Akrasia (bxb)

Chapter Two

David took in a long drag of his cigarette as he looked over his family's new house. Just like he suspected, his father placed a confederate flag and an American flag right next to each other, perched right on the railing. He watched in disgust as the wind ruffled through them.

"I'm ready." Abigail called out as she shut the door and threw her bag over her shoulder in one swift movement.

"About fuckin' time." He grumbled, even though he'd only been waiting outside for three minutes. He enjoyed seeing her face scrunch up with annoyance though. It always made his morning.

Abigail rolled her eyes at him just before hopping into the passenger side of David's car, making sure to slam it just right to make David flinch.

Fuckin' b***h, David thought to himself as he stomped out the rest of his cigarette. "Be careful with my baby, alright?" David warned once he was safely tucked into the driver's seat. The warning only resulted in another eye roll.

"You do realize it's a car, right? Not an actual person with feelings?" Abigail teased, her tone lined with mock concern.

He turned the key in the ignition, listening to the glorious rumble of its engine. "What was that? Couldn't hear you. You might want to speak up." But before she could actually do that, he turned the radio on, where his cassette tape was still inserted from the day before, and blasted Metallica at full volume.

She gave up after awhile and just stared out the window, her grip tight on her book bag. He kept his eyes on the road, his fingers tapping against the steering wheel. He learned early on to keep the windows up or he'd most definitely smell cow s**t on the way to school, but sometimes not even that helped. He also just learned to live with it.

If his mom were there, she would have made countless poop jokes and puns. And he'd laugh-he wouldn't have before, because who really cared for puns anyway? But he'd laugh then, just to see her smile.

He hit the gas, the sound of it and the thrill of going just over the speed limit made the thought disappear. He didn't need to think about her.

"Jesus Christ-Slow down!" Abigail screeched as she clung to the dash. David ignored her; it wasn't like he was going that much over the speed limit anyway. He could go way faster if he wanted to. But the poor kid looked like she was about to piss herself, so he kept the same pace. They were close to her school already anyway.

He only slowed down when he reached the school zone and pulled into the middle school building. He parked near the entrance, and waited for her to get out. Abigail gave him one hard glare before stepping out and made sure to give the passenger door another slam as she walked off.

David flipped her off once her back was turned. Once he got that out of his system, he got back on the road, and made the short trip to his own school.

Metallica was still blasting through the speakers as he pulled into Grimsley High School. Home of the Whrilies.

Go team, David thought dryly as he cut his car off. He still had time before homeroom, so he took the opportunity to pull out a cigarette and survey the area. It seemed like a lot of other students had the same idea, as they leaned against their own cars with their respective cliques.

His eyes landed on Michael Smith and his BMW. David took in a long drag as he looked the boy over. He had his hair pulled back again, in a low pony tail down his back. David couldn't help but wonder how good he'd look with it out and cascading over his shoulders.

Michael had his arm wrapped around his girl's tiny waist. Her name was Rebecca Stewart, and she was perfect. Her hair was blond, straight and parted perfectly in the middle. Her lips were covered in pink gloss as she smiled up at him. And not only was she gorgeous, she was smart, too. Top of their class.

And even though Michael was looking at her, David couldn't get the way Michael looked at him out of his head. David wanted Michael to look at him that way again.

He got out of the car then, lit cigarette still between his lips as he shut the door behind him. He could feel eyes on him, and once he looked up, he could see Michael and his friends looking in David's direction. He smirked and gave them all a nod. His friends waved him over, and David didn't miss the look of distain on Michael's features as he walked towards them.

The two friends were twins, a boy and a girl. The girl, David didn't know her name, was staring up at David with a look of pure want. The boy came up to him first though and held his hand out, "Hey, man. David, right? My name's Brian." David took his hand with a strong grip, giving it a firm shake.

"Nice to meet you. And who's this?" David asked as he pulled his hand away to take the cigarette out of his mouth. His gaze fell to the girl, to her freckled and flushed cheeks. She must have had a perm; her red hair big, curly and full of product.

"The name's Brooke, cutie." She purred. It made Brian roll his eyes and groan in disgust. David made sure to at least give her a warm smile in return.

David didn't really care about them if he was being honest. He turned his head towards the couple, and could instantly see the look of disgust in Rebecca's eyes as David took in the last hit of tobacco before crushing the butt of it with his boot.

"And you must be Michael and Rebecca. Grimsley High School's power couple, I hear."

Her scowl turned into a bright smile then as she reached out with her dainty, finely manicured hand. He gave it a gentle shake, his eyes still on Michael. The long haired boy forced a smile as he visibly struggled not to let his eyes wonder too far.

"How's Greensboro treating you?" Michael asked as Rebecca dropped her hand and wrapped it back around his waist. Michael sucked in a quiet breath as he took David's outstretched hand. His hands were warm and calloused; they felt good against David's. They were big, too, his fingers nice and long.

David made sure to give him a good onceover, his long eye lashes working in his favor as their eyes met again. Michael's cheeks turned a slightly darker hue and David couldn't help but smirk at the sight.

"It's a far cry from my home back in Cali. But from where I'm standing, things are starting to look up." David's tone was soft, almost sultry. Michael let his hand drop down to his side and let out a small, nervous chuckle.

"That's good to hear, man." Michael looked towards Rebecca, who was off talking to Brooke about a paper due in AP U.S. History. David was in the same class as her, so he knew what assignment she was referring to. He'd done it already even though it wasn't due until the end of the week. He learned the hard way that if he wanted to go out and do things, he had to get all of his assignments out of the way first.

Couldn't let his grades slip, not even once, or he'd be punished. William would make sure of that.

"Oh, right. Did you hear about the party happening this weekend, David? You should stop by. It's at Magi's house." Brian said, making Michael's head turn harshly in his direction, the question are you serious? etched to his features. Brian didn't seem to notice, and that only amused David more.

The look was gone as quickly as it appeared. He looked back up at David with another forced smile as he spoke, "Yeah, you should definitely come. It's a pool party, so bring a bathing suit."

"Cool. See you then, Smith." David gave him a two fingered salute and a slight wink as he finally turned away and entered the home of the Whirlies.

He could still feel Michael's whiskey brown eyes on his back as he walked through the double doors.

~*~

That day has started off just fine. His first few classes before lunch had gone off without a hitch. His teachers liked him well enough, especially the ladies. English class was his favorite, and the teacher was always sweet to him, and not in a creepy way either.

When he finally made it to lunch, he sat next to the jocks. They called him over on the first day and urged him to sit with them. They liked his car and thought he was cool. It seemed like a good place to start, and David liked sports too, so making conversation had been easy.

He wanted to sit next to Michael, but he didn't feel like it was the time yet. Besides, he'd see him in gym at the end of the day. Maybe after the party that weekend he'd make his way over to him. Or maybe not, depending on how that worked out. For the moment, he was just fine with them locking eyes from across the room. That had been happening a lot recently.

Michael would look so nervous, so confused, holding on tighter to Rebecca like she was his life preserver. But she had her eyes somewhere else, on a boy in an otherwise empty table at the corner of the cafeteria.

The sound of David's empty stomach brought him back to the lunch in front of him. The food was gross; some type of mystery meat. It made him remember how his mom used to pack his lunch. And on the days where she seemed happy, she would leave little encouraging notes. At the time he thought they were so lame, really the most uncool thing a mom could do to her preteen son.

He wished more than anything he could have that again.

"Hey, David, you with us?"

He looked up then, the boy's deep voice forcing him to look up. "Uh, yeah. What's up?" David asked as he stuffed a fork full of what was supposed to be Salisbury steak into his mouth. The other boy-Cory or something like that-shook his head at him, an amused smirk playing at his lips.

"Did you smoke between classes or something?" Cory joked. David wished he did. He really wished he was high, like ninety-nine percent of the time. He just laughed it off as he took a big gulp of his sugary soda.

"Anyway, we were asking if you were going to try out for football. The tryouts are next week, if you're interested." Cory said, and his all friends nodded in agreement.

David had already decided he'd be trying out. His dad said it was a good way to get a scholarship. And it was a good stress reliever, too.

"Guess it wouldn't hurt to try." David shrugged half-heartedly, like it wasn't already on his agenda in the first place. The jocks surrounding him all patted his back roughly in their own form of hyper-masculine encouragement and he tried not to flinch too hard at the sudden contact.

Yeah, he really wished he was high.

~*~

David was at his locker, admiring himself with his mini mirror on the inside. He had his history book in hand, and was just about ready to head to class with he felt a presence beside him.

He didn't know why he decided to look up, but he did, and he hadn't expected to see the boy Rebecca had been staring at during lunch. He was going through a locker, which David assumed had to be his even though he'd never seen him there before.

The boy was tall, but his posture was poor, like he was trying to seem smaller, less noticeable. He wasn't all that bad looking either, with dark skin and full lips, his dark hair cut short but starting to grow out with tight little coils. He was awfully reserved though, not even daring to look up at David as he pinned up an old looking photograph.

David shrugged to himself as he shut his locker and turned away.

The sound of a body being pushed up against metal forced him to look back. The boy must have just closed it, because his face was pushed up against it. David stood there, his eyes wide and Brian was laughing, like something was just hysterical about physically assaulting someone.

"Brian, what the hell-" Michael shouted, but was cut off once the boy pushed himself off the wall of lockers and ran in the opposite direction. Brian was still laughing, but neither Michael or Rebecca looked happy. Even Brooke looked uncomfortable.

"What? Just havin' a little fun with the freak." Brian explained with a shrug.

"I can't listen to this." Rebecca huffed as she walked away. Brooke followed close behind.

Michael shook his head at his friend. "That wasn't cool, man. You really need to grow up."

Brian let out another laugh, a cold sarcastic sound. "Like you're not thinking the same thing here. Marcus is just as much of a freak as his brother was. I'm sure David would agree."

"I have no clue what's happening here." David admitted. Michael just shook his head, as if he was saying David didn't need to know. And maybe he was right, maybe David would have preferred not knowing, but Brian was still running his mouth.

"Marcus used to be an okay dude, you know? Then last year his little brother turned out to be some type of queer, saying he wanted to be a girl or some shit."

David could see where that was headed.

He could feel his hands start to shake.

"A few guys set the little fag straight though. Wasn't their fault the b***h decided to slit his wrist like a girl the day after."

David's body flushed with heat. He could feel it in his tense shoulders, down his arms, and even in his fingertips. The image of his mother on the bathroom floor, her blood pooling against the tile, her slit wrists-

Somehow, David was over Brian, one fist in a tight grip around his collar while the other was colliding with his face. His knuckles were already split and Brian's face was bleeding. David couldn't stop, not until the image of his mother's pale face was gone.

"Johnson, stop, that's enough." Michael called out, his voice warm against David's ear as he wrapped his arms around the younger boy's waist to pull him off. After two good tugs, David's body finally went pliant enough to be pulled up to his feet.

Those warm arms removed themselves from David's torso, leaving him cold and dissociated. Michael kneeled to Brian's level to help him up. "Come on, let's take you to the nurse." Michael murmured once the red head was back to his feet. He gave one last look to David, who just stood there, chest heaving. His whiskey brown eyes were soft and somehow not filled with fear as he advised David to just go to class.

He didn't need to be asked twice.

~*~

It was hard to listen to the teacher when he could feel eyes on him. More specifically, Rebecca's eyes. Burning into the back of his skull. His legs bounced, his nerves working to tear him apart from the inside out.

He waited for the intercom to come to life, for the principal to call David Johnson into his office. It was just what he didn't need. If his dad were to find out, he'd get in trouble for sure.

And his dad hadn't been that bad lately. Yeah, he still slapped David around here and there when the boy didn't know when to shut his mouth, but he hadn't beat him since California. David had a feeling that this would just set him off.

He waited, preparing himself for the worse, but it never came.

David was able to get to his last class of the day unscathed, despite some wary glances from other students in the hallways. Brian was nowhere to be found. He couldn't get the possibility of him snitching out of his head, or maybe even Michael snitching.

He didn't want to think about it anymore. He put all of his frustrations out on the court, where the coach had them all doing sprints from one wall to the next for their warm up. David relished in the burning in his calf muscles. It was the perfect distraction.

And maybe he was rougher than usual when their coach decided to have them play a game of dodgeball. He really could not bring himself to give a damn, not even when he threw the ball hard enough to knock the glasses off some poor sap's face.

After half an hour of what David liked to call stress relief, the coach finally blew whistle and said class was dismissed. David made it to the showers before anyone else, and even made sure to get the ones closest to the gym lockers so he'd be able to get dressed and leave again.

The lukewarm water brought little comfort, but it felt nice to wash the sweat from his hair and body. He shut his eyes and just let the water run down his body, thinking about other things, like Michael and his nice BMW. About how he was going to make his move at the party.

He definitely was not thinking about how his dad would react once he figured out he'd already managed to get into a fight. Another f**k up from his f**k up of a son.

It wasn't the right time for a hand to touch his shoulder, not after that train of thought. But there was a hand on his shoulder, and it made the seventeen year old jump, blue eyes wide and frightened like a caged animal.

Michael was right there, his hand still hanging in the air between them. He had a towel hanging low around his waist, and it took a second for David to realize everyone else had left. He hadn't even realized when the water started to get cold.

Michael moved with caution then as he turned off the water himself, like David was going to snap again. David couldn't exactly blame him. He could hardly imagined what he must've looked like beating the s**t out of his friend.

"I.. I just wanted to apologize about earlier. Brian was being an asshole. He went way out of line talking about.. you know." Michael looked visibly awkward talking about it. David guessed he couldn't blame him for that, either. At least he wasn't being as bad as Brian.

"It's.." David didn't know what to say. He couldn't say it was okay, because it wasn't. Someone had died, and Brian was being horrible about it, laughing about it. "Sorry I busted your friend's face, Smith." That was the least David could do. He turned then to head for the lockers so he could finally dry off and get dressed.

Michael seemed to have had the same idea as he followed close behind to get to his own.

"Can't say he didn't deserve it." Smith called out from his side of the locker room. David just forced a chuckle in response as he dried himself off.

"You sure you're okay though-" Michael started, but his voice caught in his throat, it made an audible sound and made David look over his shoulder to face him.

The boy was just in his pants. He had his shirt around his arms though like he was in the process of getting it over his head but was frozen in his spot. His eyes were on David's naked body and David couldn't help but smirk.

"See something you like?" He asked teasingly, along with a slight jut of his hip. The action made Michael sputter and blush as he rushed to get his shirt on. David just shook his head, smirk still etched to his features as he pulled up his boxers and jeans.

"Just messin' with ya." David laughed, and it wasn't exactly a lie. He liked getting under people's skin. But what he seemed to like more though were those whiskey brown eyes drinking in the sight of his body.

He wanted more, but it wasn't the time or the place. He had to pick up Abigail soon.

"...You have.." Michael seemed to trail off, his fingers running through his hair. It was finally down, framing his face beautifully. It looked soft. David was just thinking about how it'd feel to run his own fingers through it, but that train of thought came to a full stop once Michael opened his mouth again.

"..A lot of scars."

David's body tensed. He hadn't expected him to notice them. They'd faded, mostly, from when his father decided to take a belt to his back hard enough to break skin. The man had been really drunk that night, angry at no one but needed to take it out on someone, specifically David. He wasn't sure if his father even remembered doing it.

His face lost all emotion as he put his shirt over his body so he could finally be covered, suddenly insecure. Michael was trying to backpedal, to defuse the situation he didn't completely understand. David wanted to tell him it was okay, but he couldn't find the words.

"I have to pick up my step sister." Was the only thing David was able to give as he grabbed his things and left.

And just like earlier, he could feel those eyes on him, following him out the door without a word.

~*~

All things considered, that day had been s**t. He was ready to go home, sneak a beer out from the fridge and hide away in his room while he blasted his records. He had to go pick up Abigail first though. He hoped she wouldn't piss him off more than he already was.

Which already wasn't going his way since she was taking her sweet time.

He was sitting in the parking lot breathing in the nicotine from his last cigarette-he was definitely going have to get some more before he went home-when she finally made her appearance.

"About fuckin' time." David muttered dryly as she plopped down into the passenger seat. He turned to her, the first thing he saw was her frizzy hair-did she ever brush it?-but then he saw the tears on her cheeks and he felt something weird and tight in his chest at the sight.

"Abby," David said, his tone uncharacteristically soft. She wiped her cheeks and took in a long breath. "What happened?"

Her hands were shaking as she rummaged through her bright yellow book bag. She pulled out a wadded up piece of paper and handed it to him. She still wouldn't look at him.

He threw the butt of the cigarette out of the window and worked to flatten out the wrinkled piece of notebook paper.

Abigail Stacy, the big fat cow.

That was what David was reading, what was written out in big bold letters on this cheap ass piece of parchment.

"Found that on my locker after my last class. There were more, but the teachers took them off and threw them away. I had to talk to them about it, about who could have done it, but I don't know. That's why I took so long. Sorry."

Sorry? She had absolutely nothing to be sorry for.

He ripped the piece of paper down the middle, and then again, and again, until it was nothing but shreds. He threw them out the window, and the wind blew most of it away. Abigail stared at him with wide, hazel eyes.

"Listen to me. You are fine, just the way you are. f**k them. They're nothing, Abby. Do you understand?" David had an intense look in eyes and all she could do at first was blink up at him before eventually nodding.

Feeling somewhat satisfied, he turned on the car and went on his way. He let her pick the music. And when he stopped to get another pack of Camels, he bought her a watermelon slushie, just to cheer her up.

It wasn't like David cared about her or anything. He just wasn't cruel.

That's what he told himself at least, as he watched her bob her head to the music, frizzy hair everywhere.

~*~