Chapter Text
Your name was Keaton. Keaton Core. You were sixteen, you’d just moved to Middlesex from some bummy town down south. You moved with your parents, the house itself was nice. Two stories, a basement, it was honestly pretty awesome. Although you were a bit of a loner, no friends, a small family, and well… you weren’t exactly mentally stable. Anxiety, depression, possible BPD, that was your life. It was October of 1988, your parents had just enrolled you into Middlesex High School. Well, you decided fuck it, might as well enjoy it instead of dwelling on the fact that you were a loser and most definitely wasn’t going to have any friends.
Monday, October 3rd
It was your first day of school, it went as follows: Wake up, get dressed, make shitty oatmeal, catch the bus, go to school, go home. That was it. That was your schedule. You had it jotted down in a notebook. This followed for a week, a comfortable week, nobody spoke to you and you didn’t speak to anyone. Well, that changed drastically.
It was Monday, October 10th. You were going about your usual routine, until you got onto the bus. You were peacefully going to your usual seat, seat 13. Until you noticed someone was sitting there already. He was a dark haired boy, blue eyes. He looked… nice, you assumed. Did you sit with him? Fuck no, that’s how you get bullied. So you sat in 12, where the boy could see you and you could see the boy. Well, of course he just HAD to wiggle his way into speaking to you, for whatever damn reason.
“Is this your seat…?” He questions, tapping your shoulder to grab your attention. You look at him, puzzled, “What? Oh, yeah. You can have it.” You say, a bit too monotone for it to be normal. He tilted his head, he looked like he was reading you instead of trying to actually speak to you, “Yeah… okay. Uh, well, I’m Donnie.” He smiles, it’s not like a normal smile though, it’s kind of one of those where you wanna end the conversation and never speak to this dude again. You just nod, not bothering to give your name, because you were kind of a dick, not on purpose, that’s just how you acted. Donnie just looks confused before scoffing and sitting back into his seat.
The bus arrives at school, you get off, Donnie behind you. You don’t bother to look at him, you don’t bother to acknowledge anyone, you never do, this isn’t any different. You walk to the first period, physical education. Time goes by, it's the seventh period, English. You sit by Donnie, well, you never noticed that until now. Mrs Pomeroy goes on with her usual lesson, some shit about books. You were paying attention, writing notes. Towards the end of class Pomeroy announces that there will be a partner project based on Graham Greene, an analysis, she picks the partners. She gives a list, then she gives you and your partner.
“Donald Darko and… let’s see… Keaton Core.” She says in her usual melodramatic empty tone. Of fucking course you think to yourself. You look to Donnie, Donnie looks to you. Class was dismissed. You get up, so does Donnie. Once mostly everyone was outside to wait for the buses to arrive, Donnie tapped your shoulder. You look at him. He speaks. “Keaton. That’s a cool name. So… we’re partners…?” He sounded too enthusiastic. You wanted to strangle him for it. You nod. “Yeah. We’re partners. How exciting.” You say with no enthusiasm and an undertone of sarcasm. Why was you being so openly hostile with him? Fuck if you know, trusting people was hard. He nods back, taking the hint. “Yeah… uh. Would you wanna… come over? Maybe? Work on this shit?” He offers. You look to him like he’s fucking crazy. “Come over? To work on a project? … Not really, I’d prefer to go to the park or… something to work on it.” You blankly state, you look taken aback as is. He just nods.
You two make plans for the following day after school, meet up at the local park to work on this project. You made amends with yourself to not be such an asshole to Donnie.
Tuesday, October 11, Middlesex Park.
You ride your shitty red and black bicycle to the park, sitting down on one of the benches with your book bag. Donnie arrives on his blue bike shortly after, he approaches you, giving a little wave. You wave back, trying to look as inviting as possible despite wanting to kill yourself for it.
He sits next to you, and you guys have an actual conversation that wasn’t dry and miserable like all the other interactions you two have had up to this point. You learnt some stuff about him too, his upbringing, he was sixteen, he has two sisters, Elizabeth and Samantha, some shit about his parents, and also how a jet engine had hit his house?…What the fuck? He learnt some stuff about you as well. You learnt that you both had some mental issues, not relating to each other but more of realizing you two might understand each other more than you initially assumed. You found yourself actually enjoying Donnie’s company, and you were actually pretty bummed when you had to go home for dinner. That project? Yeah, that shit will not be getting done.
Friday, October 14, Your Home
You and Donnie had decided to hangout. It was a Friday, your parents were out of town, and you decided fuck it, Donnie seemed cool enough and you trusted him enough to not be weird or anything. Well… he had weird tendencies, but that’s beside the point. He seemed to be paranoid a lot, sometimes he’d mumble some, but you didn’t mind it. It was weird as far as you could tell, but also you really didn’t care.
You get off the school bus at about 3 PM, Donnie was coming over later that evening (around 6 PM) because you had to tidy up your room, shower, and just do basic chores. So you did said chores, got everything tidy enough, then put some comfy clothes on. (Which consisted of a pair of gray sweatpants and a baggy Voltron shirt.)
Same day, 6 PM
You get a knock on the door, you walk downstairs and unlock the door, letting Donnie in. He was dressed nicely, that’s the first thing you noticed. Nice black jeans, white oxford shirt, and black and white Adidas campus shoes. He immediately smiles at you. “Keaton! Hey, dude.” He says, enthusiastic like always. You smile back, stepping to the side to let him in. “Hey, Donnie.” He steps inside, you guys walk upstairs to your room. Once upstairs you both sit down on the edge of your bed, the conversation was light until romantic interests were brought up. You didn’t really have a preference, you were conditioned to believe being gay was wrong but you didn’t really agree with that. You just assumed you were straight because that was normal. “Uhh. I’m not exactly… I don’t think of people like that.” You try to explain. Donnie tilts his head, he wasn’t buying it. “Nobody? No judgement, but really? No girls? No boys? No one?” He asks, he wasn’t invading, just curious. You shrug, “I dunno. I just don’t think about it.” You were vague, super vague. He nods. “I see… I don’t care, y’know. If you’re… uh, gay. It wouldn’t be… abnormal.” You nod, you didn’t like being pushed about it. “Yeah… it’s not abnormal. I’m not, though.” You were defensive, not rudely so, you just really didn’t need this guy to know anything yet, you didn’t know how he was. So you ask, “What about you…? Any relationships?” He looks at you decently deadpan. “I don’t really date, not in the cards… never really had a relationship, to be honest. I uh… are you homophobic?” He asks, he’s not exactly being wary like you are, straight to the point. You shake your head. “Homophobic? Not at all.” He nods. “I’m gay. Like 100% gay.” He says, “I’ve never really had an interest in girls.” He continues. You look taken aback, never had someone so blatantly come out to you like that, of course. “Oh. Yeah, okay, I see.”
Things weren’t really awkward after that, coming out to you and all, he still didn’t know what your sexuality was, and you didn’t plan on telling him until it was brought up again. Or until you figured it out yourself. He trusted you enough to tell you that information, and honestly… that trust was a lot. You guys were hanging out a bunch, almost everyday after school. You even started going to his house. Well. Things escalated a bit.
Friday, October 21 - about 7 PM
You were over at his house, and you heard his parents. Rose and Eddie, get into it. Donnie was in the bathroom, you were in his room upstairs, and all you heard was his parents talking about schizophrenia. You couldn’t make a lot of the words out, but you heard “Donnie” and “Schizophrenia” a few times. Once he got back to his room you decided to ask him about it. “I heard your parents… not to be nosy, but they mentioned Schizophrenia? Who… Who has schizophrenia?” He immediately switches, his face dropping, he looks at you like you grew another head. “Oh. Uh. That’s… That's–.” He stutters, trying to put his words into a coherent sentence. “Me. Uh. Me. That’s… yeah. I have schizophrenia.” He says it with a flinch, like he’s expecting you to yell at him. You look at him, surprised, taken aback, and a bit bothered. Not because he’s schizophrenic, but more so that he didn’t tell you. It truly was not an issue of any sort, you weren't exactly educated on schizophrenia, however it hadn’t affected you and Donnie up to this point so why should it affect you now? That would be selfish and childish to get pissed off now. You just look at him for a moment before finally exhaling and shrugging. “Okay, well, that’s new.” You say it pretty blankly. Donnie knew you were hard to read, it was one of the only problems he had with you. He sighs. “Is it really that big of a problem? I mean… fuck.” He says, defensively. He continues, “You never had a problem with anything about me before. Why is this a dealbreaker? It doesn’t affect you.” You immediately shake your head vehemently. “No… I’m not upset that you’re schizophrenic, you can’t help that. I’m more upset that you didn’t tell me. I mean, I get it… but still, that’s something I find necessary to know about, y’know?” He sighs once again, looking to the wall like it’s the most interesting thing he’s ever seen. “Yeah, I suppose. I just don’t have any friends, as it is, me being schizophrenic has always been a dealbreaker.” You shake your head. “Look, it’s not a dealbreaker. I still want to be friends with you, I just don’t know anything about schizophrenia.” Of course you didn’t, that wasn’t something you’d know unless you purposely researched it, which you had no reason to. He nods. “I expected that, not a lot of people understand it, everyone just assumes I’m crazy and that’s it.” He clears his throat. “I see shit. I see fucked up shit. Mostly, I see Frank.” pause “He’s a six foot tall bunny rabbit that tells me the world’s gonna end and… tells me to do shit that I never do because its just… fucked.” He looks at you. Honestly, you could see it on his face that he was expecting you to get up and leave. You narrow your eyes in confusion, you nod, when you speak it’s a bit hesitant. “... So you see a six foot tall rabbit that makes you want to do shit?” You look away. “That’s… okay. Wow. Not what I expected.” You look back at him. He chuckles, he’s looking at the wall. He speaks. “Yeah. It sounds crazy, I’m aware. I’m on meds, though.” You sigh, more out of relief that he wasn’t unmedicated and telling you shit that you quite frankly freaked you out. “Okay… Well, that’s… yeah. Okay. I don’t even know where to begin on how… strange that is. Not that you’re schizophrenic but rather that you see a six foot tall bunny named Frank.” You both kind of laugh it off, you didn’t really have any more input. You stayed over at his house and that was that.