Shattered Silence - Chapter 31
Title: Shattered Silence
Author: shmorgenheigen
Chapter: Thirty One
Rating: R
Word Count: 7937
Summary: David Desrosiers is a seventeen year old boy when his father unexpectedly sells his family home, forcing him to move across town and switch schools for his senior year of high school. Having always been the victim of homophobic bullying, the idea of transferring to a new school for his final year isn’t all that uninviting, though when he runs into his toxic ex-boyfriend on his very first day, he suddenly finds himself yearning for the bullying of his old school, instead. David does his best to persevere in the face of an ex that he’s terrified of, intent on keeping his head down and making it through his final year in peace so he can move onto college and begin his adult life.
Disclaimer: Don't know, don't own, didn't happen!
Author's Note: This is an alternate universe story based off of Behind the Net, Behind the Net (Pierre’s POV), and Behind the Net: Across the Distance (A Sequel) where David never joins the hockey team, he and Pierre never become friends and start dating, and instead David is single when he comes across Hunter, Ezra, Noah, and Ben. I had so much fun when writing the sequel to Behind the Net with Hunter and Ezra and the boys, and Pierre was certain at various points during the sequel story David would have forgiven and dated Hunter if he had been single when he met Hunter again, and also that David and Ezra would have fallen for each other if Pierre had never been in the picture. Curiosity led me to thinking way too much about what David actually would have done in a scenario where he and Pierre had never fallen in love. Without dating Pierre and all of the growth and healing he did over the course of their relationship, David would have been a very different person and would have reacted very differently to meeting Hunter again. Before I knew it I got inspired and had to write it. Pierre makes a few guest appearances as a boy from the same small town, of course, but this is not a Pierre/David story, and I think it may actually be my favorite story I’ve ever written. If you give this a read, leave me a comment and let me know!
This story begins in the year 2015
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
As April neared its end, David found himself busy making prom dresses for other girls in his classes. Hailey had shown her dress to several of her friends and the word had started to spread, just as Ezra predicted it could when he first gave him the idea of making prom dresses. As a non-professional who was still learning and experimenting in this area, David was only comfortable accepting payment to cover the cost of the materials and a very small amount extra for his time, feeling that he was getting valuable experience and was building up his portfolio in a way that would actually be helpful for his future. He found that he really enjoyed everything about making dresses, from designing the pieces to actually sewing them, but nothing was quite as satisfying as having a finished dress and seeing it on the body that it was made for. There was something he loved about the way dresses flowed on the body, and the fact that the style, color, and fabric possibilities seemed to be endless.
He had just finished dropping off the last dress he’d been working on and grabbed his lunch when he walked back to where his friends were sitting in the cafeteria, having less time now to eat than he usually did. When he got to the table they were sitting at, there were only two places he could have sat: one between Ezra and Noah, and one between Hunter and Ben. Though he knew the way Hunter would look at him and dislike it, he chose the spot nearest Ezra; he had been avoiding sitting directly next to Hunter since he had forcibly kissed him, and Hunter hadn’t made a big deal about it though he always felt his eyes on him. The fact that this choice sat him directly next to Ezra, however, visibly bothered Hunter and he glared at Ezra. When David glanced at Ezra, he thought he was wearing a subtle triumphant smile as he stared back at Hunter. David resisted the urge to roll his eyes with much difficulty, and holding back a smile felt even harder. Boys, he thought as he looked down at his food and started to eat.
“You’re making all these prom dresses. Are you gonna go to prom?” Noah asked randomly, and if it hadn’t been for the first part about the dresses David would have assumed he had been talking to someone else.
David looked over with an amused, skeptical smile and laughed a little. “You’re joking, right?” he asked, how ridiculous he found the idea apparent in his voice.
“Gonna take that as a big no,” Noah responded, smiling but looking a little surprised at David’s tone about it.
“No way in hell,” David replied with amusement before going back to his food.
“Why not?” Ezra asked, a question that David immediately wished he hadn’t asked.
Instead of looking at Ezra, David’s eyes moved to Hunter who was staring at Ezra with daggers in his eyes. He shifted his gaze to Ezra, looking uncertain as he replied, “I don’t do dances.”
“We always go,” Ezra responded.
“Very cute, double date,” David quipped, unable to keep the smile from his lips as he said it.
“Hah hah,” Ezra replied with a roll of his eyes.
“You and Noah, and Hunter and Ben?” David continued, looking around at the rest of them playfully. He was relieved to see that even Hunter was rolling his eyes and smiling at his comment.
“I’m not girly enough for Hunter,” Ben replied simply. “That’d have to be Noah.”
“What the hell, man?” Noah asked, earning laughter from the rest of them.
“Sorry to have to tell you Ezra, I’m gonna have a date this time,” Ben said, feigning a delicate tone, like he was trying to let Ezra down easily.
“Oh yeah? Which one?” Ezra asked, smirking at his friend from across David. “Jessica? Ashley? Emily?”
“Okay, I’m not that bad,” Ben replied, now putting on a tone of offense.
“Sure,” Ezra replied, sounding unconvinced.
“Man, Ben could get four dates and I can’t even get one,” Noah complained.
“You’ve got a few weeks, just go ask someone,” Ezra suggested.
“Who? I don’t even know any girls,” Noah retorted quickly.
“You know Hailey,” Ben said with a mischievous grin and a glance at Hunter.
“Don’t even think about touching my fucking sister,” Hunter warned quickly, earning laughter from all but Ezra who just focused on his lunch. “In fact, don’t even look at her!” Despite his negative feelings towards Hunter, David couldn’t help but smile a little at the other boy’s big-brother protectiveness.
“Seriously though, what’s the big deal with dances?” Ezra asked David, drawing attention back to him. David felt that nervousness rise inside of him again, wishing Ezra hadn’t brought the attention back to him, worrying that Hunter would see ulterior motives behind Ezra’s question. “Have you ever even been to one?”
David raised an eyebrow at him and replied, “Do I look like I’ve ever been to a school dance?”
“Testy,” Ezra joked, and David couldn’t keep the slightly flirty smile from his lips at the response, despite the way he tried. “You never know, you might have fun.”
“Yeah, I think I’m good,” David replied, shaking his head a little as he looked back at his lunch. The conversation continued around him, Ezra and Noah continuing to tease Ben about what girl he was taking as his date, but Hunter’s voice remained silent in the minutes that followed, a fact that made David nervous. He looked up at him and was immediately struck by the way he was looking at Ezra again, glaring at him with a look of suspicious anger that sent a chill through his body. He looked back at his lunch before Hunter noticed him looking at him, certain that Hunter was bothered by the conversation he and Ezra had just had and worried that he was going to lash out as a result of it. Hunter didn’t say another word the rest of the lunch period, though David wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
When he met Ezra in the hallway that afternoon during their free period, he wrapped his arms around the taller boy’s waist and looked up at him flirtatiously before placing several slow, tender kisses on the neck. Ezra closed his eyes and gripped at David’s waist, his mind suddenly consumed with the feel of David’s lips on his skin and how badly he wanted to push him against the wall and do things to him that they definitely couldn’t do at school. David could instantly tell the effect he’d had and he smiled against his skin, giving a little laugh before biting down gently on the spot just below his ear.
“Hey now,” Ezra whispered, his voice shaky as he gripped David’s waist harder. Again David gave a devious little laugh and the sound of it brought a smile to Ezra’s lips. “You can’t do that shit to me at school,” he muttered.
“Sorry,” David said quietly, though he didn’t sound like he actually meant it. “It’s just fun making you make noises and get all tense.”
“I’m just gonna have to come over later and make you pay for it,” Ezra breathed back, and as he did he grabbed the back of David’s head and began kissing David’s neck in return, soft at first but getting harder and beginning to nip at him with each subsequent kiss.
“Aaaah, okay, okay,” David whispered, laughing weakly as he tried to push him away.
“Yeah, not fair, is it?” Ezra pointed out, though still he followed these words by kissing the underside of David’s jaw several times, worked up more than usual as a result of the way David had teased him.
David closed his eyes tight and although he knew he should have fought against his urges harder, he felt weak to them and he stopped trying to push away Ezra’s advances, instead leaning his head to the side to expose more of his neck and moving a hand to the back of Ezra’s head, encouraging him to continue. “Fuck, I want you,” Ezra whispered, and David bit his lip and tangled his fingers in Ezra’s hair, pulling on it gently in a silent reciprocation of his words. Within seconds Ezra’s lips had crashed against David’s, not hesitating as his tongue found the inside of David’s mouth, earning a surprised but heavily suppressed moan from the back of David’s throat. Ezra kissed him deeply, leaning forward into the kiss, his arms moving to wrap around David’s smaller body and pulling him closer. David lost himself in Ezra’s embrace, pulling himself as close as he could and wishing it was still closer, his entire body overwhelmed with heat and desire in a way that felt outside of his control.
And then he heard something that sounded like a shoe squeaking against the floor and his eyes opened wide. He pushed himself away from Ezra and took several steps back, his head snapping in the direction of the noise he’d heard. His eyes searched every inch of what he could see in front of him, looking for any sign of a person to have made the noise he’d just heard but seeing nothing. Ezra stepped up next to him and looked around as well, alert the moment David had reacted so viscerally.
“What’s wrong?” Ezra whispered, not taking his eyes from where David was looking.
“I swear I just heard someone,” he whispered back, his body unnaturally still in the fear that his movement would draw whoever could have been around closer.
Ezra quietly walked down the hall toward where David was looking and peeked around the corner, though he didn’t see anyone and after a few seconds he turned back around and shook his head, giving a shrug. David exhaled deeply and moved to lean his back against the wall, hanging his head down as relief tried to wash away the sudden terror he’d felt, though the fear lingered and his heart was still racing in his chest. Ezra walked back to him and held his head in both hands, leaning down to place a gentle kiss on his hair.
“Being with you is gonna give me a heart attack,” David whispered, his words shaking as they left his lips.
“Hey, you started it,” Ezra teased him, and David gave a weak laugh and nodded in response.
“My bad,” David admitted. It took quite a while for David to come down from his panic and even after he managed to calm down, he was careful not to engage in such a heated make out session with the other boy again, knowing it had gotten entirely too intense and feeling worried about how easily it could happen again. Instead they stood in the hallway and talked, holding hands and smiling tenderly at each other.
As Hunter sat in his fifth period class, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket, pulling his attention away from what the teacher was saying and causing his eyebrows to pull together a little. He wasn’t sure who would be texting him in the middle of the day but he ignored it, knowing he couldn’t get away with checking it during class despite how curious he was about who it could have been. It didn’t take long for him to feel his pocket buzz again and he felt himself distracted by it once more but he tried to brush it off, continuing with the notes he was taking as his teacher droned on. And then a few minutes later it buzzed against his leg again, and again, and he felt his curiosity explode to a level that was difficult to contain. Faster and faster, over and over, his phone was going off in his pocket, tantalizingly close but just outside of his reach. There was part of him that worried there must have been some emergency but he told himself in an emergency his parents would have contacted the school to have him pulled out of class rather than sending him a series of way too many text messages. Despite how difficult it was, he held back from the extreme desire to go to the hall and check what was happening.
The moment class was over, however, and Hunter was standing outside of the classroom in the hall, his phone was in his hand and he was looking at the massive amount of text messages he’d received, all of them coming from a single group text message thread. It was a thread that he’d been added to earlier in the year for a class study group but had never participated in before and one that had been quiet for quite some time. He started to scroll to the top, wanting to see where it started, but certain messages caught his eye and caused him to pause and read, even though he didn’t have context yet for what the texts were about.
Holy shit I knew it!!
No way! It’s actually true!
It’s totally obvious with the way they look at each other.
Hunter stopped reading any messages and continued to scroll up, wanting to find the beginning to see what had happened and having an oddly sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. When he got to the top of the messages, he saw a picture and it was a picture that made everything around him stop. He clicked the picture and made it bigger, taking up the full size of his screen, seeing two bodies pressed against each other in a darkened hallway with their arms wrapped around each other and kissing in a way that was nowhere near appropriate for school. His vision shook, his body flashed red-hot and the sound around him went silent as he stared at his phone, seeing David wrapped up in Ezra’s arms, seeing Ezra kissing David with his tongue in his mouth, seeing David’s fingers in Ezra’s hair and his eyes closed tight with need. Hunter stood completely still, unaware of the bodies moving and the voices speaking around him, unable to stop staring at the picture on his phone, seeing the edges of his vision going red and then black and shaking in a way that made him feel as if he was no longer in control of his own body. Rage tore through him so profoundly that nothing else existed.
He began to move with the sensation that he was floating in a daze, his feet taking him to his next class where he knew Ezra would be sitting, his face contorted in fury and his fist shaking as it grasped to his phone. Without being aware of what he was doing or how he had gotten there he was suddenly walking into his classroom, his phone screen having gone black, nothing on his mind but the ripping heat that coursed through his body. And then he stood inside the doorway of his class and his eyes found Ezra sitting in his seat and looking down at his notebook, and for a moment he just stood and stared, his entire body tense, his fists clenched, his chest heaving with the rage that he felt and everything shaking. And then like time slipped back into place everything seemed to move at its normal pace again and Hunter dropped his phone, not thinking about its fall or if it would break as he sped down the aisle to where Ezra was sitting. With an animalistic yell of fury, he grabbed Ezra by the shirt with his left hand and he threw a punch across his face with his right, not hesitating even for a second as he hit him.
Ezra looked up quickly as he felt himself yanked by the shirt and heard an angry scream but Hunter’s fist followed too immediately for him to register and he felt it crack across his face before he even knew what happened, sending his face flying to the side with a grunt of pain and his arms flinging up out of instinct to try to protect his head. His body was pulled up from his seat and shoved down to the ground, hitting his desk and pushing it to the side, his arms again attempting to curl around his head instinctually in self-protection that wasn’t anywhere near enough. Noise erupted around them and Hunter jumped on top of him, hitting him again, his anger exploding out of him in a frenzy of punches that had taken Ezra so off guard he was helpless to fend them off. Over and over Hunter hit him, even once pulling him up by the shirt and slamming him back down into the ground, causing his head to smack against the hard ground underneath him with a sickening sound.
Arms wrapped around Hunter from behind and pulled him back, though he flailed his legs and his fists as he continued to try to hurt Ezra, a pained, “HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!” ripping from his chest in a scream that sounded like it tore at his throat. “YOU WERE MY BEST FRIEND!”
Ezra pushed himself up on his elbow and held his face, wincing in pain and feeling everything move around him in an unnatural way that made him feel nauseous and light headed. He fell back, clutching his head and face and turning onto his side as he groaned in pain, unable to make sense of what had just happened but knowing without having to think about it that Hunter knew about him and David. He felt hands on him propping him up, trying to help him to his seat, but he stumbled and fell back into the arms of whoever was helping him, unable to keep himself upright. He was aware of voices around him but couldn’t focus on them, incapable of thinking of anything other than the searing pain he felt in his head and face, and the way he felt sick to his stomach. He was laid back on the ground, something which he was grateful for, and for several minutes he just laid there and tried to center himself.
Slowly he tried to raise himself again and this time the world didn’t swirl so much around him. He reached a hand up to rub against his aching face and felt hot wetness, suddenly aware that he was bleeding. Again hands reached under his arms from behind and pulled him up and he found himself able to remain standing, though the hands remained on him to keep him from falling back again. A wad of tissues was held out to him and he took it, holding it against his nose and blinking in a dazed fashion. He heard a voice say something about the nurse’s office and felt himself begin to move, supported and pushed by a person on either side of him, his feet stumbling a little here and there along the way. When he got to the nurse’s office he was taken immediately back and told to sit on a bed, given a wet cloth to hold against his nose and directed to lean his head forward and apply pressure.
Ezra closed his eyes and felt a heaviness over him that made him want to sleep, but the school nurse continued to come and check on him, determining based on his behavior and symptoms that he likely had a mild concussion. “When the nose stops bleeding you can lay back propped up on some pillows and try to rest. We called your mom and she’s gonna get here as soon as she can,” he heard the school nurse’s voice speaking to him gently. He gave a nod but it made his head swell with pain and he groaned a little, feeling a wave of nausea roll through him that made him want to vomit. The silence in the room told him she had left again and he sighed heavily, trying to relax his body and his confused thoughts to ease the pain he felt.
After a while he pulled the rag down and saw it was soaked with blood, a sight which made his nausea worse and his stomach flipped a little inside of him. He folded the towel over and found a clean spot, pushing it up against his nose for several seconds and pulling it back down to test if he was still bleeding. When the rag came back clean he sighed again and tossed it to the side on a table near the bed before leaning back in the bed on the mountain of pillows she’d left for him, laying in an elevated position. He closed his eyes again and felt heaviness take him, and within minutes he was asleep.
Not too long after, he woke with a start, feeling vomit coming up his throat and he flung himself to the side, finding a small trash can and throwing up into it. The nurse bustled back into the room to check on him and handed him a fresh, damp towel, muttering, “Definitely a concussion.” He spit into the can and sat there for a moment, breathing in as controlled a fashion as he could before putting the can back on the floor near the bed and laying back again. He threw the damp towel over his face, enjoying the cool sensation, and laid there for a minute, allowing the sick feeling in his stomach to calm down.
Suddenly David’s face flashed through Ezra’s mind and he wondered if he’d heard anything. He pulled the towel from his face and took his phone from his pocket to check the time, seeing that sixth period was only half over and thinking it was entirely possible that David had no idea Hunter had found out about them. Guess I should check the damage, he thought, before pulling open the front facing camera on his phone to see his own face. “Ah shit,” he muttered, seeing his black, swollen eye, a cut on his eyebrow, a long cut across the bridge of his nose, miscellaneous bruises on his cheek and jaw, and a split lip. He looked like he did when he’d been hit by Pierre only worse, having been hit significantly more times by Hunter, and with a much darker kind of rage. With a dark sense of humor he decided to take a dumb picture and send it to David, including a short text, before putting his phone back in his pocket and closing his eyes to rest.
He didn’t know how much time passed before he heard his mother come into the room and Ezra opened his non-swollen eye to look at her, wanting nothing more than to nap. “Ezra,” she breathed as she came to stand over him.
“I’m fine,” he responded, waving a hand at her a little.
“What happened?” she asked, but Ezra just closed his eye again and shook his head a little. “Come on, I already called the doctor, he’s expecting us.”
“Doctor? I’m fine,” he brushed her off, but she patted on his shoulder and grabbed his arm a little. He sighed and got up, glad to see that he was more in control of his own body and ability to move than he had been before. He was slow as he moved and groaned as he got up but followed her out of the room and the building.
When David had gotten to his sixth period class, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There were a couple of students who were leaning together talking and looking at him but he wasn’t entirely unused to this and ignored them, sitting in his seat and getting ready for class. Nothing unusual happened throughout class and before he knew it the bell was ringing. He packed up his things and began to head to his locker, smiling a little as he thought about Ezra coming over after school. Sure, they had school the next day, but after the way they’d kissed in the hall he had a feeling he would be seeing his boyfriend later at his house anyway. He went to his locker and grabbed the books he would need for his homework.
“Have you heard from Ezra?” he heard a voice suddenly, and he looked to the side to see Noah and Ben standing there looking at him, both of them with looks on their faces as if something serious had happened.
“I don’t know,” David replied before pulling his phone from an inner pocket in his messenger bag. Immediately he noticed that he had a text message from Ezra and he opened it. The moment he saw the picture Ezra had sent, he gasped and covered his mouth with one hand, staring with wide eyes. Though Ezra was holding up his fist showing devil horns, and though he was winking and biting down on the tip of his tongue with a snarl as if it was all some joke, his face was battered and bruised, covered in cuts and stained with blood. He looked at the text underneath the picture, seeing the words:
Hunter knows.
“How did he find out?” David breathed, unable to tear his eyes away from the picture as he took in all of the other boy’s injuries. Movement in front of him drew his eyes up and he saw Noah holding his phone out, showing a picture of him and Ezra making out in the hallway. His heart dropped into his stomach and his eyes flooded with tears. He looked around suddenly, aware of the eyes on him in the halls and panic started to set in.
“You guys have been hooking up?” Noah asked, his voice hushed.
David nodded, seeing no point in denying it with the picture evidence Noah held in his hand. He looked over at Ben, seeing a sympathetic look in his eyes and he turned back to his own phone, texting Ezra a quick message.
Call me whenever you can.
“I thought you had a boyfriend?” Noah asked, and David raised his eyebrows and gave him a look like he’d missed a really big, obvious point. Recognition dawned on his features and he muttered, “Oh. Ezra?” David nodded and closed his locker door before speed walking away, wanting to be alone so he could freak out in private. He heard Ben and Noah hustle to keep up with him but he tucked his head down into his shoulders and looked at the ground as he walked, not wanting to see the people staring at him or to hear any voices whispering about him. “Dude, why don’t you seem surprised at all?” Noah whispered at Ben, who opened his mouth to stammer something but David spoke before he could get anything out.
“He already knew,” David admitted.
“What the hell?!” Noah threw at Ben, throwing his hands up a little.
“I didn’t want to know,” Ben defended himself. “I caught them on the verge of banging at the show last month.”
“Oh my god, shut up,” David whispered at him.
“Last month?!” Noah asked, sounding shocked. Then it seemed to occur to him how long ago David had told them he had a boyfriend and his jaw dropped. “Wait, this has been going on for months?!” he asked loudly.
“Would you keep your voice down?” David snapped at him. “Yes, okay? We’ve been dating since the end of November.”
“Holy shit!” Noah replied, doing no better at controlling the volume of his voice.
“I know, okay? I get it. But this is exactly why we were keeping it a secret,” David replied, and as he did he opened his phone and pulled up the picture of Ezra, turning it to show the two boys around him what Hunter had done to him. “Hunter’s a fucking psychopath. I get what we did hurt him and it was fucked up and we shouldn’t have ever started seeing each other, but look what he did to Ezra.”
“At least he’s in high spirits about it,” Noah offered, though it seemed to be a discomfort response and his face showed his concern.
“Are you gonna be okay?” Ben asked David, and David put his phone in his pocket and shook his head.
“I don’t know,” he replied quietly. They left the building and Ben and Noah continued to follow him as he made his way to his car.
“What, you think he’s gonna hurt David next?” Noah asked, sounding skeptical as he looked at Ben. David looked over at Ben and saw the seriousness in his eyes and the way he was hesitating to answer. He knew the thoughts that were running through Ben’s mind, the same thoughts frantically running through his own. Noah seemed surprised at his expression and added, “Hey, I know he’s got a temper but he’s not gonna try to hurt David. Ezra broke the bro code. David might as well be a girl in this situation.”
David stayed silent and continued to walk, not stopping until he was at his driver’s side door and getting his keys from his pocket. “Hey, isn’t there anywhere else you could go that you won’t be alone? Or anyone that can come stay with you?” Ben asked him.
David shook his head and opened his car door, looking down as he replied, “No, I don’t have anyone.” Without another word he got in his car, closed the door, and drove away. He could see Ben and Noah talking as he drove away and he wondered if Ben was going to tell Noah everything, feeling sick at the idea of yet another person finding out the most private and painful details of his life.
When Ezra was finally done in the doctor’s office and had been officially diagnosed with a mild concussion, he sat in the passenger seat of his mom’s car with his forehead pressed gently against the glass, the cool sensation feeling nice on his skin. He closed his eyes and breathed, glad that the nausea finally seemed to be under control. Neither Ezra nor his mother spoke as she drove them back home and Ezra was glad for the quiet, wishing his head would stop throbbing. He felt the car stop and opened his eyes, seeing they were parked in the driveway at his house. He started to move to unbuckle his seatbelt and reach for the door but stopped at his mother’s hand on his arm and turned to look at her.
“What did you do?” she asked, a knowing look in her eyes.
Ezra looked away, his eyes panning out the window as he replied, “What makes you think I did something?”
“Hunter’s been your best friend since sixth grade,” she pointed out calmly, her voice gentle but firm in a way only a parent’s can be. “What did you do to piss him off bad enough to do this to you?”
Ezra hesitated for a second, his forehead again leaning against the window. “I’ve been dating his ex behind his back for the last five months,” he admitted quietly, shame pressing down on him.
He heard her exhale slowly and heavily and he knew she was disappointed in his bad decision making. “Ezra…” she replied, and though she didn’t say the words he could still hear them in her tone: You should have known better.
“I know,” he replied shortly. For a moment neither of them spoke and Ezra felt like the silence was going to crush him.
“I take it it was a serious relationship?” she asked him finally.
Ezra nodded, replying with a quiet, “They dated a year… and Hunter’s never gotten over it.”
Again she sighed long and heavy and Ezra closed his eyes against the sound. “Oh Ezra…” she replied, shaking her head a little. “This is probably one you can’t fix.”
“I know,” he replied again, his voice quieter and heavier.
They sat in silence for another long moment, heavy and uncomfortable, before she commented in an offhanded manner, “I didn’t realize he’d ever had a girlfriend.”
Ezra’s eyes opened and he stared out the window, realizing he was standing on the edge of two choices and uncertain which he should pick. He could lie and let her believe that all of this was over a girl, or he could tell her the truth and see how she reacted. With a deep breath in he responded with a hesitant, “... he hasn’t.”
Silence followed these words, a silence that lasted too long and he was on the verge of turning to look at her when she finally responded, “It’s your friend David, isn’t it?” Ezra turned to look at her, his eyes wider and more youthful than they usually looked, betraying the fear he felt that she was going to reject him. Then he swallowed hard and nodded, afraid to speak. Her own eyes widened a little and she took a deep breath, letting it out as a slow stream of air. “Okay… that… I didn’t see coming,” she admitted.
“Don’t tell dad,” Ezra replied without thinking, feeling fear gripping at his chest the moment he thought of it.
“Ezra, your dad will be fine,” she responded.
Ezra shook his head and looked down, muttering, “He won’t like it and he won’t understand. I want to move out before he knows.”
“And what am I supposed to tell him about your face?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Just let him think it was about a girl. He’ll actually understand that,” he replied without hesitation. “I’m planning on moving this summer and I’ll tell him then.”
“Where are you moving to?” she asked skeptically.
“New York,” he admitted quietly, unable to meet her eyes.
“New York?!” she repeated, and for the first time he thought she sounded angry.
“David’s going there for school and I’m gonna go with him,” he told her.
Her hands gripped the steering wheel and she leaned her head back, exhaling slowly. “And what about you? What are you going to do in New York?” she asked, sounding less patient now.
“I’m gonna find a job and… figure it out,” he replied honestly.
She sighed again and Ezra looked up at her, seeing that she was looking at him with a sad smile, understanding in her eyes. “I don’t suppose there’s anything I can say that’s going to change your mind?” she asked.
Ezra shook his head though after a second he looked down again and softly muttered, “I’m in love with him. I want to be where he is.” He didn’t want to look at her as he admitted this, worried that she was going to look at him and see a child and belittle his feelings as a result despite the fact that in just a few short months he would legally be an adult. He felt her hand on the unbruised side of his face and he looked up at her hesitantly.
“You’re not my little boy anymore,” she told him gently, her eyes teary.
Ezra leaned over and hugged his mother, his eyes closing as he felt her start to cry a little. “I’m sorry,” he told her quietly.
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” she replied, before pulling back and smiling sadly at him again, wiping her eyes. “I won’t tell your dad about David but you’re gonna have to tell him at some point,” she continued seriously.
“I will,” he replied.
She sighed and shook her head a little. “Come on, let’s go inside. I’ll deal with your dad tonight, just stay in your room and rest.”
“I’m not in trouble?” he asked, sounding a little nervous.
“For getting attacked by someone and not fighting back?” she asked as if the idea was silly. “It’s not like you could have prevented it. From the sounds of it he just walked up to you and started punching.”
“Yeah…” he responded, wishing Hunter hadn’t sucker punched him so that he could have gotten a punch or two in, himself.
“You’re not gonna get in trouble for something that wasn’t your fault,” she told him. “You’re not in trouble at school because you didn’t start the fight or fight back. Hunter, on the other hand, has been suspended for two weeks,” she told him, and Ezra felt a mild sense of relief.
When he got in his room and laid back in bed, he propped himself up on his pillows and pulled out his phone, seeing that David had texted him. His head throbbed dully but he called him anyway, worried that David was sitting in his house having a panic attack all alone.
David was pacing in his room, worried that Ezra hadn’t called yet, reminding himself that he had been together enough to send him that stupid picture and text him, though he wished he’d gotten a detail or two more than just Hunter knows. The first thing he’d done when he got to his house was go around and make sure every window and door was closed and locked before shutting himself off in his bedroom with the school work he knew he was going to struggle to focus on. The moment his phone rang he scrambled to answer it, sounding a little frantic as he did. “Ezra?”
“Hey,” Ezra responded, and the sound of his voice was like a calming influence, allowing David to breathe properly for what felt like the first time in hours.
“Are you okay?” David asked, concern dripping from his voice.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Ezra responded, closing his eyes. “Just a mild concussion, I’ve done worse skateboarding,” he added, and though he sounded nonchalant David didn’t feel any better.
“I’m so sorry,” David told him quietly.
Ezra laughed a little, giving a soft, “How is any of this your fault?”
“I don’t know,” David admitted, though he still felt guilty.
“I don’t even know how he found out,” Ezra said. “He just walked up to me in sixth period before class started and started punching me.”
“You remember during fifth period today when I thought I heard someone in the hall?” David asked.
“Ah. So someone was actually there,” Ezra replied quietly.
“Not only that… but they took a picture and sent it around,” David explained, and he heard a groan from Ezra. “Noah showed me after school. It’s uh… pretty damning.”
“Well shit, since everyone knows now anyway I’m gonna have to have Noah send it to me so I can keep it and look at it when I miss you,” Ezra joked lightly.
“Ezra…” David replied seriously, not finding the humor in the situation.
“What? It happened whether we like it or not. Might as well laugh about it. What else can we do?” Ezra pointed out, and though he didn’t like it, David could see his point.
“I guess…” David replied, sounding unconvinced.
“Since we don’t have to hide it anymore I want a picture of us together,” Ezra told him and in spite of the situation they were in, David smiled at the request, finding it sweet.
“Me too,” David responded, his voice softening. “And I’m making it my damn phone wallpaper.”
Ezra chuckled softly and felt himself relaxing. “I wish you could be here right now. I could use some cuddles.”
David moved to lay on his bed and looked up at his ceiling, smiling as he replied, “You’re cute. Are you gonna be at school tomorrow?”
“I have a really good excuse to stay home… but I’ve got someone I really want to see,” Ezra told him sweetly.
David smiled wider and closed his eyes, replying, “Well don’t push yourself on my account. If you don’t feel well you should stay home.”
“Ahhh, I’ll be fine,” Ezra dismissed his concern. “How are you?” he asked, his tone shifting to a much more serious one.
“I’m okay,” David told him, his eyes opening again to look up at his ceiling.
“I figured you’d be having a panic attack right about now,” Ezra replied, and he heard a soft laugh from the other end.
“That was earlier,” David tried to joke, though he didn’t pull it off quite as naturally as Ezra did.
“Well the good news is Hunter got suspended for two weeks, so at least at school we won’t have to worry about him for a bit,” Ezra said.
David let out a sigh and closed his eyes again. “Good,” he muttered spitefully. “That means when he comes back we’ll only have to worry about him for… what… three weeks until school’s over?”
“Something like that,” Ezra replied.
“What about you? You didn’t get in trouble, did you?” David asked.
“I didn’t hit him back at all so I didn’t get in any trouble,” Ezra explained. He glared a little as he remembered it, feeling irritation welling up inside of him. “Mother fucker. He sucker punched me so I didn’t even get to swing back,” he muttered, sounding frustrated.
“Well it’s a good thing you didn’t or you probably would have gotten suspended too,” David pointed out.
Ezra grunted in response, knowing he was right but still wishing he’d at least gotten one hit against Hunter. “Would’ve been worth it,” he grumbled, earning a soft laugh and an eye roll from David. “You haven’t heard from him at all, have you?” Ezra asked, sounding suddenly serious again.
“No,” David responded, his voice quiet.
“Tell me if you do. I mean it,” Ezra said sternly.
There was something about the commanding tone of his voice that David couldn’t help but take seriously and he nodded, giving a soft, “Okay.”
“I’m serious. If he shows up, you call the cops and then you call me. Don’t open the door, don’t try to talk to him,” Ezra continued seriously.
“I know. Trust me, I don’t want to talk to him. I already made sure all the windows and doors are locked,” David told him.
“Good,” Ezra sighed, allowing his eyes to fall closed again. His head was pounding and he could feel nausea working up in him again and he took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, repeating this a few times.
“Are you okay?” David asked, hearing his breathing through the phone and beginning to worry.
“Yeah, concussions just make you nauseous,” he replied, his words sounding a little restrained as he worked to keep that particular feeling down. “I just need to sleep some.”
“Aren’t you not supposed to do that?” David asked, sounding concerned.
“Nah, that’s not actually true. It’s good to rest when you have a concussion, doctor’s orders.” He smiled a little, giving a soft chuckle as he added, “I’m gonna go ahead and assume you’ve never had one.”
“Of course I haven’t!” David responded, drawing another laugh from Ezra. “I stay inside, I do inside things.”
“Outside’s not so bad, ya know,” Ezra told him.
“Except that’s where scrapes and bruises and sun burns and bug bites come from,” David recited quickly. His words made Ezra laugh a little too hard and he felt his head throb painfully, causing him to close his eyes hard and groan. “What’s wrong, are you okay?” David asked quickly.
Ezra breathed out a laugh at how worried David was for him, replying with a soft, “I’m fine. Just stop being so funny.”
“I wasn’t trying to be!” David retorted.
This time Ezra smiled but didn’t laugh, feeling his energy draining to the point that he was ready to fall asleep at any second. A thought crossed his mind, however, something they’d talked about earlier that day, and he couldn’t stop himself as he asked, “Hey. Do you wanna go to prom with me?”
David hesitated, blinking in surprise at the sudden question, his cheeks flushing a little. “You really want to go, don’t you?” he asked in surprise.
“I mean, it is my senior prom, and I actually have a date I could take, and now it’s definitely not a secret anymore that we’re together…” Ezra justified himself.
“You don’t think Hunter will go and make a scene?” David asked nervously.
“After this? No way. He’d be showing up just because he’s looking for a fight and he’s gotta know he could really fuck up his spot at Julliard if he gets into more trouble,” Ezra explained, and David nodded a little.
“I wouldn’t have to wear a suit or a tux would I?” David asked, the idea making him cringe with embarrassment.
“Do you think I’m gonna wear either of those?” Ezra asked seriously, and David laughed a little at his response. “I’ll wear a button up and a tie, some black pants, casual-nice,” he described.
David thought about it, his cheeks flushing a deeper pink at the idea before muttering, “Okay, I wanna see that.”
A smile blossomed on Ezra’s face and he asked, “Is that a yes, then?”
“...yes,” David said begrudgingly, unable to believe that the other boy had convinced him to do something he’d always sworn he would never do. More than anything, he could tell that it was important to Ezra even though he wouldn’t come right out and say it.
“Well jeez, don’t sound so excited,” Ezra teased him lightly.
“I just swore I’d never go to a school dance,” David told him, feeling a little guilty at his obvious distaste for the idea because of the way he could tell that Ezra wanted to go.
“You can’t say you won’t like it because you’ve never gone to one,” Ezra pointed out. “We’re gonna sit around with our friends, listening to music we hate, we can scandalize our classmates by making out a little… It’s stupid but it’ll be fun, trust me. And if nothing else, you get to see me looking like a fancy boy.”
David giggled a little at his last comment. “Well I do want to see fancy boy Ezra,” he said playfully. “And the making out part doesn’t sound so bad, either.”
“That’s the spirit,” Ezra quipped back. He took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, his eyes and body feeling heavy in a way that was becoming increasingly difficult to fight. “David, I love you… but I need to sleep.”
“Okay, you sleep,” David replied with a soft smile. “I’m serious, if you’re not up to it don’t go to school tomorrow,” he added quickly.
“Aaah, I’ll be fine,” Ezra replied with a boyish smile.
“You’re so stubborn,” David muttered with a shake of his head.
“That’s the pot calling the kettle black,” Ezra pointed out playfully.
“Yeah yeah. Go to sleep,” David replied with a roll of his eyes.
“Okay. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Ezra said sleepily.
“Kay, talk to you tomorrow,” David said. “Oh!” he added, drawing Ezra’s eyes open at the suddenness of his exclamation. “And I love you too. Good night.”
Ezra smiled warmly and closed his eyes again as he replied with a soft, “Good night.” The call ended and he let his phone drop on the bed next to him, allowing himself to relax into a sleep that took only another minute to fully engulf him.
Author: shmorgenheigen
Chapter: Thirty One
Rating: R
Word Count: 7937
Summary: David Desrosiers is a seventeen year old boy when his father unexpectedly sells his family home, forcing him to move across town and switch schools for his senior year of high school. Having always been the victim of homophobic bullying, the idea of transferring to a new school for his final year isn’t all that uninviting, though when he runs into his toxic ex-boyfriend on his very first day, he suddenly finds himself yearning for the bullying of his old school, instead. David does his best to persevere in the face of an ex that he’s terrified of, intent on keeping his head down and making it through his final year in peace so he can move onto college and begin his adult life.
Disclaimer: Don't know, don't own, didn't happen!
Author's Note: This is an alternate universe story based off of Behind the Net, Behind the Net (Pierre’s POV), and Behind the Net: Across the Distance (A Sequel) where David never joins the hockey team, he and Pierre never become friends and start dating, and instead David is single when he comes across Hunter, Ezra, Noah, and Ben. I had so much fun when writing the sequel to Behind the Net with Hunter and Ezra and the boys, and Pierre was certain at various points during the sequel story David would have forgiven and dated Hunter if he had been single when he met Hunter again, and also that David and Ezra would have fallen for each other if Pierre had never been in the picture. Curiosity led me to thinking way too much about what David actually would have done in a scenario where he and Pierre had never fallen in love. Without dating Pierre and all of the growth and healing he did over the course of their relationship, David would have been a very different person and would have reacted very differently to meeting Hunter again. Before I knew it I got inspired and had to write it. Pierre makes a few guest appearances as a boy from the same small town, of course, but this is not a Pierre/David story, and I think it may actually be my favorite story I’ve ever written. If you give this a read, leave me a comment and let me know!
This story begins in the year 2015
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
As April neared its end, David found himself busy making prom dresses for other girls in his classes. Hailey had shown her dress to several of her friends and the word had started to spread, just as Ezra predicted it could when he first gave him the idea of making prom dresses. As a non-professional who was still learning and experimenting in this area, David was only comfortable accepting payment to cover the cost of the materials and a very small amount extra for his time, feeling that he was getting valuable experience and was building up his portfolio in a way that would actually be helpful for his future. He found that he really enjoyed everything about making dresses, from designing the pieces to actually sewing them, but nothing was quite as satisfying as having a finished dress and seeing it on the body that it was made for. There was something he loved about the way dresses flowed on the body, and the fact that the style, color, and fabric possibilities seemed to be endless.
He had just finished dropping off the last dress he’d been working on and grabbed his lunch when he walked back to where his friends were sitting in the cafeteria, having less time now to eat than he usually did. When he got to the table they were sitting at, there were only two places he could have sat: one between Ezra and Noah, and one between Hunter and Ben. Though he knew the way Hunter would look at him and dislike it, he chose the spot nearest Ezra; he had been avoiding sitting directly next to Hunter since he had forcibly kissed him, and Hunter hadn’t made a big deal about it though he always felt his eyes on him. The fact that this choice sat him directly next to Ezra, however, visibly bothered Hunter and he glared at Ezra. When David glanced at Ezra, he thought he was wearing a subtle triumphant smile as he stared back at Hunter. David resisted the urge to roll his eyes with much difficulty, and holding back a smile felt even harder. Boys, he thought as he looked down at his food and started to eat.
“You’re making all these prom dresses. Are you gonna go to prom?” Noah asked randomly, and if it hadn’t been for the first part about the dresses David would have assumed he had been talking to someone else.
David looked over with an amused, skeptical smile and laughed a little. “You’re joking, right?” he asked, how ridiculous he found the idea apparent in his voice.
“Gonna take that as a big no,” Noah responded, smiling but looking a little surprised at David’s tone about it.
“No way in hell,” David replied with amusement before going back to his food.
“Why not?” Ezra asked, a question that David immediately wished he hadn’t asked.
Instead of looking at Ezra, David’s eyes moved to Hunter who was staring at Ezra with daggers in his eyes. He shifted his gaze to Ezra, looking uncertain as he replied, “I don’t do dances.”
“We always go,” Ezra responded.
“Very cute, double date,” David quipped, unable to keep the smile from his lips as he said it.
“Hah hah,” Ezra replied with a roll of his eyes.
“You and Noah, and Hunter and Ben?” David continued, looking around at the rest of them playfully. He was relieved to see that even Hunter was rolling his eyes and smiling at his comment.
“I’m not girly enough for Hunter,” Ben replied simply. “That’d have to be Noah.”
“What the hell, man?” Noah asked, earning laughter from the rest of them.
“Sorry to have to tell you Ezra, I’m gonna have a date this time,” Ben said, feigning a delicate tone, like he was trying to let Ezra down easily.
“Oh yeah? Which one?” Ezra asked, smirking at his friend from across David. “Jessica? Ashley? Emily?”
“Okay, I’m not that bad,” Ben replied, now putting on a tone of offense.
“Sure,” Ezra replied, sounding unconvinced.
“Man, Ben could get four dates and I can’t even get one,” Noah complained.
“You’ve got a few weeks, just go ask someone,” Ezra suggested.
“Who? I don’t even know any girls,” Noah retorted quickly.
“You know Hailey,” Ben said with a mischievous grin and a glance at Hunter.
“Don’t even think about touching my fucking sister,” Hunter warned quickly, earning laughter from all but Ezra who just focused on his lunch. “In fact, don’t even look at her!” Despite his negative feelings towards Hunter, David couldn’t help but smile a little at the other boy’s big-brother protectiveness.
“Seriously though, what’s the big deal with dances?” Ezra asked David, drawing attention back to him. David felt that nervousness rise inside of him again, wishing Ezra hadn’t brought the attention back to him, worrying that Hunter would see ulterior motives behind Ezra’s question. “Have you ever even been to one?”
David raised an eyebrow at him and replied, “Do I look like I’ve ever been to a school dance?”
“Testy,” Ezra joked, and David couldn’t keep the slightly flirty smile from his lips at the response, despite the way he tried. “You never know, you might have fun.”
“Yeah, I think I’m good,” David replied, shaking his head a little as he looked back at his lunch. The conversation continued around him, Ezra and Noah continuing to tease Ben about what girl he was taking as his date, but Hunter’s voice remained silent in the minutes that followed, a fact that made David nervous. He looked up at him and was immediately struck by the way he was looking at Ezra again, glaring at him with a look of suspicious anger that sent a chill through his body. He looked back at his lunch before Hunter noticed him looking at him, certain that Hunter was bothered by the conversation he and Ezra had just had and worried that he was going to lash out as a result of it. Hunter didn’t say another word the rest of the lunch period, though David wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
When he met Ezra in the hallway that afternoon during their free period, he wrapped his arms around the taller boy’s waist and looked up at him flirtatiously before placing several slow, tender kisses on the neck. Ezra closed his eyes and gripped at David’s waist, his mind suddenly consumed with the feel of David’s lips on his skin and how badly he wanted to push him against the wall and do things to him that they definitely couldn’t do at school. David could instantly tell the effect he’d had and he smiled against his skin, giving a little laugh before biting down gently on the spot just below his ear.
“Hey now,” Ezra whispered, his voice shaky as he gripped David’s waist harder. Again David gave a devious little laugh and the sound of it brought a smile to Ezra’s lips. “You can’t do that shit to me at school,” he muttered.
“Sorry,” David said quietly, though he didn’t sound like he actually meant it. “It’s just fun making you make noises and get all tense.”
“I’m just gonna have to come over later and make you pay for it,” Ezra breathed back, and as he did he grabbed the back of David’s head and began kissing David’s neck in return, soft at first but getting harder and beginning to nip at him with each subsequent kiss.
“Aaaah, okay, okay,” David whispered, laughing weakly as he tried to push him away.
“Yeah, not fair, is it?” Ezra pointed out, though still he followed these words by kissing the underside of David’s jaw several times, worked up more than usual as a result of the way David had teased him.
David closed his eyes tight and although he knew he should have fought against his urges harder, he felt weak to them and he stopped trying to push away Ezra’s advances, instead leaning his head to the side to expose more of his neck and moving a hand to the back of Ezra’s head, encouraging him to continue. “Fuck, I want you,” Ezra whispered, and David bit his lip and tangled his fingers in Ezra’s hair, pulling on it gently in a silent reciprocation of his words. Within seconds Ezra’s lips had crashed against David’s, not hesitating as his tongue found the inside of David’s mouth, earning a surprised but heavily suppressed moan from the back of David’s throat. Ezra kissed him deeply, leaning forward into the kiss, his arms moving to wrap around David’s smaller body and pulling him closer. David lost himself in Ezra’s embrace, pulling himself as close as he could and wishing it was still closer, his entire body overwhelmed with heat and desire in a way that felt outside of his control.
And then he heard something that sounded like a shoe squeaking against the floor and his eyes opened wide. He pushed himself away from Ezra and took several steps back, his head snapping in the direction of the noise he’d heard. His eyes searched every inch of what he could see in front of him, looking for any sign of a person to have made the noise he’d just heard but seeing nothing. Ezra stepped up next to him and looked around as well, alert the moment David had reacted so viscerally.
“What’s wrong?” Ezra whispered, not taking his eyes from where David was looking.
“I swear I just heard someone,” he whispered back, his body unnaturally still in the fear that his movement would draw whoever could have been around closer.
Ezra quietly walked down the hall toward where David was looking and peeked around the corner, though he didn’t see anyone and after a few seconds he turned back around and shook his head, giving a shrug. David exhaled deeply and moved to lean his back against the wall, hanging his head down as relief tried to wash away the sudden terror he’d felt, though the fear lingered and his heart was still racing in his chest. Ezra walked back to him and held his head in both hands, leaning down to place a gentle kiss on his hair.
“Being with you is gonna give me a heart attack,” David whispered, his words shaking as they left his lips.
“Hey, you started it,” Ezra teased him, and David gave a weak laugh and nodded in response.
“My bad,” David admitted. It took quite a while for David to come down from his panic and even after he managed to calm down, he was careful not to engage in such a heated make out session with the other boy again, knowing it had gotten entirely too intense and feeling worried about how easily it could happen again. Instead they stood in the hallway and talked, holding hands and smiling tenderly at each other.
As Hunter sat in his fifth period class, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket, pulling his attention away from what the teacher was saying and causing his eyebrows to pull together a little. He wasn’t sure who would be texting him in the middle of the day but he ignored it, knowing he couldn’t get away with checking it during class despite how curious he was about who it could have been. It didn’t take long for him to feel his pocket buzz again and he felt himself distracted by it once more but he tried to brush it off, continuing with the notes he was taking as his teacher droned on. And then a few minutes later it buzzed against his leg again, and again, and he felt his curiosity explode to a level that was difficult to contain. Faster and faster, over and over, his phone was going off in his pocket, tantalizingly close but just outside of his reach. There was part of him that worried there must have been some emergency but he told himself in an emergency his parents would have contacted the school to have him pulled out of class rather than sending him a series of way too many text messages. Despite how difficult it was, he held back from the extreme desire to go to the hall and check what was happening.
The moment class was over, however, and Hunter was standing outside of the classroom in the hall, his phone was in his hand and he was looking at the massive amount of text messages he’d received, all of them coming from a single group text message thread. It was a thread that he’d been added to earlier in the year for a class study group but had never participated in before and one that had been quiet for quite some time. He started to scroll to the top, wanting to see where it started, but certain messages caught his eye and caused him to pause and read, even though he didn’t have context yet for what the texts were about.
Holy shit I knew it!!
No way! It’s actually true!
It’s totally obvious with the way they look at each other.
Hunter stopped reading any messages and continued to scroll up, wanting to find the beginning to see what had happened and having an oddly sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. When he got to the top of the messages, he saw a picture and it was a picture that made everything around him stop. He clicked the picture and made it bigger, taking up the full size of his screen, seeing two bodies pressed against each other in a darkened hallway with their arms wrapped around each other and kissing in a way that was nowhere near appropriate for school. His vision shook, his body flashed red-hot and the sound around him went silent as he stared at his phone, seeing David wrapped up in Ezra’s arms, seeing Ezra kissing David with his tongue in his mouth, seeing David’s fingers in Ezra’s hair and his eyes closed tight with need. Hunter stood completely still, unaware of the bodies moving and the voices speaking around him, unable to stop staring at the picture on his phone, seeing the edges of his vision going red and then black and shaking in a way that made him feel as if he was no longer in control of his own body. Rage tore through him so profoundly that nothing else existed.
He began to move with the sensation that he was floating in a daze, his feet taking him to his next class where he knew Ezra would be sitting, his face contorted in fury and his fist shaking as it grasped to his phone. Without being aware of what he was doing or how he had gotten there he was suddenly walking into his classroom, his phone screen having gone black, nothing on his mind but the ripping heat that coursed through his body. And then he stood inside the doorway of his class and his eyes found Ezra sitting in his seat and looking down at his notebook, and for a moment he just stood and stared, his entire body tense, his fists clenched, his chest heaving with the rage that he felt and everything shaking. And then like time slipped back into place everything seemed to move at its normal pace again and Hunter dropped his phone, not thinking about its fall or if it would break as he sped down the aisle to where Ezra was sitting. With an animalistic yell of fury, he grabbed Ezra by the shirt with his left hand and he threw a punch across his face with his right, not hesitating even for a second as he hit him.
Ezra looked up quickly as he felt himself yanked by the shirt and heard an angry scream but Hunter’s fist followed too immediately for him to register and he felt it crack across his face before he even knew what happened, sending his face flying to the side with a grunt of pain and his arms flinging up out of instinct to try to protect his head. His body was pulled up from his seat and shoved down to the ground, hitting his desk and pushing it to the side, his arms again attempting to curl around his head instinctually in self-protection that wasn’t anywhere near enough. Noise erupted around them and Hunter jumped on top of him, hitting him again, his anger exploding out of him in a frenzy of punches that had taken Ezra so off guard he was helpless to fend them off. Over and over Hunter hit him, even once pulling him up by the shirt and slamming him back down into the ground, causing his head to smack against the hard ground underneath him with a sickening sound.
Arms wrapped around Hunter from behind and pulled him back, though he flailed his legs and his fists as he continued to try to hurt Ezra, a pained, “HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?!” ripping from his chest in a scream that sounded like it tore at his throat. “YOU WERE MY BEST FRIEND!”
Ezra pushed himself up on his elbow and held his face, wincing in pain and feeling everything move around him in an unnatural way that made him feel nauseous and light headed. He fell back, clutching his head and face and turning onto his side as he groaned in pain, unable to make sense of what had just happened but knowing without having to think about it that Hunter knew about him and David. He felt hands on him propping him up, trying to help him to his seat, but he stumbled and fell back into the arms of whoever was helping him, unable to keep himself upright. He was aware of voices around him but couldn’t focus on them, incapable of thinking of anything other than the searing pain he felt in his head and face, and the way he felt sick to his stomach. He was laid back on the ground, something which he was grateful for, and for several minutes he just laid there and tried to center himself.
Slowly he tried to raise himself again and this time the world didn’t swirl so much around him. He reached a hand up to rub against his aching face and felt hot wetness, suddenly aware that he was bleeding. Again hands reached under his arms from behind and pulled him up and he found himself able to remain standing, though the hands remained on him to keep him from falling back again. A wad of tissues was held out to him and he took it, holding it against his nose and blinking in a dazed fashion. He heard a voice say something about the nurse’s office and felt himself begin to move, supported and pushed by a person on either side of him, his feet stumbling a little here and there along the way. When he got to the nurse’s office he was taken immediately back and told to sit on a bed, given a wet cloth to hold against his nose and directed to lean his head forward and apply pressure.
Ezra closed his eyes and felt a heaviness over him that made him want to sleep, but the school nurse continued to come and check on him, determining based on his behavior and symptoms that he likely had a mild concussion. “When the nose stops bleeding you can lay back propped up on some pillows and try to rest. We called your mom and she’s gonna get here as soon as she can,” he heard the school nurse’s voice speaking to him gently. He gave a nod but it made his head swell with pain and he groaned a little, feeling a wave of nausea roll through him that made him want to vomit. The silence in the room told him she had left again and he sighed heavily, trying to relax his body and his confused thoughts to ease the pain he felt.
After a while he pulled the rag down and saw it was soaked with blood, a sight which made his nausea worse and his stomach flipped a little inside of him. He folded the towel over and found a clean spot, pushing it up against his nose for several seconds and pulling it back down to test if he was still bleeding. When the rag came back clean he sighed again and tossed it to the side on a table near the bed before leaning back in the bed on the mountain of pillows she’d left for him, laying in an elevated position. He closed his eyes again and felt heaviness take him, and within minutes he was asleep.
Not too long after, he woke with a start, feeling vomit coming up his throat and he flung himself to the side, finding a small trash can and throwing up into it. The nurse bustled back into the room to check on him and handed him a fresh, damp towel, muttering, “Definitely a concussion.” He spit into the can and sat there for a moment, breathing in as controlled a fashion as he could before putting the can back on the floor near the bed and laying back again. He threw the damp towel over his face, enjoying the cool sensation, and laid there for a minute, allowing the sick feeling in his stomach to calm down.
Suddenly David’s face flashed through Ezra’s mind and he wondered if he’d heard anything. He pulled the towel from his face and took his phone from his pocket to check the time, seeing that sixth period was only half over and thinking it was entirely possible that David had no idea Hunter had found out about them. Guess I should check the damage, he thought, before pulling open the front facing camera on his phone to see his own face. “Ah shit,” he muttered, seeing his black, swollen eye, a cut on his eyebrow, a long cut across the bridge of his nose, miscellaneous bruises on his cheek and jaw, and a split lip. He looked like he did when he’d been hit by Pierre only worse, having been hit significantly more times by Hunter, and with a much darker kind of rage. With a dark sense of humor he decided to take a dumb picture and send it to David, including a short text, before putting his phone back in his pocket and closing his eyes to rest.
He didn’t know how much time passed before he heard his mother come into the room and Ezra opened his non-swollen eye to look at her, wanting nothing more than to nap. “Ezra,” she breathed as she came to stand over him.
“I’m fine,” he responded, waving a hand at her a little.
“What happened?” she asked, but Ezra just closed his eye again and shook his head a little. “Come on, I already called the doctor, he’s expecting us.”
“Doctor? I’m fine,” he brushed her off, but she patted on his shoulder and grabbed his arm a little. He sighed and got up, glad to see that he was more in control of his own body and ability to move than he had been before. He was slow as he moved and groaned as he got up but followed her out of the room and the building.
When David had gotten to his sixth period class, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There were a couple of students who were leaning together talking and looking at him but he wasn’t entirely unused to this and ignored them, sitting in his seat and getting ready for class. Nothing unusual happened throughout class and before he knew it the bell was ringing. He packed up his things and began to head to his locker, smiling a little as he thought about Ezra coming over after school. Sure, they had school the next day, but after the way they’d kissed in the hall he had a feeling he would be seeing his boyfriend later at his house anyway. He went to his locker and grabbed the books he would need for his homework.
“Have you heard from Ezra?” he heard a voice suddenly, and he looked to the side to see Noah and Ben standing there looking at him, both of them with looks on their faces as if something serious had happened.
“I don’t know,” David replied before pulling his phone from an inner pocket in his messenger bag. Immediately he noticed that he had a text message from Ezra and he opened it. The moment he saw the picture Ezra had sent, he gasped and covered his mouth with one hand, staring with wide eyes. Though Ezra was holding up his fist showing devil horns, and though he was winking and biting down on the tip of his tongue with a snarl as if it was all some joke, his face was battered and bruised, covered in cuts and stained with blood. He looked at the text underneath the picture, seeing the words:
Hunter knows.
“How did he find out?” David breathed, unable to tear his eyes away from the picture as he took in all of the other boy’s injuries. Movement in front of him drew his eyes up and he saw Noah holding his phone out, showing a picture of him and Ezra making out in the hallway. His heart dropped into his stomach and his eyes flooded with tears. He looked around suddenly, aware of the eyes on him in the halls and panic started to set in.
“You guys have been hooking up?” Noah asked, his voice hushed.
David nodded, seeing no point in denying it with the picture evidence Noah held in his hand. He looked over at Ben, seeing a sympathetic look in his eyes and he turned back to his own phone, texting Ezra a quick message.
Call me whenever you can.
“I thought you had a boyfriend?” Noah asked, and David raised his eyebrows and gave him a look like he’d missed a really big, obvious point. Recognition dawned on his features and he muttered, “Oh. Ezra?” David nodded and closed his locker door before speed walking away, wanting to be alone so he could freak out in private. He heard Ben and Noah hustle to keep up with him but he tucked his head down into his shoulders and looked at the ground as he walked, not wanting to see the people staring at him or to hear any voices whispering about him. “Dude, why don’t you seem surprised at all?” Noah whispered at Ben, who opened his mouth to stammer something but David spoke before he could get anything out.
“He already knew,” David admitted.
“What the hell?!” Noah threw at Ben, throwing his hands up a little.
“I didn’t want to know,” Ben defended himself. “I caught them on the verge of banging at the show last month.”
“Oh my god, shut up,” David whispered at him.
“Last month?!” Noah asked, sounding shocked. Then it seemed to occur to him how long ago David had told them he had a boyfriend and his jaw dropped. “Wait, this has been going on for months?!” he asked loudly.
“Would you keep your voice down?” David snapped at him. “Yes, okay? We’ve been dating since the end of November.”
“Holy shit!” Noah replied, doing no better at controlling the volume of his voice.
“I know, okay? I get it. But this is exactly why we were keeping it a secret,” David replied, and as he did he opened his phone and pulled up the picture of Ezra, turning it to show the two boys around him what Hunter had done to him. “Hunter’s a fucking psychopath. I get what we did hurt him and it was fucked up and we shouldn’t have ever started seeing each other, but look what he did to Ezra.”
“At least he’s in high spirits about it,” Noah offered, though it seemed to be a discomfort response and his face showed his concern.
“Are you gonna be okay?” Ben asked David, and David put his phone in his pocket and shook his head.
“I don’t know,” he replied quietly. They left the building and Ben and Noah continued to follow him as he made his way to his car.
“What, you think he’s gonna hurt David next?” Noah asked, sounding skeptical as he looked at Ben. David looked over at Ben and saw the seriousness in his eyes and the way he was hesitating to answer. He knew the thoughts that were running through Ben’s mind, the same thoughts frantically running through his own. Noah seemed surprised at his expression and added, “Hey, I know he’s got a temper but he’s not gonna try to hurt David. Ezra broke the bro code. David might as well be a girl in this situation.”
David stayed silent and continued to walk, not stopping until he was at his driver’s side door and getting his keys from his pocket. “Hey, isn’t there anywhere else you could go that you won’t be alone? Or anyone that can come stay with you?” Ben asked him.
David shook his head and opened his car door, looking down as he replied, “No, I don’t have anyone.” Without another word he got in his car, closed the door, and drove away. He could see Ben and Noah talking as he drove away and he wondered if Ben was going to tell Noah everything, feeling sick at the idea of yet another person finding out the most private and painful details of his life.
When Ezra was finally done in the doctor’s office and had been officially diagnosed with a mild concussion, he sat in the passenger seat of his mom’s car with his forehead pressed gently against the glass, the cool sensation feeling nice on his skin. He closed his eyes and breathed, glad that the nausea finally seemed to be under control. Neither Ezra nor his mother spoke as she drove them back home and Ezra was glad for the quiet, wishing his head would stop throbbing. He felt the car stop and opened his eyes, seeing they were parked in the driveway at his house. He started to move to unbuckle his seatbelt and reach for the door but stopped at his mother’s hand on his arm and turned to look at her.
“What did you do?” she asked, a knowing look in her eyes.
Ezra looked away, his eyes panning out the window as he replied, “What makes you think I did something?”
“Hunter’s been your best friend since sixth grade,” she pointed out calmly, her voice gentle but firm in a way only a parent’s can be. “What did you do to piss him off bad enough to do this to you?”
Ezra hesitated for a second, his forehead again leaning against the window. “I’ve been dating his ex behind his back for the last five months,” he admitted quietly, shame pressing down on him.
He heard her exhale slowly and heavily and he knew she was disappointed in his bad decision making. “Ezra…” she replied, and though she didn’t say the words he could still hear them in her tone: You should have known better.
“I know,” he replied shortly. For a moment neither of them spoke and Ezra felt like the silence was going to crush him.
“I take it it was a serious relationship?” she asked him finally.
Ezra nodded, replying with a quiet, “They dated a year… and Hunter’s never gotten over it.”
Again she sighed long and heavy and Ezra closed his eyes against the sound. “Oh Ezra…” she replied, shaking her head a little. “This is probably one you can’t fix.”
“I know,” he replied again, his voice quieter and heavier.
They sat in silence for another long moment, heavy and uncomfortable, before she commented in an offhanded manner, “I didn’t realize he’d ever had a girlfriend.”
Ezra’s eyes opened and he stared out the window, realizing he was standing on the edge of two choices and uncertain which he should pick. He could lie and let her believe that all of this was over a girl, or he could tell her the truth and see how she reacted. With a deep breath in he responded with a hesitant, “... he hasn’t.”
Silence followed these words, a silence that lasted too long and he was on the verge of turning to look at her when she finally responded, “It’s your friend David, isn’t it?” Ezra turned to look at her, his eyes wider and more youthful than they usually looked, betraying the fear he felt that she was going to reject him. Then he swallowed hard and nodded, afraid to speak. Her own eyes widened a little and she took a deep breath, letting it out as a slow stream of air. “Okay… that… I didn’t see coming,” she admitted.
“Don’t tell dad,” Ezra replied without thinking, feeling fear gripping at his chest the moment he thought of it.
“Ezra, your dad will be fine,” she responded.
Ezra shook his head and looked down, muttering, “He won’t like it and he won’t understand. I want to move out before he knows.”
“And what am I supposed to tell him about your face?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Just let him think it was about a girl. He’ll actually understand that,” he replied without hesitation. “I’m planning on moving this summer and I’ll tell him then.”
“Where are you moving to?” she asked skeptically.
“New York,” he admitted quietly, unable to meet her eyes.
“New York?!” she repeated, and for the first time he thought she sounded angry.
“David’s going there for school and I’m gonna go with him,” he told her.
Her hands gripped the steering wheel and she leaned her head back, exhaling slowly. “And what about you? What are you going to do in New York?” she asked, sounding less patient now.
“I’m gonna find a job and… figure it out,” he replied honestly.
She sighed again and Ezra looked up at her, seeing that she was looking at him with a sad smile, understanding in her eyes. “I don’t suppose there’s anything I can say that’s going to change your mind?” she asked.
Ezra shook his head though after a second he looked down again and softly muttered, “I’m in love with him. I want to be where he is.” He didn’t want to look at her as he admitted this, worried that she was going to look at him and see a child and belittle his feelings as a result despite the fact that in just a few short months he would legally be an adult. He felt her hand on the unbruised side of his face and he looked up at her hesitantly.
“You’re not my little boy anymore,” she told him gently, her eyes teary.
Ezra leaned over and hugged his mother, his eyes closing as he felt her start to cry a little. “I’m sorry,” he told her quietly.
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” she replied, before pulling back and smiling sadly at him again, wiping her eyes. “I won’t tell your dad about David but you’re gonna have to tell him at some point,” she continued seriously.
“I will,” he replied.
She sighed and shook her head a little. “Come on, let’s go inside. I’ll deal with your dad tonight, just stay in your room and rest.”
“I’m not in trouble?” he asked, sounding a little nervous.
“For getting attacked by someone and not fighting back?” she asked as if the idea was silly. “It’s not like you could have prevented it. From the sounds of it he just walked up to you and started punching.”
“Yeah…” he responded, wishing Hunter hadn’t sucker punched him so that he could have gotten a punch or two in, himself.
“You’re not gonna get in trouble for something that wasn’t your fault,” she told him. “You’re not in trouble at school because you didn’t start the fight or fight back. Hunter, on the other hand, has been suspended for two weeks,” she told him, and Ezra felt a mild sense of relief.
When he got in his room and laid back in bed, he propped himself up on his pillows and pulled out his phone, seeing that David had texted him. His head throbbed dully but he called him anyway, worried that David was sitting in his house having a panic attack all alone.
David was pacing in his room, worried that Ezra hadn’t called yet, reminding himself that he had been together enough to send him that stupid picture and text him, though he wished he’d gotten a detail or two more than just Hunter knows. The first thing he’d done when he got to his house was go around and make sure every window and door was closed and locked before shutting himself off in his bedroom with the school work he knew he was going to struggle to focus on. The moment his phone rang he scrambled to answer it, sounding a little frantic as he did. “Ezra?”
“Hey,” Ezra responded, and the sound of his voice was like a calming influence, allowing David to breathe properly for what felt like the first time in hours.
“Are you okay?” David asked, concern dripping from his voice.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Ezra responded, closing his eyes. “Just a mild concussion, I’ve done worse skateboarding,” he added, and though he sounded nonchalant David didn’t feel any better.
“I’m so sorry,” David told him quietly.
Ezra laughed a little, giving a soft, “How is any of this your fault?”
“I don’t know,” David admitted, though he still felt guilty.
“I don’t even know how he found out,” Ezra said. “He just walked up to me in sixth period before class started and started punching me.”
“You remember during fifth period today when I thought I heard someone in the hall?” David asked.
“Ah. So someone was actually there,” Ezra replied quietly.
“Not only that… but they took a picture and sent it around,” David explained, and he heard a groan from Ezra. “Noah showed me after school. It’s uh… pretty damning.”
“Well shit, since everyone knows now anyway I’m gonna have to have Noah send it to me so I can keep it and look at it when I miss you,” Ezra joked lightly.
“Ezra…” David replied seriously, not finding the humor in the situation.
“What? It happened whether we like it or not. Might as well laugh about it. What else can we do?” Ezra pointed out, and though he didn’t like it, David could see his point.
“I guess…” David replied, sounding unconvinced.
“Since we don’t have to hide it anymore I want a picture of us together,” Ezra told him and in spite of the situation they were in, David smiled at the request, finding it sweet.
“Me too,” David responded, his voice softening. “And I’m making it my damn phone wallpaper.”
Ezra chuckled softly and felt himself relaxing. “I wish you could be here right now. I could use some cuddles.”
David moved to lay on his bed and looked up at his ceiling, smiling as he replied, “You’re cute. Are you gonna be at school tomorrow?”
“I have a really good excuse to stay home… but I’ve got someone I really want to see,” Ezra told him sweetly.
David smiled wider and closed his eyes, replying, “Well don’t push yourself on my account. If you don’t feel well you should stay home.”
“Ahhh, I’ll be fine,” Ezra dismissed his concern. “How are you?” he asked, his tone shifting to a much more serious one.
“I’m okay,” David told him, his eyes opening again to look up at his ceiling.
“I figured you’d be having a panic attack right about now,” Ezra replied, and he heard a soft laugh from the other end.
“That was earlier,” David tried to joke, though he didn’t pull it off quite as naturally as Ezra did.
“Well the good news is Hunter got suspended for two weeks, so at least at school we won’t have to worry about him for a bit,” Ezra said.
David let out a sigh and closed his eyes again. “Good,” he muttered spitefully. “That means when he comes back we’ll only have to worry about him for… what… three weeks until school’s over?”
“Something like that,” Ezra replied.
“What about you? You didn’t get in trouble, did you?” David asked.
“I didn’t hit him back at all so I didn’t get in any trouble,” Ezra explained. He glared a little as he remembered it, feeling irritation welling up inside of him. “Mother fucker. He sucker punched me so I didn’t even get to swing back,” he muttered, sounding frustrated.
“Well it’s a good thing you didn’t or you probably would have gotten suspended too,” David pointed out.
Ezra grunted in response, knowing he was right but still wishing he’d at least gotten one hit against Hunter. “Would’ve been worth it,” he grumbled, earning a soft laugh and an eye roll from David. “You haven’t heard from him at all, have you?” Ezra asked, sounding suddenly serious again.
“No,” David responded, his voice quiet.
“Tell me if you do. I mean it,” Ezra said sternly.
There was something about the commanding tone of his voice that David couldn’t help but take seriously and he nodded, giving a soft, “Okay.”
“I’m serious. If he shows up, you call the cops and then you call me. Don’t open the door, don’t try to talk to him,” Ezra continued seriously.
“I know. Trust me, I don’t want to talk to him. I already made sure all the windows and doors are locked,” David told him.
“Good,” Ezra sighed, allowing his eyes to fall closed again. His head was pounding and he could feel nausea working up in him again and he took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, repeating this a few times.
“Are you okay?” David asked, hearing his breathing through the phone and beginning to worry.
“Yeah, concussions just make you nauseous,” he replied, his words sounding a little restrained as he worked to keep that particular feeling down. “I just need to sleep some.”
“Aren’t you not supposed to do that?” David asked, sounding concerned.
“Nah, that’s not actually true. It’s good to rest when you have a concussion, doctor’s orders.” He smiled a little, giving a soft chuckle as he added, “I’m gonna go ahead and assume you’ve never had one.”
“Of course I haven’t!” David responded, drawing another laugh from Ezra. “I stay inside, I do inside things.”
“Outside’s not so bad, ya know,” Ezra told him.
“Except that’s where scrapes and bruises and sun burns and bug bites come from,” David recited quickly. His words made Ezra laugh a little too hard and he felt his head throb painfully, causing him to close his eyes hard and groan. “What’s wrong, are you okay?” David asked quickly.
Ezra breathed out a laugh at how worried David was for him, replying with a soft, “I’m fine. Just stop being so funny.”
“I wasn’t trying to be!” David retorted.
This time Ezra smiled but didn’t laugh, feeling his energy draining to the point that he was ready to fall asleep at any second. A thought crossed his mind, however, something they’d talked about earlier that day, and he couldn’t stop himself as he asked, “Hey. Do you wanna go to prom with me?”
David hesitated, blinking in surprise at the sudden question, his cheeks flushing a little. “You really want to go, don’t you?” he asked in surprise.
“I mean, it is my senior prom, and I actually have a date I could take, and now it’s definitely not a secret anymore that we’re together…” Ezra justified himself.
“You don’t think Hunter will go and make a scene?” David asked nervously.
“After this? No way. He’d be showing up just because he’s looking for a fight and he’s gotta know he could really fuck up his spot at Julliard if he gets into more trouble,” Ezra explained, and David nodded a little.
“I wouldn’t have to wear a suit or a tux would I?” David asked, the idea making him cringe with embarrassment.
“Do you think I’m gonna wear either of those?” Ezra asked seriously, and David laughed a little at his response. “I’ll wear a button up and a tie, some black pants, casual-nice,” he described.
David thought about it, his cheeks flushing a deeper pink at the idea before muttering, “Okay, I wanna see that.”
A smile blossomed on Ezra’s face and he asked, “Is that a yes, then?”
“...yes,” David said begrudgingly, unable to believe that the other boy had convinced him to do something he’d always sworn he would never do. More than anything, he could tell that it was important to Ezra even though he wouldn’t come right out and say it.
“Well jeez, don’t sound so excited,” Ezra teased him lightly.
“I just swore I’d never go to a school dance,” David told him, feeling a little guilty at his obvious distaste for the idea because of the way he could tell that Ezra wanted to go.
“You can’t say you won’t like it because you’ve never gone to one,” Ezra pointed out. “We’re gonna sit around with our friends, listening to music we hate, we can scandalize our classmates by making out a little… It’s stupid but it’ll be fun, trust me. And if nothing else, you get to see me looking like a fancy boy.”
David giggled a little at his last comment. “Well I do want to see fancy boy Ezra,” he said playfully. “And the making out part doesn’t sound so bad, either.”
“That’s the spirit,” Ezra quipped back. He took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, his eyes and body feeling heavy in a way that was becoming increasingly difficult to fight. “David, I love you… but I need to sleep.”
“Okay, you sleep,” David replied with a soft smile. “I’m serious, if you’re not up to it don’t go to school tomorrow,” he added quickly.
“Aaah, I’ll be fine,” Ezra replied with a boyish smile.
“You’re so stubborn,” David muttered with a shake of his head.
“That’s the pot calling the kettle black,” Ezra pointed out playfully.
“Yeah yeah. Go to sleep,” David replied with a roll of his eyes.
“Okay. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Ezra said sleepily.
“Kay, talk to you tomorrow,” David said. “Oh!” he added, drawing Ezra’s eyes open at the suddenness of his exclamation. “And I love you too. Good night.”
Ezra smiled warmly and closed his eyes again as he replied with a soft, “Good night.” The call ended and he let his phone drop on the bed next to him, allowing himself to relax into a sleep that took only another minute to fully engulf him.