of loneliness, jealousy, and depression?
Disclaimer: Don't know, don't own, didn't happen!
Author's Note: When I started to re-write Behind the Net from Pierre’s perspective, I started to think about how much story there would be to tell when Pierre went off to college, leaving David alone in Juneau. I became obsessed with the idea of writing the next chapter in their story and now that it’s finished, I am absolutely in love with how it turned out and the original characters I added into the story! If anyone reads this, leave me a comment and let me know!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
David was nervous as he got himself ready for school the following Monday, unsure if Ezra would be showing up to pick him up or not, not knowing if the other boy had been suspended for the fight but thinking it was likely. He made enough breakfast for the both of them as had become his habit but after waiting about ten minutes past when Ezra usually picked him up and the other boy not being there, he was pretty certain what it meant. He wrapped up the extra breakfast sandwich he’d made and threw it in his fridge, figuring if nothing else he could eat it the following morning. He grabbed his keys, put his hand in his pocket to hold his taser, and made his way out to his car which he hadn’t driven much in the last two months, the only time he ventured out of the house outside of school being to get groceries and fabric for dresses. He locked the door behind him and went to his car, glancing around for any sight of Hunter. If Ezra had been suspended David was certain that Hunter would have been too, but would that really stop him from going to David’s house if he decided he wanted to do so? Somehow David just couldn’t see it.
When he got to his first period class that morning and Ezra wasn’t there, David knew that the other boy had definitely been suspended. He sat in his seat and pulled out his school things, feeling guilty over what had happened and the fact that Ezra had clearly gotten in trouble over it, especially considering it was all over him. If it hadn’t been for the sad smile Ezra had shown him as he’d passed by him in the Principal’s office, David would have wondered if the other boy regretted being his friend or offering to help him as much as he had. That smile had been given to him before Ezra had been punished, however. What if getting into trouble changed his mind? David chewed on his bottom lip and looked absentmindedly at the papers on his desk as he thought of it, knowing he wouldn’t be able to blame the other boy if he decided that it was all too much and that it wasn’t worth the effort anymore.
As David went through his morning he heard his, Ezra’s and Hunter’s names whispered everywhere he went. He was too aware of the eyes on him and even though he did his best to not pay them any attention, he couldn’t help the way their words penetrated his thoughts. It was exactly as he had feared, that the fight from the previous Friday would make everyone all the more certain that he and Ezra were messing around, the rumors only made worse by the fact that David had talked so openly all year long about being with Pierre and that he now wore his ring on his left ring finger. He heard the words ‘cheating’ and ‘two timing’ and ‘home wrecking’ thrown around carelessly in tandem with his and Ezra’s names and it made him want to just go home and give up but he knew he had to stay strong for the last three weeks of school. He would keep his head up and wouldn’t allow these baseless rumors to tear him down, no matter how hard it felt.
When he got to lunch it was to find Ben and Noah sitting at the table alone and David approached them cautiously. He sat with them, nervous that they wouldn’t want him there, but he was too curious about Ezra’s punishment and he sat down with them in spite of these fears, regarding them both nervously as if he was afraid they were going to tell him to go away. They didn’t, however, and instead both gave him a nod and quiet greetings.
“Do you know how much trouble they got in?” he asked, skipping any small talk and moving right to the question he was dying to ask.
“Not too bad, Ezra got a week suspension for fighting, Hunter got two weeks for fighting and bullying,” Ben replied.
David chewed on the corner of his bottom lip and looked down at the tray in front of him, his feelings conflicted as he processed this news. He felt an immense sense of relief hearing that he would be Hunter-free for the next two weeks, but Ezra’s week-long suspension weighed on his conscience. Hunter had finally pushed him so far past his breaking point that he just snapped, unable to take another word from him. He wondered if Ezra would have still tackled and started punching Hunter if he hadn’t said something so disgusting, or if he would have been able to let a lesser insult roll off his back. Was it protectiveness over David, or had Hunter simply pushed and prodded Ezra so far that anything would have set him off? As glad as he was that Hunter had been punished for his behavior, he hated that Ezra had been too. His feelings conflicted painfully inside of himself and he didn’t react much to the news, his brow furrowing and giving no response except for a nod.
“You can’t keep blaming yourself for all this stupid shit Hunter’s doing,” Noah told him.
“It’s really hard not to,” David admitted, his eyes down on his lunch. “I should have just stayed away from you guys. Hunter wouldn’t have dragged you all into this and all this drama wouldn’t have ever happened to you.”
“Yeah and instead when he went after you again you would have been all alone,” Noah retorted without hesitation. David looked up at him, his eyes sad and hesitant. “It’s not like we’re sitting here thinking ‘Oh man, I wish we’d never been friends with David’, so stop making yourself feel so bad about everything. Yeah, if you hadn’t started hanging out with us, Hunter wouldn’t be bugging us right now, but he’d still be bugging you, and I’d rather we deal with him as a group than you have to deal with him all alone, especially after what he did to you.”
David blushed as he listened to Noah talk, having never heard him be so serious before. It was possibly the nicest thing Noah had ever said to him and it meant more to him than he could ever express. His eyes got a little teary and he didn’t speak, wanting to express his gratitude but not knowing how to say it. Noah seemed to see this on his face and a look of mild panic overtook him. “No, no, don’t get all emotional. Ezra’s the one that knows what to do with that and he’s not here,” Noah said, sounding a little desperate as he did and not at all mean.
“Sorry,” David said quietly, blinking hard and looking away. After the year he’d had, he felt like all of his emotions were sitting right at the surface and the slightest thing could bring them out of him. There had been a time that David never cried but between falling in love with Pierre, having to say goodbye over and over to him, and all of the drama with Hunter, David had cried more in the last year and a half than he thought he had in the whole rest of his life.
“I’ve seen Ezra and Hunter fight before, but never like that,” Ben said, and David turned to look at him, seeing that he was shaking his head slowly. “It’s always been petty and stupid, but this time they seemed like they really wanted to hurt each other.”
“They’ve never yelled at each other like that,” Noah agreed, looking back at Ben.
“When Hunter started being a dick about me and Ezra, I thought he didn’t actually believe what he was saying and was just being an asshole because he was mad that you guys became my friend after cutting him out but after Friday and how wild and hurt he was…” David trailed off, his eyes on his food in front of him as he recalled Hunter’s face distorted in anger and betrayal, and the things he had screamed, the way he had accused Ezra of falling in love with ‘the only person he’d ever had feelings for’ and the way he’d screamed ‘You know what he means to me!’. “I think he really believes Ezra’s in love with me.”
Neither Ben nor Noah said anything in return and David looked up at them, seeing the way they were looking at each other, looking uncomfortable. David watched them, thinking they seemed to be speaking to each other with their eyes, sharing a look that almost looked like they agreed with Hunter. David had seen this look on their faces before when it came to Hunter’s comments about him and Ezra and it made him anxious. “You guys…” David started, seeing how Ben and Noah looked back at him quickly. “You believe there’s nothing going on with me and Ezra, right?” he asked hesitantly.
Noah and Ben’s eyes darted back to each other in a nervous sort of way as if they couldn’t help it and they both nodded too hard and fast, and their voices were too high when they responded, “Yeah!” and “Sure!”
David just stared at them, completely at a loss for what to say to them. Hunter seemed to think it, Pierre seemed to think it, and now even Ben and Noah seemed to think it. Was David kidding himself that Ezra didn’t have feelings for him? “You guys suck at lying,” he said. “There’s REALLY nothing going on,” he added firmly. “Ezra is NOT in love with me!”
“Sure, if Ezra says he doesn’t have feelings for you, then he doesn’t have feelings for you,” Noah said, though David could hear that he was lying to try to make him more comfortable. “Right?” he asked, turning to look at Ben.
Ben nodded and looked back at Noah, giving a simple, high-pitched, “Right!”
“He’s not even into guys!” David reasoned with them.
“I mean… I don’t know how much you really count as a guy,” Noah said, and Ben quickly kicked him under the table, a move that was too obvious.
David dropped his head to the table with a thud and covered himself with his arms, choosing not to respond to what he could have considered an insult, even if he understood Noah’s meaning. “You at least believe that I don’t have feelings for him, right?” he asked, his voice muffled.
At the same time Noah said, “I mean, yeah,” and Ben said, “Oh yeah, for sure,” both of them sounding completely normal and not uncomfortable, awkward, or like they were lying at all.
David pulled at his hair a little, his forehead pressed hard into the table as their casual, honest reactions registered in his mind. So they both thought that Ezra had feelings for him, but believed that he didn’t return those feelings? Suddenly he regretted ever asking. David shook his head under his arms, wondering how he had gotten himself into this mess and regretting almost every decision he’d made that year, except for the ones involving Pierre. He dropped his arms back to his sides and sat up and back in his chair, looking off to the side in a defeated manner, not knowing how to respond. How was he supposed to respond to finding out his friends thought that their other friend was secretly in love with him? Instead, he just changed the subject. “Is he in trouble with his parents?” he asked without looking back at them.
“Eh, no more than usual,” Noah responded. “Do you have his number? You could text him if you wanted to.”
David thought about it but something told him to hold back and he shook his head, his eyes still hazy and looking across the room as he said, “Ya know… I’m thinking it’s probably best if I don’t.” David’s boy drama meter was already past its capacity and he shuddered to think what could end up happening next if he did lean in closer to his friendship with Ezra and if it did turn out that the other boy had fallen in love with him, no matter how unlikely he still thought that was. For once, he was going to try to proactively safeguard himself against any future drama and thought that keeping his distance was the best place to start.
“Fair,” Ben replied, and no one spoke for several minutes after that. Soon Noah changed the subject and David just listened, allowing their conversation to go in one ear and out the other as he tried to numb his senses and let his mind be empty of all thoughts.
The rest of the week was quiet and somber and though he sat with Noah and Ben, David didn’t speak much and spent most of the day in silence. He had reverted to avoiding conversations with his classmates, knowing that they were all talking about him and Ezra and Hunter and not wanting to see the looks they had to give him or to feed the rumors any more than they already had been.
Jenny surprised David and came to see him at his locker Thursday morning, having heard everything that had happened and wanting to check in on him as he hadn’t come to see her or tell her about it at all.
“Sooo… You have two boys fighting over you, huh?” she asked, earning a heavy sigh from David as he stashed his afternoon books for the morning in his locker.
“It’s not like that. I mean, Hunter thinks it’s like that, but it’s NOT actually like that,” he told her, sounding exhausted.
“What actually happened, then?” she asked. “The rumors right now are out of control and I know there’s no way even half of them are true. There’s no way you’re cheating on Pierre with Ezra, I know that for a fact.”
He looked at her gratefully, forcing a smile as he said, “You have no idea how much I appreciate that. You’re one of the few people that actually believes that.” David closed his locker door and turned to look at her fully. “Hunter’s just been really jealous that I’m friends with Ezra. He’s been bugging us a ton, making stupid comments like ’Are you having fun dating my ex’ and calling us a ’cute couple’ and stupid shit like that. He finally went too far and made a comment about ’Some other guy putting his dick in your boyfriend’ and I think Ezra was just at the end of his rope,” he explained, putting on a stupid, deep voice every time he quoted Hunter, demonstrating his true disdain for the other boy. “He just tackled him and hit him and that’s what started the fight,” David recalled, shaking his head slowly. “At first I thought all his stupid comments were just because he was feeling like Ezra picked me over him so he was being an asshole, but with everything he said when they were fighting I realized he actually believes that Ezra’s in love with me.”
“What did he say when they were fighting?” she asked curiously.
“Hunter was all, ’You fell in love with the only person I’ve ever had feelings for! You know what he means to me!’ and Ezra was like, ’I don’t have feelings for David! You’re being stupid!’ and Hunter was all, ’That’s bullshit! You’re a bad friend!’ and Ezra was like, ’You’re a bad person!’ which, honestly, truer words have never been spoken,” David recalled, making Hunter’s voice sound significantly more stupid than Ezra’s as he quoted them. “And after that the teachers broke them up and got them to stop. But even in the Principal’s office, at first they tried to have all three of us in there to explain what happened and even in front of the Principal they got up and yelled and tried to fight each other! Ezra tried to say that I shouldn’t have been in there because I didn’t do anything and Hunter was like, ’You would defend him,’ and Ezra literally told him to shut the fuck up IN FRONT OF THE PRINCIPAL, and they stood up and started yelling at each other. It was CRAZY.”
Jenny stared at him with wide eyes and muttered, “Boys.”
David gave another sigh and muttered, “Boys,” in agreement. “Life was so much easier when you were my only friend,” he complained, his voice sounding as tired as his eyes looked. “I thought it would be safe to make friends with a bunch of straight guys but look at what a mess that’s turned into.”
“Stop turning the straight boys gay,” she joked, earning a scoff from David in surprise. “I told you before, you’re a catch,” she added, smiling at him innocently.
“Not you too,” he said, shaking his head. “I didn’t turn Ezra gay! He’s NOT into me!” he said strongly, though when she just continued to stare at him with a wry smile and her eyebrows raised, he realized that she didn’t believe him. “Am I literally the only person that doesn’t think Ezra’s in love with me?” he asked incredulously.
“I meeeeaaan, if you’re the only one that thinks something…” she responded carefully.
David sighed and turned to crash his head into his locker, his eyes squeezed shut. “I’m just gonna shut myself in my house and I’m never coming out again,” he muttered dramatically. “I’m never talking to another boy except for Pierre for the rest of my life. I can live a simple life as a hermit, a quiet life, and everything will be peaceful and nothing will be dramatic.”
Jenny patted him on the back. “It’s gonna be okay,” she told him earnestly.
“That’s easy for you to say, you’re not the one that’s apparently cheating on your fiancé in a love triangle with two ex-best friends,” David muttered darkly.
Jenny laughed a little and said, “It’s very Bella Swan of you.” David groaned and pulled his head back a little to bang it once more against his locker. “Look, the school year’s almost over and none of this will ever have even mattered,” she told him, rubbing his back now.
David turned around and leaned back against his locker, letting his head come to rest against the metal and looking out across the hallway with dead eyes. “Yeah, I know. I keep telling myself that same thing.”
“At least you get two weeks without Hunter bugging you,” Jenny offered and David nodded weakly. “Stop looking so defeated,” she told him sadly.
“I’m just tired,” he told her, his expression unchanging. “I’m worn out by all of it. This has been the longest year of my life.”
“Two more days and Pierre will be back,” she reminded him, and for the first time all day David smiled, a genuine smile that spread across his lips without being able to help himself.
“It’s the only thing keeping me going right now,” David admitted. The bell rang and he pushed himself off of his locker, giving her a hug before they split off and went to their own classes. As he sat in class, David couldn’t keep his mind off of the slightly amused but very skeptical look on her face when he’d said that Ezra wasn’t in love with him, or the words she’d spoken. If you’re the only one that thinks something… David swallowed hard, faced now with yet another person who thought Hunter’s accusations were true. Was he really just that blind? Could it actually be true and he had just been unable to see it?
He started to think back on every interaction he’d had with Ezra that he could remember, overthinking the things that had been said or looks that had been given. He found himself questioning the way Ezra would suddenly appear whenever he was in distress, the way he was always aware when David was sad and came to check on him, the way it was always him that was reaching out to get David to sit with them and hang out. Ezra was always quick to squeeze his shoulder, to hug him, and to tell him everything was going to be okay. He had thought that it was because he was weak and triggered an instinct in the other boy to protect him, but was there more to it than that?
Ezra had never once seemed jealous or uncomfortable when David talked about Pierre, however, and had even playfully teased David about being all alone with Pierre in his house the day that he got himself suspended. That had to mean something, right? He never had a problem saying ‘your boyfriend’ and asked about him earnestly, never using a petty tone or rolling his eyes or being a jerk the way Hunter used to. He seemed genuinely happy for him and his relationship, and supportive as a friend. Those weren’t the actions of someone who was secretly harboring romantic feelings for him, he thought.
David tried to shake the thoughts away though they plagued him all night. He kept going back and forth frustratingly in his mind, replaying memories with the other boy that both supported and disproved the theory that Ezra had feelings for him. He thought of the way Ezra was with him compared to Ben or Noah or even Hunter when they had still been friends, and he couldn’t deny that the boy’s behavior toward him was different than with the others. He was softer, he was gentler, he was supportive and kind, but David reminded himself that he was nothing like the other three in personality and quite often was emotional and fragile and required a softer hand than Ben, Noah, or Hunter. It wouldn’t have made sense for Ezra to try to hug or comfort the other three because they never outwardly showed that they needed it, whereas David wore his emotions on his face and quite often struggled to keep his feelings below the surface. It only made sense that Ezra was different toward him.
He thought back on the times that he and Ezra had been alone, something which had become a daily occurrence for them. He thought about the day Ezra had taken him to his house and just held him until he stopped crying, or the way he’d sat and played video games with him until Pierre had called. His mind went back to Ezra teaching him how to shift the gears in his truck, and the way he’d continued to do that throughout the weeks until David could easily and without looking shift gears for him whenever he playfully told him to take over. He poured over conversations they’d had during their free fifth period together and the way Ezra was constantly filling the silence with words, making jokes and teasing David as if getting a rise out of him was his favorite thing to do. He knew that all of those things looked at through the right lens could be viewed as evidence of romantic feelings for him, but David had never gotten that vibe from Ezra and didn’t think there had ever been more to his comfort or his jokes or the times that he touched him. He had just never once gotten the feeling that Ezra was in love with him, despite how it all sounded when said aloud.
David hated that he was sitting there questioning the other boy’s friendship, and hated even more that suddenly he didn’t know how he was going to look at him on Monday when he would be back at school. What if it was true and it ruined their friendship? If it was true David didn’t want to know, but he uncomfortably reminded himself that ignoring a boy’s feelings for him for the sake of maintaining a friendship had been what had gotten him into such a mess with Hunter. The difference was he knew that Ezra would never force himself on him or hurt him the way Hunter had even if he had fallen in love with him. Instead, if Ezra did love him and David ignored it and continued being his friend, the only thing that would happen would be Ezra getting hurt, which somehow felt worse.
Then he wondered what would happen if it wasn’t true and Ezra could see that David was questioning it. Would he be upset? Would he feel betrayed as a friend? Would it be the last straw in their friendship and he would become angry and offended? Ezra had said over and over that it wasn’t true, after all, and that he didn’t have feelings for David. If he looked into David’s eyes and could see that he was questioning his honesty about that, wouldn’t that hurt him, too? Was David arrogant to even consider that Ezra could be lying about his feelings? He’d just been told by so many people close to him and close to Ezra that they didn’t believe him that David didn’t know what to think anymore. He could certainly look through their short history together and pick out moments that made it seem like Hunter’s accusations were true, but he could also just as easily pick out moments that proved that Ezra was telling the truth. He hated that he couldn’t make sense of any of it anymore and didn’t know what to believe or think.
That night when Pierre called, David was quiet and distracted, having a hard time pushing away his thoughts and the guilt he was feeling over them. He felt like he was hiding things from Pierre again exactly as he had with Hunter, though this time he thought his uncertainty was far more warranted. Where he had a deep emotional, romantic, and physical history with Hunter and Hunter had been actively flirting with him and being snide and rude about the fact that he had a boyfriend, Ezra had never done any of that. What if he told Pierre the confused thoughts he was having and it made Pierre dislike Ezra the same way he had disliked Hunter? He knew Pierre had been entirely justified in hating Hunter, but Ezra? David knew he didn’t deserve to be hated, whether he had fallen in love with him or not. He still just thought it was so unlikely that he didn’t want to bring it up, didn’t want to add more drama to the pile on top of everything else that had happened. He ultimately ended the call with Pierre that night not mentioning Ezra at all, reminding himself that there were only now just over two weeks left in the school year and soon he would never be seeing Ezra again, anyway. In the end, he thought it wouldn’t matter.
His thoughts were tormented again the next day, despite the fact that Pierre would be coming back the next morning and he should have been able to think of nothing but that. He was just so confused and conflicted and terrified of the possibilities that he struggled to think of anything else. He hardly spoke that day, his thoughts spinning in his head, back and forth, one moment telling himself Hunter’s accusations were completely unwarranted, and the next moment thinking, But what if…? His own bad track record with Hunter and even with Pierre at not seeing their feelings for him until it was way past obvious made him doubt himself more than anything. As Pierre had pointed out to him on this exact topic, he wasn’t exactly the best at seeing when people had fallen in love with him. He ended the night feeling worse than ever and beyond stupid for more than one reason.
When David woke the next morning, suddenly the reality of what was coming that day dawned on him and all other thoughts were pushed from his mind. It was as if it had suddenly become real to him that Pierre was coming home for good, and that in less than an hour he would be picking him up from the airport. Suddenly he could think of nothing but Pierre as he got himself ready, showering and brushing his teeth, eating breakfast and changing his outfit multiple times, feeling oddly nervous and wanting to look perfect. He fussed with his hair but skipped the small amount of eyeliner he often put in his waterline under his top eyelashes to make them look thicker, worried he would cry it off and end up a mess. He knew there was no way he wasn’t going to cry the moment he saw Pierre; already he had teared up several times that morning just thinking about what it was going to be like to see the other boy walk up to him at the airport and know he wouldn’t be leaving again.
When he left the house and headed to the airport, he could feel himself shaking with anticipation. His heart was thumping wildly in his chest and emotion was already welling up inside of him, filling him to the brim with a nervous energy that he couldn’t quite contain. He parked his car and went inside, standing outside of the doors he knew Pierre would come through with a nervous bounce. He found it difficult to stand still and he bounced and swayed and fidgeted with his hands as he waited, repeatedly checking the board that hung on the wall for the moment the word ‘arrived’ would appear next to Pierre’s flight. He chewed on his lip and struggled to control his breathing and his trembling.
He noticed within seconds once the board had updated to show that Pierre’s plane had landed and he felt his heart jump in his chest. He squeezed his hands together to keep them from shaking, all of the pain and the longing of the last nine months tearing through him, mingled with joy in a way that made him feel light headed and outside of his own body. Time seemed to tick by too slowly as he waited to start seeing people walking out the doors, knowing the plane would have to taxi, that passengers would have to be allowed to deplane, that people would be grabbing their carryon bags from compartments and it would take time for everyone to be able to slowly meander off, and that Pierre would still have to walk from the gate down to the sliding glass doors that separated those who had been through TSA from those who had not. He tried his hardest to be patient but he felt that the wait was eating him alive and he bounced nervously on his heels.
And then people began to walk down the hall and through the doors and David’s heart began to beat harder. He watched the furthest end of the hallway that he could see, waiting for the moment that he would see Pierre come around the corner, feeling disappointment with each new person that wasn’t him. He continued to lean forward subconsciously on his heels with everybody he saw round that corner, leaning back a little when it wasn’t Pierre. And then the moment came that it was finally Pierre and it was like everything around him stopped. He saw his shaggy brown hair, his long, muscular body, and his big brown eyes, and his eyes filled with tears and he began to tremble, though Pierre hadn’t seen him yet.
And then Pierre turned his head in just the right direction and found him, and they made eye contact through the glass. David’s eyes widened and everything seemed to move in slow motion. Recognition dawned in Pierre’s eyes and his entire face lit up, and before he’d even walked through the doors separating them, tears were falling from David’s eyes and down his cheeks. This was it, the end of their year apart, it had finally come to an end and Pierre was walking ever closer to him, and like a dream he’d had hundreds of times it didn’t feel real.
For the first time David couldn’t move as Pierre walked closer, feeling like he was watching him approach from outside of himself, frozen in place in his disbelief that he was actually there, afraid to believe it could be real for the pain he would feel if it turned out to be nothing more than a good dream. Pierre rushed the last few steps between them and scooped him up, lifting David into the air and pulling him against his body. David clung to him and closed his eyes tight, feeling as Pierre spun them on the spot in his elation, Pierre’s overjoyed laughter ringing in his ears and filling him with a kind of happiness he’d never known before. He didn’t think to feel embarrassed as he broke down and sobbed, or as Pierre dropped him back to the ground and grabbed his face to kiss him. Nothing else registered but the overflowing warmth inside of him, and the painful happiness that made his heart feel like it was expanding in his chest.
Pierre pulled back and held tight to David’s face, staring into his hazel eyes and feeling like everything was suddenly right and the world had clicked back into place. “We did it,” he whispered, his thumbs rubbing against David’s cheeks. “We made it.”
David nodded up at him, searching his chocolate eyes desperately, wanting to never stop looking at him or touching him. “I’ve been so lost without you,” David whispered back, feeling like he could admit it now that it was all over and behind them.
“I’m not going anywhere ever again unless you’re coming with me,” Pierre responded firmly.
David moved forward and hugged him tightly again, completely outside of his ability to control his emotions or his desires in that moment. He couldn’t believe that it was finally over and he was standing there in Pierre’s arms, and that this time he wouldn’t be leaving in a few days or a week, or even two. He was going to wake up tomorrow to Pierre in his bed, and the next day, and the day after that. Week after week, month after month, and year after year Pierre was going to be there. All of their goodbyes were officially done. It didn’t feel real, somehow.
Eventually David found the ability to calm himself down and to stop crying, and together they went over to the baggage claim area to wait for Pierre’s bags. As they stood there, David remembered the ring in his pocket and feeling dazed and like he was in a dream he pulled it out, giving Pierre’s hand a squeeze and gently tugging on his arm to get his attention before handing the box to him. Pierre dropped David’s hand in order to open the box and see what David had picked out for him and he smiled when he saw it, thinking that he couldn’t have liked it more. Though he hadn’t given much direction, Pierre wouldn’t have liked anything complicated with heavy design elements or mixed materials. A simple, polished gold band was everything he could have wanted.
“I know it might seem like kind of a traditional choice but… I really just felt like it suited you the best. It’s classic and timeless,” David explained, feeling nervous and self-conscious that Pierre would think he hadn’t been creative enough, or that he thought he was boring. He didn’t know how to explain why he loved it so much, but he just saw it on Pierre’s hand the moment he set his eyes on it and had known immediately that it was the one for him.
“It’s perfect,” Pierre said with a soft smile and he took it out of the box and slid it onto his finger, grinning at the way it looked.
“I thought… it’s bright like you,” David told him, feeling a little lame and cheesy as he said it.
Pierre tucked the ring box in his pocket and turned to look at David, touched by the other boy’s words. He leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on David’s forehead before pulling back and looking down into his eyes. “Thank you, I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
David blushed and nodded, unable to tear his eyes from Pierre’s. When Pierre looked back to the baggage conveyor belt, David let out a shaky breath and grabbed his hand again, waiting a second before he leaned his head to rest against the taller boy’s shoulder and let his eyes fall closed. They stood there silently for several long minutes until the bags began to appear and Pierre had to be on the lookout. Once his bags were retrieved and they headed back out to his car, David grabbed the keys from his pocket but his head spun a little and he looked over at Pierre. “Will you drive?” he asked, still feeling outside of his body in a way that he couldn’t come back from. Pierre smiled and took the keys from him and together they got in the car to head back to David’s house.
As they drove, David continued to look over at Pierre’s left hand on the wheel, his eyes going to the shiny gold ring on his finger and a sense of excitement coming over him. He kept telling himself that it was all real no matter how much he felt like he was dreaming and would wake up at any moment. Pierre held the steering wheel with his left hand and reached his right hand over to grab onto David’s knee, having a difficult time keeping his eyes from wandering over to soak in the sight of him. Every time they made eye contact, Pierre’s grin would widen and David would blush, both of them giving nervous laughs.
As soon as they were in the house they were grabbing and kissing each other, incapable of waiting, desperate for each other. It had been a long two months since they had seen each other last and the fact that all of the pain and separation was behind them now drove their desire for each other. They spent the night wrapped in each other’s arms, kissing whenever they felt like kissing, touching whenever they felt like touching, and reveling in the fact that this never had to end and there would be no goodbye that followed. For the first time in nine months, everything felt exactly right, and there was no underlying sadness between them. Now that they were back together and it was permanent, there were no feelings between them but the deepest joy either had ever experienced. It was beautiful and perfect and they looked forward to experiencing it for the rest of their lives together.