Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 17:28:23 -0700 (PDT) From: Fup Duck Subject: Under Pressure - High School 06 STANDARD DISCLAIMER: Let's see: 1. If it's illegal - don't. 2. If you can't accept it - don't. 3. If you're underage - don't. That about covers it. REALISTIC DISCLAIMER: Be safe.... For those of you who care, RennFest was excellent! Gotta love guys in "regimental' kilts! ;-) Important chapter warning! LOL Don't get too peeved at me for this one, ok? I was sort of cringing when I wrote it. More at "David's" actions and reactions than anything. Sure am glad he grew up. But it needs to be here. Remember the emotional rollercoaster that is everyone's life? Well, the chain has disengaged...... Here's Chapter 6 of the ride...... Fup ****************************************************************************** FROM CHAPTER 5 "You ok?" Kelly asked concerned. David smiled, "Better now, girls are a pain." Kelly nodded sagely at David's comment, then burst out laughing. They were still laughing when they entered their classroom and sat, getting some stares from their fellow classmates. UNDER PRESSURE/HIGH SCHOOL 6 - Dark Clouds, Silver Linings Tuesday morning was dreary. The sky was gray. The air was gray. It was one of those days where colors seemed too extreme, too bright against the colorless backdrop of the sky. It was hard for David to put on his 'good son' mask and face the day, but he did it anyway. He remained quiet through breakfast and the bus ride to school. The misty rain dampened his skin and closed as he trotted into school, not willing to get any wetter, but also not wanting to look stupid running from the bus to the door. Pushing through the doors, the typical morning bustle seemed too loud after the deadened sounds of the day outside. Opening his locker to hang up his jacket, he saw the necklace hanging from the coat hook. Only one person had his locker combination, and he smiled. The necklace was just a beaded chain with a small seashell attached. He smiled as he put it on, his mood instantly brightened. He'd have to ask Kelly privately where he got the shell. Kelly had never mentioned going to the beach. He got his books and walked toward the bank of lockers where the other guys were standing. "Hey, you weenies," he greeted, smiling. "Weenies! Weenies!" Steve complained, then grabbing his heart he collapsed to the floor. David reached down with his hand to pull Steve off the floor, "Awww, c'mon Oscar, get up." "Well, at least everyone is in love with me," Steve smiled, grabbing David's offered hand and standing up. "Well, everyone has a dream," laughed Jim. David grinned at Kelly warmly, "Hey Kel." "Ooooh sure, we're weenies, and he's not," mock-complained Steve. Shaking his head at Steve's antics, Kelly lightly punched David's shoulder, "Hey." Then he turned to Steve, "You can just call me Mr. Mayer." "Call you something else," Steve mumbled with a grin. The boys slipped into their normal morning routine and Kelly glanced at David and smiled, "I see you found the necklace, hope you don't mind." "Yeah, you never told me you went to the beach." Kelly started laughing, "I haven't. That's from Sally." David felt like he had been punched. "You let her into my locker?" "No," Kelly said, surprised at David's reaction, "She gave it to me, and I put it in there. She likes you, you know." David was silent, then he exploded, "FINE! Just wonderful! Thanks a lot.....friend." The other four stopped their joking and laughing and focused their shocked attention on the other two boys. They shifted a little, waiting to grab hold of Kelly and David if this escalated into blows. David glared at Kelly, then turned away, "I'm going to home room. See you all later." He started walking away, then turned back, taking off the necklace and handing it to Kelly, "Give this back to her, I don't want it." Kelly started after David, who was now walking quickly down the hall. Catching up, he put his hand on his boyfriend's shoulder, "Wait up man, I'll come with ya." Still walking, his eyes focused on the hallway ahead, he hissed, "You don't really have to baby me you know. Just go back to your friends." Then he shrugged the hand off his shoulder. He felt his stomach clench, and headed toward the nearest bathroom. Rushing through the door, he headed for the nearest stall, bending over and heaving his breakfast into the bowl. He dropped to his knees, and heaved dryly once or twice more, then stood up and rinsed his mouth out and wiped his face. He leaned against the sink, waiting in case he had to do it again. He heard the bell ring for home room as he was resting there, his stomach settling down a little. He felt the cold sweat break out as his stomach clenched again, and started back toward the stall. Before he reached there, his stomach returned to normal. Breathing deeply, he flushed the toilet and left the bathroom, heading toward the office. He needed to go home. Entering the office, he quietly announced to the secretary that he had just been sick and thought maybe he should go home. "You do look a little peaked," sympathized the woman and after looking up his mother's number from his file, she dialed as David sat down on one of the office chairs. She hung up the phone and told David that his mother was out of her office, but would call back when she got in. "Come on back here with me," she said kindly, "You can lay down on one of these sofas for a bit, maybe it'll make you feel better." David laid down on the offered sofa, closing his eyes and throwing one arm across them. "Sweetie, if you need to vomit again, use this trash can ok?" David nodded and softly said his thanks as the woman left the room. He lay there drifting in and out of sleep, hearing the bell signaling the end of first period and the muted sound of the rest of the school changing classes. The noise got louder as the office door opened, and he heard an unintelligible question being asked of the secretary. "He's resting, waiting for his mom to call back. He vomited earlier this morning, now you boys get to class." The noise peaked again, then died as the door closed. David drifted off again. When his eyes opened again, he looked at the clock. 10:30? Where the heck was his mom? He sighed and sat up, his face in his hands. His stomach seemed to be ok now. He slowly stood up anticipating his stomach rebelling, but it didn't, so he walked out into the front office and told the secretary that he felt better, eliciting a smile from her. "That's good hon, you look a lot better. Think you still need to go home?" David shook his head, "Don't think so, I feel ok." "When is your lunch period?" she asked. When David told her it was the first one, she wrote a note, saying, "Well, you can't go back to class with only 15 minutes left, so here's a pass to go to the library. Just stay there until lunchtime, ok?" Nodding, David took the note, collected his books and headed to the library. Sitting in a chair in the back corner of the racks, he pulled out a random book and opened it. He sat and stared the words, hearing the class change bell ring. He thought about going to the lunch room, but was enjoying the quiet here. And he really didn't think he could do lunch at the moment. He knew he was acting like a spoiled brat, but at this moment, he really didn't care. He was hurt and needed time to 'lick his wounds.' He was still staring at the book when he sensed someone looking at him. Looking up, expecting to see Sally, his stomach lurched when he saw it was Kelly, a few feet away, staring at him. He met Kelly's gaze, then turned his eyes back to the book. He sensed his boyfriend (?) approaching and sighed as he closed the book, raising his head. "Ok, what's going on?" Kelly asked. "Just studying, man." Kelly looked at the cover of the book on David's lap. "So, since when are you taking a photography class?" "Look Kel, I'm sorry, alright? I didn't mean a lot of what I said this morning. I'm sorry I thought the necklace was from you - but you're the only one who has my combination. I'm messed up, man. I really don't know what's happening. I don't know how to feel, ok? I just don't. I don't know how to deal with it. Everybody says it's wrong, and queer and stuff. I just don't know." Kelly was surprised at this whispered 'pouring out of his guts' from his boyfriend. David was normally good at holding back emotions, sometimes even Kelly didn't know exactly how he was feeling. Then Kelly whispered, "We're going to the library tonight. We have a science project. Meet you there at 7." After Kelly turned to leave, he reversed his course and bent down to David's ear. "Dave, I love you man. Just ease up a little ok? Meet me at the library." Then he butted his forehead against David's ear and left. That afternoon, David did something he never thought he'd ever do. He skipped his afternoon classes. After Kelly left the library, he made his way to the back doors of the school which opened up onto a patio and the path to the football field. He made a right, still on school property, lots of kids walked around at lunch, and made his way to the soccer field and ball diamonds which were surrounded on two sides by woods. Glancing around to see if anyone was watching, he slipped into the trees, walking a little ways before sitting on a stump, out of sight of anyone, but still able to hear the class bells. He sat there all afternoon, mind working overtime trying to figure out what he...they were going to do. He kept an eye on his watch and about 15 minutes before the last bell, he cautiously left the woods, heading back to the school to catch his bus. He managed to avoid his friends, for once glad none of them rode his bus and made it home without incident. He moped around until his parents got home, informing them of the 'project' he and Kelly were working on for science, getting approval to ride his bike to the town library when he was ready to go. At 6:30, he started riding. About three-quarters of the way there, his mind settled on what he was going to do. Actually, what he needed to do. He didn't know how Kelly would feel about it, but he was tired of feeling this way. Slipping his bike into the rack outside the library, he went in, flashed a smile at Mrs. Bruchey, and made his way to one of the back tables. He only had to wait a few minutes before he saw Kelly pull up in his parents car and make his way toward him, a serious smile on his face. "Hey," David offered. "Hey." "Let's get out of here," David suggested. "You sure?" "Yep, I need a soda, how about you?" "You buyin?" Kelly smiled. "Yep, I'm buyin. Let's go." Whispering to the librarian they would be back in a little while, they left the building, David turning right up the street, his eyes straight ahead, convinced he was doing the right thing. They walked a few feet, silently, then David turned back the small alleyway between the library and the next building. "Ummm, the soda machine is up the street, Dave." "I know, but I think we need to talk about some stuff, don't you?" "I guess, you're not going to kidnap me or something are you?" David snorted, still not looking directly at his friend. "What do you think?" "I'm not worried about what I think, I'm worried about what you're thinking," Kelly replied seriously. The boys exited the other end of the alley and kept walking, crossing through the grass between two apartment buildings. At the back of the apartments, they jumped the chain link fence and were in the back of the town park. Looking around, David turned to face Kelly. "Look, I think you really need to know what I think," he said. Kelly nodded slightly. David sat down on a picnic table bench and patted the seat next to him. Somewhat reluctantly, Kelly sat down next to him, a foot of space separating them. "Ummm, where were you this afternoon?" Kelly ventured. David giggled, "I skipped." Noting the surprised look on Kelly's face, he added, "I had to think." "Oh." "Kel, I think we're messed up, man." "But.." started Kelly. "Shhh, let me go on or I'll never get it out ok?" "Ok." "Anyway, we're messed up. I know that, you know that. We're not normal." Sensing Kelly about to interject, he raised his hand, stopping any response from the boy sitting next to him. "I'm having a problem dealing with that. We're supposed to have girlfriends, then get married and have kids. Right?" Kelly nodded, remaining silent, his expression unreadable. "But we've got this thing going on with us. We both like it, probably love it would be more right (grin), but it's wrong." David noticed wetness in Kelly's eyes, he needed to wrap this up before it got too emotional, or he'd lose it too. He reached over, putting his hand on Kelly's shoulder and squeezing, "But I love you too, Kelly Sites. And no matter what it takes, having 'girlfriends' in school, pretending we're just friends, or whatever, I'm glad we're boyfriends." "Dave....ummmm," Kelly began, angrily wiping his eyes. "I hate being a baby." "Yeah, but you're my baby, baby," David smiled, squeezing Kelly's shoulder again. "Don't call me baby." "Awwww, aren't we supposed to have secret names for each other?" David teased. "You ok?" Kelly asked, turning serious. "You always said I think too much. And anyway, Nanny said that you couldn't do that, you had to go with your gut." "If I remember correctly when you first told me," Kelly smiled, "it was 'heart'." "Yeah, but that sounds too, I dunno, girly?" Kelly snickered, "Yeah, you have a point I guess." David raised his eyebrows, "Better?" "Yeah, I was kind of worried that you were bringing me out here to break up or something." "Nah, I had to do it this way or we never would have got it straight. I'd kiss you, but..." David shrugged his shoulder at the other people in the park. "S'ok, got plenty of time," smiled Kelly. "We're good." David said, not a question. "Yep, good." "Well, guess we'd better get back to our project, huh? Want a soda?" David leapt off the bench and ran toward the fence giggling. Kelly followed, threatening bodily harm when he caught up to him. ***************************************************************************** Told ya to keep the faith. I took a little 'literary license' with this part. The real incident lasted a day longer than the story. Our library wasn't open on Tuesday nights. lol So I condensed the "David being an asshole" part. If you've read everything up to this point, you can imagine. LOL I can assure you that David's revelation and declaration is a lasting change in his thinking. There are still doubts and questions, but it doesn't get as bad as this one time. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or feedback. email: fupduckmd@yahoo.com AIM and Yahoo: fupduckmd Fup