This story is fiction. This story will also involve sexual and intimate relationships between two (or more) males, and if this offends you or it is illegal for you to be reading, then please leave. If you are under the age of consent for your community, please leave. And if it does offend you, I honestly don't know why you're even here in the first place. Really, though. It's perplexing.
It had been a week since anyone had seen Dean Campbell at school. Of course his mom didn't know; Dee pretended to leave for school every morning, then hid in the bushes until she left for work. He'd go back inside, and erase all the class-cutting notices he was getting on the answering machine.
It had also been a week since Jacob Gregory and Allegra Morrison talked about Dee for an hour straight. After not seeing Dee for so long, both became increasingly worried; the two of them, pooling their respective abilities of popularity and invisibility, managed to procure his address.
At about three o'clock on a wednesday, someone rang the doorbell. Dee started from his sleep; slipping on a long-sleeved shirt and straightening his hair, he crept downstairs to look through the peephole.
However, he really didn't need to. As soon as he got in front of the door, he heard the familiar commanding zing of Allegra's voice. "We know you're there, Dee." He got up on his tip toes; it was Allegra and Jake, a rather unlikely pair, but both with the same looks of concern plastered on their faces.
Dee put his back to the door and slowly slid down onto the floor. He sighed. Allegra yelled some more. "And I saw your shadow in the peephole. Just open the door, Dee. Jake told me everything."
Dee finally stood up, placing his hand on the doorknob. He breathed heavy and sighed again. He rubbed his face with his free hand. He smiled in preparation and consented. He opened the door slowly, confronting Jake and Allegra in person. Allegra seemed more pissed if anything, and Jake was unreadable. "Hey, you guys." he said as nicely as possible.
Allegra pursed her lips. "Hey yourself." She let herself in, slipping past Dee. Jake followed, taking off his shoes and placing them next to Dee's and then Allegra's. Allegra slowly turned around. Dee was rather melancholy, staring at the floor more than at them. "Dee. We came to talk." Allegra said.
He shrugged. "About what? There's nothing to talk about."
"We're worried." Jake cut in.
Dee laughed a little. "This is like an intervention or something." Allegra rolled her eyes. Dee headed towards the kitchen, and they followed. "Well, I... I mean, nothing's wrong. I'm fine."
"Uh, Dee, you haven't been to school for a week and no one knows why. If Jake and I didn't find you here, we were going to file a missing person's report."
Dee gave a gentle smile, reaching the refrigerator. Allegra and Jake both took the time to examine his face; he was pale, bags under his eyes, and the scleras of his eyes red- as if he had been crying. Dee opened the door and reached in to get a liter of soda. As he reached, Jake thought he saw something as Dee's sweater stretched back.
"Dee... Why are you wearing that shirt? It's hot outside." he asked.
Dee just kept smiling, proceeding to pour out two glasses of the soda. "It's a little cooler in here, don't you think?" He offered them each a glass. "Drink up." Dee turned around, getting a glass himself.
Jake looked sceptical for some reason as he sipped the soda. Allegra just put down the glass. "Dee, you seriously need to quit acting like nothing's up. It's so obvious you're hiding something. Maybe that you were up crying all night? That you haven't seen the sun in days?"
Dee frowned, and accidentally spilled some of the soda all over the counter. Calmly, he put down the liter and put the cap on. He procured a paper towel and soaked it with a little water. "But nothing IS up, Allegra. Yes, I am sad about... everything that happened at Diana Celes. Some bad things happened, and I lost some friends-"
"-And the winner for understatements of the year is-"
"...I know you guys are just worried. But you shouldn't be. I just haven't felt like going to school lately. That's all. I'll be back, and everything will be back to normal." He began to soak up the soda with his wet paper towel. "Everything is-"
He stopped. Jake had swiftly reached over with the speed of an athlete and grabbed his wrist in a vice, while it was still soaking up the soda. Dee tried jerking it away, struggling a little before Jake held his wrist up to his face; it was easy for him, Dee was quite small compared to him. Jake pulled back the sleeve, and Dee gave a bit of a cry.
Jake was right. Allegra peeked over to look, and Dee just dropped limp, looking away in shame. Five or six messy scars, lengthwise and widthwise along his wrist. Allegra gave a soft gasp, and Jake let his wrist down. Dee, trembling, realized he had nowhere to flee to, and covered his wrists again. He slowly grabbed his cup, and drank some of his soda.
Dee looked down in his cup; Allegra looked to Jake, and Jake stared at Dee. They were silent, until Jake broke the quiet.
"...You... Dee, how could you be so selfish?" he didn't look up. Allegra moved towards Jake, as if to stop him, but he only continued. "You idiot!"
"Jacob!" Allegra stood next to Dee, bewildered.
"How could you do this? Dee!"
Dee didn't want to look up. Jake seemed genuinely angry, and he was scared. "You don't have... to worry..."
"Shut up!" Jake cut him off, and Dee drew back, wounded. He put down his cup and ran his hands through his own hair before continuing. "If you had actually gone through with it... Jesus, what the fuck were you thinking???"
"Stop it, Jake!" Allegra tried to cut in, but it was no use. Dee was beginning to cry again.
"And now you start crying- you selfish little~!" Jake cracked his knuckles, his muscles tensing furiously and eyes piercing behind a glare. And that was it; Allegra stood in front of Dee, so as to shield him. Jake, fuming, turned around and went straight out the door, slamming it behind him.
Dee finally put his cup down, and dropped his face in his hands. Allegra, not sure what to do, wrapped an awkward arm around him. Dee spoke into his hands. "I-I didn't want anyone to know. I just wanted to hurt and I wanted to die, but I couldn't so I let myself bleed. I'm sorry..."
Allegra just kept holding him. "Um... there, there. It's okay." ÔDamn, I suck at this...' she thought to herself.
Dee, as though reading her thoughts, drew away and sucked it up very quickly. "I-uh... Sorry, Allegra. And thanks for coming."
Allegra shook her head. "Dee, promise me you won't do it any more. Just... promise." She looked him in the eye. "And tell me that you'll come back to school. You don't have to do anything, you don't even have to talk to me. Just come back." Dee slowly nodded, and smiled. Allegra smiled back. "Er... should I stay? And comiserate or something?"
"No, thanks. I think I want to be alone right now. But thanks, really."
"Ok..." Allegra slipped on her shoes again, but stopped in the threshold of the door. "...I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah." Allegra closed the door behind her, and Dee walked to where she was just a moment ago. He felt his wrists; his right one was particularly tender after Jake grabbed it. He squinted in some pain as he touched it.
Then, he saw it, in the corner of the front entrance. It was his backpack and his books. He walked over and picked them up, rummaging through his bag as he walked upstairs to his room. Everything was there; his papers, his binder, his lunch pail.
He reached his room, and threw his pail on the bed. Dee swore that it was heavier than normal. He held his Calculus book in his hands; he never thought he would say it, but it had a masteful duct tape job. The cover was taped back on beautifully, as if it was never ripped in the first place. Dee opened it, and a legion of papers dropped out. Confused, he kneeled onto the carpet, picking them up leaf by leaf.
They were notes: biology, calculus, spanish, english, history. From all of his classes. But they weren't by him. He recognized the handwriting. It was Jake's. There was an entire weeksworth of notes crammed in his book, all of them even more detailed than Dee normally took. It must've taken a gargantuan amount of work to transcribe them!
His mouth opened in amazement and flattery. ÔJake did this... for me?' he thought to himself, almost as if it weren't really happening. His eyes widened; turning around, he picked up the lunchpail and unzipped it open. The pail was filled near to the brim with mints, lollipops, chocolates, and other candies. There was a hand-written note on the top, which Dee picked up and read.
Dee:
Sorry for all the jerks at school. I hope this makes up for the candy Alan took :). Consider it a couple of week's worth interest.
You're a great friend, and I know that even though I've only known you for a little while. I don't want you to be sad anymore, so I hope this will make you smile.
~Jake
Dee put down the note. He couldn't believe anyone, much less somone as cool as Jake, would do this for him. He read it a second time, then a third, and over and over again, as if to try and process the information more clearly.
He took a push pin, and stuck the note on his wall; in front of a poster for FrouFrou. Dee lay down, trying to get to sleep again. He stared at his wrists. What had he done?
"Fun" fact for fans!: Jaina, Jake's girlfriend, actually really is based off of Avril Lavigne. Well... her physical appearance is, anyway. Something about her strikes me as being kinda... well, I don't know how Avirl Lavigne is as a person, but that song Girlfriend? Makes me a little angry. It's like, fake feminism for one thing. And I think the "evil Avril" in the music video for the song made me think of Jaina. And all of the plaigerism accusations? A little sketchy, especially considering the lyrics aren't incredibly cerebral anyway. It's too bad the songs are so damn catchy :P.
Chapter five!
Ahh, well, what will Dee do about Jake? I guess we'll see :).
As per usual, thanks for reading!
Questions? Comments? Recommendations? Fan Mail? Hate Mail, maybe? Wanna just chat? Email me at ThePleiadesCall@gmail.com . Love to hear from you!
If you like Diana Celes, maybe there's the very vague possibility you'll like other stories I've submitted:
Charmed Reborn (celebrity), Final Fantasy Rosa (celebrity), Pokemon: Amethyst (celebrity), Teth (fantasy), and Hallow (sci-fi/fantasy).