Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 01:37:50 EST
From: Double A
Subject: Raven Hair(16)

Disclaimer:

     After a hiatus of sorts, I am back with another story! Yay!
Anyway, due to personal problems, I've been unable/unwilling to write much
of anything for a long time. Here is a new story from me to you. For those
of you who know my style and enjoy it, you should really like this
one. Like I said, though, I haven't written anything for a while, so I may
be a bit rusty. For those who don't know my style, I tend to use a lot of
build-up and "storyline".  So, if you came on to find a story for a quick
jack-off, then this probably ain't for you. However, if you want to take
the time to read a beautiful tale of young love, then sit back, take a sip
from your glass of wine, and enjoy!

And remember...Always stand up for what you think is right, don't listen to
bullshit, no matter who is saying it, and always speak with your fists and
swear a lot to be heard!

******************

Part 16:

	A lot of things were on David's mind that night, as he lay in bed
and gazed up at the ceiling, tears glistening in his eyes. He thought about
how stupid he was to go to MIND with Aaron, when he was doing pretty well
in Bialik. He thought about how he was the one who screwed up his
relationship with Aaron, by being a mopey bitch. He thought about how much
he dreaded going to school the next morning, after making such a scene at
the park. He thought about how hard it was going to be to face Aaron again.

	He also thought a lot about whether there was any point to staying
alive.  There was no point to his life, he thought, except for Aaron. Now
that Aaron was no longer part of it, it seemed really pointless to remain
alive. Still, if he was going to kill himself, he didn't want to feel pain
or suffer. He remembered once, a couple of years ago, he had talked to
Aaron about suicide and Aaron had said that if he ever killed himself, he
would just take a bunch of pills, go to sleep and never wake up. David
agreed with that totally, but he didn't know of any pills in the house that
could do the job.

	So, the next morning, he woke up, alive for another day, and made
his way to school. He could have easily stayed home, with his black eye,
busted lip and slashed hand, but he opted to go, for some reason he
couldn't quite understand.
	Right from the moment he reached the third floor and walked through
the door and into MIND, he felt as if he was walking into a totally
different place. Up until this point, he entered the school with the
knowledge that he would be in every class with his boyfriend and he took
every other person and thing with a grain of salt. Now, he was noticing
things he never noticed before. It was like being sober for the first time
in years, and David didn't like it one bit.

	"God damn, MIND is a fucking ugly school!" David thought to
himself, as he looked around at the peeling paint on the walls and rusted
locker doors.

	As David walked down the ugly hallway, past the smelly radiators
and rusted lockers, toward the student lounge, filled with crappy furniture
and loathsome colours, David almost smiled as he realized that he was
feeling every fucking corny little cliche that movies and books talked
about. Every class he had, from now on, he was having *without* Aaron as
his boyfriend.  Every thing he saw, didn't look as nice as it had when he
was with Aaron.  The air didn't smell as sweet, the colours didn't seem as
bright and vibrant. David had cut his hair the past evening, no longer
trying to grow it long like Aaron's. David was wearing white and bright
blue, instead of the black that he wore when he was with Aaron. He walked
with his head up, no longer trying to act shy like Aaron. He wore his
glasses. He was now living everything that he had stopped living ever since
he and Aaron became friends.

	As David entered the lounge, he checked his pigeonhole, and removed
a few papers of corrected math homework. He also found a bunch of papers
with written congratulations on them, regarding his victory the day
before. David had actually been beginning to feel better about being free
of Aaron, but these words of congratulations brought him crashing down to
the reality of things. He crumpled them up and tossed them into the trash,
then plunked himself down on a vinyl couch and began crying. There were a
few other students there and they actually got up and walked over to
David. He was feeling really bad, so a few insults wouldn't have hurt him
that much.  However, instead of making fun of his display of emotion, they
each offered their sympathies. One black guy actually put his hand on
David's shoulder and said, "I'm really sorry, man. Nobody deserved to have
that shit happen to them. My name is Quincy and if you...you know...need
someone to talk to about this, I'm here, okay?"

	David thanked him, but said that he'd rather just be alone.

	He remained in the lounge, idly flipping through his work, when
Michael walked in. It was more like he limped in, because he was definitely
favouring one leg and his face was a mess of bruises and cuts. When he
spotted David, he limped over to him and just stood there, appearing as if
he wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words.

	David was tired, depressed and in great amounts of physical and
emotional pain, which all displaced the anger. So, not even caring anymore,
he looked up at Mike and asked, "Yeah, what do you want, Mike?"

	Michael shrugged and said, "David...I just wanted to tell you
that...well...I dunno, I know it's probably too late, but I want to say I'm
sorry. You may think I'm young and don't know about things, but I do know,
okay? I know and I'm just...geez...I'm just so stupid! I'm stupid and
selfish and I'm really sorry."

	David sighed and, tears welling up in his eyes again, he shrugged
and Mike and said, "What the hell is your problem, Michael?"

	Michael shrugged, "I had no idea how much Aaron meant to you, okay?
I mean, I did...but I didn't. You really hurt me yesterday, but I saw part
of what happened afterwards and...well...I didn't want him that way. You
can have him back, if you want."

	David shook his head, "You don't get it, Mike. It's not like you
can just hand him back to me and we can just pretend like none of this
happened. What Aaron and I had when we were 13...14...that's over. We can't
just go back to that. And, Mike, it isn't your fault, or MIND's fault or
the fight's fault.  It's my fault. Aaron never liked me."

	Michael listened and, when David was done, he asked, "Okay, well
then if you don't want him back, can I keep him?"

	David turned his eyes downwards and said, in a calm voice, "Michael
Glazerman, you have about ten seconds to get out of my sight, before I kill
you. And I don't mean that as a joke...I mean that I'm going to take your
body and toss it through the window. You are going to fall about a thousand
feet and you are going to hit the ground and you are going to die."

	Michael nodded, slowly got to his feet and walked out of the
lounge.

	Once he was gone, David wiped his eyes, stood up and walked out of
the lounge too, toward his first class of the day, French.

	Lee didn't even need to ask how the fight went. The entire school
seemed to know exactly what had happened, including the part
afterwards. This, for some reason, made David feel more secure about
things. Aaron, a bone splint on his broken nose, sat next to Mike and they
whispered and smiled at each other for a good part of the class. Lee, a
typically extremely easy-going and passive guy, was extremely harsh toward
Aaron, even threatening to kick him out of the class if he didn't shut
up. He got a similar reaction in all the other classes too. It seemed that
MIND tolerated criminals, freaks, drug dealers, bullies, alcoholics and
even a guy in grade 11 who actually told people that he was a pedophile and
was proud of it, but it had a problem with liars. For that day, David was
actually the most popular kid in school.  Almost everybody had gone up and
asked if he was okay, if they could do anything, if he wanted to go home
early and other things that made David feel somewhat better, including how
funny Aaron looked with his nose all bandaged up. However, just seeing
Aaron in school, actively going out of his way to ignore David, was pretty
hard on him and David spent most of the day with tears in his eyes. Despite
everything that happened and how pathetic it was to admit it, David was
still totally in love with Aaron and it tore him up inside to know that
Aaron no longer felt the same way, not that he ever did to begin
with. Somehow, David managed to complete that day and go home, so he could
better express his emotions into his pillow. His mother wisely stayed out
of his way and left him to mourn his loss.

	Unfortunately, the next day, everything was back to normal, except
for the obvious. It had just been a token gesture of sympathy by the
students, and now they went back to ignoring David. So, now he was
officially in a school where absolutely nobody liked him. Aaron had made
quite a few friends and they chose to avoid David, Michael smiled at David
in the hallway, but he was the last person that David wanted to have as a
friend, especially since now Aaron and Mike were a couple and Aaron would
openly kiss him and hold his hand. It didn't sicken David, but just made
him really, really sad.

	On the upside, the lack of another focus made David excel in school
and, for the first time in his life, he was getting straight A's. The math
teacher had joked that it was too bad David hadn't broken up with Aaron
sooner, but when David ran out of the class, crying, the guy knew that he
had made a mistake. Yeah, David was doing incredible in school, but he
wasn't liking it one bit.

	It got so hard, in fact, that about two weeks after Aaron had
delivered his break-up speech and David had broke his nose, David decided
to just quit going to school. That lasted about a week, until Sharon had
called his mom in concern and now, not only was David going to school
again, but he was grounded when he got home. However, instead of hating it,
he was actually enjoying it again.

	By the beginning of April, Michael had, somehow, found himself a
dope pusher, so he started coming to school under the influence of
something, every morning. David actually loved sitting in class now,
because Michael would inevitably have a drug-induced fit and have to be
escorted from the class by a teacher. It had started out as simple weed,
but it had just progressed up from there. One Friday, Michael had arrived
at school so doped up that he announced to the window that he was too
important to take the time to enter the combination on his lock. After
pulling at the lock with his believed super-human strength for several
minutes, Michael had slammed his fist full force into his locker and broke
all his fingers. Al, the math teacher had escorted the whimpering boy from
the school and to the local hospital. David didn't know why he even cared,
but Aaron had tried a bit of weed, not liked it and decided to stay away
from all drugs.

	May came and the school year began to wrap up slowly. It was the
first Friday of May, and David had left MIND for his lunch hour. There was
a small plaza down the street, which had a bunch of restaurants in
it. David headed there and was trying to decide between NY Fries, or Burger
King, when he heard someone call his name.

	He spun around to see Aaron, Alex, Michael and John sitting at a
booth in the Burger King seating area and smoking. Aaron was actually
smiling at David for the first time since they'd broken up. Despite
everything, compounded by the fact that Aaron was smoking, David still
would have ripped off his right ear if Aaron had asked him to.

	"Dave, come over for a sec!" Aaron called to him.

	David slowly made his way over the booth and sat down in a chair,
across from the bench. "So, how've you been?" Aaron asked.
	David shrugged and replied, "I've been okay, Aaron. How are you and
Mike doing?"

	"Still in love!" Mike exclaimed, and kissed Aaron on the cheek.

	Aaron pushed him away with the hand not holding the cigarette and
then turned to David and extended the cigarette toward him. "Come on." He
said, "Just take one drag, Dave. It won't kill you."

	David looked at Aaron closely for the first time in two months. He
hadn't changed much, except for dying some blond streaks in his hair. The
fuzz above his lip was gone, so he must have started shaving. Then, David
looked down at the cigarette. He very nearly asked, "If I smoke this, will
you be my friend?" before he realized how incredibly pathetic that would
sound.

	Instead, he took the cigarette from Aaron's fingers and put it in
his mouth. He took a small drag from it, before exploding into a coughing
fit and nearly falling out of his chair. Everybody else at the table just
cracked up, but mostly Aaron. The four of them stood up and Aaron looked
down at the still-coughing David and shook his head, "Still the same David.
Still a loser." He said.

	David remained sitting there, still coughing somewhat. He wondered
what would have happened it he would have liked smoking. Would that mean
that Aaron would be his friend again? Or more?

	"Probably not." David admitted to himself as, still gagging, he
picked himself up and left the plaza, vowing to never smoke again.

	Back at school, after lunch, David, Aaron and the rest of grade 9
filed into Geography class and sat down. All, except for Mike.

	"Where's Michael?" Sharon, the teacher, inquired to Aaron.

	Aaron shrugged, "He said he had to go get something."

	She marked him late and began to teach her class. About twenty
minutes into it, Michael shakily walked in. He walked really unsteadily as
he made his way to the back, beside Aaron, and took his seat. Sharon knew
from the look of him that he was loaded on something. Whether it was
alcohol or drugs, she didn't know and she didn't really care.

	As she went back to teaching her lesson, Michael reached into his
pocket and pulled out a penny and a lighter. He lit the lighter and held
the penny on top of the flame. David couldn't help but stare at him, as he
could almost smell the burning flesh as the penny began to glow red and,
obviously, began burning away at Michael's fingertips. Michael didn't seem
to feel it, though, and, in fact, had a rather large smile on his face.
After about two minutes, when the base of the penny was actually beginning
to smoke and bubble, Mike turned to Aaron and, without saying a word, put
the penny on his thumb and jammed it into Aaron's forearm.

	Aaron scream rang through the hallway and he grabbed Michael by the
shoulders and screaming at the top of his lungs, "YOU FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"
lifted him several inches off the ground, the penny still stuck to Aaron's
arm, and tossed him at a desk. The force at which Michael flew across the
room must have been quite strong, because when he hit the desk, one of the
legs broke and he fell onto the chair beneath it and shattered that into
individual pieces. Michael may or may not have been hurt, because nobody
could tell on account of he was giggling like a maniac. As usual, he was
escorted from the room by Sharon and Aaron sat on the floor, crying as he
tried to peel the penny off his arm. David had only seen Aaron cry once
before and he wanted to hug him as much now, as he did then. With a little
help from cold water in the bathroom, Aaron managed to get the coin off his
arm, but he now had a permanent tattoo of Queen Elizabeth on his forehead.

	Aaron never forgave Mike for that, nor did anybody find out exactly
what he was on, but the bottom line was that Michael and Aaron officially
broke up on that day.

	The rest of year went by very slowly and painfully. Aaron was as
miserable and moody as ever and now, instead of ignoring David, he actually
insulted him whenever he got a chance. They had been sitting in the
computer lab at lunch, one day, and David and Aaron were playing Centipede
on one of the Apple IIE's. Aaron beat David, then turned to him and said,
"Can't you do anything? I mean, come on! You're totally retarded, that's
obvious, but I mean isn't there one thing you can do better than me? Try to
think of one thing you can do better than me!"

	David had simply shook his head and replied, crying, "I can't."

	"Of course, you can't!" Aaron had answered, "Because you're
retarded, stupid, fat, ugly and a bitch!"

	There were several more incidents in May and early June, where
Aaron had made David cry. The year finally ended and summer began. David
was scheduled to go visit his father in Vancouver, at the end of June until
the end of July, but he had an idea.

	He'd been discussing it with his mother ever seen late April and,
after some initial problems with it, she's eventually agreed. Then, he
asked his dad and he was all too willing. So, he was going to do it.

	He wasn't just going to see his dad on vacation. He was going to
live them, with his dad and step-mother. He was going to finally get away
from Montreal, his mother, MIND and, most importantly of all, Aaron.

	On the last day of school, before leaving MIND for the last time,
David had passed Aaron in the hall.

	"Hey, Aaron." David had called after him.

	Aaron had turned around and, sneering, answered, "What is it?"

	David had smiled his best smile at Aaron and said, "I love you,
Aaron."

	Aaron had shook his head and said, "Fuck off, you miserable,
depressing freak."

	And that's exactly what David did. He turned around, left MIND and
walked down the street, without looking back. He would be leaving for
British Columbia the next afternoon and he would never have to see Aaron
again. He was so happy, he burst into tears and sobbed the whole metro ride
home. They weren't tears of joy, though.

	He was miserable, because after everything that had happened and
had been said and done, David was really, really going to miss Aaron. It
had been a couple of great years with the Raven Haired boy and he was never
going to forget him. He was glad that it was finally over, though.

	If only David knew how far from being over it truly was.....