Highschool!AU Chapter 4 (Part 3)
Davey had faced down a few petrifying situations in his life. In fact, he was positive that he had had this feeling of needing to run away and simultaneously vomit before. But honestly, he couldn't remember anything worse than ringing the doorbell of Freddy's house (at the front door, not the basement door, which was just weird) before his not-really-a-surprise surprise birthday party. Freddy's birthday had been the day before, but Regina had told him they were having an un-surprise party the next night - Friday - instead. The surprise, she explained, was that Freddy didn't know which day that weekend, exactly, his party was.
"And by party, I don't mean anything crazy," she'd been hasty to re-assure Davey over the phone, "I just mean you, Chris, and Nathan eating Freddy's favorite foods while Alex and I pretend we've become deaf and non-judgmental. But if you don't come, Freddy will just pout awfully"
Old ladies were really the worst guilt-trippers.
It wasn't that Davey hadn't been expecting to be invited to some sort of birthday dinner, he just expected that he'd go to the one with Regina and Alex and Freddy would have a more inebriated one with Nathan and Chris. And it wasn't that he didn't like Freddy's friends, he just didn't really know them beyond a sort of casual waving introduction at lunch once or twice. Well, okay, he liked Chris. They didn't have anything in common, but Chris thought he was kind of cool, as far as he could tell. He nodded if he passed Davey sans Freddy somewhere and had actually smiled at him a bunch, which was more than he could say for Nathan. Nathan seemed to view Davey as some sort of great friendship interloper who had galloped in and stolen his favorite toy away, if his squinty glares in band were anything to go by. Davey wasn't quite sure why. Freddy still hung out with Chris and Nathan all the time, probably more than before when he was off trying to prove to Davey he was some sort of gentleman. And now that he knew that he'd be spending all night with them his dorky little present seemed even dorkier, even though he'd spent nearly a week obsessing over finding it and making it perfect. He tried to smile at Regina when she opened the door and greeted him, but by the look on her face he failed miserably.
"Oh, sweetheart, you aren't being sent to the firing squad," she soothed in the front hall, quiet over Chris and Nathan's loud shouting in the living room. "These are Freddy's friends! Surely you've met them."
"Not really," Davey said. "They're sort of not my crowd. I mean I've met them, but we're not, like, you know..."
"They're very nice," Regina said, patting his shoulder. "Especially Chris, nothing bothers him. It's true Nathan can be a little protective, but I'm sure he'll be good tonight for Freddy."
"My present just seems so stupid now," Davey sighed, looking down at the box that had taken far too long to wrap well. How his mother managed to churn out a perfectly wrapped package in about fifteen seconds he'd never know. Paper was tricky. "I thought only you and Alex were going to see it so it didn't matter that it was kind of dorky, but..."
"He would love it if you got him a moldy sock," Regina insisted. "Now go, he's been moping and checking the windows all night, and if he knows I'm keeping you..."
"Davey!" Freddy shouted from the living room, running into the front hall and lifting him up off of his feet in a bear hug.
"Happy birthday," Davey managed when Freddy had let him down and let him breathe again. Freddy just grinned wickedly (which still made Davey's traitorous knees go jelly-like) and swooped in to kiss him slowly, thoroughly, devastatingly, so all Davey could do was hold on to Freddy's track jacket for dear life and try not to swoon in front of Chris, who was whooping, or Nathan, who was probably scowling somewhere, or Regina, who was making polite noises and probably excusing herself. "Wow," Davey managed when Freddy finally decided that yes, he was quite done licking the back of Davey's throat. "That was... more than I was expecting."
"Happy birthday to me," Freddy grinned, resting his forehead against Davey's. "C'mon, dinner's waiting."
"Be nice at dinner," Davey whispered, taking Freddy's hand and walking with him to the dining room.
"I'm always nice," Freddy said innocently, pulling out a chair and gesturing for Davey to sit down. Mortified, Davey realized that everyone else had trickled in before him and were all expectantly watching Freddy treat him like a girl. He shot Freddy a venomous look, which only made Freddy grin wider, and sat down primly.
"That's not what I meant," he hissed while Regina stated to bring out the food. "I meant be nice in a non-creepy way."
"I'm not creepy," Freddy declared, "I'm chivalrous. Ham?"
"Thanks," Davey said, watching Freddy carefully maneuver a massive helping onto his plate. "That's fine," he said softly. Undeterred, Freddy kept piling ham onto Davey's plate. "That's fine, thanks. Hey, that's -"
"You need to eat more," Freddy interrupted. "Besides, this is Regina's ham. I know you've probably had awesome ham before, but Regina's is amazing."
"Yeah," Nathan chimed in. "It's delicious, Mrs. Kennedy."
"It is," Chris said wistfully. "I wish my mom could cook."
"Thank you, boys," Regina said, staring pointedly at Alex.
"It's fantastic, honey," Alex leaned half out of his chair to kiss her on the forehead. "It's so fantastic, I was distracted."
"I'm sure," Regina said dryly, sipping at her tea.
"You need to have some of these potatoes," Freddy tugged on Davey's arm under the table, like an impatient child. "Pass the bowl over, Chris. Pops made them. He left the skins in, just like I like them."
"Whatever you want, Junior." Alex nodded to Freddy across the table.
Davey reached for the bowl, but Freddy carefully knocked his hand aside, putting an even more massive helping on his plate, next to the pile of ham. Next came Regina's green beans (with little pieces of bacon) and stuffing, until Davey was staring at an incredible mound of food on his plate.
"I can't possibly eat all of this," Davey protested, watching everyone around the table tuck in to their more reasonably sized portions.
"Just like Freddy," Nathan said to Chris. "He thinks everyone is a walking garbage disposal just like him."
"Whatever," Freddy shrugged, giving Davey a soft smile. Davey felt his heart plummet to somewhere around his knees in a glorious freefall. "I'll help you out if you need it, okay?" As if to prove his point, he took a forkful of potatoes off of Davey's plate and ate them slowly. Regina and Alex politely averted their eyes again. Freddy, completely shameless, stretched his arm across the back of Davey's chair and rubbed his shoulder.
Davey kicked Freddy lightly under the table on the shin, cheeks flaming. It was one thing, okay, to say stupid stuff at lunch when it was just Davey and Freddy in some hallway, or when they were listening to music in Freddy's basement or hanging out in Davey's room. If Freddy was only classy and tactful in front of Joey and Davey's mom because he was nervous, then maybe nervous was a good thing for him.
"This is weird," Chris suddenly spoke up. Freddy looked at him. "What?"
"Seeing you share food like that." Chris turned to Davey. "I've gotten into fist fights with him over, you know, who gets to eat the last cookie and stuff. He's actually pretty selfish when it comes to food. You are one special dude."
"It's true," Nathan reached for the rolls. "Mrs. Kennedy only gives us snacks now in multiples of three."
"He eats most of my lunch," Davey said mournfully. "I mean, I used to bring a really big lunch and I couldn't ever finish it, but ever since he started eating with me I've had to make it bigger."
Chris and Nathan exploded in laughter. Freddy scowled.
"This is my birthday," he said around a mouthful of ham. True to his word, he had finished his own plate and was starting in on the remaining half of Davey's. "I want to hear Freddy compliments or nothing else."
Everyone fell silent, and then started laughing again.
"You should fight him for it," Nathan said, coolly addressing Davey for the first time. "Freddy gets very weak when there's food nearby." Chris vigorously nodded his agreement.
"Thanks," Davey said. "I'll keep that in mind next time I bring pasta."
"Stop giving him ideas," Freddy said, covering Davey's ears with his hands. "Do you want more iced tea?"
"Only if I can pour it myself," Davey replied. Freddy, deaf to his protests, grabbed his glass and started filling it from the pitcher on the table. Davey kicked him in the shin again.
"Do you want cake or presents first?" Regina asked smoothly, interrupting what was gearing up to be a kick fight under the table. "Nathan brought over those candles you like. The sparklers."
"They can't put candles on my cakes anymore," Alex said wistfully. "It looks like a forest fire."
"I'm sorry Pops," Freddy grinned and hit Alex on the back. "Let's do presents, first. So I can be properly and fully appreciated before I give the gift of large amounts of ice cream cake."
"You just want to open everything now," Chris accused. "I'm surprised you made it this long, really."
"Yeah," Freddy jiggled his legs excitedly, and brushed Davey's knee with his hand. Davey suddenly felt overcome with a wave of anxiety and busied himself with tracing his fork around his empty plate. Why did they have to give gifts like this? Why couldn't he just give his gift to Freddy alone? He should've just put the gift on the doorstep, rang the doorbell, and ran away.
"I can't wait," Freddy was saying. "Can we do it now?"
"You heard the birthday boy," Regina said, herding Chris and Nathan back into the living room, Chris bringing his half-finished plate.
"You okay?" Freddy asked quietly while Davey lingered and dithered.
"Yeah," Davey said softly, giving Freddy a weak smile. "I'm just... intimidated. I mean, I think Nathan hates me and Chris is..."
"Chris," Freddy supplied, grinning.
"Yeah," Davey said, smiling back nervously. "He likes me, I think, but Nathan..."
"Nathan's protective and well, I dunno," Freddy shrugged. "He can be selfish with people he likes. Doesn't like to share."
"I was getting that impression," Davey said dryly. "It's just, my present is kind of stupid, and I feel funny about touching you even though I really want to, and..."
"Hey," Freddy rested his forehead against Davey's and rubbing his shoulders until he quieted. "I'll lay off a little and you stop calling yourself stupid, okay?"
"Okay," Davey said, pulling away and threading his fingers in between Freddy's as they walked to the living room.
"Finally," Nathan said loudly when they came in and settled on the loveseat.
"Sorry, boys," Freddy said in a very self-important voice, pressed along Davey's side but not making a move to throw his arm around him possessively, which Davey felt insanely grateful for. "Important business called."
"Sucking face is not important business," Nathan scowled. "Bros before... other bros you make out with."
"They weren't making out, dude," Chris said calmly. "Look at their faces and hair. They were probably, like, staring into each other's eyes or something."
"Presents," Freddy interjected loudly, interrupting whatever Nathan was going to say. "Here, hand yours over." Nathan's present (poorly wrapped in the Sunday comics) was a Casino Royale DVD. Davey didn't like that movie (except for the scene where Daniel Craig stepped out of the ocean - he had hormones), but by the way Freddy's face lit up it was clear that was their next movie night. Davey planned on using makeouts as a distraction. A lot. Chris' present ("always a little sketchy", Freddy had leaned in and whispered in Davey's ear while reaching for it) was stuffed hastily inside a Christmas giftbag. "Incense and a lighter?" Freddy said, grinning. His thumb kept rubbing against the tacky flame decal on the lighter like it was precious.
"Smells like vanilla," Chris said sagely, licking his fork. "Good stuff. Covers up when you don't do laundry."
Regina and Alex had obviously gone all out, getting Freddy a new iPod, fancy headphones ("know how snobby you are, Junior", Alex had said gruffly. "Dan said these were good"), an iTunes gift card, and, incongruously, socks.
"Socks?" Davey asked, turning them over. There was a variety. Some of the thick white kind for gym, a nice gray cashmere pair, and an assortment of the regular cotton kind.
"They always get me socks," Freddy explained, putting them back in the shoebox they'd come in. "I lose mine all the time."
"That is the least surprising thing I have heard tonight," Davey said dryly.
"Okay, O'Brian," Nathan said kicking over Davey's carefully-wrapped box. "No more weaseling. Your turn."
"Oh," Davey said in a tiny voice. "I really don't..."
"It'll be great," Freddy said. His face was so bright and excited Davey didn't have the heart to make a fuss. And when Freddy opened the box, his face was still just as bright - perhaps even brighter - but had softened so much Davey almost didn't recognize him, and his entire heart felt like it had seized up. "Davey," he said quietly. "I love it."
"Really?" Davey asked. "Because I can return it, or - "
"If you do I'll kill you," Freddy said fiercely, leaning over kissing Davey's forehead. "It's perfect."
"What the fuck is it?" Nathan finally exploded. Grinning, Freddy lifted up Davey's gift. It was an antique-style tin robot with a wind-up key out back, and when Freddy wound it, it shuffled his feet back and forth and arms moved up and down with his feet.
"We have this, this joke," Davey explained, his cheeks warming up. "About who's better or would win in a fight, ninjas or robots - "
"Robots," Nathan said firmly.
"Ninjas," Chris said. "Ninjas are the shit."
"Thank you," Davey said, grinning at Chris.
"Well I have no idea what you boys are talking about," Regina said briskly, standing up, "but I have an ice cream cake with someone's name on it so Freddy, put away your toys."
"Ice cream!" Chris shouted, raising his hands in the universal gesture of victory.
"So how am I doing?" Freddy whispered in Davey's ear while they trooped back into the dining room. He had not, Davey noticed, put down the robot.
"Awesome," Davey said, squeezing his hand, and Freddy lit up like that was the greatest gift he'd received all day.
Normally, Davey was an extreme cake snob, thanks to his mother, but he had to admit that even though ice cream cake melted under the candles and wasn't quite as good as real cake, it had its advantages. Like watching Freddy eat it, because he'd never seen Freddy eat ice cream before, but it was obscene. He made these little noises in the back of his throat and kept licking at things and Davey could barely touch his slice, he was so riveted by the glimpses of Freddy's sharp, pink tongue he kept being shown over and over like the world's most bizarre peep show.
"What?" Freddy asked when he'd slurped up the last drop, blinking at Davey's dopey expression and plate full of now-useless goo. "Do I have something on my face?" Slowly, Davey blinked out of his stupor and looked around. Everyone was absorbed in their own cake extremely thoroughly.
"Yeah," Davey said roughly, reaching out, "let me just get it." Before Freddy could start feeling around for invisible ice cream that wasn't there, Davey yanked him in by the collar of his shirt and kissed him, licked the taste of crushed oreos and vanilla ice cream and fudge out of his mouth. Freddy didn't even hesitate to kiss back, just reached up and grabbed at Davey's hair, groaning loudly enough that it must have made everyone look up (not that Davey was opening his eyes to look), because all of a sudden he could hear Chis wolf-whistling and Regina and Alex laughing and even Nathan reluctantly clapping.
"Okay," Freddy said when they pulled apart, his eyes never leaving Davey's face. "So I just proved that that blowing out the candles shit totally works, which means that you are all going to now leave. Thanks for coming, Davey and I have important business in the basement to attend to. Alone."
"I'll bet you do," Nathan muttered under his breath while Regina started clearing plates and Freddy dragged Davey down to the basement and pushed him down on the bed so fast Davey felt dizzy, like he'd flown there.
"You little tease," Freddy muttered, kissing up and down Davey's neck, making his squirm. "Oh my god, you... you..."
"Uh huh," Davey grinned, rolling Freddy over (because it made his eyes go unfocused and glazed over in a very satisfying manner). "You didn't really waste your wish on that, did you?"
"Nope," Freddy agreed, hands running down Davey's back to grope at his ass. Every other time, Davey had self-consciously wriggled away, ashamed of Freddy feeling for something that quite frankly, didn't really exist. This time, he let Freddy's hands wander until he apparently decided that this offering pleased him, and groaned, leaning up and kissing Davey so hard that Davey forgot his own name, let alone that Freddy's hands were frantically kneading at his backside, pulling their hips together distractingly.
"You ever going to tell me what you wished for?" Davey finally asked, panting for breath.
"Nuh uh," Freddy smiled, leaning up to place a little kiss on the tip of Davey's nose, which he seemed strangely fond of. "Then it won't come true."
"Did it have to do with me?" Davey asked. "Naked?"
"Maybe a little bit," Freddy admitted. "Happy birthday to me?"
"Happy birthday to you," Davey agreed, and then realizing it was important to make this clear, "in a clothed manner."
"Eh," Freddy shrugged, turning Davey over and kissing the side of Davey's neck lightly enough that it tickled. "Close enough."
- - -
Spanish was only non-music class that Freddy actually was all right in. It had a couple of things going for it - it was before lunch, so Freddy was too hungry during the last twenty minutes to fall asleep. The teacher, Senor Eagan brought in food every other day and decorated the room in bright colors. Freddy still sucked at writing and grammar, but he was actually pretty good at listening and speaking. Most of Alex's apprentices were Hispanic, and although he was hardly fluent, he could pick out a few words when they chattered and argued while they worked.
But when Spanish wanted to, it could be as cripplingly boring as any other class. Every once in a while when he had too much grading to do, Senor Eagan brought a heap of telenovelas, taped on VHS. For two straight hours, the class would watch Lucia and Fernando argue, have disappointingly censored sex, and argue again, discover Lucia was pregnant, and argue more.
where r u? Freddy texted Davey frantically after the first episode. im dying
history Davey texted back.
Freddy tried to remember the number on the plate on the wall that had floated over Davey's head last week when he had walked him there.
room 234?
yeah Davey texted. A second, wary message came a minute later. why?
go 2 the bathroom Freddy said, and then quietly slipped out the door while Esteban ducked from the vase Josephina was hurling at his head for murdering Carlos.
He skulked around waited until he saw a familiar brown head walking around the corner. "Did I mention I celebrate my birthday for a week?" Freddy said, yanking Davey into a conveniently located art closet and goosing him. "Cause I do."
"Do you have ADD or something?" Davey peeked out the door. Freddy wrapped an arm around his waist and buried his face in the side of Davey's neck. Davey sighed. "This is creepy. Don't you have a class to be in?"
"I'm in Spanish." Freddy smirked, squeezing Davey's middle. "I thought I could show you how to roll your 'r's."
"I don't know how you were single for so long," Davey pushed at Freddy's arms. "With lines like that."
"It shocks me too," Freddy grinned. "It actually is kind of tricky, the rolling part. Whatever, you probably take Latin or French like every other nerd in this school."
"Hey," Davey frowned, "Latin is very useful."
"Dork," Freddy kissed him on top of his nose. Davey stopped struggling.
"I actually do have class, you know," he pointed out when Freddy pulled back.
Freddy shrugged. "Why don't you stay here with me? It's dark and romantic."
"It smells like glue." Davey looked around. "And clichés."
"Fine," Freddy huffed, letting Davey scramble outside. He shut the art closet door and leaned on it. "I should be getting back to Spanish anyway. I've been 'in the bathroom' for about twenty minutes by now."
"Won't he ask where you've been?"
"No," Freddy stretched. "And even if he does, diarrhea is pronounced the same in Spanish as it is in English."
Davey shook his head and laughed. Freddy grinned. "I'm a man with a plan."
Davey stood on his toes and put a comforting hand on Freddy's shoulder. "They have things for people like you these days," he said, half-seriously. "You know, like Ritalin. I think you should look into that."
"Shut up," Freddy said affectionately. "See you at lunch?"
Davey nodded. Freddy leaned to kiss him goodbye. It was one of those stupid couple things that he usually laughed at other people for doing. Kissing as if they weren't going to see each other again in a few hours. But somehow, the fact that he was Freddy and Davey was Davey negated the lameness he normally associated with it and made it acceptable. Only this time, Davey ducked as if he was on fire and Freddy ended up with a mouthful of wall.
"Wow," Freddy said, pulling back. "I knew you weren't a hundred percent comfortable with the PDA thing, but that was really -"
"Kyle was walking behind you," Davey interrupted, faintly guiltily. He pointed down the hall, where lo and behold, the little fuck was walking and pointedly not looking at them.
"So?" Freddy crossed his arms, failing to see the point.
"It just doesn't feel right." Davey frowned, moving a safe distance away. He had that look he had on his face whenever he was about to be sickeningly mature beyond his years." "Kissing you in front of him. I don't want to be mean to him."
"He's weird." Freddy moved closer to Davey. "He stares at me like I'm a vampire."
"Nathan does that to me," Davey pointed out. "I don't think he likes me."
Freddy bit his lip. "That's different. Nathan's just being... him or whatever." He shuffled his feet and failed to elaborate. "Besides, he doesn't want us not to be together or anything like that. That drippy fuck actually told me to stay away from you."
"Really?" Freddy nodded. Davey made a face. "He was just being protective," Davey finally decided. "He didn't want me to get hurt. Which, you know, is kind of justified."
"Whatever," Freddy shook his head. "He's just being stupid. I'm not going to hurt you."
Davey's eyes softened, and Freddy felt a little embarrassed. "No, you aren't." He glanced at the clock and started walking backwards down the hall. "I have to go. See you at lunch?"
"Yeah," Freddy said. "Look, he's even fucked up our goodbye dynamic. What are we supposed to do? Wave? Pound? High-five?"
"Just be nice," Davey called back, disappearing around the corner.
- - -
Sometimes, when Davey was lying on Freddy's bed taking a makeout break, his brain sort of wandered. On very rare occasions it was to strange places, like, why were oranges the name of a fruit and a color? How was it that no one was creative enough to make two separate words? Mostly, though, he thought about Freddy, because Freddy was the one dozing next to him, looking thoroughly kissed and, well, hot, and he thought about things like how he really liked Freddy's eyes, and how they sort of crinkled in the corner in a permanent smile, or how interesting that tiny dip in the middle of his lower lip was, or how nice it was that he was doing this with Freddy, and not Kyle. Or...
"Freddy," Davey said softly, running a thumb over Freddy's temple. Freddy made a grunting noise and burrowed further into the bed. "Freddy," Davey repeated more insistently.
"What?" Freddy asked.
"How many people have you done this with?"
"Two, including you," Freddy replied instantly.
"What?" Davey sat up abruptly.
"I've only cuddled like a girl with two people," Freddy sighed, turning over onto his back. "And one of them was a girl."
"How many people have you kissed," Davey clarified.
"I don't know," Freddy said, looking thoughtful. "Sometimes I was drunk. It gets sorta hazy."
"Slut," Davey muttered. "Okay, how many people have you hooked up with?"
"Also don't know," Freddy replied. "Again, sometimes drunk, sometimes hazy."
"Fine," Davey said, exasperated, "how many people have you had sex with?"
"Oh, that I know," Freddy grinned, as if this was some sort of great achievement. "Eleven."
"Christ," Davey moaned, burying his face in his hands. "You've been tested, right? You're not... infested, are you?"
"No," Freddy said, affronted. "I know about, you know, condoms."
"They're only ninety - wait," Davey's eyes narrowed. "Eleven. And blowjobs count as sex."
"Of course blowjobs count as sex," Freddy replied, confused.
"There are twenty guys on the JV Soccer team," Davey said slowly. "So the math says..."
"Oh," Freddy's face fell. "Well, okay, so I may have sort of lied?"
"About the number?"
"No," Freddy muttered, sitting up. "I, um," he looked at his feet and drew small circles in his sheets, avoiding Davey's eyes. "I may not have hooked up with the entire soccer team?"
"But Joey says -" Davey began, and Freddy cut him off with a little laugh.
"Okay, so I had this crush on Zeke Jackson, so we hooked up and I blew him before our first game," Freddy explained. "You know, black, muscular, huge smile..."
"No, he's really cute," Davey said. "Senior, right?"
"Yeah," Freddy said. "And we won by a lot. And then by next game I liked Austin Danvers, he graduated last year. Hot. So I blew him, and we won, and it became this joke, since we had an amazing season, and then Joey heard and totally flipped out because they were all his friends, so we just... kept up the joke."
"And that's how you met Joey," Davey clarified.
"Yeah," Freddy gave Davey his biggest, dirtiest shit-eating grin. "It helped my reputation, and he's the only one who believed it, anyways."
"Oh thank God" Davey sighed. "I thought you blew Vlad Stoyavich."
"Oh, hell no," Freddy gagged. "And then... wait, you thought these admittedly, quite luscious, lips were on Vlad's dick?!" Davey nodded. "And you wanted to kiss them anyways?" Shamefacedly, Davey nodded, and then squeaked when Freddy tackled him to the bed and started joyfully peppering his face with kisses.
"Attack!" Davey giggled, squirming under him. "Mercy! Mercy! What the heck?"
"You must love me," Freddy sing-songed, "you kissed me and you thought I had Vlad cooties. You looooove me."
"I'm re-thinking that," Davey laughed, reaching up to pull Freddy down and kiss away the lie that neither of them were quite ready to admit was a lie. But Freddy was kissing him so sweetly and tenderly that Davey didn't doubt, not for a second, that Freddy didn't feel as strongly as he did.
"I like you, too," Freddy gasped when he was done, resting his forehead against Davey's. "More than those other people."
"I like you better than Kyle," Davey agreed. "Sorry, that's all I've got. Slut."
"Prude," Freddy laughed into Davey's mouth, and Davey was just too happy and pre-occupied to really argue the point any further.
- - -
The problem with Kyle was that the asshole wouldn't go away. When Freddy was pushing his tray through the lunch line (he couldn't risk going out twice in a row, and stealing from Davey every day felt a little douchey) Kyle showed up and firmly planted his tray next to Freddy's, shooting him a glare.
"Hey," Freddy said brightly. "Pass me one of those fajita things?"
Kyle shot him a dirty look.
"Never mind," Freddy grinned. "I think they have onions in them. Davey wouldn't appreciate that."
"I don't know why Davey's with you," Kyle said coldly. "When everyone knows you're -"
"Me neither," Freddy interrupted cheerily. "Just lucky, I guess. Want an apple?"
"No," Kyle sniffed, reaching past him, pointedly letting his skinny elbow hit Freddy as he made his fruit selection.
"A banana," Freddy said incredulously. "That's... well, that's a lot of things I'm not going to get into in front of the lunch ladies."
"Just you wait," Kyle hissed, narrowing his (stupid, green, incongruously pretty on his stupid face) eyes. "I'm going to steal him back."
"I'll be waiting," Freddy assured him. "Desperately, terribly frightened."
"You should be," Kyle sniffed, piggy nose high in the air as he stalked away. And that was when Freddy decided it was war. Kyle seemed to too. He started following Davey around again, constantly interrupting them to give Davey something or talk pointlessly for ages, ignoring Freddy completely. Also, according to Davey, if Freddy wasn't there, he said some really, really insulting things about Freddy and Freddy's libido and how Freddy should probably be washed in disinfectant, and no amount of Davey telling him off would stop him. In retaliation, Freddy started making out with Davey even more, especially around his history classroom. Davey's eyes would get narrow and little calculating, but he was an extremely good sport about the whole thing as long as Kyle wasn't watching, because that, he claimed, was tacky, and he was above stooping to Kyle's level of tacky. He'd said as much when he pulled away from Freddy when Kyle had rounded the corner to history. Freddy had had his back to Kyle, so he made a sad whimpering noise when Davey had pulled away.
"Kyle's coming," Davey whispered, smiling regretfully up at Freddy. "I don't want to rub it in. I know he's acting awful, but he's hurt. And I feel really, you know, bad about how I'd ended it."
"Don't be," Freddy said vehemently, pulling Davey into his arms, which Davey seemed to think was an acceptable threshold of affection. "Kyle's a douche, obviously"
"Hi Kyle," Davey said pointedly, looking over Freddy's arm, where Kyle was standing with his arms crossed.
"That level of," he put up his hands to make air quotes, "so-called 'affection' is wildly inappropriate, and not conducive to a learning environment."
"A what?" Freddy asked, blinking. "Are you for real?"
"Yes," Kyle said haughtily. "Affection should be displayed appropriately. Not all of us are man-whores like you who need to be sterilized for the general public's safety -"
"Hey," Davey interrupted, an edge of steel coming into his voice. Davey didn't usually use his scary voice. In fact, Freddy hadn't heard it for two and a half weeks, when he'd tried to steal Davey's blueberry cheesecake square, but when he did it was pretty awesomely badass. Especially when he wasn't using it on Freddy. "You just crossed the line. That's my boyfriend you're talking about." Freddy beamed. "And," Davey said, his voice getting very quiet and deadly as he stepped out of the circle of Freddy's arms, "he's my manwhore now, so go in the classroom and stop bothering us, Kyle."
"But, but," Kyle looked like he'd been slapped in the face. "But Davey, you deserve so much better! Didn't I show you that in that time we spent together?"
"Okay one," Davey said, starting to look really annoyed, "you can't find someone better for me than Freddy, and two, yeah, you did teach me that, which is why I broke up with you for him. So go the hell away, stop following us around, and stop bothering me." Kyle made a wordless and girly noise, like he had just had his magical fairy unicorn toy taken away from him and flounced into the history classroom. "Thank God," Davey sighed, clenching his hands in the lapels of Freddy's coat and dropping his head to rest on one shoulder. "I have never been gladder to have a teacher just change their seating chart."
"Um," Freddy managed.
"Sorry you had to see that," Davey said ruefully, as if he had just done something to upset Freddy. "But I think at this point he was just being a jerk and didn't even care if he got me back or not. I know it was really awful, but - "
"Are you kidding?" Freddy finally said hoarsely. "That was the sexiest thing I have ever seen you do."
"Really?" Davey asked, lifting his head to grin blindingly at Freddy. "I meant it, you know. Every word."
"Oh my god, you're fucking amazing," Freddy groaned, tilting Davey's head back and kissing him in a manner that was definitely wildly inappropriate on school property and was usually reserved for the grand finale of makeouts when they were in his bedroom. Very alone. But Davey had just gotten all mad and sexy and defensive over him, quiet little Davey, his quiet little Davey, and god, he was perfect, he was so fucking perfect and sexy and Freddy didn't care if the entire school was watching them right now, he would keep moaning into Davey's mouth and grasping at Davey's face and do it naked, so help him. And Davey seemed totally on board until the bell announcing the end of passing time rang.
"Crap," Davey gasped, pulling away. His hair was sticking up horribly from where Freddy's fingers had been tugging on it, he was flushed and wild-eyed, and his mouth was even pinker than usual and a little swollen looking. He looked amazing. "Okay, really important test review today, but meet me at the end of class? I think I might not be hungry for, you know, lunch today."
"Me either," Freddy said, swooping in and giving Davey one hard, last kiss goodbye, not even caring that he'd probably get a detention for being so late to Spanish again.
- - -
The second problem with having a boyfriend, Davey was quickly discovering, was that it was impossible to get anywhere on time. Freddy wasn't clingy, but he had the attention span of a goldfish. Except where it came to Davey. Davey suspected that he would never understood why, but even the parts of himself that he thought were lame or at best, random - the type of mechanical pencil he used or which pirate movies were his favorites - were strangely compelling to Freddy, worth lengthy text message conversations and half-serious arguments in between classes, and long walks that always ended up in Davey almost being late to class.
Math was the worst. It wasn't at all Davey's fault, the class was scheduled right after lunch and Freddy nearly always magically materialized to walk him there, even if he was eating lunch in the cafeteria with Chris and Nathan. But walking to class with Freddy meant just about everything besides walking to class, and Freddy certainly had no objections about being late to his own subjects, so Davey always ended up frantically sliding into class twenty seconds before the bell rang.
The one day Davey didn't make it, Mr. Brown had his back to the door, writing something on the board. Davey carefully inched towards his seat while all of his classmates giggled silently - and then pretended not to have noticed when Mr. Brown abruptly turned around.
"Sorry for being late," Davey said politely. "I just --"
"No excuses," Mr. Brown shook his head. "That'll be a tardy. Where were you?"
"I was -"
"Never mind," Mr. Brown rubbed a hand over his forehead. "Just take a seat, David," Mr. Brown snapped briskly. "Let's not waste any more time on the issue, hmm?"
Davey slid into his seat, stewing until the end of class, by which point he’d gotten so irritated he barely returned the kiss Freddy gave him hello.
"What's wrong?" Freddy asked, brow furrowing.
"Late again," Davey replied, shortly. "Seriously, I was late and he freaked out. It's not even really about being late," Davey hesitated. Freddy stared at him expectantly. "I don't think he likes me very much."
"What teacher is it?" Freddy asked.
"Mr. Brown."
"Short guy, kind of balding, weird comb-over?"
"Uh-huh." Davey sighed, making his way to biology, but he held Freddy's hand while they were walking because, well, he wasn't that angry.
"Oh yeah," Freddy nodded. "He doesn't like you."
"Thanks," Davey said sarcastically."How do you know? Did you have him before or something?"
"I've seen him over your head, sometimes, when we're kissing." Freddy smirked. "You know, shooting disapproving looks."
"Oh," Davey felt his heart sink.
"He must see us making out a lot," Freddy added, almost gleefully. "His car is parked across from mine. In the faculty lot."
Davey groaned. "Please tell me you're joking."
"Nope," Freddy looked curiously at Davey. "Why?"
"I think we were," Davey blushed, and "Uh, on it, once. They're the same color and I think you thought we were already at your space, but we weren't."
"Really?" Freddy grinned. "I didn't notice."
"You wouldn't," Davey muttered. "I just started walking backwards after a while and you followed me. I didn't think he saw us."
"Well, it's not as if he hasn't had - " Freddy bit his tongue before the rest of the thought could come tumbling out. He looked like he was doing a poor job resisting the urge to break out beaming. "If it wasn't that, it was something else, wasn't it? We're kind of... I mean, it's sort of all the time."
"Yeah," Davey said mournfully. "You don't think he's…?"
"No," Freddy said flatly. "I mean, he's old as balls. I bet if you had a rack and I only gave you a high five he'd be mortified. Cheer up," he hit Davey lightly on the shoulder. "It's not that bad. Loads of my teachers don't like me."
"You don't understand," Davey wailed. "This never happens. Teachers love me."
"Well, get used to it," Freddy wrapped an arm around Davey's shoulders. "You're hardcore now."
"This is all your fault," Davey murmured into Freddy's sleeve. "All of it."
"Mhmm," Freddy nodded happily. "You're getting all disreputable now for me. Hey, this is exactly like Grease. You're Sandy and I'm Danny and you've just put on the leather catsuit."
Davey rolled his eyes and poked Freddy in the ribs. "Except not. And since when have you seen Grease? You complained for like an hour about Chicago even though you totally would have loved it. I thought musicals were something Freddy Does Not Do."
"Can't run away from everything," Freddy shrugged. "Besides, Regina made me watch it with her and Pops."
"You probably had a crush on John Travolta, didn't you," Davey teased. "You wanted to be cool and wear a leather jacket and have a great big cleft in your chin."
Freddy groaned. Davey laughed.
"Don't worry about it," he whispered to Davey semi-seriously. "Really. Teachers always love nerdy dorks like you, even if they do happen to make out with their hot boyfriends everywhere around the school, because he's utterly irresistible."
"You're an idiot," Davey said affectionately, kissing where it had become a little rough from stubble under Freddy's chin. He never was a thorough shaver."I really mean that."
"Thanks," Freddy whispered happily into Davey's ear before kissing it.
.
- - -
Freddy had two types of fantasies he liked to visit when he was alone and lying on his bed. One was the kind that required tissues and hand lotion and pretty exclusively starred Davey's hands and mouth performing lethal combined assaults on various parts of his body in a completely X-rated way. But the ones he loved the most were the ones he'd dreamed up before they were dating that were mostly rated PG (PG-13, if he was feeling racy). Of course they'd usually degenerated into X-rated fantasies, but he really liked wallowing in the girly parts. Secretly.
One of his favorite ones that he revisited over and over was Davey visiting him at work, occasionally kissing the bajesus out of him over the counter, but mostly just being there, watching him work, handing him stacks of Britney's new album he was forced to shelf and making disparaging comments. And if he wanted to bend Freddy over a counter and, you know, did dirty things to him, that would be okay too. But no matter how many times he begged and hinted and told Davey his hours, Davey staunchly refused to come. "I'll get hand-groped by Dan again," he'd say, or "I'm too busy with my homework" or "you're the one who can drive, I'd have to walk". And while these were all valid points, that didn't mean Freddy was okay with them, it just meant that he'd pretty much accepted the fact that Davey would never show up at work and make out with him in the storage closet.
And then, one day, about a month into dating, against all probability, the door jingled two minutes before closing time.
"We're closed!" Freddy shouted from the back of the store where he was sweeping up detritus and the stray cigarette butt.
"According to the sign I've got a few minutes," a familiar voice said from the doorway, and Freddy dropped his full dustpan with a clatter.
"Davey?" He yelped.
"Yeah," Davey said. He looked a lot abashed and a little nervous, his hands stuffed in his coat pockets. "I, uh, finished my homework early and wanted to see if you wanted to come over, and Mom was driving past to go to the library and Joey isn't home to bother us, and you're always asking me to come visit, so..."
"Of course I want to come over," Freddy grinned, leaning down and kissing Davey firmly on the mouth until he squeaked and his hands came out of his pockets and grabbed on tightly to the sides of Freddy's t-shirt.
"Awww, gross," Dan's voice came from somewhere far away, and then a crumpled piece of paper hit the back of Freddy's head.
"Okay," Freddy panted, tearing himself with great difficulty from Davey's mouth. "What the fuck?"
"Your technique is ass," Dan informed him. "Hi, Davey."
"Hi, Dan," Davey sighed, rubbing his thumb distractingly under the hem of Freddy's t-shirt.
"Davey," Dan said gravely, picking up the broom and leaning on it. "You need to do better than Captain Douchepants here. Did you see his technique? With the cheek stroking action? Like you're a fucking dog?"
"Hey," Freddy said, affronted. "Davey loves that."
"I taught him that," Davey piped up.
"It's true," Freddy said. He'd never really considered caressing and stuff like that until Davey did it, and it felt really nice. So he'd tried it and Davey had all but purred and melted into him, which Freddy counted as a win.
"What's your technique, anyways?" Davey asked, his eyes deceptively wide and innocent-looking.
"My technique?" Dan furrowed his brow. "My technique is... shut your face. Your mom liked it last night."
"That doesn't even make sense," Davey said sadly, and Freddy had to choke back desperate laughter.
"So I'm taking off early," Freddy said. "You get to clean up, think of it as paying me back for all the times I do it for you."
"Oh, wildly unfair," Dan groaned, tagging after Freddy as he grabbed and shrugged on his coat. "C'mon dude, just because your pretty little boyfriend - "
"What?" Davey said from the doorway.
"Did I or did I not close up for you when you wanted to go to that kegger last week?" Freddy asked, throwing his bag over his shoulder.
"Yes but - "
"Bye, Dan," Freddy said firmly, closing the door on Dan's upturned middle finger.
"So about why I don't visit you at work..." Davey grinned up at him, hair fluttering in the wind and the rain.
"Much less fun than I'd imagined," Freddy assured him, wiping some stray raindrops off of Davey's cheeks tenderly. "So, about making out at your empty house?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Davey laughed, grabbing Freddy's hand and dragging him towards the car. "I know you only want me for my body."
"Damn straight," Freddy said. "It's really all I think about."
"Shocker," Davey said dryly, getting into Freddy's car. "Take me home, Casanova. With lines like that, it's a wonder I manage to resist you."
"I wonder about it all the time," Freddy agreed.
- - -
Davey slumped down in the car seat, curling his toes happily. Freddy was staring at the road more carefully than Davey had ever seen him, focusing on his driving and pretending very hard not to like Sondre Lerche, as if Davey couldn't tell he was into it. In the beginning, Freddy had been too polite to comment on whatever Davey chose to play - but now, he was all too willing to whine, cajole and beg his way into getting Davey to skip tracks on his mix CDs. It was telling that he didn't have a single word to say about this CD, good or bad.
"You like it," Davey said, slightly smugly after the first few songs. "Actually, you don't. You love it. I can tell."
"I don't," Freddy protested. "It's just jazz light. Jazz for people who don't like jazz."
"Right," Davey said, grinning. "You're tapping your fingers."
Freddy glared at his hands, flexing his fingers. "I've got ADD or some shit. I tap my fingers all the time."
"Sure," Davey said, moving to the edge of his seat and reaching towards the stereo. "I'll just take the CD out and we can, I don't know, listen to the radio instead." Freddy caught Davey's hand in midair, blanketing his outstretched fingers quickly with his calloused palm. They were both silent for a few moments. "Oh," Davey grinned. "I guess I'll just leave it in, then."
"You're sadistic," Freddy said affectionately. "You know that?"
"You're the one who decided to give me music privileges, remember?" Davey poked Freddy on the shoulder. "Back when you were trying to convince me you weren't a jerk?"
"Worked, didn't it?" Freddy said quietly.
"Maybe." D.
"Here's your place," Freddy nodded, pulling up slowly to Davey's house, with its brightly lit windows. He slowly turned the car off, staring at the steering wheel awkwardly.
"Okay, what's up?" Davey frowned. "You've been looking like you wanted to say something all day."
"Yeah," Freddy looked faintly uncomfortable, or maybe like he was going to vomit.
"So?"
"I just wanted to say that this is, uh, nice. I don't usually do this." His cheeks were slightly colored.
"Listen to different types of music?" Davey teased. "Yeah, you really should branch out. There's a whole world of stuff outside of jazz."
"No, stupid," Freddy said. "I meant us."
"Us?" Davey said, completely lost. Freddy looked almost offended at first, but then nodded mournfully.
"Don't make fun of me," He sighed. "I mean it. It's been going pretty well, hasn't it?"
"Of course I think it's going well," Davey said, furrowing his brow. "I wouldn't be dating you if I thought it was going badly."
"I mean, two months, that's, like, a long time," Freddy hedged.
"Didn't you date Elizabeth, like, a year?"
"You're being very difficult," Freddy whined. "I'm trying to tell you important stuff."
"I'm sorry," Davey soothed, leaning over the console to kiss Freddy's cheek. "What were you saying?"
"I..." Freddy looked helplessly down at Davey. Something strange was going on in that brain of his, but what, Davey couldn't tell what in the dim light from the street lamp. "I'm trying to tell you that I, you know. I love you."
"Oh," Davey said, blinking, and then, "Oh," and lurched forward to grab Freddy's face and kiss him as deeply as he could with the stick shift digging into him. "I love you too," he panted when he pulled away. "In case you couldn't tell."
"I'd have told you ages ago, if I knew it'd make you this happy," Freddy laughed, nipping at Davey's lower lip. "I have forever."
"You say that to all the boys," Davey chided.
"You're the first, actually," Freddy admitted quietly. "The first boy. Elizabeth and I said it ages ago, but it feels... it feels different with you."
"Good different?" Davey asked, raising one eyebrow. "Or euphemistically different?"
"Really good," Freddy said quickly. "That's what I meant by stuff going well. Like, me having... feelings."
"Idiot," Davey said fondly, leaning in, and he and Freddy did the car-shuffle to get into a comfortable position for making out that they'd gotten so good at, which mostly involved them clambering into the backseat so they didn't have to deal with cup holders and necking like idiots simultaneously, Freddy's hands working their way ever-so-slowly down Davey's backside like maybe doing it slowly would make it so Davey wouldn't notice, but he made a distinct annoyed noise to let Freddy know he did, grabbing for his wrist and hauling it away.
"Davey," Freddy whined. "I'm collecting my dues."
"Oh, so that's why you told me you loved me," Davey squinted suspiciously. "You just want a piece of this."
"Well, yeah," Freddy said, as if that was patently obvious. "It's just true, too."
"I take mine back."
"Too bad," Freddy grinned. "Still want to have sex with you."
"I'll have to think of another brilliant plan," Davey said mournfully, tilting his chin so Freddy would have better access to continue the nibbling exploration he was embarking on on the side of Davey's neck.
"Tell me when you have one," Freddy said, voice muffled.
"It'll take a while," Davey warned.
"We've got time," Freddy assured him, kissing his chin. "I think we're going to be together a while."
"Good plan," Davey agreed, kissing Freddy again. "Excellent plan."
Soundtrack:
Anyone Else But You - The Moldy Peaches (lyrics)
Toothpaste Kisses - The Maccabees (lyrics)
I'm Tongue-Tied - The Magnetic Fields (lyrics)
(I Wanna) Call It Love - Sondre Lerche & the Faces Down Quartet (lyrics)
"And by party, I don't mean anything crazy," she'd been hasty to re-assure Davey over the phone, "I just mean you, Chris, and Nathan eating Freddy's favorite foods while Alex and I pretend we've become deaf and non-judgmental. But if you don't come, Freddy will just pout awfully"
Old ladies were really the worst guilt-trippers.
It wasn't that Davey hadn't been expecting to be invited to some sort of birthday dinner, he just expected that he'd go to the one with Regina and Alex and Freddy would have a more inebriated one with Nathan and Chris. And it wasn't that he didn't like Freddy's friends, he just didn't really know them beyond a sort of casual waving introduction at lunch once or twice. Well, okay, he liked Chris. They didn't have anything in common, but Chris thought he was kind of cool, as far as he could tell. He nodded if he passed Davey sans Freddy somewhere and had actually smiled at him a bunch, which was more than he could say for Nathan. Nathan seemed to view Davey as some sort of great friendship interloper who had galloped in and stolen his favorite toy away, if his squinty glares in band were anything to go by. Davey wasn't quite sure why. Freddy still hung out with Chris and Nathan all the time, probably more than before when he was off trying to prove to Davey he was some sort of gentleman. And now that he knew that he'd be spending all night with them his dorky little present seemed even dorkier, even though he'd spent nearly a week obsessing over finding it and making it perfect. He tried to smile at Regina when she opened the door and greeted him, but by the look on her face he failed miserably.
"Oh, sweetheart, you aren't being sent to the firing squad," she soothed in the front hall, quiet over Chris and Nathan's loud shouting in the living room. "These are Freddy's friends! Surely you've met them."
"Not really," Davey said. "They're sort of not my crowd. I mean I've met them, but we're not, like, you know..."
"They're very nice," Regina said, patting his shoulder. "Especially Chris, nothing bothers him. It's true Nathan can be a little protective, but I'm sure he'll be good tonight for Freddy."
"My present just seems so stupid now," Davey sighed, looking down at the box that had taken far too long to wrap well. How his mother managed to churn out a perfectly wrapped package in about fifteen seconds he'd never know. Paper was tricky. "I thought only you and Alex were going to see it so it didn't matter that it was kind of dorky, but..."
"He would love it if you got him a moldy sock," Regina insisted. "Now go, he's been moping and checking the windows all night, and if he knows I'm keeping you..."
"Davey!" Freddy shouted from the living room, running into the front hall and lifting him up off of his feet in a bear hug.
"Happy birthday," Davey managed when Freddy had let him down and let him breathe again. Freddy just grinned wickedly (which still made Davey's traitorous knees go jelly-like) and swooped in to kiss him slowly, thoroughly, devastatingly, so all Davey could do was hold on to Freddy's track jacket for dear life and try not to swoon in front of Chris, who was whooping, or Nathan, who was probably scowling somewhere, or Regina, who was making polite noises and probably excusing herself. "Wow," Davey managed when Freddy finally decided that yes, he was quite done licking the back of Davey's throat. "That was... more than I was expecting."
"Happy birthday to me," Freddy grinned, resting his forehead against Davey's. "C'mon, dinner's waiting."
"Be nice at dinner," Davey whispered, taking Freddy's hand and walking with him to the dining room.
"I'm always nice," Freddy said innocently, pulling out a chair and gesturing for Davey to sit down. Mortified, Davey realized that everyone else had trickled in before him and were all expectantly watching Freddy treat him like a girl. He shot Freddy a venomous look, which only made Freddy grin wider, and sat down primly.
"That's not what I meant," he hissed while Regina stated to bring out the food. "I meant be nice in a non-creepy way."
"I'm not creepy," Freddy declared, "I'm chivalrous. Ham?"
"Thanks," Davey said, watching Freddy carefully maneuver a massive helping onto his plate. "That's fine," he said softly. Undeterred, Freddy kept piling ham onto Davey's plate. "That's fine, thanks. Hey, that's -"
"You need to eat more," Freddy interrupted. "Besides, this is Regina's ham. I know you've probably had awesome ham before, but Regina's is amazing."
"Yeah," Nathan chimed in. "It's delicious, Mrs. Kennedy."
"It is," Chris said wistfully. "I wish my mom could cook."
"Thank you, boys," Regina said, staring pointedly at Alex.
"It's fantastic, honey," Alex leaned half out of his chair to kiss her on the forehead. "It's so fantastic, I was distracted."
"I'm sure," Regina said dryly, sipping at her tea.
"You need to have some of these potatoes," Freddy tugged on Davey's arm under the table, like an impatient child. "Pass the bowl over, Chris. Pops made them. He left the skins in, just like I like them."
"Whatever you want, Junior." Alex nodded to Freddy across the table.
Davey reached for the bowl, but Freddy carefully knocked his hand aside, putting an even more massive helping on his plate, next to the pile of ham. Next came Regina's green beans (with little pieces of bacon) and stuffing, until Davey was staring at an incredible mound of food on his plate.
"I can't possibly eat all of this," Davey protested, watching everyone around the table tuck in to their more reasonably sized portions.
"Just like Freddy," Nathan said to Chris. "He thinks everyone is a walking garbage disposal just like him."
"Whatever," Freddy shrugged, giving Davey a soft smile. Davey felt his heart plummet to somewhere around his knees in a glorious freefall. "I'll help you out if you need it, okay?" As if to prove his point, he took a forkful of potatoes off of Davey's plate and ate them slowly. Regina and Alex politely averted their eyes again. Freddy, completely shameless, stretched his arm across the back of Davey's chair and rubbed his shoulder.
Davey kicked Freddy lightly under the table on the shin, cheeks flaming. It was one thing, okay, to say stupid stuff at lunch when it was just Davey and Freddy in some hallway, or when they were listening to music in Freddy's basement or hanging out in Davey's room. If Freddy was only classy and tactful in front of Joey and Davey's mom because he was nervous, then maybe nervous was a good thing for him.
"This is weird," Chris suddenly spoke up. Freddy looked at him. "What?"
"Seeing you share food like that." Chris turned to Davey. "I've gotten into fist fights with him over, you know, who gets to eat the last cookie and stuff. He's actually pretty selfish when it comes to food. You are one special dude."
"It's true," Nathan reached for the rolls. "Mrs. Kennedy only gives us snacks now in multiples of three."
"He eats most of my lunch," Davey said mournfully. "I mean, I used to bring a really big lunch and I couldn't ever finish it, but ever since he started eating with me I've had to make it bigger."
Chris and Nathan exploded in laughter. Freddy scowled.
"This is my birthday," he said around a mouthful of ham. True to his word, he had finished his own plate and was starting in on the remaining half of Davey's. "I want to hear Freddy compliments or nothing else."
Everyone fell silent, and then started laughing again.
"You should fight him for it," Nathan said, coolly addressing Davey for the first time. "Freddy gets very weak when there's food nearby." Chris vigorously nodded his agreement.
"Thanks," Davey said. "I'll keep that in mind next time I bring pasta."
"Stop giving him ideas," Freddy said, covering Davey's ears with his hands. "Do you want more iced tea?"
"Only if I can pour it myself," Davey replied. Freddy, deaf to his protests, grabbed his glass and started filling it from the pitcher on the table. Davey kicked him in the shin again.
"Do you want cake or presents first?" Regina asked smoothly, interrupting what was gearing up to be a kick fight under the table. "Nathan brought over those candles you like. The sparklers."
"They can't put candles on my cakes anymore," Alex said wistfully. "It looks like a forest fire."
"I'm sorry Pops," Freddy grinned and hit Alex on the back. "Let's do presents, first. So I can be properly and fully appreciated before I give the gift of large amounts of ice cream cake."
"You just want to open everything now," Chris accused. "I'm surprised you made it this long, really."
"Yeah," Freddy jiggled his legs excitedly, and brushed Davey's knee with his hand. Davey suddenly felt overcome with a wave of anxiety and busied himself with tracing his fork around his empty plate. Why did they have to give gifts like this? Why couldn't he just give his gift to Freddy alone? He should've just put the gift on the doorstep, rang the doorbell, and ran away.
"I can't wait," Freddy was saying. "Can we do it now?"
"You heard the birthday boy," Regina said, herding Chris and Nathan back into the living room, Chris bringing his half-finished plate.
"You okay?" Freddy asked quietly while Davey lingered and dithered.
"Yeah," Davey said softly, giving Freddy a weak smile. "I'm just... intimidated. I mean, I think Nathan hates me and Chris is..."
"Chris," Freddy supplied, grinning.
"Yeah," Davey said, smiling back nervously. "He likes me, I think, but Nathan..."
"Nathan's protective and well, I dunno," Freddy shrugged. "He can be selfish with people he likes. Doesn't like to share."
"I was getting that impression," Davey said dryly. "It's just, my present is kind of stupid, and I feel funny about touching you even though I really want to, and..."
"Hey," Freddy rested his forehead against Davey's and rubbing his shoulders until he quieted. "I'll lay off a little and you stop calling yourself stupid, okay?"
"Okay," Davey said, pulling away and threading his fingers in between Freddy's as they walked to the living room.
"Finally," Nathan said loudly when they came in and settled on the loveseat.
"Sorry, boys," Freddy said in a very self-important voice, pressed along Davey's side but not making a move to throw his arm around him possessively, which Davey felt insanely grateful for. "Important business called."
"Sucking face is not important business," Nathan scowled. "Bros before... other bros you make out with."
"They weren't making out, dude," Chris said calmly. "Look at their faces and hair. They were probably, like, staring into each other's eyes or something."
"Presents," Freddy interjected loudly, interrupting whatever Nathan was going to say. "Here, hand yours over." Nathan's present (poorly wrapped in the Sunday comics) was a Casino Royale DVD. Davey didn't like that movie (except for the scene where Daniel Craig stepped out of the ocean - he had hormones), but by the way Freddy's face lit up it was clear that was their next movie night. Davey planned on using makeouts as a distraction. A lot. Chris' present ("always a little sketchy", Freddy had leaned in and whispered in Davey's ear while reaching for it) was stuffed hastily inside a Christmas giftbag. "Incense and a lighter?" Freddy said, grinning. His thumb kept rubbing against the tacky flame decal on the lighter like it was precious.
"Smells like vanilla," Chris said sagely, licking his fork. "Good stuff. Covers up when you don't do laundry."
Regina and Alex had obviously gone all out, getting Freddy a new iPod, fancy headphones ("know how snobby you are, Junior", Alex had said gruffly. "Dan said these were good"), an iTunes gift card, and, incongruously, socks.
"Socks?" Davey asked, turning them over. There was a variety. Some of the thick white kind for gym, a nice gray cashmere pair, and an assortment of the regular cotton kind.
"They always get me socks," Freddy explained, putting them back in the shoebox they'd come in. "I lose mine all the time."
"That is the least surprising thing I have heard tonight," Davey said dryly.
"Okay, O'Brian," Nathan said kicking over Davey's carefully-wrapped box. "No more weaseling. Your turn."
"Oh," Davey said in a tiny voice. "I really don't..."
"It'll be great," Freddy said. His face was so bright and excited Davey didn't have the heart to make a fuss. And when Freddy opened the box, his face was still just as bright - perhaps even brighter - but had softened so much Davey almost didn't recognize him, and his entire heart felt like it had seized up. "Davey," he said quietly. "I love it."
"Really?" Davey asked. "Because I can return it, or - "
"If you do I'll kill you," Freddy said fiercely, leaning over kissing Davey's forehead. "It's perfect."
"What the fuck is it?" Nathan finally exploded. Grinning, Freddy lifted up Davey's gift. It was an antique-style tin robot with a wind-up key out back, and when Freddy wound it, it shuffled his feet back and forth and arms moved up and down with his feet.
"We have this, this joke," Davey explained, his cheeks warming up. "About who's better or would win in a fight, ninjas or robots - "
"Robots," Nathan said firmly.
"Ninjas," Chris said. "Ninjas are the shit."
"Thank you," Davey said, grinning at Chris.
"Well I have no idea what you boys are talking about," Regina said briskly, standing up, "but I have an ice cream cake with someone's name on it so Freddy, put away your toys."
"Ice cream!" Chris shouted, raising his hands in the universal gesture of victory.
"So how am I doing?" Freddy whispered in Davey's ear while they trooped back into the dining room. He had not, Davey noticed, put down the robot.
"Awesome," Davey said, squeezing his hand, and Freddy lit up like that was the greatest gift he'd received all day.
Normally, Davey was an extreme cake snob, thanks to his mother, but he had to admit that even though ice cream cake melted under the candles and wasn't quite as good as real cake, it had its advantages. Like watching Freddy eat it, because he'd never seen Freddy eat ice cream before, but it was obscene. He made these little noises in the back of his throat and kept licking at things and Davey could barely touch his slice, he was so riveted by the glimpses of Freddy's sharp, pink tongue he kept being shown over and over like the world's most bizarre peep show.
"What?" Freddy asked when he'd slurped up the last drop, blinking at Davey's dopey expression and plate full of now-useless goo. "Do I have something on my face?" Slowly, Davey blinked out of his stupor and looked around. Everyone was absorbed in their own cake extremely thoroughly.
"Yeah," Davey said roughly, reaching out, "let me just get it." Before Freddy could start feeling around for invisible ice cream that wasn't there, Davey yanked him in by the collar of his shirt and kissed him, licked the taste of crushed oreos and vanilla ice cream and fudge out of his mouth. Freddy didn't even hesitate to kiss back, just reached up and grabbed at Davey's hair, groaning loudly enough that it must have made everyone look up (not that Davey was opening his eyes to look), because all of a sudden he could hear Chis wolf-whistling and Regina and Alex laughing and even Nathan reluctantly clapping.
"Okay," Freddy said when they pulled apart, his eyes never leaving Davey's face. "So I just proved that that blowing out the candles shit totally works, which means that you are all going to now leave. Thanks for coming, Davey and I have important business in the basement to attend to. Alone."
"I'll bet you do," Nathan muttered under his breath while Regina started clearing plates and Freddy dragged Davey down to the basement and pushed him down on the bed so fast Davey felt dizzy, like he'd flown there.
"You little tease," Freddy muttered, kissing up and down Davey's neck, making his squirm. "Oh my god, you... you..."
"Uh huh," Davey grinned, rolling Freddy over (because it made his eyes go unfocused and glazed over in a very satisfying manner). "You didn't really waste your wish on that, did you?"
"Nope," Freddy agreed, hands running down Davey's back to grope at his ass. Every other time, Davey had self-consciously wriggled away, ashamed of Freddy feeling for something that quite frankly, didn't really exist. This time, he let Freddy's hands wander until he apparently decided that this offering pleased him, and groaned, leaning up and kissing Davey so hard that Davey forgot his own name, let alone that Freddy's hands were frantically kneading at his backside, pulling their hips together distractingly.
"You ever going to tell me what you wished for?" Davey finally asked, panting for breath.
"Nuh uh," Freddy smiled, leaning up to place a little kiss on the tip of Davey's nose, which he seemed strangely fond of. "Then it won't come true."
"Did it have to do with me?" Davey asked. "Naked?"
"Maybe a little bit," Freddy admitted. "Happy birthday to me?"
"Happy birthday to you," Davey agreed, and then realizing it was important to make this clear, "in a clothed manner."
"Eh," Freddy shrugged, turning Davey over and kissing the side of Davey's neck lightly enough that it tickled. "Close enough."
- - -
Spanish was only non-music class that Freddy actually was all right in. It had a couple of things going for it - it was before lunch, so Freddy was too hungry during the last twenty minutes to fall asleep. The teacher, Senor Eagan brought in food every other day and decorated the room in bright colors. Freddy still sucked at writing and grammar, but he was actually pretty good at listening and speaking. Most of Alex's apprentices were Hispanic, and although he was hardly fluent, he could pick out a few words when they chattered and argued while they worked.
But when Spanish wanted to, it could be as cripplingly boring as any other class. Every once in a while when he had too much grading to do, Senor Eagan brought a heap of telenovelas, taped on VHS. For two straight hours, the class would watch Lucia and Fernando argue, have disappointingly censored sex, and argue again, discover Lucia was pregnant, and argue more.
where r u? Freddy texted Davey frantically after the first episode. im dying
history Davey texted back.
Freddy tried to remember the number on the plate on the wall that had floated over Davey's head last week when he had walked him there.
room 234?
yeah Davey texted. A second, wary message came a minute later. why?
go 2 the bathroom Freddy said, and then quietly slipped out the door while Esteban ducked from the vase Josephina was hurling at his head for murdering Carlos.
He skulked around waited until he saw a familiar brown head walking around the corner. "Did I mention I celebrate my birthday for a week?" Freddy said, yanking Davey into a conveniently located art closet and goosing him. "Cause I do."
"Do you have ADD or something?" Davey peeked out the door. Freddy wrapped an arm around his waist and buried his face in the side of Davey's neck. Davey sighed. "This is creepy. Don't you have a class to be in?"
"I'm in Spanish." Freddy smirked, squeezing Davey's middle. "I thought I could show you how to roll your 'r's."
"I don't know how you were single for so long," Davey pushed at Freddy's arms. "With lines like that."
"It shocks me too," Freddy grinned. "It actually is kind of tricky, the rolling part. Whatever, you probably take Latin or French like every other nerd in this school."
"Hey," Davey frowned, "Latin is very useful."
"Dork," Freddy kissed him on top of his nose. Davey stopped struggling.
"I actually do have class, you know," he pointed out when Freddy pulled back.
Freddy shrugged. "Why don't you stay here with me? It's dark and romantic."
"It smells like glue." Davey looked around. "And clichés."
"Fine," Freddy huffed, letting Davey scramble outside. He shut the art closet door and leaned on it. "I should be getting back to Spanish anyway. I've been 'in the bathroom' for about twenty minutes by now."
"Won't he ask where you've been?"
"No," Freddy stretched. "And even if he does, diarrhea is pronounced the same in Spanish as it is in English."
Davey shook his head and laughed. Freddy grinned. "I'm a man with a plan."
Davey stood on his toes and put a comforting hand on Freddy's shoulder. "They have things for people like you these days," he said, half-seriously. "You know, like Ritalin. I think you should look into that."
"Shut up," Freddy said affectionately. "See you at lunch?"
Davey nodded. Freddy leaned to kiss him goodbye. It was one of those stupid couple things that he usually laughed at other people for doing. Kissing as if they weren't going to see each other again in a few hours. But somehow, the fact that he was Freddy and Davey was Davey negated the lameness he normally associated with it and made it acceptable. Only this time, Davey ducked as if he was on fire and Freddy ended up with a mouthful of wall.
"Wow," Freddy said, pulling back. "I knew you weren't a hundred percent comfortable with the PDA thing, but that was really -"
"Kyle was walking behind you," Davey interrupted, faintly guiltily. He pointed down the hall, where lo and behold, the little fuck was walking and pointedly not looking at them.
"So?" Freddy crossed his arms, failing to see the point.
"It just doesn't feel right." Davey frowned, moving a safe distance away. He had that look he had on his face whenever he was about to be sickeningly mature beyond his years." "Kissing you in front of him. I don't want to be mean to him."
"He's weird." Freddy moved closer to Davey. "He stares at me like I'm a vampire."
"Nathan does that to me," Davey pointed out. "I don't think he likes me."
Freddy bit his lip. "That's different. Nathan's just being... him or whatever." He shuffled his feet and failed to elaborate. "Besides, he doesn't want us not to be together or anything like that. That drippy fuck actually told me to stay away from you."
"Really?" Freddy nodded. Davey made a face. "He was just being protective," Davey finally decided. "He didn't want me to get hurt. Which, you know, is kind of justified."
"Whatever," Freddy shook his head. "He's just being stupid. I'm not going to hurt you."
Davey's eyes softened, and Freddy felt a little embarrassed. "No, you aren't." He glanced at the clock and started walking backwards down the hall. "I have to go. See you at lunch?"
"Yeah," Freddy said. "Look, he's even fucked up our goodbye dynamic. What are we supposed to do? Wave? Pound? High-five?"
"Just be nice," Davey called back, disappearing around the corner.
- - -
Sometimes, when Davey was lying on Freddy's bed taking a makeout break, his brain sort of wandered. On very rare occasions it was to strange places, like, why were oranges the name of a fruit and a color? How was it that no one was creative enough to make two separate words? Mostly, though, he thought about Freddy, because Freddy was the one dozing next to him, looking thoroughly kissed and, well, hot, and he thought about things like how he really liked Freddy's eyes, and how they sort of crinkled in the corner in a permanent smile, or how interesting that tiny dip in the middle of his lower lip was, or how nice it was that he was doing this with Freddy, and not Kyle. Or...
"Freddy," Davey said softly, running a thumb over Freddy's temple. Freddy made a grunting noise and burrowed further into the bed. "Freddy," Davey repeated more insistently.
"What?" Freddy asked.
"How many people have you done this with?"
"Two, including you," Freddy replied instantly.
"What?" Davey sat up abruptly.
"I've only cuddled like a girl with two people," Freddy sighed, turning over onto his back. "And one of them was a girl."
"How many people have you kissed," Davey clarified.
"I don't know," Freddy said, looking thoughtful. "Sometimes I was drunk. It gets sorta hazy."
"Slut," Davey muttered. "Okay, how many people have you hooked up with?"
"Also don't know," Freddy replied. "Again, sometimes drunk, sometimes hazy."
"Fine," Davey said, exasperated, "how many people have you had sex with?"
"Oh, that I know," Freddy grinned, as if this was some sort of great achievement. "Eleven."
"Christ," Davey moaned, burying his face in his hands. "You've been tested, right? You're not... infested, are you?"
"No," Freddy said, affronted. "I know about, you know, condoms."
"They're only ninety - wait," Davey's eyes narrowed. "Eleven. And blowjobs count as sex."
"Of course blowjobs count as sex," Freddy replied, confused.
"There are twenty guys on the JV Soccer team," Davey said slowly. "So the math says..."
"Oh," Freddy's face fell. "Well, okay, so I may have sort of lied?"
"About the number?"
"No," Freddy muttered, sitting up. "I, um," he looked at his feet and drew small circles in his sheets, avoiding Davey's eyes. "I may not have hooked up with the entire soccer team?"
"But Joey says -" Davey began, and Freddy cut him off with a little laugh.
"Okay, so I had this crush on Zeke Jackson, so we hooked up and I blew him before our first game," Freddy explained. "You know, black, muscular, huge smile..."
"No, he's really cute," Davey said. "Senior, right?"
"Yeah," Freddy said. "And we won by a lot. And then by next game I liked Austin Danvers, he graduated last year. Hot. So I blew him, and we won, and it became this joke, since we had an amazing season, and then Joey heard and totally flipped out because they were all his friends, so we just... kept up the joke."
"And that's how you met Joey," Davey clarified.
"Yeah," Freddy gave Davey his biggest, dirtiest shit-eating grin. "It helped my reputation, and he's the only one who believed it, anyways."
"Oh thank God" Davey sighed. "I thought you blew Vlad Stoyavich."
"Oh, hell no," Freddy gagged. "And then... wait, you thought these admittedly, quite luscious, lips were on Vlad's dick?!" Davey nodded. "And you wanted to kiss them anyways?" Shamefacedly, Davey nodded, and then squeaked when Freddy tackled him to the bed and started joyfully peppering his face with kisses.
"Attack!" Davey giggled, squirming under him. "Mercy! Mercy! What the heck?"
"You must love me," Freddy sing-songed, "you kissed me and you thought I had Vlad cooties. You looooove me."
"I'm re-thinking that," Davey laughed, reaching up to pull Freddy down and kiss away the lie that neither of them were quite ready to admit was a lie. But Freddy was kissing him so sweetly and tenderly that Davey didn't doubt, not for a second, that Freddy didn't feel as strongly as he did.
"I like you, too," Freddy gasped when he was done, resting his forehead against Davey's. "More than those other people."
"I like you better than Kyle," Davey agreed. "Sorry, that's all I've got. Slut."
"Prude," Freddy laughed into Davey's mouth, and Davey was just too happy and pre-occupied to really argue the point any further.
- - -
The problem with Kyle was that the asshole wouldn't go away. When Freddy was pushing his tray through the lunch line (he couldn't risk going out twice in a row, and stealing from Davey every day felt a little douchey) Kyle showed up and firmly planted his tray next to Freddy's, shooting him a glare.
"Hey," Freddy said brightly. "Pass me one of those fajita things?"
Kyle shot him a dirty look.
"Never mind," Freddy grinned. "I think they have onions in them. Davey wouldn't appreciate that."
"I don't know why Davey's with you," Kyle said coldly. "When everyone knows you're -"
"Me neither," Freddy interrupted cheerily. "Just lucky, I guess. Want an apple?"
"No," Kyle sniffed, reaching past him, pointedly letting his skinny elbow hit Freddy as he made his fruit selection.
"A banana," Freddy said incredulously. "That's... well, that's a lot of things I'm not going to get into in front of the lunch ladies."
"Just you wait," Kyle hissed, narrowing his (stupid, green, incongruously pretty on his stupid face) eyes. "I'm going to steal him back."
"I'll be waiting," Freddy assured him. "Desperately, terribly frightened."
"You should be," Kyle sniffed, piggy nose high in the air as he stalked away. And that was when Freddy decided it was war. Kyle seemed to too. He started following Davey around again, constantly interrupting them to give Davey something or talk pointlessly for ages, ignoring Freddy completely. Also, according to Davey, if Freddy wasn't there, he said some really, really insulting things about Freddy and Freddy's libido and how Freddy should probably be washed in disinfectant, and no amount of Davey telling him off would stop him. In retaliation, Freddy started making out with Davey even more, especially around his history classroom. Davey's eyes would get narrow and little calculating, but he was an extremely good sport about the whole thing as long as Kyle wasn't watching, because that, he claimed, was tacky, and he was above stooping to Kyle's level of tacky. He'd said as much when he pulled away from Freddy when Kyle had rounded the corner to history. Freddy had had his back to Kyle, so he made a sad whimpering noise when Davey had pulled away.
"Kyle's coming," Davey whispered, smiling regretfully up at Freddy. "I don't want to rub it in. I know he's acting awful, but he's hurt. And I feel really, you know, bad about how I'd ended it."
"Don't be," Freddy said vehemently, pulling Davey into his arms, which Davey seemed to think was an acceptable threshold of affection. "Kyle's a douche, obviously"
"Hi Kyle," Davey said pointedly, looking over Freddy's arm, where Kyle was standing with his arms crossed.
"That level of," he put up his hands to make air quotes, "so-called 'affection' is wildly inappropriate, and not conducive to a learning environment."
"A what?" Freddy asked, blinking. "Are you for real?"
"Yes," Kyle said haughtily. "Affection should be displayed appropriately. Not all of us are man-whores like you who need to be sterilized for the general public's safety -"
"Hey," Davey interrupted, an edge of steel coming into his voice. Davey didn't usually use his scary voice. In fact, Freddy hadn't heard it for two and a half weeks, when he'd tried to steal Davey's blueberry cheesecake square, but when he did it was pretty awesomely badass. Especially when he wasn't using it on Freddy. "You just crossed the line. That's my boyfriend you're talking about." Freddy beamed. "And," Davey said, his voice getting very quiet and deadly as he stepped out of the circle of Freddy's arms, "he's my manwhore now, so go in the classroom and stop bothering us, Kyle."
"But, but," Kyle looked like he'd been slapped in the face. "But Davey, you deserve so much better! Didn't I show you that in that time we spent together?"
"Okay one," Davey said, starting to look really annoyed, "you can't find someone better for me than Freddy, and two, yeah, you did teach me that, which is why I broke up with you for him. So go the hell away, stop following us around, and stop bothering me." Kyle made a wordless and girly noise, like he had just had his magical fairy unicorn toy taken away from him and flounced into the history classroom. "Thank God," Davey sighed, clenching his hands in the lapels of Freddy's coat and dropping his head to rest on one shoulder. "I have never been gladder to have a teacher just change their seating chart."
"Um," Freddy managed.
"Sorry you had to see that," Davey said ruefully, as if he had just done something to upset Freddy. "But I think at this point he was just being a jerk and didn't even care if he got me back or not. I know it was really awful, but - "
"Are you kidding?" Freddy finally said hoarsely. "That was the sexiest thing I have ever seen you do."
"Really?" Davey asked, lifting his head to grin blindingly at Freddy. "I meant it, you know. Every word."
"Oh my god, you're fucking amazing," Freddy groaned, tilting Davey's head back and kissing him in a manner that was definitely wildly inappropriate on school property and was usually reserved for the grand finale of makeouts when they were in his bedroom. Very alone. But Davey had just gotten all mad and sexy and defensive over him, quiet little Davey, his quiet little Davey, and god, he was perfect, he was so fucking perfect and sexy and Freddy didn't care if the entire school was watching them right now, he would keep moaning into Davey's mouth and grasping at Davey's face and do it naked, so help him. And Davey seemed totally on board until the bell announcing the end of passing time rang.
"Crap," Davey gasped, pulling away. His hair was sticking up horribly from where Freddy's fingers had been tugging on it, he was flushed and wild-eyed, and his mouth was even pinker than usual and a little swollen looking. He looked amazing. "Okay, really important test review today, but meet me at the end of class? I think I might not be hungry for, you know, lunch today."
"Me either," Freddy said, swooping in and giving Davey one hard, last kiss goodbye, not even caring that he'd probably get a detention for being so late to Spanish again.
- - -
The second problem with having a boyfriend, Davey was quickly discovering, was that it was impossible to get anywhere on time. Freddy wasn't clingy, but he had the attention span of a goldfish. Except where it came to Davey. Davey suspected that he would never understood why, but even the parts of himself that he thought were lame or at best, random - the type of mechanical pencil he used or which pirate movies were his favorites - were strangely compelling to Freddy, worth lengthy text message conversations and half-serious arguments in between classes, and long walks that always ended up in Davey almost being late to class.
Math was the worst. It wasn't at all Davey's fault, the class was scheduled right after lunch and Freddy nearly always magically materialized to walk him there, even if he was eating lunch in the cafeteria with Chris and Nathan. But walking to class with Freddy meant just about everything besides walking to class, and Freddy certainly had no objections about being late to his own subjects, so Davey always ended up frantically sliding into class twenty seconds before the bell rang.
The one day Davey didn't make it, Mr. Brown had his back to the door, writing something on the board. Davey carefully inched towards his seat while all of his classmates giggled silently - and then pretended not to have noticed when Mr. Brown abruptly turned around.
"Sorry for being late," Davey said politely. "I just --"
"No excuses," Mr. Brown shook his head. "That'll be a tardy. Where were you?"
"I was -"
"Never mind," Mr. Brown rubbed a hand over his forehead. "Just take a seat, David," Mr. Brown snapped briskly. "Let's not waste any more time on the issue, hmm?"
Davey slid into his seat, stewing until the end of class, by which point he’d gotten so irritated he barely returned the kiss Freddy gave him hello.
"What's wrong?" Freddy asked, brow furrowing.
"Late again," Davey replied, shortly. "Seriously, I was late and he freaked out. It's not even really about being late," Davey hesitated. Freddy stared at him expectantly. "I don't think he likes me very much."
"What teacher is it?" Freddy asked.
"Mr. Brown."
"Short guy, kind of balding, weird comb-over?"
"Uh-huh." Davey sighed, making his way to biology, but he held Freddy's hand while they were walking because, well, he wasn't that angry.
"Oh yeah," Freddy nodded. "He doesn't like you."
"Thanks," Davey said sarcastically."How do you know? Did you have him before or something?"
"I've seen him over your head, sometimes, when we're kissing." Freddy smirked. "You know, shooting disapproving looks."
"Oh," Davey felt his heart sink.
"He must see us making out a lot," Freddy added, almost gleefully. "His car is parked across from mine. In the faculty lot."
Davey groaned. "Please tell me you're joking."
"Nope," Freddy looked curiously at Davey. "Why?"
"I think we were," Davey blushed, and "Uh, on it, once. They're the same color and I think you thought we were already at your space, but we weren't."
"Really?" Freddy grinned. "I didn't notice."
"You wouldn't," Davey muttered. "I just started walking backwards after a while and you followed me. I didn't think he saw us."
"Well, it's not as if he hasn't had - " Freddy bit his tongue before the rest of the thought could come tumbling out. He looked like he was doing a poor job resisting the urge to break out beaming. "If it wasn't that, it was something else, wasn't it? We're kind of... I mean, it's sort of all the time."
"Yeah," Davey said mournfully. "You don't think he's…?"
"No," Freddy said flatly. "I mean, he's old as balls. I bet if you had a rack and I only gave you a high five he'd be mortified. Cheer up," he hit Davey lightly on the shoulder. "It's not that bad. Loads of my teachers don't like me."
"You don't understand," Davey wailed. "This never happens. Teachers love me."
"Well, get used to it," Freddy wrapped an arm around Davey's shoulders. "You're hardcore now."
"This is all your fault," Davey murmured into Freddy's sleeve. "All of it."
"Mhmm," Freddy nodded happily. "You're getting all disreputable now for me. Hey, this is exactly like Grease. You're Sandy and I'm Danny and you've just put on the leather catsuit."
Davey rolled his eyes and poked Freddy in the ribs. "Except not. And since when have you seen Grease? You complained for like an hour about Chicago even though you totally would have loved it. I thought musicals were something Freddy Does Not Do."
"Can't run away from everything," Freddy shrugged. "Besides, Regina made me watch it with her and Pops."
"You probably had a crush on John Travolta, didn't you," Davey teased. "You wanted to be cool and wear a leather jacket and have a great big cleft in your chin."
Freddy groaned. Davey laughed.
"Don't worry about it," he whispered to Davey semi-seriously. "Really. Teachers always love nerdy dorks like you, even if they do happen to make out with their hot boyfriends everywhere around the school, because he's utterly irresistible."
"You're an idiot," Davey said affectionately, kissing where it had become a little rough from stubble under Freddy's chin. He never was a thorough shaver."I really mean that."
"Thanks," Freddy whispered happily into Davey's ear before kissing it.
.
- - -
Freddy had two types of fantasies he liked to visit when he was alone and lying on his bed. One was the kind that required tissues and hand lotion and pretty exclusively starred Davey's hands and mouth performing lethal combined assaults on various parts of his body in a completely X-rated way. But the ones he loved the most were the ones he'd dreamed up before they were dating that were mostly rated PG (PG-13, if he was feeling racy). Of course they'd usually degenerated into X-rated fantasies, but he really liked wallowing in the girly parts. Secretly.
One of his favorite ones that he revisited over and over was Davey visiting him at work, occasionally kissing the bajesus out of him over the counter, but mostly just being there, watching him work, handing him stacks of Britney's new album he was forced to shelf and making disparaging comments. And if he wanted to bend Freddy over a counter and, you know, did dirty things to him, that would be okay too. But no matter how many times he begged and hinted and told Davey his hours, Davey staunchly refused to come. "I'll get hand-groped by Dan again," he'd say, or "I'm too busy with my homework" or "you're the one who can drive, I'd have to walk". And while these were all valid points, that didn't mean Freddy was okay with them, it just meant that he'd pretty much accepted the fact that Davey would never show up at work and make out with him in the storage closet.
And then, one day, about a month into dating, against all probability, the door jingled two minutes before closing time.
"We're closed!" Freddy shouted from the back of the store where he was sweeping up detritus and the stray cigarette butt.
"According to the sign I've got a few minutes," a familiar voice said from the doorway, and Freddy dropped his full dustpan with a clatter.
"Davey?" He yelped.
"Yeah," Davey said. He looked a lot abashed and a little nervous, his hands stuffed in his coat pockets. "I, uh, finished my homework early and wanted to see if you wanted to come over, and Mom was driving past to go to the library and Joey isn't home to bother us, and you're always asking me to come visit, so..."
"Of course I want to come over," Freddy grinned, leaning down and kissing Davey firmly on the mouth until he squeaked and his hands came out of his pockets and grabbed on tightly to the sides of Freddy's t-shirt.
"Awww, gross," Dan's voice came from somewhere far away, and then a crumpled piece of paper hit the back of Freddy's head.
"Okay," Freddy panted, tearing himself with great difficulty from Davey's mouth. "What the fuck?"
"Your technique is ass," Dan informed him. "Hi, Davey."
"Hi, Dan," Davey sighed, rubbing his thumb distractingly under the hem of Freddy's t-shirt.
"Davey," Dan said gravely, picking up the broom and leaning on it. "You need to do better than Captain Douchepants here. Did you see his technique? With the cheek stroking action? Like you're a fucking dog?"
"Hey," Freddy said, affronted. "Davey loves that."
"I taught him that," Davey piped up.
"It's true," Freddy said. He'd never really considered caressing and stuff like that until Davey did it, and it felt really nice. So he'd tried it and Davey had all but purred and melted into him, which Freddy counted as a win.
"What's your technique, anyways?" Davey asked, his eyes deceptively wide and innocent-looking.
"My technique?" Dan furrowed his brow. "My technique is... shut your face. Your mom liked it last night."
"That doesn't even make sense," Davey said sadly, and Freddy had to choke back desperate laughter.
"So I'm taking off early," Freddy said. "You get to clean up, think of it as paying me back for all the times I do it for you."
"Oh, wildly unfair," Dan groaned, tagging after Freddy as he grabbed and shrugged on his coat. "C'mon dude, just because your pretty little boyfriend - "
"What?" Davey said from the doorway.
"Did I or did I not close up for you when you wanted to go to that kegger last week?" Freddy asked, throwing his bag over his shoulder.
"Yes but - "
"Bye, Dan," Freddy said firmly, closing the door on Dan's upturned middle finger.
"So about why I don't visit you at work..." Davey grinned up at him, hair fluttering in the wind and the rain.
"Much less fun than I'd imagined," Freddy assured him, wiping some stray raindrops off of Davey's cheeks tenderly. "So, about making out at your empty house?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Davey laughed, grabbing Freddy's hand and dragging him towards the car. "I know you only want me for my body."
"Damn straight," Freddy said. "It's really all I think about."
"Shocker," Davey said dryly, getting into Freddy's car. "Take me home, Casanova. With lines like that, it's a wonder I manage to resist you."
"I wonder about it all the time," Freddy agreed.
- - -
Davey slumped down in the car seat, curling his toes happily. Freddy was staring at the road more carefully than Davey had ever seen him, focusing on his driving and pretending very hard not to like Sondre Lerche, as if Davey couldn't tell he was into it. In the beginning, Freddy had been too polite to comment on whatever Davey chose to play - but now, he was all too willing to whine, cajole and beg his way into getting Davey to skip tracks on his mix CDs. It was telling that he didn't have a single word to say about this CD, good or bad.
"You like it," Davey said, slightly smugly after the first few songs. "Actually, you don't. You love it. I can tell."
"I don't," Freddy protested. "It's just jazz light. Jazz for people who don't like jazz."
"Right," Davey said, grinning. "You're tapping your fingers."
Freddy glared at his hands, flexing his fingers. "I've got ADD or some shit. I tap my fingers all the time."
"Sure," Davey said, moving to the edge of his seat and reaching towards the stereo. "I'll just take the CD out and we can, I don't know, listen to the radio instead." Freddy caught Davey's hand in midair, blanketing his outstretched fingers quickly with his calloused palm. They were both silent for a few moments. "Oh," Davey grinned. "I guess I'll just leave it in, then."
"You're sadistic," Freddy said affectionately. "You know that?"
"You're the one who decided to give me music privileges, remember?" Davey poked Freddy on the shoulder. "Back when you were trying to convince me you weren't a jerk?"
"Worked, didn't it?" Freddy said quietly.
"Maybe." D.
"Here's your place," Freddy nodded, pulling up slowly to Davey's house, with its brightly lit windows. He slowly turned the car off, staring at the steering wheel awkwardly.
"Okay, what's up?" Davey frowned. "You've been looking like you wanted to say something all day."
"Yeah," Freddy looked faintly uncomfortable, or maybe like he was going to vomit.
"So?"
"I just wanted to say that this is, uh, nice. I don't usually do this." His cheeks were slightly colored.
"Listen to different types of music?" Davey teased. "Yeah, you really should branch out. There's a whole world of stuff outside of jazz."
"No, stupid," Freddy said. "I meant us."
"Us?" Davey said, completely lost. Freddy looked almost offended at first, but then nodded mournfully.
"Don't make fun of me," He sighed. "I mean it. It's been going pretty well, hasn't it?"
"Of course I think it's going well," Davey said, furrowing his brow. "I wouldn't be dating you if I thought it was going badly."
"I mean, two months, that's, like, a long time," Freddy hedged.
"Didn't you date Elizabeth, like, a year?"
"You're being very difficult," Freddy whined. "I'm trying to tell you important stuff."
"I'm sorry," Davey soothed, leaning over the console to kiss Freddy's cheek. "What were you saying?"
"I..." Freddy looked helplessly down at Davey. Something strange was going on in that brain of his, but what, Davey couldn't tell what in the dim light from the street lamp. "I'm trying to tell you that I, you know. I love you."
"Oh," Davey said, blinking, and then, "Oh," and lurched forward to grab Freddy's face and kiss him as deeply as he could with the stick shift digging into him. "I love you too," he panted when he pulled away. "In case you couldn't tell."
"I'd have told you ages ago, if I knew it'd make you this happy," Freddy laughed, nipping at Davey's lower lip. "I have forever."
"You say that to all the boys," Davey chided.
"You're the first, actually," Freddy admitted quietly. "The first boy. Elizabeth and I said it ages ago, but it feels... it feels different with you."
"Good different?" Davey asked, raising one eyebrow. "Or euphemistically different?"
"Really good," Freddy said quickly. "That's what I meant by stuff going well. Like, me having... feelings."
"Idiot," Davey said fondly, leaning in, and he and Freddy did the car-shuffle to get into a comfortable position for making out that they'd gotten so good at, which mostly involved them clambering into the backseat so they didn't have to deal with cup holders and necking like idiots simultaneously, Freddy's hands working their way ever-so-slowly down Davey's backside like maybe doing it slowly would make it so Davey wouldn't notice, but he made a distinct annoyed noise to let Freddy know he did, grabbing for his wrist and hauling it away.
"Davey," Freddy whined. "I'm collecting my dues."
"Oh, so that's why you told me you loved me," Davey squinted suspiciously. "You just want a piece of this."
"Well, yeah," Freddy said, as if that was patently obvious. "It's just true, too."
"I take mine back."
"Too bad," Freddy grinned. "Still want to have sex with you."
"I'll have to think of another brilliant plan," Davey said mournfully, tilting his chin so Freddy would have better access to continue the nibbling exploration he was embarking on on the side of Davey's neck.
"Tell me when you have one," Freddy said, voice muffled.
"It'll take a while," Davey warned.
"We've got time," Freddy assured him, kissing his chin. "I think we're going to be together a while."
"Good plan," Davey agreed, kissing Freddy again. "Excellent plan."
Soundtrack:
Anyone Else But You - The Moldy Peaches (lyrics)
Toothpaste Kisses - The Maccabees (lyrics)
I'm Tongue-Tied - The Magnetic Fields (lyrics)
(I Wanna) Call It Love - Sondre Lerche & the Faces Down Quartet (lyrics)