A Boy Can Dream ... Drew Gooden x Danny Gonzalez

🧷 seven 🧷

It's Monday and Danny is sitting in the locker room getting his shoes on for gym class. Drew's been gone all day, but it's fine, Danny can talk to him whenever he comes back. He finishes tying his shoes and stands up. He's the last one in the locker room, so he should really get out there before the bell rings. Instead of rushing out, he turns around and stares at the back door, where he and Drew (and Kurtis... sort of) left to skip gym that one time. He wouldn't do it today. All he could do was, like, walk around alone and that would be super awkward, he's just thinking about it.

The bell rings and half a second later the door slams open and Cody walks in and drops his backpack on the locker room floor. He's breathing heavily.

"You're late," Danny remarks.

Cody's fumbling with the clothes in his bag, he looks up at Danny. "Yeah. I know," he says, sounding much more angry than Danny had expected.

"Sorry, man. What's wrong?"

"I don't know," Cody says quickly, shaking his head slightly, "Just stressed I guess. I have, like, so much going on and... Oh! You just, like, haven't talked to me? In, like, a week?"

"Ohh, yeah."

"That's it?" Cody says, while rushing to get his gym shorts on.

Danny frowns. "I mean, I'm sorry Cody. I've been doing a ton of stuff too. I wasn't intentionally avoiding you. You should have said something."

Cody frowns too. "Yeah, I guess so. That's fair. I'm a little annoyed you're spending so much time with that weird kid, to be honest, but, like, I get it. You can have other friends... Or whatever..."

"Drew? That's different. He's like my mentor. Hanging out with him is like... Work."

Cody laughs. "Yeah? Must be hard."

Danny smirks. "It really is."

"Well," Cody says, "Then I guess we're cool, but we have to hang out later."

🧷🧷🧷

Danny and Cody decide to hang out downtown. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot to do downtown, and they end up at the local supermarket, browsing the aisles.  Every now and then, Cody laughs and gestures toward something on the shelf, making a remark about how it's "so gay" or whatever.

"This is kind of boring," Danny says, midway through the chip aisle.

"Well what do you suggest we do?" Cody asks sarcastically, tossing a couple bags into their cart, "What do you and Drew do?"

Danny frowns. "I told you, he's teaching me how to be a Youtuber."

"He's not doing a very good job."

"I know," Danny replies with a sigh.

"Then why do you keep hanging out with him?"

"I don't know. What do you have against him? What if I just like spending time with him? Is that wrong?"

Cody pushes the cart further down the aisle and Danny follows. "He's just, like, weird. Plus, if you just 'like hanging out with him' why can't you just say that? This whole 'mentor' thing is weird as hell."

"He's not weird. Stop calling him that. And you were the one who got mad at me for having other friends."

"He's not weird! Stop calling him that!" Cody repeats in a mocking tone. He shakes his head. "Man, you are down so bad."

Danny is about to ask what the HELL that means when Cody stops the cart abruptly.

"Hey man, watch where you're going," the guy Cody almost hit with the cart says, not sounding nearly as tough as he was trying to.