Shattered Silence - Chapter 37
Title: Shattered Silence
Author: shmorgenheigen
Chapter: Thirty Seven
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 5988
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
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
The next day seemed to pass in a blur for David and there was something almost anti-climactic as he finished his last day of high school and emptied out his locker. As he loaded his things in his car, Ezra, Noah and Ben came up behind him and told him to come with them to the skatepark that night. Ezra happily announced that his mother had released him from his punishment and had told him he was free to do as he wished so long as he continued to check in with her when he was going to be out late or not come home for a night. Ezra mused that she likely realized there wasn’t much she would be able to do to control him from that point forward and was simply giving into that fact. David was too happy to accept the invitation to hang out with the other boys and he followed their cars to the skatepark, taking joy in sitting off to the side and watching them skate around and performing tricks. He found that Hunter’s absence made this evening significantly more enjoyable than the last time he had joined his friends for this same activity, and he thoroughly enjoyed getting to hug and kiss Ezra whenever the other boy got close enough to do so, ignoring the stares they got from the other skaters at the park who didn’t know them and seemed shocked to witness two boys kissing in such a place.
“This makes me think of our first kiss,” David said, his voice soft and warm as he cuddled under Ezra’s arm and into his side, who had just come up to sit next to him and had greeted him with a sweet kiss.
Ezra pulled him in closer and kissed the side of his head with a gentle smile. “Except this time no one’s gonna cry at the end of the night,” he joked softly.
“And now if I try to get you to fuck me, you’re gonna do it,” David teased in response, earning a grin from Ezra and a wiggle of his eyebrows.
“Your house tonight?” Ezra asked suggestively.
David grinned and bit down on his bottom lip, nodding enthusiastically. “But you can’t stay the night because I don’t know what time my dad will show up tomorrow.”
“Kay,” Ezra replied, before leaning in for a slow kiss. David smiled and sighed happily against his lips, and soon Ezra was pulling away and running off to skateboard again.
The rest of the night passed quickly and before he knew it, David was back at his house in Ezra’s arms, enjoying the feel of their skin pressed together and Ezra’s soft hair slipping between his fingers. It felt unreal that only two days previously he had spent the night in a state of terror because of Hunter’s attack on him, but there was something about knowing the other boy was in jail and couldn’t get to him that allowed him to relax entirely and he was able to live completely in the moment with Ezra. He felt a twinge of sadness when Ezra had to head home for the night but he knew it would be risky to have the other boy stay when he didn’t know how early his father would get to the house the next morning. While his dad had been cool about Ezra and his assumed sexual activity with him, somehow David thought his dad walking in to find him and Ezra naked in bed together would be too much, even for him.
His dad had come home bright and early the next morning, getting in before David had even woken up. When David came out of his room in the morning and heard the sound of some sports game coming from the living room, he knew his dad had come home and he quickly ducked back into his room to cover the hickeys and bruises on his neck. Once he was satisfied that they were completely covered, he headed out to the living room and found his father sitting on the couch watching TV. David was immediately grateful that he had been so logical and hadn’t given in to how badly he had wanted Ezra to stay the night. He greeted his dad with a hug and got himself a cup of coffee before sitting on the couch with the older man and catching up with him. His father told him that he planned on staying home for three weeks in order to get things taken care of and set up for David’s move to New York. David was surprised by the information but pleasantly so, glad that he would get to spend some good time with his dad before he moved across the country for who knew how long. His father told him he wanted to take him to dinner just the two of them that night to celebrate his graduation but ultimately impressed upon him how much he hoped to get to see Ezra over the coming weeks, making it abundantly clear that the other boy shouldn’t feel like he had to stay away while he was home visiting. Again, David found himself overwhelmed with appreciation for how accepting and supportive his father had been of his relationship with Ezra.
David had very nervously shown his father his shattered phone, and though Ezra had joked that his dad wouldn’t believe it, David decided to use a skateboarding accident as the excuse for how his phone had gotten so damaged. He said that he had tried skateboarding with Ezra and his friends and had accidentally gone over the edge of a bowl, crashing spectacularly and completely destroying his phone but luckily coming up unscathed, himself. His dad shook his head at him with a surprised laugh and ultimately believed the story, able to picture David clumsily falling in attempting something that was so far outside of his comfort zone. Though he felt bad for lying, David knew that telling his dad the truth wasn’t an option. His father had reassured him that they would go get him a replacement phone when they went out later that day, and wasn’t even remotely upset about the broken phone given that David had never even so much as scratched one before.
Dinner that night was a casual affair, though David’s dad surprised him with a laptop as a graduation gift, something which David hadn’t even thought to anticipate and which shocked him to receive. His dad impressed upon him how proud of him he was, a sentiment which made David tear up no matter how hard he tried to fight against it because they were at a restaurant. His father also told him he would help him get rented at an apartment in New York and would pay for his first few months of rent since he knew David wouldn’t receive access to the life insurance money until right at the end of August when he turned eighteen which would make getting moved in somewhere in time for college extremely difficult. David was flooded with emotion and struggled to keep it under control, causing his dad to get teary-eyed himself. When they got back to the house that night, they sat on the couch together and set up David’s new laptop, before spending the night searching for apartments in New York and ear-marking the ones that they both agreed on, looking for one bedroom apartments that were close enough to a subway line, and which wouldn’t result in a subway ride to school much longer than twenty minutes. Though this significantly increased the price of the apartments they were looking at, David’s father had insisted on these criteria and David had ultimately agreed.
David couldn’t wait to tell Ezra all of these things and he called him late that night on his new phone, chattering excitedly to him about all that had happened. He could feel that Ezra was excited for him but there was something in his demeanor that was a little more subdued than usual and David had a feeling that his boyfriend was feeling uncomfortable about money again. David tried to move past it quickly and once he had shared the details that were most important, he quickly moved the conversation into flirtatious territory, though he had to point out that with his dad staying home for so long they were going to end up going a long time without getting to engage in any sexual activity. David couldn’t fathom having sex with Ezra with his father in the house, and going to Ezra’s house while his parents or little brother were there was absolutely out of the question. They buckled themselves in for a long period of abstinence with an air of disappointment, no matter how many exciting things were on the horizon for them.
Hunter didn’t make an appearance at their graduation ceremony the next day and the four boys all wondered if he had been held back from graduating due to the legal trouble he’d gotten himself into. Hailey later informed them that Hunter hadn’t been allowed to attend the ceremony but was still allowed to graduate, and that his place at Julliard hadn’t been affected, but he had lost his license. She also told them that their parents had forced Hunter into therapy, telling him that they wouldn’t pay for his Julliard education unless he agreed to this condition. She explained that he had been less than pleased about it but had given in and would be having weekly sessions for the foreseeable future, even after moving to New York, until his therapist and parents felt it was no longer necessary. The sense of relief that had washed over David at this information had been immense, and he found himself truly hoping for his ex-boyfriend’s salvation from himself. When it dawned on him that his saga with Hunter had finally come to its end and he would no longer be plagued by him, David had found himself suddenly overwhelmed with emotions and he hadn’t been able to keep himself from crying. Even in the days that followed, it still didn’t feel real to him that it was finally over.
Although David was now free to do as he pleased with his days until his move to New York and the start of his first term at the Fashion Institute of Technology, he didn’t venture out often and instead chose to hang out at his house with his dad, too aware that this was his last opportunity to see him before he would be moving across the country. He didn’t know when he would see his father again and that simple knowledge filled him with the desire to spend as much time with the older man as he could. His father seemed pleased at how much time David was willingly spending with him, and even more pleased that Ezra was still around. He made comments to David on a fairly regular basis indicating just how much he liked Ezra and how good for David he thought he was. His father loving his boyfriend was something that David hadn’t necessarily anticipated but it thrilled him to his core all the same.
The week after graduation Ezra had started working full-time at his dad’s mechanic shop, insisting that he was going to save up some money before they moved to New York. The first David had heard of this plan was the Sunday of graduation and he wondered if this had always been Ezra’s plan or if the conversation he’d had with him the previous night about looking for apartments in New York had triggered something in the other boy. Though David had hoped to get to spend day-in and and day-out with the other boy before their move, Ezra’s Monday through Friday schedule working from 9 AM to 5:30 PM still afforded them time in the evenings and on the weekends to see each other and David supposed he to would have to get used to being able to see less of each other as they moved into their adult lives, anyway. Still, Ezra came over to his house every night after work for dinner with David and his father, and by the end of the first week it felt as if they had fallen into a pleasant routine. Coming over right after work meant that David got to see Ezra show up in his dark blue work coveralls and work boots and he enjoyed the sight of it more than he could explain. He enjoyed watching Ezra take off his boots and coveralls, and would follow him into the kitchen to watch him wash his hands for several minutes until they were as clean as they could get with the amount of grease that caked them each night. He typically wore a pair of black skinny jeans and a grease-stained black or white t-shirt under his coveralls, and though Ezra didn’t see a future for himself as a mechanic, David found the evidence of his manual labor incredibly attractive in a way that he couldn’t wrap his mind around but didn’t care to question.
The thing that Ezra seemed to regret the most about his busy work schedule was that he wasn’t getting to spend much time with Elias in the time leading up to their move. His parents had been forced to find reliable care for his little brother with how busy Ezra had been, but Ezra pointed out to David that his parents would have needed to figure out someone else to be with his little brother once he had moved across the country, anyway. David could feel a deep guilt and anxiety from his boyfriend whenever Ezra mentioned this and he knew he was worrying about his younger brother’s wellbeing and what was going to happen to him when he was gone. Ezra hadn’t told his father yet of his relationship with David or his impending move to New York and so he hadn’t told Elias of his move yet, either. It was something that obviously weighed him down with guilt and David couldn’t help but feel guilty, himself, feeling as if he was stealing Ezra away from his family. How much was Ezra going to miss of Elias’ life while they were living on the other side of the country? How much would Elias grow? How would his personality change? Would he come to resent Ezra for moving so far away? These questions tortured David from time to time and he sometimes struggled to sleep as he laid in his bed and worried about it. He had yet to tell Ezra that he had been stressing so much over these questions, and although fear had kept him from bringing it up, he couldn’t imagine that Ezra wasn’t laying in his own bed at night stressing about these very same things. Because they had yet to talk about this with each other, their upcoming move felt like a looming weight over them rather than an exciting adventure.
With a week left in his visit home, David’s father had sold David’s car. David and his father had agreed that it would make more sense to sell his car than to try to have it transported to New York from Alaska, but it was an unfortunate reality that this would have to occur while his father was home from sea as the car was registered in his father’s name and David wouldn’t be able to sell it, himself. He knew this would leave him without a way to get around in the time leading up to his move to New York unless Ezra was with him, but he also knew he typically didn’t leave the house anyway and likely wouldn’t feel the effects of not having his own car all that severely. What he hadn’t anticipated was his father handing him a check for eight thousand dollars from the car’s sale. David had tried to refuse the money and told his dad he should keep it and had pointed out how much his dad was already giving him with his laptop and his rent payments, but his father had insisted that he keep it, telling him that he would need money to buy furniture and food once they got into their new apartment in early August and that he didn’t want his son sleeping on the floor for the three or so weeks he would have to wait before gaining access to his mom’s life insurance money. “It’ll be the last of the dad-help I can probably give for a while, so just take it,” his father had insisted, and eventually David gave in, though he became rather emotional in accepting. David had told Ezra of this development, and again he could feel that Ezra was excited for him but that it stirred up those feelings of anxiety the other boy was clearly struggling with over money. Ezra still had yet to confide in David over those things that were bothering him, but David thought it was obvious in the times that these things came up and he found himself worrying for his boyfriend, wishing he would just open up to him about it.
The night before David’s father’s return to sea, David and Ezra stood together against Ezra’s truck, David wrapped safely in Ezra’s arms with his face buried in the taller boy’s neck. He sighed heavily and nuzzled against the other boy’s skin, feeling safe and warm in his arms and wishing they could just stay that way forever. “I wish you could just live with me starting tomorrow,” he said, sounding a little defeated. He had been able to temporarily push away his fears of being alone in his house again until their move to New York, but with his father leaving in the morning that fear suddenly felt impossible to ignore and it gnawed at his mind.
Ezra hesitated a moment, his mind chewing on those same fears, uncomfortable with the idea of David being in his house all alone for the next five weeks when Hunter was free to stop by whenever he felt like it. Despite the fact that they hadn’t heard from him and it felt like things with him were finally over, it still felt too much like tempting fate to leave David all alone and he hated the idea of it. “What if I did?” Ezra asked quietly, sounding uncharacteristically nervous.
David pulled back and looked up at him, regarding him seriously with flushed cheeks. “I mean… You can’t actually, your mom definitely wouldn’t be okay with it,” he pointed out sadly.
“I’m gonna be eighteen in two weeks. What the fuck is she gonna do?” Ezra asked defiantly, a sentiment which made David nervous. The last thing he wanted was for Ezra’s mother to hate him.
“I dunno,” David replied quietly, not wanting to speak the fear that had crossed his mind.
Ezra smiled at him gently and lifted a hand to cup his cheek, too aware of what David was worrying about. “She doesn’t hate you,” he said, demonstrating his uncanny ability to know exactly what David was thinking at any given time. David gave a small smile and a quiet laugh escaped him at his boyfriend’s words, embarrassed that he was so easy to read. “I’ll talk to her tonight, okay? I really don’t want you here alone… just in case,” he added, and though he didn’t explain the reasoning, he knew he didn’t need to. He knew that David, of all people, was more than aware of the potential danger that Hunter posed.
David bit down on his lip a little and nodded his head, Ezra’s words making the threat of Hunter feel even more real. With the way that he had felt so unburdened by thoughts of Hunter the last three weeks, to think of him now felt terrible. He leaned up on his toes and pressed a soft kiss against Ezra’s lips, a kiss that was tender and a little bit somber in the aftermath of mentioning Hunter. Too soon they were pulling apart from each other and heading their separate ways, David back inside his house for the night and Ezra driving away to his own home for what may have been one of the last times.
Ezra’s mind felt heavy as he drove to his house, overwhelmed with anxieties that had been tormenting him that he hadn’t verbalized, anxieties over leaving Elias behind, anxieties over having to tell his father that he was in a relationship with a guy and was moving across the country with him, and despite the way he tried to shove them away and tell himself they weren’t valid, renewed anxieties over his move to New York and his fear that he was going to disappoint David. Of all of the things he was scared to face and had been pushing away to worry about until a later date, the idea of David watching him fail and coming to resent him was the worst of them all. Sometimes the thought made him feel like he couldn’t breathe.
When he walked into his house, he looked to the side and saw his dad sitting in his chair watching a baseball game, and though he gave a muted, “I’m home,” the only response from his father was a nod, an action that was made as he spit his chewing tobacco spit in an old beer can without peeling his eyes from the TV. Ezra looked away from him and made his way down the hallway, stopping when he got to the open door of his mother’s room and peering his head inside. “I’m home,” he said again, and this time he got an actual response, watching as she looked up from the book she was reading in bed and smiled at him.
“Hi sweetie,” she said warmly. Guilt and nerves squirmed in his stomach and he smiled back at her, though what he was feeling must have shown on his face because her expression changed to that of concern and she asked, “Is everything okay?”
“Do you have a sec?” he asked, and when she nodded he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, not wanting his dad to hear any part of their conversation. She put her book down on her nightstand and sat up more in bed, watching Ezra carefully as he moved to sit on the edge of her bed. “I want you to hear me out before you get mad or just say no,” he started, and he could tell by the way her brow furrowed that she didn’t like the way the conversation was starting.
Still, she nodded and replied with a soft, “Okay.”
“David’s dad is going back out to sea tomorrow morning and he won’t be back before we move to New York in August, so… I want to stay with him until we move,” Ezra said carefully. She started to open her mouth to protest but he held up a hand and gave her an almost desperate look, continuing before she could interrupt, “I don’t know if Hunter’s gonna show up at his house and try to hurt him again and I don’t want to find out. You’ve seen David, he’s small, he’s not strong, he can’t defend himself, and if Hunter catches him alone he could do anything he wanted to him. He’s done it before and David got lucky that it didn’t end up worse. I don’t want to take that chance.”
“And what are you going to do if Hunter shows up?” she asked pointedly, and for a moment Ezra could do nothing but look back at her with discomfort on his face. “Are you going to fight him again?”
“If I have to, I guess,” he replied honestly, a reply that he knew she hated. “Realistically, I’d probably just call the cops.” She sighed heavily at this answer and Ezra tried to smile, wanting to make her feel better. “I don’t know if he’s stupid enough to try something with David again after all the trouble he got in, and I know his parents are making him go to therapy, and he lost his license… but I can’t just leave David alone and hope Hunter makes the right choice. So far he’s done nothing but make the wrong choice over and over again, and if he does and David gets hurt again when I could’ve stopped it…” He shook his head and looked down at his hands, which he clasped in front of himself.
He heard another heavy sigh followed by a moment of silence and he knew before she’d answered that he had won her over with his argument. “Okay, here’s what I’ll say,” she started, pulling Ezra’s gaze back over to her. “I won’t fight you on this, but I want you and David to come over for dinner at least three nights a week until you move.” The idea felt immediately uncomfortable to Ezra and he sat up a little, looking at her with a furrowed brow as if he thought the idea was crazy. “I want to see you while I still can, and I want to get to know David. You’re about to move across the country and who knows when you’ll be able to come back and visit,” she reasoned, causing that sensation of guilt to prick the pit of Ezra’s stomach again. “And I’m not saying this to make you feel guilty, but you know this is going to break your brother’s heart,” she added, only making Ezra feel worse. “It’d be nice to get to see you before you’re gone.”
Ezra looked at her with his eyebrows drawn together and a sad look on his face for a long moment, that guilty sensation tearing through him in an uncontrollable way. “Don’t you think dad will know something’s up if I start showing up for dinner with the same guy multiple nights a week after moving out?” he asked hesitantly, his father’s reaction being his only concern at her request.
“And why is that a problem?” she asked in return. Ezra shook his head and looked away again, knowing that it would make David anxious and fearing how his dad would behave. “You said you would tell your dad about David when you move out. So if you move out tomorrow, doesn’t that mean you should be planning on telling your dad about David soon?”
“He’s gonna hate it, I just know it,” Ezra replied, still looking away across the room as he spoke.
“Your dad loves you, and even if it takes him a while he’s gonna come around,” she tried to reason. Ezra gave a short laugh that was more of a scoff and shook his head a little, a bitter look crossing his features. “Ezra Dean,” she said sternly, and immediately he wiped the sarcastic look off of his face and looked over at her again. “He loves you. I understand that you two haven’t seen eye to eye for a while and this is probably going to throw him for a loop, but give him a chance. Don’t write him off before you even tell him the truth.”
Ezra looked at his mother for several long seconds before he raised his eyebrows and gave his own sigh of defeat, though he shook his head a little at himself at what he was certain was about to be an absolute disaster. “Alright… But if he says anything shitty to David-”
“He won’t,” she cut over him. When Ezra just stared at her with disbelief, she added, “And if he does, I’ll deal with him.” He looked away again, his displeasure clear on his face and shook his head again. “Do you want me to tell him?” she offered.
“Do you think he’d take it better?” Ezra asked her seriously. Ezra honestly couldn’t be certain if his dad would take the news better from his mom or if he would respect Ezra less as a man for not being able to tell him himself. Somehow he thought that he was fighting a losing battle and that his dad was going to think less of him no matter how he handled it.
“He might,” she replied thoughtfully. “I think the biggest risk with you telling him is you not liking his immediate reaction and overreacting and it turning into a fight.”
Though he could have been offended, Ezra had to admit that he thought his mom had a point and he nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” he admitted. “Okay, I guess you can tell him. Just… wait until tomorrow after I’m gone.” She nodded in response and for a moment they were silent. Letting his mom be the one to tell his dad that he was dating a guy felt like the coward’s way out, but he had to admit that it would probably be the smartest way to break the news to the man. If he did react negatively, Ezra knew it would be best for him to not be around with the way he knew he would get angry and it would turn into a huge, potentially relationship-ending fight with his dad. Maybe this way his dad would have some time to adjust before he had to come face to face with Ezra introducing him to his boyfriend, something which he was certain his dad never in a million years would have ever even considered as a possibility in his life.
Soon Ezra was closing himself in his room and laying down on his bed, his mind spinning with the conversation he’d just had with his mom and what he knew was to come. He pulled out his phone and looked at it, wondering if he should call David even though he’d only left his house about twenty minutes previously or if he should talk to him about all of this in person. Ultimately he decided it would be best to give David a heads up and he called him, unsurprised when David answered quickly.
“You missed me that fast?” David asked in a flirty tone, and this greeting alone was enough to tell Ezra that David was in his bedroom where his dad couldn’t hear their conversation.
He smiled and relaxed into his pillow a little as he replied, “Are you kidding? I missed you the second I drove away.”
David gave a quiet giggle and a soft, “You’re the cutest.”
“Nah, that’s you,” Ezra replied without missing a beat, and for a few seconds they sat in the warmth of their conversation. His mind went quickly back to the conversation and agreement with his mother from minutes previously, however, and he sighed heavily.
“What’s wrong?” David’s voice came quickly. “Did the talk with your mom not go okay?”
“No, it actually went pretty well, she’s okay with me staying with you until we move,” Ezra admitted, though he struggled to control the stress that he knew could be heard in his tone. “But she wants us to come over for dinner together at least three nights a week until we move, and she’s gonna tell my dad about us,” he added, delivering this information quickly like ripping off a bandage. David’s silence wasn’t altogether unexpected and he gave a weak smile as he added, “I know it’s scary but it’ll be okay.” Sure, his anxiety about this exact thing was exploding inside of him and he was incredibly worried that it would not be okay, but for David’s sake he would assure the other boy that all would be fine.
“Why is she telling him instead of you?” David asked, his voice betraying how nervous he felt.
“She thinks if I tell him I’m gonna overreact to however he reacts and we’ll get in a fight,” Ezra explained. “And honestly, I think she’s right. She’ll be able to break it to him more gently than I would and he’ll have some time to adjust before he meets you… And if he’s a total asshole about it, we just won’t do the dinner thing and you won’t have to meet him at all.”
David chewed on his bottom lip and stared up at his ceiling as his nervousness got the better of him and he replied with a quiet, “Okay.” He recognized quickly that as nervous as he was, it must have paled in comparison to what Ezra was experiencing and he felt suddenly selfish for not thinking of the other boy first. “How do you feel about it?” he asked gently.
Ezra took a deep breath and let it out slowly, a sound which David heard easily through the phone and which gave him his answer without any words being spoken. “It’ll be fine,” he said, not wanting to explain how much of a train wreck he feared they were headed toward for the way he knew it would stress David out. “Sure is gonna make work awkward on Monday though,” he threw in with a strained laugh, trying to hide his nerves behind forced humor in a way that he could feel didn’t succeed.
“Ezra… You can talk to me about whatever it is you’re feeling,” David told him gently.
Ezra forced a smile despite the fact that David couldn’t see it and told himself to believe it as he said again, “Really, it’ll be fine.”
David hesitated for a moment, knowing that Ezra was holding back but not wanting to push. He didn’t want to force the other boy into opening up about what was going on in his head if he wasn’t ready to do so, no matter how much he thought Ezra had something on his mind that he needed to get out. Instead he decided to shift the tone of their conversation and his voice became cautiously flirty as he said, “So… you’re moving in tomorrow?”
This brought a legitimate smile to Ezra’s face and he gave a soft chuckle before replying, “I guess so. You sure you’re not gonna get sick of me?”
“I could literally never get sick of you,” David replied quickly, and Ezra only beamed wider at that.
“Good. I guess I’ll go ahead and bring all my shit, not that I really have much to bring anyway,” he pondered out loud. “The only stuff I have is clothes and my guitars.”
“Bring every damn guitar you own to my house with you,” David requested, his voice flirty and thick with intrigue.
Ezra laughed and nodded, replying with a flirtatious, “If that’s what you want.”
They continued to flirt for the next hour, both feeling that they could talk forever despite the fact that they had just spent the whole day together. By the time they were saying good night and hanging up the phone, Ezra had temporarily forgotten all of the things that he had been worrying about and he was left with a warm, fuzzy feeling that lasted him the rest of the night. He waited until his dad went to bed before grabbing a garbage bag from the kitchen and filling it with his clothes and his one spare pair of shoes, and though he could have felt a little pathetic that his entire life fit in a single kitchen garbage bag, it didn’t occur to him to feel sorry for himself and instead he was glad that his move would be so easy. He would have to stop at Noah’s house the following morning to grab his acoustic and bass guitars per David’s request, but he would do so happily if it was what David wanted of him. He didn’t know exactly when his entire life had become about David, but he knew that he wouldn’t change it for anything.
Author: shmorgenheigen
Chapter: Thirty Seven
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 5988
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
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
The next day seemed to pass in a blur for David and there was something almost anti-climactic as he finished his last day of high school and emptied out his locker. As he loaded his things in his car, Ezra, Noah and Ben came up behind him and told him to come with them to the skatepark that night. Ezra happily announced that his mother had released him from his punishment and had told him he was free to do as he wished so long as he continued to check in with her when he was going to be out late or not come home for a night. Ezra mused that she likely realized there wasn’t much she would be able to do to control him from that point forward and was simply giving into that fact. David was too happy to accept the invitation to hang out with the other boys and he followed their cars to the skatepark, taking joy in sitting off to the side and watching them skate around and performing tricks. He found that Hunter’s absence made this evening significantly more enjoyable than the last time he had joined his friends for this same activity, and he thoroughly enjoyed getting to hug and kiss Ezra whenever the other boy got close enough to do so, ignoring the stares they got from the other skaters at the park who didn’t know them and seemed shocked to witness two boys kissing in such a place.
“This makes me think of our first kiss,” David said, his voice soft and warm as he cuddled under Ezra’s arm and into his side, who had just come up to sit next to him and had greeted him with a sweet kiss.
Ezra pulled him in closer and kissed the side of his head with a gentle smile. “Except this time no one’s gonna cry at the end of the night,” he joked softly.
“And now if I try to get you to fuck me, you’re gonna do it,” David teased in response, earning a grin from Ezra and a wiggle of his eyebrows.
“Your house tonight?” Ezra asked suggestively.
David grinned and bit down on his bottom lip, nodding enthusiastically. “But you can’t stay the night because I don’t know what time my dad will show up tomorrow.”
“Kay,” Ezra replied, before leaning in for a slow kiss. David smiled and sighed happily against his lips, and soon Ezra was pulling away and running off to skateboard again.
The rest of the night passed quickly and before he knew it, David was back at his house in Ezra’s arms, enjoying the feel of their skin pressed together and Ezra’s soft hair slipping between his fingers. It felt unreal that only two days previously he had spent the night in a state of terror because of Hunter’s attack on him, but there was something about knowing the other boy was in jail and couldn’t get to him that allowed him to relax entirely and he was able to live completely in the moment with Ezra. He felt a twinge of sadness when Ezra had to head home for the night but he knew it would be risky to have the other boy stay when he didn’t know how early his father would get to the house the next morning. While his dad had been cool about Ezra and his assumed sexual activity with him, somehow David thought his dad walking in to find him and Ezra naked in bed together would be too much, even for him.
His dad had come home bright and early the next morning, getting in before David had even woken up. When David came out of his room in the morning and heard the sound of some sports game coming from the living room, he knew his dad had come home and he quickly ducked back into his room to cover the hickeys and bruises on his neck. Once he was satisfied that they were completely covered, he headed out to the living room and found his father sitting on the couch watching TV. David was immediately grateful that he had been so logical and hadn’t given in to how badly he had wanted Ezra to stay the night. He greeted his dad with a hug and got himself a cup of coffee before sitting on the couch with the older man and catching up with him. His father told him that he planned on staying home for three weeks in order to get things taken care of and set up for David’s move to New York. David was surprised by the information but pleasantly so, glad that he would get to spend some good time with his dad before he moved across the country for who knew how long. His father told him he wanted to take him to dinner just the two of them that night to celebrate his graduation but ultimately impressed upon him how much he hoped to get to see Ezra over the coming weeks, making it abundantly clear that the other boy shouldn’t feel like he had to stay away while he was home visiting. Again, David found himself overwhelmed with appreciation for how accepting and supportive his father had been of his relationship with Ezra.
David had very nervously shown his father his shattered phone, and though Ezra had joked that his dad wouldn’t believe it, David decided to use a skateboarding accident as the excuse for how his phone had gotten so damaged. He said that he had tried skateboarding with Ezra and his friends and had accidentally gone over the edge of a bowl, crashing spectacularly and completely destroying his phone but luckily coming up unscathed, himself. His dad shook his head at him with a surprised laugh and ultimately believed the story, able to picture David clumsily falling in attempting something that was so far outside of his comfort zone. Though he felt bad for lying, David knew that telling his dad the truth wasn’t an option. His father had reassured him that they would go get him a replacement phone when they went out later that day, and wasn’t even remotely upset about the broken phone given that David had never even so much as scratched one before.
Dinner that night was a casual affair, though David’s dad surprised him with a laptop as a graduation gift, something which David hadn’t even thought to anticipate and which shocked him to receive. His dad impressed upon him how proud of him he was, a sentiment which made David tear up no matter how hard he tried to fight against it because they were at a restaurant. His father also told him he would help him get rented at an apartment in New York and would pay for his first few months of rent since he knew David wouldn’t receive access to the life insurance money until right at the end of August when he turned eighteen which would make getting moved in somewhere in time for college extremely difficult. David was flooded with emotion and struggled to keep it under control, causing his dad to get teary-eyed himself. When they got back to the house that night, they sat on the couch together and set up David’s new laptop, before spending the night searching for apartments in New York and ear-marking the ones that they both agreed on, looking for one bedroom apartments that were close enough to a subway line, and which wouldn’t result in a subway ride to school much longer than twenty minutes. Though this significantly increased the price of the apartments they were looking at, David’s father had insisted on these criteria and David had ultimately agreed.
David couldn’t wait to tell Ezra all of these things and he called him late that night on his new phone, chattering excitedly to him about all that had happened. He could feel that Ezra was excited for him but there was something in his demeanor that was a little more subdued than usual and David had a feeling that his boyfriend was feeling uncomfortable about money again. David tried to move past it quickly and once he had shared the details that were most important, he quickly moved the conversation into flirtatious territory, though he had to point out that with his dad staying home for so long they were going to end up going a long time without getting to engage in any sexual activity. David couldn’t fathom having sex with Ezra with his father in the house, and going to Ezra’s house while his parents or little brother were there was absolutely out of the question. They buckled themselves in for a long period of abstinence with an air of disappointment, no matter how many exciting things were on the horizon for them.
Hunter didn’t make an appearance at their graduation ceremony the next day and the four boys all wondered if he had been held back from graduating due to the legal trouble he’d gotten himself into. Hailey later informed them that Hunter hadn’t been allowed to attend the ceremony but was still allowed to graduate, and that his place at Julliard hadn’t been affected, but he had lost his license. She also told them that their parents had forced Hunter into therapy, telling him that they wouldn’t pay for his Julliard education unless he agreed to this condition. She explained that he had been less than pleased about it but had given in and would be having weekly sessions for the foreseeable future, even after moving to New York, until his therapist and parents felt it was no longer necessary. The sense of relief that had washed over David at this information had been immense, and he found himself truly hoping for his ex-boyfriend’s salvation from himself. When it dawned on him that his saga with Hunter had finally come to its end and he would no longer be plagued by him, David had found himself suddenly overwhelmed with emotions and he hadn’t been able to keep himself from crying. Even in the days that followed, it still didn’t feel real to him that it was finally over.
Although David was now free to do as he pleased with his days until his move to New York and the start of his first term at the Fashion Institute of Technology, he didn’t venture out often and instead chose to hang out at his house with his dad, too aware that this was his last opportunity to see him before he would be moving across the country. He didn’t know when he would see his father again and that simple knowledge filled him with the desire to spend as much time with the older man as he could. His father seemed pleased at how much time David was willingly spending with him, and even more pleased that Ezra was still around. He made comments to David on a fairly regular basis indicating just how much he liked Ezra and how good for David he thought he was. His father loving his boyfriend was something that David hadn’t necessarily anticipated but it thrilled him to his core all the same.
The week after graduation Ezra had started working full-time at his dad’s mechanic shop, insisting that he was going to save up some money before they moved to New York. The first David had heard of this plan was the Sunday of graduation and he wondered if this had always been Ezra’s plan or if the conversation he’d had with him the previous night about looking for apartments in New York had triggered something in the other boy. Though David had hoped to get to spend day-in and and day-out with the other boy before their move, Ezra’s Monday through Friday schedule working from 9 AM to 5:30 PM still afforded them time in the evenings and on the weekends to see each other and David supposed he to would have to get used to being able to see less of each other as they moved into their adult lives, anyway. Still, Ezra came over to his house every night after work for dinner with David and his father, and by the end of the first week it felt as if they had fallen into a pleasant routine. Coming over right after work meant that David got to see Ezra show up in his dark blue work coveralls and work boots and he enjoyed the sight of it more than he could explain. He enjoyed watching Ezra take off his boots and coveralls, and would follow him into the kitchen to watch him wash his hands for several minutes until they were as clean as they could get with the amount of grease that caked them each night. He typically wore a pair of black skinny jeans and a grease-stained black or white t-shirt under his coveralls, and though Ezra didn’t see a future for himself as a mechanic, David found the evidence of his manual labor incredibly attractive in a way that he couldn’t wrap his mind around but didn’t care to question.
The thing that Ezra seemed to regret the most about his busy work schedule was that he wasn’t getting to spend much time with Elias in the time leading up to their move. His parents had been forced to find reliable care for his little brother with how busy Ezra had been, but Ezra pointed out to David that his parents would have needed to figure out someone else to be with his little brother once he had moved across the country, anyway. David could feel a deep guilt and anxiety from his boyfriend whenever Ezra mentioned this and he knew he was worrying about his younger brother’s wellbeing and what was going to happen to him when he was gone. Ezra hadn’t told his father yet of his relationship with David or his impending move to New York and so he hadn’t told Elias of his move yet, either. It was something that obviously weighed him down with guilt and David couldn’t help but feel guilty, himself, feeling as if he was stealing Ezra away from his family. How much was Ezra going to miss of Elias’ life while they were living on the other side of the country? How much would Elias grow? How would his personality change? Would he come to resent Ezra for moving so far away? These questions tortured David from time to time and he sometimes struggled to sleep as he laid in his bed and worried about it. He had yet to tell Ezra that he had been stressing so much over these questions, and although fear had kept him from bringing it up, he couldn’t imagine that Ezra wasn’t laying in his own bed at night stressing about these very same things. Because they had yet to talk about this with each other, their upcoming move felt like a looming weight over them rather than an exciting adventure.
With a week left in his visit home, David’s father had sold David’s car. David and his father had agreed that it would make more sense to sell his car than to try to have it transported to New York from Alaska, but it was an unfortunate reality that this would have to occur while his father was home from sea as the car was registered in his father’s name and David wouldn’t be able to sell it, himself. He knew this would leave him without a way to get around in the time leading up to his move to New York unless Ezra was with him, but he also knew he typically didn’t leave the house anyway and likely wouldn’t feel the effects of not having his own car all that severely. What he hadn’t anticipated was his father handing him a check for eight thousand dollars from the car’s sale. David had tried to refuse the money and told his dad he should keep it and had pointed out how much his dad was already giving him with his laptop and his rent payments, but his father had insisted that he keep it, telling him that he would need money to buy furniture and food once they got into their new apartment in early August and that he didn’t want his son sleeping on the floor for the three or so weeks he would have to wait before gaining access to his mom’s life insurance money. “It’ll be the last of the dad-help I can probably give for a while, so just take it,” his father had insisted, and eventually David gave in, though he became rather emotional in accepting. David had told Ezra of this development, and again he could feel that Ezra was excited for him but that it stirred up those feelings of anxiety the other boy was clearly struggling with over money. Ezra still had yet to confide in David over those things that were bothering him, but David thought it was obvious in the times that these things came up and he found himself worrying for his boyfriend, wishing he would just open up to him about it.
The night before David’s father’s return to sea, David and Ezra stood together against Ezra’s truck, David wrapped safely in Ezra’s arms with his face buried in the taller boy’s neck. He sighed heavily and nuzzled against the other boy’s skin, feeling safe and warm in his arms and wishing they could just stay that way forever. “I wish you could just live with me starting tomorrow,” he said, sounding a little defeated. He had been able to temporarily push away his fears of being alone in his house again until their move to New York, but with his father leaving in the morning that fear suddenly felt impossible to ignore and it gnawed at his mind.
Ezra hesitated a moment, his mind chewing on those same fears, uncomfortable with the idea of David being in his house all alone for the next five weeks when Hunter was free to stop by whenever he felt like it. Despite the fact that they hadn’t heard from him and it felt like things with him were finally over, it still felt too much like tempting fate to leave David all alone and he hated the idea of it. “What if I did?” Ezra asked quietly, sounding uncharacteristically nervous.
David pulled back and looked up at him, regarding him seriously with flushed cheeks. “I mean… You can’t actually, your mom definitely wouldn’t be okay with it,” he pointed out sadly.
“I’m gonna be eighteen in two weeks. What the fuck is she gonna do?” Ezra asked defiantly, a sentiment which made David nervous. The last thing he wanted was for Ezra’s mother to hate him.
“I dunno,” David replied quietly, not wanting to speak the fear that had crossed his mind.
Ezra smiled at him gently and lifted a hand to cup his cheek, too aware of what David was worrying about. “She doesn’t hate you,” he said, demonstrating his uncanny ability to know exactly what David was thinking at any given time. David gave a small smile and a quiet laugh escaped him at his boyfriend’s words, embarrassed that he was so easy to read. “I’ll talk to her tonight, okay? I really don’t want you here alone… just in case,” he added, and though he didn’t explain the reasoning, he knew he didn’t need to. He knew that David, of all people, was more than aware of the potential danger that Hunter posed.
David bit down on his lip a little and nodded his head, Ezra’s words making the threat of Hunter feel even more real. With the way that he had felt so unburdened by thoughts of Hunter the last three weeks, to think of him now felt terrible. He leaned up on his toes and pressed a soft kiss against Ezra’s lips, a kiss that was tender and a little bit somber in the aftermath of mentioning Hunter. Too soon they were pulling apart from each other and heading their separate ways, David back inside his house for the night and Ezra driving away to his own home for what may have been one of the last times.
Ezra’s mind felt heavy as he drove to his house, overwhelmed with anxieties that had been tormenting him that he hadn’t verbalized, anxieties over leaving Elias behind, anxieties over having to tell his father that he was in a relationship with a guy and was moving across the country with him, and despite the way he tried to shove them away and tell himself they weren’t valid, renewed anxieties over his move to New York and his fear that he was going to disappoint David. Of all of the things he was scared to face and had been pushing away to worry about until a later date, the idea of David watching him fail and coming to resent him was the worst of them all. Sometimes the thought made him feel like he couldn’t breathe.
When he walked into his house, he looked to the side and saw his dad sitting in his chair watching a baseball game, and though he gave a muted, “I’m home,” the only response from his father was a nod, an action that was made as he spit his chewing tobacco spit in an old beer can without peeling his eyes from the TV. Ezra looked away from him and made his way down the hallway, stopping when he got to the open door of his mother’s room and peering his head inside. “I’m home,” he said again, and this time he got an actual response, watching as she looked up from the book she was reading in bed and smiled at him.
“Hi sweetie,” she said warmly. Guilt and nerves squirmed in his stomach and he smiled back at her, though what he was feeling must have shown on his face because her expression changed to that of concern and she asked, “Is everything okay?”
“Do you have a sec?” he asked, and when she nodded he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, not wanting his dad to hear any part of their conversation. She put her book down on her nightstand and sat up more in bed, watching Ezra carefully as he moved to sit on the edge of her bed. “I want you to hear me out before you get mad or just say no,” he started, and he could tell by the way her brow furrowed that she didn’t like the way the conversation was starting.
Still, she nodded and replied with a soft, “Okay.”
“David’s dad is going back out to sea tomorrow morning and he won’t be back before we move to New York in August, so… I want to stay with him until we move,” Ezra said carefully. She started to open her mouth to protest but he held up a hand and gave her an almost desperate look, continuing before she could interrupt, “I don’t know if Hunter’s gonna show up at his house and try to hurt him again and I don’t want to find out. You’ve seen David, he’s small, he’s not strong, he can’t defend himself, and if Hunter catches him alone he could do anything he wanted to him. He’s done it before and David got lucky that it didn’t end up worse. I don’t want to take that chance.”
“And what are you going to do if Hunter shows up?” she asked pointedly, and for a moment Ezra could do nothing but look back at her with discomfort on his face. “Are you going to fight him again?”
“If I have to, I guess,” he replied honestly, a reply that he knew she hated. “Realistically, I’d probably just call the cops.” She sighed heavily at this answer and Ezra tried to smile, wanting to make her feel better. “I don’t know if he’s stupid enough to try something with David again after all the trouble he got in, and I know his parents are making him go to therapy, and he lost his license… but I can’t just leave David alone and hope Hunter makes the right choice. So far he’s done nothing but make the wrong choice over and over again, and if he does and David gets hurt again when I could’ve stopped it…” He shook his head and looked down at his hands, which he clasped in front of himself.
He heard another heavy sigh followed by a moment of silence and he knew before she’d answered that he had won her over with his argument. “Okay, here’s what I’ll say,” she started, pulling Ezra’s gaze back over to her. “I won’t fight you on this, but I want you and David to come over for dinner at least three nights a week until you move.” The idea felt immediately uncomfortable to Ezra and he sat up a little, looking at her with a furrowed brow as if he thought the idea was crazy. “I want to see you while I still can, and I want to get to know David. You’re about to move across the country and who knows when you’ll be able to come back and visit,” she reasoned, causing that sensation of guilt to prick the pit of Ezra’s stomach again. “And I’m not saying this to make you feel guilty, but you know this is going to break your brother’s heart,” she added, only making Ezra feel worse. “It’d be nice to get to see you before you’re gone.”
Ezra looked at her with his eyebrows drawn together and a sad look on his face for a long moment, that guilty sensation tearing through him in an uncontrollable way. “Don’t you think dad will know something’s up if I start showing up for dinner with the same guy multiple nights a week after moving out?” he asked hesitantly, his father’s reaction being his only concern at her request.
“And why is that a problem?” she asked in return. Ezra shook his head and looked away again, knowing that it would make David anxious and fearing how his dad would behave. “You said you would tell your dad about David when you move out. So if you move out tomorrow, doesn’t that mean you should be planning on telling your dad about David soon?”
“He’s gonna hate it, I just know it,” Ezra replied, still looking away across the room as he spoke.
“Your dad loves you, and even if it takes him a while he’s gonna come around,” she tried to reason. Ezra gave a short laugh that was more of a scoff and shook his head a little, a bitter look crossing his features. “Ezra Dean,” she said sternly, and immediately he wiped the sarcastic look off of his face and looked over at her again. “He loves you. I understand that you two haven’t seen eye to eye for a while and this is probably going to throw him for a loop, but give him a chance. Don’t write him off before you even tell him the truth.”
Ezra looked at his mother for several long seconds before he raised his eyebrows and gave his own sigh of defeat, though he shook his head a little at himself at what he was certain was about to be an absolute disaster. “Alright… But if he says anything shitty to David-”
“He won’t,” she cut over him. When Ezra just stared at her with disbelief, she added, “And if he does, I’ll deal with him.” He looked away again, his displeasure clear on his face and shook his head again. “Do you want me to tell him?” she offered.
“Do you think he’d take it better?” Ezra asked her seriously. Ezra honestly couldn’t be certain if his dad would take the news better from his mom or if he would respect Ezra less as a man for not being able to tell him himself. Somehow he thought that he was fighting a losing battle and that his dad was going to think less of him no matter how he handled it.
“He might,” she replied thoughtfully. “I think the biggest risk with you telling him is you not liking his immediate reaction and overreacting and it turning into a fight.”
Though he could have been offended, Ezra had to admit that he thought his mom had a point and he nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” he admitted. “Okay, I guess you can tell him. Just… wait until tomorrow after I’m gone.” She nodded in response and for a moment they were silent. Letting his mom be the one to tell his dad that he was dating a guy felt like the coward’s way out, but he had to admit that it would probably be the smartest way to break the news to the man. If he did react negatively, Ezra knew it would be best for him to not be around with the way he knew he would get angry and it would turn into a huge, potentially relationship-ending fight with his dad. Maybe this way his dad would have some time to adjust before he had to come face to face with Ezra introducing him to his boyfriend, something which he was certain his dad never in a million years would have ever even considered as a possibility in his life.
Soon Ezra was closing himself in his room and laying down on his bed, his mind spinning with the conversation he’d just had with his mom and what he knew was to come. He pulled out his phone and looked at it, wondering if he should call David even though he’d only left his house about twenty minutes previously or if he should talk to him about all of this in person. Ultimately he decided it would be best to give David a heads up and he called him, unsurprised when David answered quickly.
“You missed me that fast?” David asked in a flirty tone, and this greeting alone was enough to tell Ezra that David was in his bedroom where his dad couldn’t hear their conversation.
He smiled and relaxed into his pillow a little as he replied, “Are you kidding? I missed you the second I drove away.”
David gave a quiet giggle and a soft, “You’re the cutest.”
“Nah, that’s you,” Ezra replied without missing a beat, and for a few seconds they sat in the warmth of their conversation. His mind went quickly back to the conversation and agreement with his mother from minutes previously, however, and he sighed heavily.
“What’s wrong?” David’s voice came quickly. “Did the talk with your mom not go okay?”
“No, it actually went pretty well, she’s okay with me staying with you until we move,” Ezra admitted, though he struggled to control the stress that he knew could be heard in his tone. “But she wants us to come over for dinner together at least three nights a week until we move, and she’s gonna tell my dad about us,” he added, delivering this information quickly like ripping off a bandage. David’s silence wasn’t altogether unexpected and he gave a weak smile as he added, “I know it’s scary but it’ll be okay.” Sure, his anxiety about this exact thing was exploding inside of him and he was incredibly worried that it would not be okay, but for David’s sake he would assure the other boy that all would be fine.
“Why is she telling him instead of you?” David asked, his voice betraying how nervous he felt.
“She thinks if I tell him I’m gonna overreact to however he reacts and we’ll get in a fight,” Ezra explained. “And honestly, I think she’s right. She’ll be able to break it to him more gently than I would and he’ll have some time to adjust before he meets you… And if he’s a total asshole about it, we just won’t do the dinner thing and you won’t have to meet him at all.”
David chewed on his bottom lip and stared up at his ceiling as his nervousness got the better of him and he replied with a quiet, “Okay.” He recognized quickly that as nervous as he was, it must have paled in comparison to what Ezra was experiencing and he felt suddenly selfish for not thinking of the other boy first. “How do you feel about it?” he asked gently.
Ezra took a deep breath and let it out slowly, a sound which David heard easily through the phone and which gave him his answer without any words being spoken. “It’ll be fine,” he said, not wanting to explain how much of a train wreck he feared they were headed toward for the way he knew it would stress David out. “Sure is gonna make work awkward on Monday though,” he threw in with a strained laugh, trying to hide his nerves behind forced humor in a way that he could feel didn’t succeed.
“Ezra… You can talk to me about whatever it is you’re feeling,” David told him gently.
Ezra forced a smile despite the fact that David couldn’t see it and told himself to believe it as he said again, “Really, it’ll be fine.”
David hesitated for a moment, knowing that Ezra was holding back but not wanting to push. He didn’t want to force the other boy into opening up about what was going on in his head if he wasn’t ready to do so, no matter how much he thought Ezra had something on his mind that he needed to get out. Instead he decided to shift the tone of their conversation and his voice became cautiously flirty as he said, “So… you’re moving in tomorrow?”
This brought a legitimate smile to Ezra’s face and he gave a soft chuckle before replying, “I guess so. You sure you’re not gonna get sick of me?”
“I could literally never get sick of you,” David replied quickly, and Ezra only beamed wider at that.
“Good. I guess I’ll go ahead and bring all my shit, not that I really have much to bring anyway,” he pondered out loud. “The only stuff I have is clothes and my guitars.”
“Bring every damn guitar you own to my house with you,” David requested, his voice flirty and thick with intrigue.
Ezra laughed and nodded, replying with a flirtatious, “If that’s what you want.”
They continued to flirt for the next hour, both feeling that they could talk forever despite the fact that they had just spent the whole day together. By the time they were saying good night and hanging up the phone, Ezra had temporarily forgotten all of the things that he had been worrying about and he was left with a warm, fuzzy feeling that lasted him the rest of the night. He waited until his dad went to bed before grabbing a garbage bag from the kitchen and filling it with his clothes and his one spare pair of shoes, and though he could have felt a little pathetic that his entire life fit in a single kitchen garbage bag, it didn’t occur to him to feel sorry for himself and instead he was glad that his move would be so easy. He would have to stop at Noah’s house the following morning to grab his acoustic and bass guitars per David’s request, but he would do so happily if it was what David wanted of him. He didn’t know exactly when his entire life had become about David, but he knew that he wouldn’t change it for anything.