Disclaimer:
After a hiatus of sorts, I am back with another story! Yay! Anyway, due to personal problems, I've been unable/unwilling to write much of anything for a long time. Here is a new story from me to you. For those of you who know my style and enjoy it, you should really like this one. Like I said, though, I haven't written anything for a while, so I may be a bit rusty. For those who don't know my style, I tend to use a lot of build-up and "storyline". So, if you came on to find a story for a quick jack-off, then this probably ain't for you. However, if you want to take the time to read a beautiful tale of young love, then sit back, take a sip from your glass of wine, and enjoy!
And remember...Always stand up for what you think is right, don't listen to bullshit, no matter who is saying it, and always speak with your fists and swear a lot to be heard!
Part 16:
A lot of things were on David's mind that night, as he lay in bed and gazed up at the ceiling, tears glistening in his eyes. He thought about how stupid he was to go to MIND with Aaron, when he was doing pretty well in Bialik. He thought about how he was the one who screwed up his relationship with Aaron, by being a mopey bitch. He thought about how much he dreaded going to school the next morning, after making such a scene at the park. He thought about how hard it was going to be to face Aaron again.
He also thought a lot about whether there was any point to staying alive. There was no point to his life, he thought, except for Aaron. Now that Aaron was no longer part of it, it seemed really pointless to remain alive. Still, if he was going to kill himself, he didn't want to feel pain or suffer. He remembered once, a couple of years ago, he had talked to Aaron about suicide and Aaron had said that if he ever killed himself, he would just take a bunch of pills, go to sleep and never wake up. David agreed with that totally, but he didn't know of any pills in the house that could do the job.
So, the next morning, he woke up, alive for another day, and made his way to school. He could have easily stayed home, with his black eye, busted lip and slashed hand, but he opted to go, for some reason he couldn't quite understand.
Right from the moment he reached the third floor and walked through the door and into MIND, he felt as if he was walking into a totally different place. Up until this point, he entered the school with the knowledge that he would be in every class with his boyfriend and he took every other person and thing with a grain of salt. Now, he was noticing things he never noticed before. It was like being sober for the first time in years, and David didn't like it one bit.
"God damn, MIND is a fucking ugly school!" David thought to himself, as he looked around at the peeling paint on the walls and rusted locker doors.
As David walked down the ugly hallway, past the smelly radiators and rusted lockers, toward the student lounge, filled with crappy furniture and loathsome colours, David almost smiled as he realized that he was feeling every fucking corny little cliche that movies and books talked about. Every class he had, from now on, he was having without Aaron as his boyfriend. Every thing he saw, didn't look as nice as it had when he was with Aaron. The air didn't smell as sweet, the colours didn't seem as bright and vibrant. David had cut his hair the past evening, no longer trying to grow it long like Aaron's. David was wearing white and bright blue, instead of the black that he wore when he was with Aaron. He walked with his head up, no longer trying to act shy like Aaron. He wore his glasses. He was now living everything that he had stopped living ever since he and Aaron became friends.
As David entered the lounge, he checked his pigeonhole, and removed a few papers of corrected math homework. He also found a bunch of papers with written congratulations on them, regarding his victory the day before. David had actually been beginning to feel better about being free of Aaron, but these words of congratulations brought him crashing down to the reality of things. He crumpled them up and tossed them into the trash, then plunked himself down on a vinyl couch and began crying. There were a few other students there and they actually got up and walked over to David. He was feeling really bad, so a few insults wouldn't have hurt him that much. However, instead of making fun of his display of emotion, they each offered their sympathies. One black guy actually put his hand on David's shoulder and said, "I'm really sorry, man. Nobody deserved to have that shit happen to them. My name is Quincy and if you...you know...need someone to talk to about this, I'm here, okay?"
David thanked him, but said that he'd rather just be alone.
He remained in the lounge, idly flipping through his work, when Michael walked in. It was more like he limped in, because he was definitely favouring one leg and his face was a mess of bruises and cuts. When he spotted David, he limped over to him and just stood there, appearing as if he wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words.
David was tired, depressed and in great amounts of physical and emotional pain, which all displaced the anger. So, not even caring anymore, he looked up at Mike and asked, "Yeah, what do you want, Mike?"
Michael shrugged and said, "David...I just wanted to tell you that...well...I dunno, I know it's probably too late, but I want to say I'm sorry. You may think I'm young and don't know about things, but I do know, okay? I know and I'm just...geez...I'm just so stupid! I'm stupid and selfish and I'm really sorry."
David sighed and, tears welling up in his eyes again, he shrugged and Mike and said, "What the hell is your problem, Michael?"
Michael shrugged, "I had no idea how much Aaron meant to you, okay? I mean, I did...but I didn't. You really hurt me yesterday, but I saw part of what happened afterwards and...well...I didn't want him that way. You can have him back, if you want."
David shook his head, "You don't get it, Mike. It's not like you can just hand him back to me and we can just pretend like none of this happened. What Aaron and I had when we were 13...14...that's over. We can't just go back to that. And, Mike, it isn't your fault, or MIND's fault or the fight's fault. It's my fault. Aaron never liked me."
Michael listened and, when David was done, he asked, "Okay, well then if you don't want him back, can I keep him?"
David turned his eyes downwards and said, in a calm voice, "Michael Glazerman, you have about ten seconds to get out of my sight, before I kill you. And I don't mean that as a joke...I mean that I'm going to take your body and toss it through the window. You are going to fall about a thousand feet and you are going to hit the ground and you are going to die."
Michael nodded, slowly got to his feet and walked out of the lounge.
Once he was gone, David wiped his eyes, stood up and walked out of the lounge too, toward his first class of the day, French.
Lee didn't even need to ask how the fight went. The entire school seemed to know exactly what had happened, including the part afterwards. This, for some reason, made David feel more secure about things. Aaron, a bone splint on his broken nose, sat next to Mike and they whispered and smiled at each other for a good part of the class. Lee, a typically extremely easy-going and passive guy, was extremely harsh toward Aaron, even threatening to kick him out of the class if he didn't shut up. He got a similar reaction in all the other classes too. It seemed that MIND tolerated criminals, freaks, drug dealers, bullies, alcoholics and even a guy in grade 11 who actually told people that he was a pedophile and was proud of it, but it had a problem with liars. For that day, David was actually the most popular kid in school. Almost everybody had gone up and asked if he was okay, if they could do anything, if he wanted to go home early and other things that made David feel somewhat better, including how funny Aaron looked with his nose all bandaged up. However, just seeing Aaron in school, actively going out of his way to ignore David, was pretty hard on him and David spent most of the day with tears in his eyes. Despite everything that happened and how pathetic it was to admit it, David was still totally in love with Aaron and it tore him up inside to know that Aaron no longer felt the same way, not that he ever did to begin with. Somehow, David managed to complete that day and go home, so he could better express his emotions into his pillow. His mother wisely stayed out of his way and left him to mourn his loss.
Unfortunately, the next day, everything was back to normal, except for the obvious. It had just been a token gesture of sympathy by the students, and now they went back to ignoring David. So, now he was officially in a school where absolutely nobody liked him. Aaron had made quite a few friends and they chose to avoid David, Michael smiled at David in the hallway, but he was the last person that David wanted to have as a friend, especially since now Aaron and Mike were a couple and Aaron would openly kiss him and hold his hand. It didn't sicken David, but just made him really, really sad.
On the upside, the lack of another focus made David excel in school and, for the first time in his life, he was getting straight A's. The math teacher had joked that it was too bad David hadn't broken up with Aaron sooner, but when David ran out of the class, crying, the guy knew that he had made a mistake. Yeah, David was doing incredible in school, but he wasn't liking it one bit.
It got so hard, in fact, that about two weeks after Aaron had delivered his break-up speech and David had broke his nose, David decided to just quit going to school. That lasted about a week, until Sharon had called his mom in concern and now, not only was David going to school again, but he was grounded when he got home. However, instead of hating it, he was actually enjoying it again.
By the beginning of April, Michael had, somehow, found himself a dope pusher, so he started coming to school under the influence of something, every morning. David actually loved sitting in class now, because Michael would inevitably have a drug-induced fit and have to be escorted from the class by a teacher. It had started out as simple weed, but it had just progressed up from there. One Friday, Michael had arrived at school so doped up that he announced to the window that he was too important to take the time to enter the combination on his lock. After pulling at the lock with his believed super-human strength for several minutes, Michael had slammed his fist full force into his locker and broke all his fingers. Al, the math teacher had escorted the whimpering boy from the school and to the local hospital. David didn't know why he even cared, but Aaron had tried a bit of weed, not liked it and decided to stay away from all drugs.
May came and the school year began to wrap up slowly. It was the first Friday of May, and David had left MIND for his lunch hour. There was a small plaza down the street, which had a bunch of restaurants in it. David headed there and was trying to decide between NY Fries, or Burger King, when he heard someone call his name.
He spun around to see Aaron, Alex, Michael and John sitting at a booth in the Burger King seating area and smoking. Aaron was actually smiling at David for the first time since they'd broken up. Despite everything, compounded by the fact that Aaron was smoking, David still would have ripped off his right ear if Aaron had asked him to.
"Dave, come over for a sec!" Aaron called to him.
David slowly made his way over the booth and sat down in a chair, across from the bench. "So, how've you been?" Aaron asked.
David shrugged and replied, "I've been okay, Aaron. How are you and Mike doing?"
"Still in love!" Mike exclaimed, and kissed Aaron on the cheek.
Aaron pushed him away with the hand not holding the cigarette and then turned to David and extended the cigarette toward him. "Come on." He said, "Just take one drag, Dave. It won't kill you."
David looked at Aaron closely for the first time in two months. He hadn't changed much, except for dying some blond streaks in his hair. The fuzz above his lip was gone, so he must have started shaving. Then, David looked down at the cigarette. He very nearly asked, "If I smoke this, will you be my friend?" before he realized how incredibly pathetic that would sound.
Instead, he took the cigarette from Aaron's fingers and put it in his mouth. He took a small drag from it, before exploding into a coughing fit and nearly falling out of his chair. Everybody else at the table just cracked up, but mostly Aaron. The four of them stood up and Aaron looked down at the still-coughing David and shook his head, "Still the same David. Still a loser." He said.
David remained sitting there, still coughing somewhat. He wondered what would have happened it he would have liked smoking. Would that mean that Aaron would be his friend again? Or more?
"Probably not." David admitted to himself as, still gagging, he picked himself up and left the plaza, vowing to never smoke again.
Back at school, after lunch, David, Aaron and the rest of grade 9 filed into Geography class and sat down. All, except for Mike.
"Where's Michael?" Sharon, the teacher, inquired to Aaron.
Aaron shrugged, "He said he had to go get something."
She marked him late and began to teach her class. About twenty minutes into it, Michael shakily walked in. He walked really unsteadily as he made his way to the back, beside Aaron, and took his seat. Sharon knew from the look of him that he was loaded on something. Whether it was alcohol or drugs, she didn't know and she didn't really care.
As she went back to teaching her lesson, Michael reached into his pocket and pulled out a penny and a lighter. He lit the lighter and held the penny on top of the flame. David couldn't help but stare at him, as he could almost smell the burning flesh as the penny began to glow red and, obviously, began burning away at Michael's fingertips. Michael didn't seem to feel it, though, and, in fact, had a rather large smile on his face. After about two minutes, when the base of the penny was actually beginning to smoke and bubble, Mike turned to Aaron and, without saying a word, put the penny on his thumb and jammed it into Aaron's forearm.
Aaron scream rang through the hallway and he grabbed Michael by the shoulders and screaming at the top of his lungs, "YOU FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" lifted him several inches off the ground, the penny still stuck to Aaron's arm, and tossed him at a desk. The force at which Michael flew across the room must have been quite strong, because when he hit the desk, one of the legs broke and he fell onto the chair beneath it and shattered that into individual pieces. Michael may or may not have been hurt, because nobody could tell on account of he was giggling like a maniac. As usual, he was escorted from the room by Sharon and Aaron sat on the floor, crying as he tried to peel the penny off his arm. David had only seen Aaron cry once before and he wanted to hug him as much now, as he did then. With a little help from cold water in the bathroom, Aaron managed to get the coin off his arm, but he now had a permanent tattoo of Queen Elizabeth on his forehead.
Aaron never forgave Mike for that, nor did anybody find out exactly what he was on, but the bottom line was that Michael and Aaron officially broke up on that day.
The rest of year went by very slowly and painfully. Aaron was as miserable and moody as ever and now, instead of ignoring David, he actually insulted him whenever he got a chance. They had been sitting in the computer lab at lunch, one day, and David and Aaron were playing Centipede on one of the Apple IIE's. Aaron beat David, then turned to him and said, "Can't you do anything? I mean, come on! You're totally retarded, that's obvious, but I mean isn't there one thing you can do better than me? Try to think of one thing you can do better than me!"
David had simply shook his head and replied, crying, "I can't."
"Of course, you can't!" Aaron had answered, "Because you're retarded, stupid, fat, ugly and a bitch!"
There were several more incidents in May and early June, where Aaron had made David cry. The year finally ended and summer began. David was scheduled to go visit his father in Vancouver, at the end of June until the end of July, but he had an idea.
He'd been discussing it with his mother ever seen late April and, after some initial problems with it, she's eventually agreed. Then, he asked his dad and he was all too willing. So, he was going to do it.
He wasn't just going to see his dad on vacation. He was going to live them, with his dad and step-mother. He was going to finally get away from Montreal, his mother, MIND and, most importantly of all, Aaron.
On the last day of school, before leaving MIND for the last time, David had passed Aaron in the hall.
"Hey, Aaron." David had called after him.
Aaron had turned around and, sneering, answered, "What is it?"
David had smiled his best smile at Aaron and said, "I love you, Aaron."
Aaron had shook his head and said, "Fuck off, you miserable, depressing freak."
And that's exactly what David did. He turned around, left MIND and walked down the street, without looking back. He would be leaving for British Columbia the next afternoon and he would never have to see Aaron again. He was so happy, he burst into tears and sobbed the whole metro ride home. They weren't tears of joy, though.
He was miserable, because after everything that had happened and had been said and done, David was really, really going to miss Aaron. It had been a couple of great years with the Raven Haired boy and he was never going to forget him. He was glad that it was finally over, though.
If only David knew how far from being over it truly was.....