Don't Panic - B. Hargrove

TWENTY-SIX

David was sick for a week, having fallen ill as soon as everyone had returned safely and very much alive. His body was no longer allowing him to deny it the rest it needed so desperately and that was completely fine. He returned to school soon enough, still pale and exhausted as he walked across the parking lot with Steve by his side, but ready to take on schoolwork again to fight his boredom.
Steve had an arm around his shoulder, just to shield him from the glaring gazes of their peers. It was funny how they had just saved their lives and they didn't even know they were in danger in the first place. So David was still the weirdo and honestly, he couldn't care less. The past days of surprise visits at the Byers' house from almost everyone out of the monster hunting mission had shown him how much his friends cared for him and that was more than enough.
But he was thankful for Steve's intentions of making his day better because spotting Billy across the parking lot gave him all the funny feelings. The boy was leaning against his car like on his first day and had a cigarette between his lips as he stared right back with those bright, blue eyes. David would have loved to March right to him, but they hadn't spoken since he had taken Max home that night, although he knew perfectly well that the boy had driven his sister to visit him a few days ago and it would be weird.
They weren't that close and, to be honest, David was afraid Billy didn't want anything to do with him anymore after all that had happened. And his heart ached at that, especially after having spent an entire day moping about the moment they might have had.
It was just too complicated and it was better to let the boy be for now.

"You coming by basketball practice later?" Steve asked as he held open the door for David to pass through. "Of course. I always do."
David nodded, entering the school.
"I just thought It might be too much for one day, you know" Steve shrugged.
"It's fine" David waved it off.
"I want everything to go back to normal." Steve chuckled.
„Yeah, I think we all deserve that."
„So, grape or strawberry?" David asked as they stopped by the door to his first class just like he always did. „Surprise me." Steve grinned, saluting with two fingers against his forehead before going on with his way.
With a tired smile, David made his way to his way to his seat and surprisingly Billy was already waiting to lean on their table.
He was never early. David felt his eyes glued as he sat down.

„How are you?" the boy asked lowly, his gaze flickering over David's features in concern and the tiny boy's heart fluttered at that.
" I'm fine. "he muttered, shyly looking down at his hands.
" Good. "Billy nodded.
"How are you doing? " David asked out of reflex and internally scolded himself for that. This conversation of seeing Billy again had gone so much better in his head. So much for planning that out in advance. Although it had never worked, he couldn't help himself.
" Good. " the other boy repeated, clicking his tongue.
David peeked up at the boy right in time to catch him fixing the lock hanging into his face with a frown, his gaze distant. David bit his lip, frustratedly chewing it. He just couldn't make sense out of that boy. And he wished he could be like Steve who always understood everyone, and wished to be just as charming. Sadly, he was just David and that meant being doomed to eternal confusion.
His breath hitched as Billy caught his gaze, brutally staring him down through prettily framed orbs.
"You're still gonna tutor me, right?" the boy asked, and there was a new quality to his voice, a low rasp that instant coated David's body in goosebumps.
"Of course" he whispered, heart, pounding against his rips in sheer excitement.
"Good. My grades have been slipping again in your absence."
"I've been only gone for a week" David gawked at the other boy, who shrugged.
"Let's say I had other things on my mind." David hummed as he averted his gaze to his fingers that were fiddling in his lap, nails digging into his skin.
He didn't know how to place the information but a tiny voice in his head hollowed with malicious joy that Billy sure as hell had not spent a single second thinking about him.

The truth was, quite the opposite had taken place. Billy had spent hours tossing and turning, debating if it would be weird to just turn up at the Byers' house, and had finally decided that it was.
But he had still feverishly waited to see David Byers again only to find that the boy was very much oblivious to his flirting. Billy eyed Byers, the pale cheeks and the dry lips that still looked damn kissable to him. He had a strange perception, the boy had noticed that before. Like he didn't get the manual on proper interaction and kept missing the hints Billy had bombarded him with to such a high degree that he didn't even identify when he had tried to kiss him that night.
Well maybe that had been for the best, they had both been too hammered for it. And maybe, that was also the reason David didn't acknowledge the flirting. Billy's arrival at the boy's home had been anything but a Romeo and Juliet performance and he was well aware he had to make up for it.
"So you're free tomorrow?" he asked, leaning lazily against the table, delivering another smirk as David's gaze flickered up to his for a brief moment.
"Sure." he shrugged.
"Cool. I pick you up after school. Maybe we can get something to eat on our way?" David shrugged again.
That was a rather unsatisfying answer when practically asked for a fucking date. Girls always swooned when he looked at them like that. David was just so unsettling and cool, it was distressing.
"God, Byers, you're impossible to flirt with." Billy huffed under his breath and turned his attention to the teacher. David didn't respond to a single thing.
At least not for the next 15 minutes in which Billy tried his best to note down the important information of the lecture and miserably failed at it because he could better listen to David and his soft voice anyway and then his thoughts wandered freely, jumping around Halloween night, the monster incident and their last conversation.
Oh, he was so whipped. That was crystal clear when David nodded to him with his college block, sliding over his notes for him to copy. And on the very edge of the paper was a sentence scribbled. I don't know what to say.
Billy turned, eyeing the boy closely.

"I mean, you could just say you're looking forward to our date," he suggested in a dark whisper.
With great pleasure, he watches as a soft blush crept onto the other boy's face. Billy certainly was looking forward to tomorrow now.
"I'm looking forward to it." David echoed quietly, not daring to meet Billy's gaze again but turning a deeper shade of red. That was exactly the reaction he knew so well and had intensely hoped for. Until the bell rang and David was storming outside as if his life depended on it, not looking back at the other, very baffled boy once.
Billy didn't know what he had done wrong this time, but certainly, he did, there was no other explanation for the boy fleeing like that. It didn't takes any more to let his good mood go up in smoke.
That was unfortunate. And even more unfortunate was how he caught a glimpse of David in the hallways, firmly glued to Steve Harrington's side. Billy was painfully aware he wasńt allowed to fuck with Harrington again, the Byers boy had made clear how much he meant to him.
That didn't meant he wasńt still jealous, though, and the extent of that feeling had actually shifted. Now the problem was not Harrington touching David, it was the affection for the boy David was displaying. Billy wanted that. The affection. Being looked at with that smile.
He wanted to be the one accompanying David through the halls and the one he turned to with his thoughts and problems, preferably before Harrington got to know about them.
However, more than anything else, he needed confirmation that David Byers was in fact having mutual feelings for him. And he sure as hell woudńt say no to a kiss either.