Behind the Net: Across the Distance (A Sequel) - Chapter 3
Title: Behind the Net: Across the Distance (A Sequel)
Author: shmorgenheigen
Chapter: Three
Rating: R
Pairing: Pierre/David
Word Count: 4341
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
It was lucky that there had only been a week and a half of school left for David and Pierre because after having finally touched each other it had become impossible to keep their hands to themselves. Every time they sat down to do homework, hands would inevitably stray, books would be thrown aside, and nothing would get done for the next thirty minutes to an hour. The making out, the ripping of each other’s clothes off, the frenzied handjobs, and the long cuddle sessions after continued to take priority over their responsibilities. Had it not been the very end of the year where workloads were lighter (and in Pierre’s case as a graduating senior, almost non-existent), they both would have likely begun to fall behind and started to struggle in their classes. David supposed it was probably a good thing that his dad had been around for the first three months of their renewed relationship, otherwise both boys could have found themselves in some actual academic trouble.
On the day of Pierre’s graduation, David sat in the bleachers of the football field, looking down and regarding his boyfriend in his cap and gown with a smile. Though he had looked around the crowd for them, David hadn’t seen any sign of Pierre’s parents. It was possible that he had missed them in the crowd, of course, but somehow he didn’t think that was the case. With how openly the two had been dating since getting back together, he was certain that word of their public displays of affection at the school would have gotten back to the Bouviers, a relationship that they most adamantly opposed and which they felt brought shame onto their family name. Though Pierre still went home at nights to sleep, he hadn’t spoken a single word to either of his parents since the day of the meeting in the Principal’s office and had no intention to change that anytime soon. David knew he shouldn’t have been surprised that they hadn’t come to their only son’s high school graduation, but there was still a part of him that was.
As he looked around at the bleachers and the football field, David felt an odd feeling of nostalgia, though it wasn’t an entirely comfortable experience. The last time he had come to the football field had been during his freshman year when he had taken band class, strictly for the elective credit. He had been forced to go to all of the football games that year to play in the stands, something which he had not been aware of when he registered for the class. Despite his best attempts to play his oboe, he was never quite able to get the hang of the instrument and always felt he sounded like a honking rubber chicken with a bad sinus infection. Though he liked to listen to music and he liked to sing, that was the extent of his musical talent and his one year in band had proved that much to himself. It was not with sadness that he had decidedly not registered for it again for his sophomore year, or any year thereafter.
It wasn’t the memories of sitting in the stands surrounded by his band classmates and trying his best to honk along with the songs that stood out in his memory, however. His eyes trailed to the track surrounding the football field and memories of his ex-boyfriend Hunter Jackson began to play in his mind. He was revisited by the first time they had ever met, at the Homecoming football game against their rival school, the other high school in town. Hunter had been in the band for the other team playing the french horn, and they had run into each other the first time standing in line for concessions during halftime. It had been a cold evening, a late night Friday game in October, and though they didn’t know each other and David hadn’t noticed him, Hunter had struck up a conversation with him while they were standing in line.
They were the same size when they had met, both of them around 5’6” and small, having narrow shoulders and scrawny physiques. Though it had been over two and a half years since that day, David had only grown an inch since then and was still rather small and skinny. He wondered vaguely how Hunter had changed in the time it had been since he’d last seen him, if he had changed at all. He couldn’t help but imagine him to physically be his size still though he realized that he realistically had no idea. By the time the other boy had made it to the concessions counter that night, he had bought David the hot cocoa he had been planning on getting for himself and had handed it to a very surprised David who had not been expecting the gesture in the least. Hunter had inclined his head to the side, signaling for David to follow him and the two had wandered behind the bleachers to continue chatting.
David could recall the moment perfectly, the way they had both been decked out in hats and scarves and gloves in their own school colors, the way Hunter’s wavy, sandy blonde hair had stuck out from under the knitted snow cap he wore, the way his gray eyes seemed to be locked onto David the whole time they spoke. David had realized a year prior that he was pretty certain he only liked boys and interacting with another boy in this way - a way that almost felt like flirting - had made him incredibly nervous. He had told himself over and over not to think too much into it, that there was no way this other boy was interested in him in that way, but before they had parted ways Hunter had pulled out his cellphone and had asked David for his number which David had very nervously given. He had made his way back to his own band section on the opposite side of the field, telling himself not to get his hopes up, that he would probably never hear from the other boy again, but had been surprised to receive a text from Hunter before the night had even ended.
Over the next several weeks that followed, David had continued to tell himself not to allow himself to think that Hunter was interested in him; why would he be, after all? Sure, Hunter always went out of his way to text him first, and sure Hunter continued to invite David to do things with him and hang out, but that was what having a guy friend was like, wasn’t it? Having always been a pariah at any school he had ever attended, David had only ever known what it was to be friends with Jenny so it was easy for him to discount the other boy’s avid attention as nothing other than friendship. And no matter how much he told himself not to crush on his friend, he was unable to keep himself from doing so. He held that secret to himself as hard as he could, not wanting to ruin the first male friendship he had ever had, but the more he got to know Hunter and his fascinating gray eyes, the more he had fallen for him. And though he thought at the time that his feelings were deep and complex for the other boy, he recognized now that they paled in comparison to what he felt for Pierre.
He smiled a little as he thought back to the first time Hunter had kissed him, a move that had taken him entirely by surprise. He had thoroughly convinced himself that Hunter would never and could never have feelings for him, a task that had been all too easy for him given how little he thought of and valued himself at that time. He had been hanging out at Hunter’s house with him, sitting in the treehouse in his backyard that his father had built for him as a child, despite the fact that it was November and the ground was covered in snow. They had both been bundled up in jackets, snow hats, scarves and gloves again, though David opted for black instead of the school apparel he had been wearing the first time they had met; he only wore the school gear at games when it was strictly expected of him and would have never been caught dead in it otherwise. He had been absentmindedly looking at a comic book of Hunter’s and joking with the other boy when he became aware of the other boy in his space. His eyes had been drawn up, a blush creeping into his cheeks at the way Hunter had leaned close to him and was looking at him. Though he had become aware that he was about to be kissed by a boy that he had a huge crush on, David had still been unable to move, completely immobilized with fear that somehow he was wrong.
It wasn’t until he felt a hand on the back of his head pulling him closer that he knew it was going to happen and that he could allow himself to believe it. He had closed his eyes and allowed himself to be pulled in closer, giving his first kiss to the boy he had been thinking about non-stop for the last few weeks. He was fourteen at the time and this was the first time he had ever been kissed; it had exceeded all of his expectations, timid and slow and sweet. He could still remember the way they had parted, their breath coming out in puffs of fog in the cold November air, both of them scared but excited at the same time. Hunter had told him, “I like you,” a sentiment which David had returned no matter how nervous he felt that it was going to go wrong somehow after speaking, as if he was going to confess that he liked the other boy and Hunter would laugh in his face and tell him it had been a big joke. He did not, of course, do that, and the two ended that afternoon as boyfriends, though it was fairly shortly after that things had started to go wrong.
David didn’t have that many other good memories of his relationship with Hunter once he got past their very sweet and innocent beginning. It was only a matter of months before things had started to get tense, before they started to disagree about things, before disagreements turned into arguments and arguments turned into all out fights. Hunter had wanted to move their relationship very quickly into being sexual, something which David who had only just been kissed for the first time was not ready to do. Hunter continued to pressure him for it, pressure which led to manipulation, manipulation which led to guilt on David’s part, and before he knew it and before he was ready he had let Hunter have parts of him that he had wanted to hold onto for longer. He had let Hunter touch him, had let Hunter blow him, had let Hunter pressure him into giving him handjobs and blowjobs in return; it was with a sense of pride, however, that David recalled he had never let Hunter force him into penetration or sex; that was a part of himself that was still his and that he had never shared with anybody.
After six months or so of dating they had also started to argue about keeping their relationship a secret. David was tired of being a secret. He had wanted to tell his parents and Jenny, to be able to hang a picture of Hunter in his locker, to be able to update his status on social media as being in a relationship, to be able to set his profile picture as a picture of them together; he wanted to do all of the things to signal to the world that they loved each other. Hunter, on the other hand, did not want to do any of those things. He was terrified that people would find out they were together, that his parents and friends and classmates would find out that he was gay. David understood the fear and didn’t want to force the other boy out of the closet so he continued to give into Hunter’s demand for secrecy but it wore on him more than he thought that it would. He couldn't help himself as he had started to feel that Hunter was ashamed of him, though he tried to tell himself that there was more to it than that. Still, it hurt in ways that he still hadn’t healed from.
The two had continued on in that way for another seven months, Hunter continuing to pressure David into sexual encounters with him, and David yearning to be openly in a relationship that he could tell his parents about. He had begged Hunter to at least let him tell his own parents, swearing that they would keep it a secret, but Hunter had adamantly refused and accused David of trying to force him out before he was ready. Hunter would then turn around and try to manipulate David into sex, accuse him of not loving him, tell him that he loved him so deeply he wanted to be inside of him and to share a connection they hadn’t yet. Perhaps it was because he was so young (both of them having turned fifteen during the span of their time together), or perhaps it was because he knew whatever this thing was that Hunter called love could not actually be love, but for whatever reason David just knew the time wasn’t right. He wanted to hold onto that last part of himself, to hold it sacred, to know that it was right when he finally shared it with someone. Things with Hunter had just stopped feeling right all together.
Multiple times their fights had led to David suggesting that they just break up, not as an ultimatum or a scare tactic but instead as recognition that their relationship wasn’t working and they were never happy. Each time David felt too exhausted to go on and suggested they should end things before they hurt each other even further, Hunter would suddenly beg for him to stay, that his life would be nothing without David, even going so far as to say he would kill himself in those times where David was really serious about ending it, and swear that he would come out soon. Fear kept David with Hunter for several months longer than he knew he should have stayed, paired with a sense of guilt and personal responsibility for the other boy’s well being that had been entirely unfairly put on him. Hunter had worked his way into his mind and made David feel that he couldn’t leave.
The last time they ever spoke had been just before Christmas during their sophomore year. The two had been hanging out at Hunter’s house during winter break before his parents had come home, and their time together that early evening had felt nice for a change. He had been laying on Hunter’s bed and listening to the other boy strum on his acoustic guitar and sing; the other boy had always been very musical, something which David had loved about him. Before he knew what had happened, Hunter had put his guitar down and moved on top of him, kissing him too passionately, touching him too aggressively, trying to pull his clothes off. David had tried to remind him that his parents would be home soon but Hunter kept pushing, kept kissing, kept touching. It wasn’t until he had said, “Do you even love me anymore?” that David had given in and began to kiss and touch him back.
As soon as David had begun to return his physical attention, Hunter had let himself get more out of control, grabbing onto David’s hips, forcing his knees up by his face, grinding himself against David’s exposed ass is if simulating penetration, pulling back and rubbing his fingers down the center of David’s jeans, looking for his entrance. David had tried to squirm away from him but Hunter held him in place and refused to stop, despite David’s desperate pleas and the tears on his cheeks, or the way he cried for him to stop and fought against his superior grip.
Then a knock sounded on the bedroom door and just like that Hunter released him and moved away, though David wasn’t able to recover quickly from what had just happened to him. For the first time he had felt assaulted, like Hunter had intended to take him no matter how much he told him to stop. As the bedroom door was opening David was still pushing himself up from the position he had been forced into, his face red and his eyes leaking tears that he couldn’t stop. Hunter’s father had stepped in the room to ask his son a question but had stopped at the position he saw David in and the tears on his cheeks. Hunter had glared daggers at David and David just shook his head and wiped his eyes, trying his hardest to act as if nothing was wrong. Though it took a minute of convincing, they got Hunter’s father to leave the room and he shut the door behind him again.
Immediately Hunter had shoved David back, towering over him angrily despite the fact that he had only grown to be about a half an inch taller than David over the year and one month they had been together. David had cowered under him, feeling violated in a way he had never experienced before. Hunter had yelled at him for being so obvious, for not moving to a normal position fast enough, for crying in front of his dad, for making it look like something had just been happening between the two of them. David had taken all that he could and he left without saying anything to defend himself or accusing Hunter of assaulting him.
As he sat in his room that night, he knew that he was finally done, that this relationship had broken him so entirely that he couldn’t stand to think of looking at Hunter ever again. When Hunter had showed up at his house that night just before midnight, David had stood outside the front of his house with him and ended things, despite how badly he didn’t want to have to talk to him, telling him it was over and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Though Hunter tried his usual tactics, David had finally had enough and didn’t give in, telling the other boy to forget his number and to never talk to him again or he would tell his parents what he had done to him earlier that day. Hunter had taken the threat seriously and from that moment forward, David never heard from him again.
Suddenly David became aware that Pierre was waving at him from down on the football field in his seat and he pulled himself out of the memory hole he had just fallen into, taking a deep, sudden breath in, feeling as if he had stopped breathing as the last memory had coursed through him. He smiled a genuine smile and waved back at his boyfriend, struck now by how different Pierre was from his ex and how lucky he felt to have managed to make it through all the bullshit they had gone through over the past year to finally find a place where they were peaceful together. Though Pierre had had to lose everything he knew, David couldn't help but think that the older boy seemed better off for it; he couldn’t remember another time where Pierre had ever seemed so genuinely happy. Now that he knew what a happy Pierre looked like, he could see that all the years previously the boy had never once actually been happy despite on paper having everything he could ever want.
It was with a sense of pride that he watched Pierre walk up to receive his diploma and shake the hands of the teachers and the Principal as they stood on stage. He loved to see how much the older boy had grown and changed. It seemed that Pierre had finally become who he actually wanted to be and not who he had always been told he had to be. David loved that freedom for him.
David met Pierre outside of the front of the school, feeling a little sad that their time there together was over, though he couldn’t keep the smile off of his lips at the way Pierre swaggered up to him with a toothy grin. “It’s official,” Pierre said, taking the cap off his head and beginning to unzip his graduation robe. “You’re dating a college man,” he continued, before reaching forward and smooshing his graduation cap down on David’s head like he was ruffling the younger boy’s hair.
David laughed and squirmed away from him, pulling the cap from his head and using his other hand to quickly fix his hair. “You’re eighteen now and officially a college student,” David responded, giving a playful smirk up to the other boy. “What a perv,” he added with a bratty tone.
Pierre wiggled his eyebrows at David before leaning down and placing a loud kiss on the younger boy’s cheek. “So what now?” he asked with a smile.
“Come over for dinner?” David asked in response, reaching forward and grabbing Pierre’s hand.
Pierre pulled David closer to him and wrapped the other boy’s hand around his lower back, to which David wrapped the other arm around him as well, using both hands to hold the graduation cap behind the taller boy’s back. “You’re not sick of me yet?” he asked playfully as he slung his own arms around David and clasped his hands behind his back.
“Never,” David responded with a dreamy smile. His cheeks blushed a little and a look of nervousness crossed his features as a thought occurred to him and he added, “And ya know… you could always… stay...”
Pierre gave him a look of slightly skeptical curiosity and tilted his head to the side, not caring about the fact that there were people moving all around them who could easily be watching their interaction. “Stay?”
“Yeah, you know, you’re gonna come back tomorrow anyway so, I mean… you don’t have to leave tonight… if you don’t want to…” David got out, feeling his nerves welling up inside of him.
Suddenly Pierre understood David’s meaning and the silly, playful look dropped from his features. “You want me to stay the night?” he asked quietly, his voice a little more serious now.
David blushed harder and nodded, biting down on his bottom lip. “I mean my dad isn’t gonna be home until after you’re gone for Anchorage… so really, you could just… stay.”
Pierre pulled out of their hug and instead moved his hands to gently hold onto David’s upper arms. He wanted to look into David’s eyes, to be sure he was understanding what he was saying to him. “Stay, like… Not just one night?” he asked tentatively, a small smile working its way onto his lips.
Suddenly David was worried he had suggested too much. He looked down and shrunk into himself a little bit, feeling self conscious and terrified that he was going to scare his boyfriend away. They had only been dating for three months if you counted from when they got back together, which is when David had started counting. He felt the first month they had dated didn’t count because of the way he had been lying to the older boy, and that when they were finally both fully honest with each other it felt like a brand new start for them, their real start. “If you want to, yeah,” he responded quietly, feeling suddenly shy.
“Of course I want to,” Pierre responded, his smile growing even larger which drew David’s attention back up to him. “Are you kidding? I’d follow you around everywhere you go if I didn’t think you’d get annoyed with me,” he added, giving a soft laugh after he finished speaking.
David smiled back and gave a quiet laugh of his own, shaking his head a little. “I could never get tired of you,” David told him, moving forward again to wrap his arms around Pierre’s lower back once more.
Pierre grabbed David’s face delicately with both hands and smiled lovingly down at him. “I guess we’ll find out, huh?” he asked rhetorically, before leaning down and placing a gentle kiss on David’s lips. David smiled a little against his kiss, feeling as if he was soaring through the clouds. The idea that Pierre wouldn’t be going home at the end of the night and that he would get to wake up to him in his bed in the morning felt like a dream, too good to be true.
The two parted ways, David to head back to his house and Pierre back to his own to grab a bag of things that would make staying at David’s house a little bit easier on him - some clothes, his toothbrush, shampoo, his phone charger, things of that nature. He knew his parents wouldn’t care if he stopped coming home overnight; Hell, he honestly figured they wouldn’t even notice. It was with an air of excitement that he headed back to David’s house, ready to start what felt like a new chapter in their lives together. He had a feeling that this next part was going to be pretty damn good.
Author: shmorgenheigen
Chapter: Three
Rating: R
Pairing: Pierre/David
Word Count: 4341
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
It was lucky that there had only been a week and a half of school left for David and Pierre because after having finally touched each other it had become impossible to keep their hands to themselves. Every time they sat down to do homework, hands would inevitably stray, books would be thrown aside, and nothing would get done for the next thirty minutes to an hour. The making out, the ripping of each other’s clothes off, the frenzied handjobs, and the long cuddle sessions after continued to take priority over their responsibilities. Had it not been the very end of the year where workloads were lighter (and in Pierre’s case as a graduating senior, almost non-existent), they both would have likely begun to fall behind and started to struggle in their classes. David supposed it was probably a good thing that his dad had been around for the first three months of their renewed relationship, otherwise both boys could have found themselves in some actual academic trouble.
On the day of Pierre’s graduation, David sat in the bleachers of the football field, looking down and regarding his boyfriend in his cap and gown with a smile. Though he had looked around the crowd for them, David hadn’t seen any sign of Pierre’s parents. It was possible that he had missed them in the crowd, of course, but somehow he didn’t think that was the case. With how openly the two had been dating since getting back together, he was certain that word of their public displays of affection at the school would have gotten back to the Bouviers, a relationship that they most adamantly opposed and which they felt brought shame onto their family name. Though Pierre still went home at nights to sleep, he hadn’t spoken a single word to either of his parents since the day of the meeting in the Principal’s office and had no intention to change that anytime soon. David knew he shouldn’t have been surprised that they hadn’t come to their only son’s high school graduation, but there was still a part of him that was.
As he looked around at the bleachers and the football field, David felt an odd feeling of nostalgia, though it wasn’t an entirely comfortable experience. The last time he had come to the football field had been during his freshman year when he had taken band class, strictly for the elective credit. He had been forced to go to all of the football games that year to play in the stands, something which he had not been aware of when he registered for the class. Despite his best attempts to play his oboe, he was never quite able to get the hang of the instrument and always felt he sounded like a honking rubber chicken with a bad sinus infection. Though he liked to listen to music and he liked to sing, that was the extent of his musical talent and his one year in band had proved that much to himself. It was not with sadness that he had decidedly not registered for it again for his sophomore year, or any year thereafter.
It wasn’t the memories of sitting in the stands surrounded by his band classmates and trying his best to honk along with the songs that stood out in his memory, however. His eyes trailed to the track surrounding the football field and memories of his ex-boyfriend Hunter Jackson began to play in his mind. He was revisited by the first time they had ever met, at the Homecoming football game against their rival school, the other high school in town. Hunter had been in the band for the other team playing the french horn, and they had run into each other the first time standing in line for concessions during halftime. It had been a cold evening, a late night Friday game in October, and though they didn’t know each other and David hadn’t noticed him, Hunter had struck up a conversation with him while they were standing in line.
They were the same size when they had met, both of them around 5’6” and small, having narrow shoulders and scrawny physiques. Though it had been over two and a half years since that day, David had only grown an inch since then and was still rather small and skinny. He wondered vaguely how Hunter had changed in the time it had been since he’d last seen him, if he had changed at all. He couldn’t help but imagine him to physically be his size still though he realized that he realistically had no idea. By the time the other boy had made it to the concessions counter that night, he had bought David the hot cocoa he had been planning on getting for himself and had handed it to a very surprised David who had not been expecting the gesture in the least. Hunter had inclined his head to the side, signaling for David to follow him and the two had wandered behind the bleachers to continue chatting.
David could recall the moment perfectly, the way they had both been decked out in hats and scarves and gloves in their own school colors, the way Hunter’s wavy, sandy blonde hair had stuck out from under the knitted snow cap he wore, the way his gray eyes seemed to be locked onto David the whole time they spoke. David had realized a year prior that he was pretty certain he only liked boys and interacting with another boy in this way - a way that almost felt like flirting - had made him incredibly nervous. He had told himself over and over not to think too much into it, that there was no way this other boy was interested in him in that way, but before they had parted ways Hunter had pulled out his cellphone and had asked David for his number which David had very nervously given. He had made his way back to his own band section on the opposite side of the field, telling himself not to get his hopes up, that he would probably never hear from the other boy again, but had been surprised to receive a text from Hunter before the night had even ended.
Over the next several weeks that followed, David had continued to tell himself not to allow himself to think that Hunter was interested in him; why would he be, after all? Sure, Hunter always went out of his way to text him first, and sure Hunter continued to invite David to do things with him and hang out, but that was what having a guy friend was like, wasn’t it? Having always been a pariah at any school he had ever attended, David had only ever known what it was to be friends with Jenny so it was easy for him to discount the other boy’s avid attention as nothing other than friendship. And no matter how much he told himself not to crush on his friend, he was unable to keep himself from doing so. He held that secret to himself as hard as he could, not wanting to ruin the first male friendship he had ever had, but the more he got to know Hunter and his fascinating gray eyes, the more he had fallen for him. And though he thought at the time that his feelings were deep and complex for the other boy, he recognized now that they paled in comparison to what he felt for Pierre.
He smiled a little as he thought back to the first time Hunter had kissed him, a move that had taken him entirely by surprise. He had thoroughly convinced himself that Hunter would never and could never have feelings for him, a task that had been all too easy for him given how little he thought of and valued himself at that time. He had been hanging out at Hunter’s house with him, sitting in the treehouse in his backyard that his father had built for him as a child, despite the fact that it was November and the ground was covered in snow. They had both been bundled up in jackets, snow hats, scarves and gloves again, though David opted for black instead of the school apparel he had been wearing the first time they had met; he only wore the school gear at games when it was strictly expected of him and would have never been caught dead in it otherwise. He had been absentmindedly looking at a comic book of Hunter’s and joking with the other boy when he became aware of the other boy in his space. His eyes had been drawn up, a blush creeping into his cheeks at the way Hunter had leaned close to him and was looking at him. Though he had become aware that he was about to be kissed by a boy that he had a huge crush on, David had still been unable to move, completely immobilized with fear that somehow he was wrong.
It wasn’t until he felt a hand on the back of his head pulling him closer that he knew it was going to happen and that he could allow himself to believe it. He had closed his eyes and allowed himself to be pulled in closer, giving his first kiss to the boy he had been thinking about non-stop for the last few weeks. He was fourteen at the time and this was the first time he had ever been kissed; it had exceeded all of his expectations, timid and slow and sweet. He could still remember the way they had parted, their breath coming out in puffs of fog in the cold November air, both of them scared but excited at the same time. Hunter had told him, “I like you,” a sentiment which David had returned no matter how nervous he felt that it was going to go wrong somehow after speaking, as if he was going to confess that he liked the other boy and Hunter would laugh in his face and tell him it had been a big joke. He did not, of course, do that, and the two ended that afternoon as boyfriends, though it was fairly shortly after that things had started to go wrong.
David didn’t have that many other good memories of his relationship with Hunter once he got past their very sweet and innocent beginning. It was only a matter of months before things had started to get tense, before they started to disagree about things, before disagreements turned into arguments and arguments turned into all out fights. Hunter had wanted to move their relationship very quickly into being sexual, something which David who had only just been kissed for the first time was not ready to do. Hunter continued to pressure him for it, pressure which led to manipulation, manipulation which led to guilt on David’s part, and before he knew it and before he was ready he had let Hunter have parts of him that he had wanted to hold onto for longer. He had let Hunter touch him, had let Hunter blow him, had let Hunter pressure him into giving him handjobs and blowjobs in return; it was with a sense of pride, however, that David recalled he had never let Hunter force him into penetration or sex; that was a part of himself that was still his and that he had never shared with anybody.
After six months or so of dating they had also started to argue about keeping their relationship a secret. David was tired of being a secret. He had wanted to tell his parents and Jenny, to be able to hang a picture of Hunter in his locker, to be able to update his status on social media as being in a relationship, to be able to set his profile picture as a picture of them together; he wanted to do all of the things to signal to the world that they loved each other. Hunter, on the other hand, did not want to do any of those things. He was terrified that people would find out they were together, that his parents and friends and classmates would find out that he was gay. David understood the fear and didn’t want to force the other boy out of the closet so he continued to give into Hunter’s demand for secrecy but it wore on him more than he thought that it would. He couldn't help himself as he had started to feel that Hunter was ashamed of him, though he tried to tell himself that there was more to it than that. Still, it hurt in ways that he still hadn’t healed from.
The two had continued on in that way for another seven months, Hunter continuing to pressure David into sexual encounters with him, and David yearning to be openly in a relationship that he could tell his parents about. He had begged Hunter to at least let him tell his own parents, swearing that they would keep it a secret, but Hunter had adamantly refused and accused David of trying to force him out before he was ready. Hunter would then turn around and try to manipulate David into sex, accuse him of not loving him, tell him that he loved him so deeply he wanted to be inside of him and to share a connection they hadn’t yet. Perhaps it was because he was so young (both of them having turned fifteen during the span of their time together), or perhaps it was because he knew whatever this thing was that Hunter called love could not actually be love, but for whatever reason David just knew the time wasn’t right. He wanted to hold onto that last part of himself, to hold it sacred, to know that it was right when he finally shared it with someone. Things with Hunter had just stopped feeling right all together.
Multiple times their fights had led to David suggesting that they just break up, not as an ultimatum or a scare tactic but instead as recognition that their relationship wasn’t working and they were never happy. Each time David felt too exhausted to go on and suggested they should end things before they hurt each other even further, Hunter would suddenly beg for him to stay, that his life would be nothing without David, even going so far as to say he would kill himself in those times where David was really serious about ending it, and swear that he would come out soon. Fear kept David with Hunter for several months longer than he knew he should have stayed, paired with a sense of guilt and personal responsibility for the other boy’s well being that had been entirely unfairly put on him. Hunter had worked his way into his mind and made David feel that he couldn’t leave.
The last time they ever spoke had been just before Christmas during their sophomore year. The two had been hanging out at Hunter’s house during winter break before his parents had come home, and their time together that early evening had felt nice for a change. He had been laying on Hunter’s bed and listening to the other boy strum on his acoustic guitar and sing; the other boy had always been very musical, something which David had loved about him. Before he knew what had happened, Hunter had put his guitar down and moved on top of him, kissing him too passionately, touching him too aggressively, trying to pull his clothes off. David had tried to remind him that his parents would be home soon but Hunter kept pushing, kept kissing, kept touching. It wasn’t until he had said, “Do you even love me anymore?” that David had given in and began to kiss and touch him back.
As soon as David had begun to return his physical attention, Hunter had let himself get more out of control, grabbing onto David’s hips, forcing his knees up by his face, grinding himself against David’s exposed ass is if simulating penetration, pulling back and rubbing his fingers down the center of David’s jeans, looking for his entrance. David had tried to squirm away from him but Hunter held him in place and refused to stop, despite David’s desperate pleas and the tears on his cheeks, or the way he cried for him to stop and fought against his superior grip.
Then a knock sounded on the bedroom door and just like that Hunter released him and moved away, though David wasn’t able to recover quickly from what had just happened to him. For the first time he had felt assaulted, like Hunter had intended to take him no matter how much he told him to stop. As the bedroom door was opening David was still pushing himself up from the position he had been forced into, his face red and his eyes leaking tears that he couldn’t stop. Hunter’s father had stepped in the room to ask his son a question but had stopped at the position he saw David in and the tears on his cheeks. Hunter had glared daggers at David and David just shook his head and wiped his eyes, trying his hardest to act as if nothing was wrong. Though it took a minute of convincing, they got Hunter’s father to leave the room and he shut the door behind him again.
Immediately Hunter had shoved David back, towering over him angrily despite the fact that he had only grown to be about a half an inch taller than David over the year and one month they had been together. David had cowered under him, feeling violated in a way he had never experienced before. Hunter had yelled at him for being so obvious, for not moving to a normal position fast enough, for crying in front of his dad, for making it look like something had just been happening between the two of them. David had taken all that he could and he left without saying anything to defend himself or accusing Hunter of assaulting him.
As he sat in his room that night, he knew that he was finally done, that this relationship had broken him so entirely that he couldn’t stand to think of looking at Hunter ever again. When Hunter had showed up at his house that night just before midnight, David had stood outside the front of his house with him and ended things, despite how badly he didn’t want to have to talk to him, telling him it was over and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Though Hunter tried his usual tactics, David had finally had enough and didn’t give in, telling the other boy to forget his number and to never talk to him again or he would tell his parents what he had done to him earlier that day. Hunter had taken the threat seriously and from that moment forward, David never heard from him again.
Suddenly David became aware that Pierre was waving at him from down on the football field in his seat and he pulled himself out of the memory hole he had just fallen into, taking a deep, sudden breath in, feeling as if he had stopped breathing as the last memory had coursed through him. He smiled a genuine smile and waved back at his boyfriend, struck now by how different Pierre was from his ex and how lucky he felt to have managed to make it through all the bullshit they had gone through over the past year to finally find a place where they were peaceful together. Though Pierre had had to lose everything he knew, David couldn't help but think that the older boy seemed better off for it; he couldn’t remember another time where Pierre had ever seemed so genuinely happy. Now that he knew what a happy Pierre looked like, he could see that all the years previously the boy had never once actually been happy despite on paper having everything he could ever want.
It was with a sense of pride that he watched Pierre walk up to receive his diploma and shake the hands of the teachers and the Principal as they stood on stage. He loved to see how much the older boy had grown and changed. It seemed that Pierre had finally become who he actually wanted to be and not who he had always been told he had to be. David loved that freedom for him.
David met Pierre outside of the front of the school, feeling a little sad that their time there together was over, though he couldn’t keep the smile off of his lips at the way Pierre swaggered up to him with a toothy grin. “It’s official,” Pierre said, taking the cap off his head and beginning to unzip his graduation robe. “You’re dating a college man,” he continued, before reaching forward and smooshing his graduation cap down on David’s head like he was ruffling the younger boy’s hair.
David laughed and squirmed away from him, pulling the cap from his head and using his other hand to quickly fix his hair. “You’re eighteen now and officially a college student,” David responded, giving a playful smirk up to the other boy. “What a perv,” he added with a bratty tone.
Pierre wiggled his eyebrows at David before leaning down and placing a loud kiss on the younger boy’s cheek. “So what now?” he asked with a smile.
“Come over for dinner?” David asked in response, reaching forward and grabbing Pierre’s hand.
Pierre pulled David closer to him and wrapped the other boy’s hand around his lower back, to which David wrapped the other arm around him as well, using both hands to hold the graduation cap behind the taller boy’s back. “You’re not sick of me yet?” he asked playfully as he slung his own arms around David and clasped his hands behind his back.
“Never,” David responded with a dreamy smile. His cheeks blushed a little and a look of nervousness crossed his features as a thought occurred to him and he added, “And ya know… you could always… stay...”
Pierre gave him a look of slightly skeptical curiosity and tilted his head to the side, not caring about the fact that there were people moving all around them who could easily be watching their interaction. “Stay?”
“Yeah, you know, you’re gonna come back tomorrow anyway so, I mean… you don’t have to leave tonight… if you don’t want to…” David got out, feeling his nerves welling up inside of him.
Suddenly Pierre understood David’s meaning and the silly, playful look dropped from his features. “You want me to stay the night?” he asked quietly, his voice a little more serious now.
David blushed harder and nodded, biting down on his bottom lip. “I mean my dad isn’t gonna be home until after you’re gone for Anchorage… so really, you could just… stay.”
Pierre pulled out of their hug and instead moved his hands to gently hold onto David’s upper arms. He wanted to look into David’s eyes, to be sure he was understanding what he was saying to him. “Stay, like… Not just one night?” he asked tentatively, a small smile working its way onto his lips.
Suddenly David was worried he had suggested too much. He looked down and shrunk into himself a little bit, feeling self conscious and terrified that he was going to scare his boyfriend away. They had only been dating for three months if you counted from when they got back together, which is when David had started counting. He felt the first month they had dated didn’t count because of the way he had been lying to the older boy, and that when they were finally both fully honest with each other it felt like a brand new start for them, their real start. “If you want to, yeah,” he responded quietly, feeling suddenly shy.
“Of course I want to,” Pierre responded, his smile growing even larger which drew David’s attention back up to him. “Are you kidding? I’d follow you around everywhere you go if I didn’t think you’d get annoyed with me,” he added, giving a soft laugh after he finished speaking.
David smiled back and gave a quiet laugh of his own, shaking his head a little. “I could never get tired of you,” David told him, moving forward again to wrap his arms around Pierre’s lower back once more.
Pierre grabbed David’s face delicately with both hands and smiled lovingly down at him. “I guess we’ll find out, huh?” he asked rhetorically, before leaning down and placing a gentle kiss on David’s lips. David smiled a little against his kiss, feeling as if he was soaring through the clouds. The idea that Pierre wouldn’t be going home at the end of the night and that he would get to wake up to him in his bed in the morning felt like a dream, too good to be true.
The two parted ways, David to head back to his house and Pierre back to his own to grab a bag of things that would make staying at David’s house a little bit easier on him - some clothes, his toothbrush, shampoo, his phone charger, things of that nature. He knew his parents wouldn’t care if he stopped coming home overnight; Hell, he honestly figured they wouldn’t even notice. It was with an air of excitement that he headed back to David’s house, ready to start what felt like a new chapter in their lives together. He had a feeling that this next part was going to be pretty damn good.