Streetlights

John actually attends some lessons the next day – some being the operative word. He wonders when (if) he’ll actually make it through a full day. He guesses he’s lucky in that most of his teachers don’t seem to know he exists, and when he does waltz into their classrooms they choose not to acknowledge his existence anyway.

It’s break now, though, and he’s managed to avoid the Dave Clique all day so far, something which he’s relatively proud of. He’s not been too keen to cross paths with them, especially after the odd threat Dave made yesterday.

“I had the worst French lesson ever,” Tavros scowls as he walks over, throwing his books and bag rather violently to the ground. It must have been pretty terrible, because all the sheets fly out of his French folder and Tavros throws himself face-first to the floor and makes a strangled noise of discontent.

“What happened?” Equius asks, looking concerned.

“Who cares?” Rufioh says. Tavros lifts his head long enough to throw him a glare.

“I hate you,” he proclaims. “You’re the worst brother ever. Ever. If brotherliness could be measured on a scale, Sam and Dean Winchester would be at the top and you wouldn’t even be on the scale, that’s how shit you are as a brother. All you do is masturbate and text me from your room because you’re too lazy to cook for yourself.”

“I get you alcohol,” Rufioh points out. Tavros has to concede there.

“I could get my own alcohol,” he grumbles, and Rufioh snorts.

“Yeah, of course you could, Shorty,” Rufioh says, and Tavros sits up, throwing a handful of grass at his brother.

“Do you have a brother?” he asks John. “Because if you do, I hope to hell he’s better than that twat.”

“No, but I have a cousin who lives with me,” John says, smiling involuntarily. “Jade.”

“Aw!” Equius says, grinning as he hugs his knees to his chest. "Cousins are awesome.” Sollux snorts, ripping some grass out lazily from where he’s lying on his chest.

“You have no idea how creepy that sounded,” he says, and Equius scowls. He’s about to retaliate when John spots someone standing at the corner of the building.

“Rose?” he calls, and the person starts in shock. “Come over.” Rose walks hesitantly towards the group, hanging back a little and not getting too close.

“Hello,” she says, smiling. Tavros turns to look at John, a look (a look) on his face.

“Isn’t she Dave’s sister?” Tavros hisses, and John nods.

“She’s cool though, I promise,” he says. “I went to her house yesterday and watched some movies. Her movies suck.” Tavros’s lips quirk into a smile at that, and it takes him mere milliseconds before he’s nodding his head and turning back to Rose.

“Hey, come sit,” he says, patting the space between him and Sollux. Sollux scoots up so he’s practically lying on Tavros. “Okay, maybe not here then,” Tavros says, trying to sound annoyed, but the effect is completely lost by the huge grin he’s sporting. Rose lingers for a moment before walking over and sitting down in the now huge gap between John and Sollux.

“Rose, right?” Tavros says, and Rose nods. “You’re in my Maths class; I know you.”

“I’m sorry for intruding,” Rose says, and Sollux throws some more grass at Rufioh idly.

“Nah, don’t be,” he says. “John says your movie choices are shit.”

“They are not,” Rose says angrily, throwing John a glare. “Wizard movies aren't the slightest bit shitty.”

“They aren't the slightest bit shit, as in they are very much shit?” John says, grinning as he dodges a slap to the arm.

“Can you stop throwing shit at me?” Rufioh demands. Sollux shrugs, throwing some more grass at him.

“No,” he says. “I’ve already eaten my food. Grass will have to do for now.”

“Tell him to stop,” Rufioh says to Rose. Rose looks slightly overwhelmed and throws John an embarrassed look, so John steps in.

“Guys, why don’t we introduce ourselves to Rose?” he says. Rose looks relieved.

“I’m Tavros, as you know,” Tavros says. “I run this hood.”

“I’m Rufioh,” Rufioh says. “I’m Tavros’s brother, and I’m still trying to get us to become the Sexicans.”

“We will never become the Sexicans. And if we do, we’ll kick you out, because you’re not sexy. I’m Sollux, by the way, the coolest bro to hang in this group,” Sollux says, throwing a dimpled grin in Rose’s direction.

“I’m Equius,” Equius says. “I'm single.” Equius and Rose share a grin.

“Welcome to your new friendship group,” Sollux exclaims. “You can’t get away from us now. Especially Tavvy.” Rose looks stuck somewhere between overjoyed and ridiculously terrified, and John’s about to say something when Tavros mounts Sollux again at lightning speed.

“Are you going to stop calling me motherfucking Tavvy or am I going to have to stop you myself?” he yells, pinning a struggling Sollux down.

“Are they…?” Rose whispers to John, Equius and Rufioh, her face a mixture of glee and something that can only be described as evil. Equius shakes his head with a sigh.

“Hopefully soon, though,” he says. “It’s been years of this ridiculous flirting.” He bites his lip after a moment. “You’re not going to…tell your brother, are you?” Rose shakes her head.

“Dave’s alright, you know,” she says with a sigh, picking at her nail. “I don’t know why he acts like such a dick at school. He’s lovely at home.”

“He wasn’t particularly pleasant yesterday,” John points out, remembering with a chill that the Dave Bitches are probably going to egg his house or something. Great.

“That’s because you were there,” Rose says. “He likes to act all tough around people.”

“He’s pretty lenient on John, though,” Tavros says. “I mean, I got locked in that fucking room for saying he looked a bit peaky. Just concerned for his health and all that, y’know.” Something about the smirk as he looks down at Sollux, whose head is resting on Tavros’ knee, says it was more than concern for Dan’s health.

“Sure,” Rose snorts, starting to ease up a bit. “I don’t know, he is acting a bit weird with John. Bipolar; he’ll be really horrible one minute, and really lenient the next. I might ask him about it.”

“He’s probably jealous of my epic movie-choice skills,” John proclaims. “That’s it, I figured it out.” But something about what Rose says, that even Rose is admitting there’s something weird about the way Dave is treating John nags at him. Maybe Dave can’t get John out of his mind either. Maybe Dave wants to punch John all the time too. It wouldn’t surprise anyone.

“Con Air is far from epic,” Rose grins.

“Oh shut it, Mrs. Gay Wizard Movies," John says, laughing.

“We should have another movie weekend,” Rufioh exclaims, dodging another clump of grass that Sollux chucks in his direction. “What the fuck is with you throwing shit at me?” he demands.

“Yeah, it’s going all over me. If you’re going to throw stuff, can you learn to fucking aim,” Equius says irritably, brushing grass off his shirt.

“Are we going to our next lesson?” Tavros asks. Everyone quickly glances around the circle.

“I’m alright,” Sollux says.

“I’d rather not,” Equius declines politely.

“I’m good here,” Rufioh says decidedly.

“I’ve got more French,” Tavros says with a shudder, making everyone laugh. John throws a quick sideways glance at Rose to see she’s laughing too, and a weird tingly king of warmth spreads through his entire body. He feels…well, he feels good, having done something to make someone else happy. It’s a weird feeling, but not one he thoroughly dislikes.
_
They skip the next two lessons, lazing around on the grass in the autumn sun.

“Do you think I can get a tan?” Rufioh asks, lying down and squinting upwards.

“You’re Mexican,” Tavros says. “If you get any more tanned, you’ll become…very tanned. Like burnt toast.”

“Thanks for that,” Rufioh says sarcastically. “I don’t want to lose my tan over winter, though, y’know? What if I turn…beige?”

“The Beige Mexican,” Tavros says, giggling as he dodges a punch from Rufioh.

“Sounds ominous,” Equius says.

“It will be if Tavros carries on like that,” Rufioh says, glowering at Tavros.

“Carries on like what?” a voice says, and everyone whips around to see Dave standing above them, grinning down at them, Cronus and Eridan flanking him as ever (John is convinced they’re robots. No humans could ever be that obedient).

“None of your business,” Tavros snaps, looking shocked as soon as the words have left his mouth, as if he can’t believe he just said them.

“Watch that pretty little mouth of yours, Tavros,” Dave says smoothly. “You want to be careful what comes out of it. Or goes in…” he adds, throwing an almost bored glance at Sollux. Both of them look horrified.

“What do you want?” John asks in a long-suffering tone.

“I want to know what you did to get my sister to hang out with you,” Dave says, crossing his arms.

“We treated her like a person,” John says shortly. “Is that all? You can leave now.”

“Oh, that’s not all,” Dave says. “I’d like to speak to you, John.”

“Anything you want to say to me, you can say here,” John says defiantly. Dave raises one perfectly sculpted eyebrow (he must pluck them).

“I don’t think what I have to say concerns anyone else here, nor should it,” he says. “I know where we can go.”

“Why would I go anywhere with you?” John demands. “You’re crazy.”

“Maybe,” Dave allows with a shark-like grin. “Cronus, Eridan, stay here. I’ll be back before you know it.” Cronus and Eridan nod – of course they nod, they’re Dave’s bitches – and John throws a helpless look around the circle. Tavros and Rose shrug; Rufioh and Equius shake their heads with wide eyes and Sollux’s still glowering at Dave.

“Fine,” John says, going against the ninety-nine percent of him that is shrieking what the fuck are you doing get as far away from him as you possibly can rent an aeroplane and fly to California and standing up, brushing the stray grass that has flown at him (thanks, Sollux) off his shirt.

“I may be crazy, but you’re the one following the crazy man,” Dave says as he strides away, loud enough for everyone to hear. John scowls and keeps his distance, not trusting Dave one bit. He doesn’t even know what he’s doing, following Dave. Dave might rape him. He should turn around right now, head back to the safety of his friends.

But he doesn’t.

It is our choices, Harry, that show us who we truly are.

So clearly John is a stark raving lunatic. That’s just great.

“Where are we going?” John asks suspiciously as they draw closer to the school building. They’re all meant to be in lessons right now, so all the corridors are deserted. Dave steps inside, holding the door open for John. John waits for Dave to let it swing shut with a meaningful look; he’s not going to get too close to Dave, or Dave’s going to do something bad. Dave rolls his eyes but lets the door bang shut. John opens it immediately and follows Dave, up endless winding staircases and down panelled corridors until they’re eventually standing in a spacious room that seems to be in total disuse.

“What’s this? Why are we here? Why am I here?” John demands, and Dave grins.

“So, John,” he says casually, leaning against the wall. “I spoke to some buddies from your old school.” John blanches. What had Dave found out?

“And?” he says. He hadn’t done anything really bad, right? His mind is suddenly in overdrive, mentally listing every miniscule thing he had done at that school over the numerous years he had spent behind its bars (metaphorically).

“And they seemed to all think there was something very interesting about your…sexuality,” Dave says, and John breathes a sigh of relief.

“Is that all?” he says. “Yeah, I’m bisexual. Wow, call the newspapers, boy is sexually attracted to girls and boys. It’ll be a cover story. Top scoop. Can I go now?”

“I don’t think so,” Dave says, with that annoying smirk still plastered on his face, and John frowns.

“Why? You got what you came for,” he says, confused.

“I don’t think I got it,” Dave says.

“What do you want?” And Dave’s moving closer, still smirking, and John’s backing away, but he suddenly feels the cold hard wall against his back and he can’t back away any further and he doesn’t want this, not with Dave, he doesn’t want anything with Dave, he just wants to get away…

But Dave doesn’t do anything. He just stands there, so close that John can feel his body heat and his breath, but doesn’t do anything. John almost wishes he would, just to relieve the tension and suspense in the atmosphere. Dave seems to get off on it though, because he stays there a few more tantalising moments before backing away with a soft, huffed laugh.

“Interesting,” he says, and then he walks out of the room.

John has literally no idea what just happened.