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As soon as Georgia said “Okay, your two minutes are up,” Sarah released the breath she’d been holding.
“Ha! huff And you said I couldn’t do it, bitch!” she puffed.
“Oop- language!” Jon called, at this point more a running joke than actual discipline. There was nothing more intoxicating than the smell of marshmallows toasting over a bonfire on a muggy summer night, surrounded by good company and hardly a camp counselor in sight.
Georgia shrugged. “Hey, I really thought you were just bragging, but that’s pretty cool. But I still doubt you could swim the whole time too.”
45… 46… 47… Off in the shadows, hanging from a tree, Damian softly counting his upside-down crunches. (His shirt remained firmly tucked in so it wouldn’t fall.)
“Fight me,” Sarah jabbed. “Okay, who’s next… We still going around the campfire?”
“No,” came from Kylie.
“Yes,” Georgia insisted.
“Does it even matter?” Dylan groaned. “God, just pick someone already.”
“Okay Dylan, you’re up,” Sarah said with a mischievous grin. “Truth or Dare?”
“Truth.”
“Scaredy-cat.”
“Not funny,” Dylan grumbled.
“Now let’s see…Hm?” Georgia leaned over and whispered something in Sarah’s ear. She giggled. “Okay, okay. Dylan. Truth time. Did you or did you not make out with Jonathan earlier?”
Both of the boys suddenly got very red, and it wasn’t the bonfire heat.
“Hey, no fair, pick your own question!” said Jon.
“I’d totally agree, if that even applied. But that’s not what I was whispering about,” Georgia explained.
“The wha…?”
Dylan gulped. “I did.”
The eruption of squeals and I-told-you-sos from the girls might have masked the loud “thump” Jon heard in the brush- and maybe the string of arabic curses, too; he wasn’t always sure what normal humans would or wouldn’t hear. But he had a slightly more pressing issue at the moment. “Seriously dude? You just outed us like that?!”
“I’m sorry! I’m just scared of Sarah’s dares, okay?!”
“Wait, you’re more afraid of getting dared by Sarah then you are of everyone knowing you’re gay?” Kylie asked. “Mad respect, actually.”
“Speak for yourself,” Jon grumbled. “Anyway, we didn’t ‘make out,’ it was just the one kiss so you can go ahead and get your heads out of the gutter!”
“What gutter? I was just tryin’ to win back my twenty dollars on a sure thing,” said Georgia.
Dylan gasped, betrayed. “You’ve been betting on Truth-or-Dare?!”
“Hey, we had to do something to keep it interesting after someone broke the six-pack,” said Sarah, glaring at Jon.
Jon stood his ground. “Underage drinking’s illegal anyway. You should be thanking me.”
“Why are you friends with him again?” Kylie asked.
“Later,” Georgia whispered, but Jon still heard.
“Hey Dylan, it’s your turn, right? Now’s your chance to get back at the girls,” Jon suggested.
“Ooh, you’re right.”
It was right about then that Jon noticed Damian had sat down next to him on the smooth-cut log seat. “Oh. Finally decided to join us?”
“Hey we’re kind of in the middle of something?” said Dylan.
Damian shrugged. “I overheard. The game’s finally sounding a little interesting so I changed my mind.”
Sarah smiled, ever the devil-child. “The more the merrier.”
“Yeah,” “Sure,” the other girls agreed.
“Alright. Georgia. Truth... or Dare?” Dylan said, playing up the drama.
Georgia sighed. “Dare.”
“Okay,” Dylan said quietly. “I dare you… to give me and Jon twenty bucks. Each.”
“What?!” Georgia shrieked.
Sarah: “That’s insane!”
Kylie: “That’s robbery!”
Sarah again: “Shouldn’t that be illegal?!”
Jon: “Yeah, that is not what I had in mind.”
“But that’s how much she said it was worth to her to out us, yet we’re the ones directly affected,” said Dylan. “So pay up.”
Sarah fired back. “Hey, you didn’t have to answer, Dylan! You could’ve just taken a dare instead!”
“That question was a trap and you know it!”
“GUYS!” Suddenly, all eyes were on Damian as he passed $20 bills to the other boys. But when Dylan tried to take his, Damian held on and glared. “That dare was shit. If I were Georgia, I’d expect an apology.” Only then did he release his grip.
“Thanks, but I was ready to pay,” Georgia said, getting out her wallet. “So I guess I should just give these to you, or…?”
Damian folded his arms. “I’d just comp you later anyway. Like I said. Shit dare.”
“O-okay. Thanks.”
“Tt.”
Jon looked between Georgia and Damian. What just happened???
And the rest of the group was just… uncomfortable.
Dylan was the first to speak up. “So if she didn’t follow through, does that mean I ask for a Truth, or…?”
“I’d say it’s her turn,” Kylie replied. And everyone seemed to agree.
“Okay…” Georgia thought about it for a bit. How to best break the tension…? “Damian.”
“Dare.”
“Take your shirt off.”
“No.”
Crickets chirped and Jon’s marshmallows caught fire.
“Why not?”
“Why would you even ask me to do something like that?” Damian seemed genuinely confused.
“Uh because… it’s a dare? Like, the normal kind of dare that normal people do?” Georgia explained.
That’s what Jon thought. An icebreaker to dispel the tension. But since she didn’t know Damian, it backfired spectacularly. “She kinda has a point,” Jon conceded.
Damian turned to Jon. “You know why I can’t do it.” Jon merely shrugged.
“Aw, come on!” Kylie begged. “You were the only one wearing a t-shirt at the lake but you're working out constantly! Means you gotta be ripped, right?” She nudged Georgia’s arm. Georgia shifted in her seat.
Sarah smiled. “What, ‘fraid of showin’ off with these two around?”
Dylan got up. “Well I’m out. You comin’ Jon?” He headed for the trail without waiting.
“Dylan, wait!” Jon hollered, but, obviously to no avail. Then he just, sighed.
Sarah shrugged. “What’d I say?”
“I do not have the energy to unpack that,” said Jon.
And then Damian tensed up. “Fine.”
“Hm?”
“Fine, I’ll do it,” he said.
Jon grabbed his shoulder. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“No. It’s… fine. It’s something I’ve been needing to work on anyway, so, I’ll do it. Besides,” Damian looked to Georgia, “It wouldn’t be much of a dare if I didn’t need a little courage. As for why… well. You’ll see.”
“Okay, if you’re sure…” Jon withdrew, and scooted a bit to give Damian more room.
“Well what are you waiting for, a drumroll?” said Georgia. “Come on, just, get it over with”
“Okay.” Damian took a deep breath, then slowly untucked his green turtleneck, and lifted the lower hem up over his head, stretching to pull his arms out of his sleeves. The girls gasped. The flickering bonfire’s shadows not only defined every single coiled muscle, but cast every single scar into sharp relief, from the smallest knife-sharpening cut to the enormous starburst over his heart. His chest was criss-crossed with a decade of cruelty laid bare for all to see.
“Dayumn,” Kylie said at last, “I knew you’d be hot, but…” she whistled.
Damian frowned. “Um. Thank you.”
Georgia put her hand over her mouth, taking a second to process.
“What happened to you?” asked Sarah, tactless as ever.
Jon jumped in. “Oh, no, he wouldn’t wanna give you nightmares-”
“It’s okay,” Damian said. “My mother, she wasn’t exactly what you’d call mother of the year. See, she uh, she let me play with power tools. A lot. These criss-crosses here,” he pointed to on a section of his torso, “were from an accident with a circular saw when I was six. It kept vibrating and I could barely hold on to keep it from cutting deeper, let alone get it away from me. It was a horror show.” He went through each and every scar, telling pre-fabbed lies about pocket knives, hedge trimmers, lawnmowers, even a play sword. He’d clearly rehearsed this; this was his Theater Face.
And while Damian impressed the girls pretending to bare his soul, Jon stared into the fire, remembering every fragment of the truth he’d slowly collected over the years. Moments Damian let his guard slip because, like it or not, they were partners; brothers-in-arms. Closer than friends because they held each other’s lives in their hands each and every day.
Closer than friends and yet… never more.
That slice mark wasn’t a weed whacker. It was Poison Ivy’s chainsaw-grass.
Jon went off to pee in the brush. And then he took a walk, the long way around the lake back to his cabin. He wasn’t in the mood to see Dylan either; he’d probably try to kiss him again. And he might not turn him down, but… it didn’t feel right.
“Kent!” Damian (now fully clothed) jogged up to him from the opposite direction he was going, and stopped in front of him.
“Hey. Party over?”
“A counselor spotted me shirtless with three girls and broke it up.”
“Ah.”
“How about you? How are you holding up?”
“I dunno.” Jon shuffled his feet. “Twenty bucks richer, somehow?” Damian cracked a smile but said nothing. “Um. I think I’m gonna need to talk to my friends after tonight. That uh, took quite a turn. In more ways than one.”
“I’d say,” Damian agreed.
“Yeah.”
“So…”
“So?”
“...you like boys, huh?”
Jon clicked his tongue. “Yeah… I… guess we need to talk about that…”
“I suppose there are details, like the changing room at the fortress,” Damian said, which made Jon turn a shade pinker, “but those can wait. Right now I’m just happy for you.”
“Thanks, D. Means a lot.” Jon kicked a pebble toward the lake. It skipped twice before plunking below the surface.
“Anytime.” Damian crouched to search for a suitably smooth stone. “So, who is this Dylan I’ve heard sooooo much about?”
Jon knelt down to help. “He’s… no one. Just my cabin mate. We got to talking earlier and… well you might call it an experiment I guess.” He found a really nice one and handed it to Damian. “That’s literally all there is to it.”
“I see.” Damian stood, curled his arm in as if he were about to throw a frisbee, and slowly extended it to practice the movement, repeating a few times.
Jon looked up for a sec. “Why do you ask?”
Damian continued aiming. “Well if you were to become more involved than that it would necessitate an extensive background check. You never know who might be an enemy agent.”
“Aw, I knew you cared,” Jon teased.
“Is there anyone, then?” Damian asked. “Who I should… check on?” He slung his stone, landing a solid fourteen skips, shattering the moon’s reflection in the lake’s still waters.
“I dunno, maybe?” Jon picked up a few and took a shot from where he sat. It plunked. “He goes to our school but he’s kind of moody and distant… hates talking about himself, or talking to anyone…” He flung another stone, without even trying to skip.
Damian sat down on the ground beside him, legs stretched out in front of him. “Hm. Sounds a little shady to me.”
Jon chuckled. “Yeah, yeah a lot of people seem to think so. But if you don’t just write him off, he’ll surprise you in all sorts of ways.” His third toss was also a dud.
Damian cocked an eyebrow. “Oh? How so?”
“...I dunno. I should probably stop.”
“No, I don’t mind.”
“It’s just a stupid crush, I don’t even know if he’s gay, let alone if he might like me back-”
“Truth or Dare.”
“What?”
“The game,” Damian explained. “You never actually got a turn, as I recall.”
Jon thought about it. “...okay, I’ll bite. Let’s go with Dare.”
“Then your challenge, should you choose to accept it,” Damian said, “is to march right up to your crush the very next time you see him, and kiss him where he’ll know you mean it.”
Jon rocked his head back and squinted. “That is so not fair."
Damian shrugged. “Hey. It wouldn’t really be a dare if you didn’t need a little courage.”
Jon puffed out a long breath. “You’re right. As usual.”
“Damn right,” Damian said with that wicked smile of his.
“Mind giving me a second? To, y’know, process?”
“Sure. Take your time.”
“I’m gonna tell him,” Jon breathed. “I am going to look him straight in the eye and I’m going to tell him how I feel and I’m going to risk everything we have because… ah I dunno...”
“Because you deserve to be happy,” Damian suggested. “Of all people in this hellhole of a stellar system, you, Jonathan Kent, deserve someone who makes you happy.”
Jon looked him in the eye. “You’re right,” he said. “As usual.” And then before Damian could respond, Jon leaned over and gave him a quick, shy peck on the cheek, pulling back just as quick and turning away.
Damian ghosted his fingertips over the spot Jon kissed. “You mean it?”
Jon nodded furiously, eyes shut tight.
Damian stopped his bobbing chin with his hand, slung his other arm around Jon’s shoulder, and slowly, tenderly kissed him on the cheek, right about the same spot on the opposite side. “I mean it too,” he whispered when he was done.
“Really? But I thought… the girls, you were flirting-”
“Maybe it was what you might call an experiment,” Damian replied. “I wasn’t quite sure why I wasn’t interested in them until after… you know. After they got past my scars.”
“Oh.”
“Thanks for standing up for me, by the way. I’m… glad, that you remembered how- I’ve struggled with that in the past.”
“Oh, um… I wasn’t actually standing up for you,” Jon admitted, “I was just kinda… jealous, that they were getting to see them too.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it’s kinda stupid, but… you were always so private, and… I thought, letting me in like that meant something. I dunno, like I said it’s stupid-”
“No, it did mean something,” Damian said quietly with a reassuring squeeze. “The first time I showed you was just as hard as tonight. Harder, even.”
“But you literally just started changing in front of me-”
“-like normal straight boys do in normal school locker rooms. Which, at the time I thought we were, straight, I mean, so as usual the hangup was all mine, from the League…”
“Wow. Guess the scars run pretty deep…”
“You have nooooo idea.”
“I have some idea.”
“You really don’t.”
“C’mon, I’ve known you what, almost five years now-?”
“And all you’ve seen are ripples on the surface of the pond,” Damian insisted.
“But once the surface tension breaks it’s easy to sink to the depths,” Jon countered.
Damian chuckled. “You know what I love about you?”
“What?”
“It’s so easy for you to say stuff like that with a straight face.”
Jon playfully shook his head. “Oh, honey. This face ain’t straight.”
“Good thing, too- I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t… you know, when I overheard you kissed Dylan I was simultaneously so relieved and pissed that I fell out of a tree?”
“I know. I heard.”
“Tt. Figures.”
Jon reached for Damian’s hand and took it. “I’m glad it all worked out in the end though.”
“Me too…” Damian moved to kiss him on the cheek again, but Jon turned so that, right then and there, under the moon and stars, the two of them shared their first true kiss. It wasn’t quite the stuff of fairy tales, mind you; it was pretty sloppy, actually, for two boys who had ostensibly done this before. There was quite a lot of sucking involved. Noses and teeth would butt in where they were least wanted. And they still weren’t sure what to do with their hands. But for what it was, it was good. It was real, and it was theirs.