Gumtree

Gen/family/angst/Ollie

I always seem to doing my posting on weekends…

The first person Dave actually tells isn't actually a person.

"I'm…I'm gay," he says to Gumtree, who gazes at him with fond, uncomprehending eyes and wags her black tail.

Dave gasps like he's run a marathon and puts an arm around the old spaniel. She licks the salt off his face and rests her chin on his shoulder.

This is how Ollie finds them, half an hour later. Dave doesn't even notice anyone's home until she opens the kitchen window and says, "Oh hey, cuz. Whatcha doin'?"

"Uh," Dave fumbles, "hanging out?"

One of Ollie's eyebrows goes up. "With Gummy?"

"…Yes?"

"In a tux?"

"I can't dress up once in a while?" Dave demands…weakly.

Ollie gives him a deadpan look. "Stay there," she says, then closes the window and emerges a few seconds later from the back door. She sits next to him on the side not occupied by Gummy, swinging her feet over the edge of the deck and bumping her shoulder against his. "So, what's up?"

"What makes you think something's up?"

"Dude, you blew three hours' worth of gas just to come lurk on my deck with my dog. On prom night. Something is most definitely up."

Dave fidgets, which is such a giveaway, and mutters, "I just…" He clears his throat. "I got voted Prom King."

Ollie grins. "Go Dave," she says, slugging him in the shoulder playfully. "So, you and Satan are gonna rule the damn school, huh?"

"Um." Dave can actually feel his face drop into hangdog lines. "Not…really."

"Oh shit," Ollie says softly. "What happened?"

Dave's mouth flattens, and he turns to look out at the dark back garden. "They voted Kurt Prom Queen."

Ollie is silent beside him for a good minute. He knows she's turning it over in her head, wondering what kind of people must populate McKinley High. Dave feels faintly ill, just remembering the look on Kurt's face, drained of colour, after Figgins read out his name.

"God, Ollie, I mean I was such a dick to him. I hurt him and scared him so bad he left the school, but I thought it was just me, y'know? I thought it was just me hurting him but… But it's the whole damn school." He turns to look at her, and she looks so sad for him. And for Kurt. "How can he stand up to that? All those people? How can he go to school every day knowing they hate him enough to do that to him?"

Ollie shakes her head. "That's the thing. They don't hate him. At least, not all of them. They did it because some of them thought it would be funny. And the rest just stood there and thought, 'better him than me.'"

"That's really freaking shitty, Ollie."

"Preaching to the choir here, Humbug."

Dave shakes his head. "I couldn't."

"Couldn't what?"

And for a dizzying second, he contemplates telling her. Just busting out with, 'I couldn't come out when he asked me to,' and letting the cards fall as they would. Just for a second, the temptation burns through him.

But then the flame goes out, and it's easier (and so much harder) to just say, "I couldn't do what he does. I couldn't stand up to all of them every day like that. D'you know he came back into the auditorium? He ran out when Figgy read his name, but he came back, got crowned. Stood up there and said, 'Eat your heart out, Kate Middleton.'"

"No way," Ollie says, and when he flashes a grin at her she's already grinning back. "Man, I have meet this kid. Didja dance with him? Cause that would've been… Oh."

Dave feels himself flush and that helplessness from before fills him up again. He doesn't question how she knows. He must look so guilty.

'Come out.'

'…I can't.'

"I couldn't, Ollie." He swallows hard and gazes upwards. The stars gaze coldly back. "I don't want to hurt him anymore, but it just keeps happening."

Ollie sighs and rests her head on his shoulder. They're quiet for a while, just looking out at the dark and listening to the night moving around them.

"It'll get better," Ollie says softly. "I know its shit right now, but it'll get better." He can feel her smiling against his shoulder. "And I'm proud of you."

"Why?" he asks, still feeling kind of miserable. "I couldn't –"

"But you will," she says, sitting up and meeting his eyes seriously. "Maybe your road's been a little longer than others, but you'll get there."

She smiles again, eyes soft, and there's something…for a second Dave thinks...

"And when you get there, I'll be proud of you then too."

He will not cry he will not cry he will not cry…

Instead he clears his throat and mumbles, "Thanks, Ollie."

Beside him, Gumtree lets out a soft doggy grumble and puts her head in his lap, nudging his hand so he'll keep rubbing her ears. Dave quirks a smile. "Think Gumtree'll proud of me too?"

"Dude. She's a dog. She only likes you 'cause you smell like feet." Then she shrieks when Dave loops an arm around her and traps her in a friendly headlock. "Let go of me you freaking yeti!"

"Aw, Ollie," Dave coos, "it's so nice to know you care."

"Dave, you let me go right now!"

"But I just want a huuuuuuuuuuuuuug, cuzzie!"

(Gumtree watches them roughhouse and laugh for a while, then sighs and takes herself inside thinking, 'I'm too old for this shit.')

I just wondered where he went after Prom, y'know?