Chapter Text
Notice you- fan fic (Part 1)
“What really matters to me is you”
“David, you’re my best friend… my other half”
David woke up from what felt like a dream but it wasn’t a dream. What happened last night was real.
Exer, his best friend, had said those words to him and he could hardly believe it. He needed to thank Ron, without his help God knows how long it would have taken David to have the courage to speak to his old friend again.
Sitting up he stretched out his arms and yawned, simultaneously, the morning birds began chirping. How early was it? He leaned over his bedside table and almost jumped at the time.
It was 5:30.
AM!!
He wouldn’t get back to sleep. If their reunion hadn’t been so soon David would put on his best shirt, and his cleanest sneakers, spend too many minutes fussing over his hair and dashed straight to Exer’s house.
But he couldn’t.
The wounds were just healing, besides it was Saturday, and he would see his friend again in less than forty-eight hours. Damn, was he really counting?
Despite it all, he was still going on a walk, even if it wasn’t with Exer, he needed time alone. In his head and with his throbbing heart.
He tiptoed down the hall, past Brenda’s room and then slid down the bannister, the older he got the more painful the sliding got. Before leaving, he grabbed two waffles and listened to the snores coming from his father’s office. His mom would be upstairs in the master bedroom, fast asleep with a magazine on her head.
Without a second thought, he unlocked the door and left.
***
The sun was just beginning to rise, and the sky was so beautiful a magnificent mauve pink, the light hues mingling with the ever-growing blue.
Exer
A beautiful name for a beautiful face, the beautiful boy who he had fallen in love with.
The boy who was supposed to be his friend.
David was close enough to Exer to know his true depth, he knows what makes him tick
“Did you hear about the targeted arrest of another black man? Over and over again and no one says anything about it”
How he didn’t care about the idea of two men kissing. David had been brave and slightly tipsy to bring up what happened with Rick and Marty seeing David playfully kiss him.
“So you don’t care about the idea of two men… you know being with each other?” David stumbling over his words, he took a swing of his parent’s white wine, and he grimaced at the taste.
Exer took the bottle out of his hand and took a swing for himself, David’s eyes wandered down his friend’s neck the gentle wobble of his Adam’s apple.
Heat scorched David’s cheeks as he felt Exer’s gaze burning through his skin, there was a sparkle in those caramel eyes, inviting, teasing.
David swallowed his heartbeat. Maybe it was the alcohol that was making him warm?
“People can be stupid, they care about the wrong things like who gives a fuck, I don’t.”
There was a pause. At least a nine-month pregnant pause.
“Do you?” Exer looked at him, eyes locked on his, he wouldn’t have been able to look away even if he wanted.
“No, not at all. I mean you know most people find it strange”
Exer shrugged “As I said people care about the wrong things”
David had started running his thoughts were radioactive, persistent and never-ending. When he first noticed his feelings for Exer they were fifteen he noticed how he noticed too much about Exer.
The very little details that everyone missed, he wasn’t just a popular kid.
He noticed the practised smile that would grace those perfect lips when he was speaking to a big crowd, his easy comebacks that rolled off his tongue.
He noticed the moments when Exer didn’t seem completely whole and those moments became bolder than they ever used to. Especially after Jackson joined their school, during Halloween.
Exer’s mind would go somewhere else and David had wanted to go there with him.
Had Brenda got there?
She hadn’t, hope stupid fleeting hope bloomed in his chest. He crushed it with each heavy step he took. Because even if those words last night meant something more than just platonic love. Would Exer want to love him? The world wasn’t so kind to people like David, that’s what he heard people whispering about, and that’s what he saw at the back of the newspaper.
He kept running up the hill that he remembered so well and down another homely neighbourhood. He was almost there.
David realised the more he thought about Exer and Brenda he knew he wasn’t mad about them being together he was mad that Exer didn’t choose him.
Couldn’t choose him.
David noticed the flat mole underneath Exer’s neck, he noticed when a tendril of his hair was out of place and he would imagine tucking it back behind his ear.
He noticed how Exer’s heartbeat jumped at the same speed as his as he held him outside the Coffee shop.
David reached the gates of the school, sweat sticking his top to his back. This was where he met Exer, behind the building there was a playground and a basketball court.
Even then maybe he knew.
"Leave me alone” David had squealed
“Why?” One of the boys said “I much prefer playing with you”
The other lackeys laughed “let’s see what dear mommy made you for lunch”
“Leave him alone” Called a voice, strong and bold, everyone stopped.
“And what are you gonna do about it?”
Exer grabbed one of the basketballs and threw it directly at the lead boy’s head and to David’s surprise, the bully fell flat.
The lackeys looked at their crying friend and Exer, left, dragging the bully with them.
That had only left two, David tried his best to sit up, his hands scratching the gravel, breathing coming in fast in and out of his chest.
“Hey, man are you alright?” Exer asked, his warm brown hair billowing in the wind, he looked like some type of painting the sun creating a golden halo around his head.
“I think so”
“My name is Zer. E-x-e-r” he held out his hand.
David looked at it and lifted himself “David”
“Do you wanna hang out?”
Now David was standing, eyes watering with tears. Why had he been so emotional lately?
But that was a stupid question, he was about to turn to leave when he heard it when he heard his voice.
“ Day? ”
Only one person called him that.
“Ex- Exer? What are you doing here?”
“Memory lane,” Exer said with a slight smile, he was wearing a navy open-collar top and a brown leather jacket, his hair a mess. Just how he liked it.
“Is there something wrong? I thought we sorted it last night”
Those words still felt too fresh on his tongue, too new.
“What really matters to me is you’”
Exer had a sheepish grin on his face, “Do you wanna go for a walk? Seeing as we’re both here”
David bit his lip, “Of course dude, like old times”
And then the both of them took off in a stride. Butterflies bubbled in his stomach.