dauston and zakk: a love of another kind

the beginning.. -palmetto

it is my first year teaching at west middle school. the students in 6th and 7th grade seem nice.. for now! i have yet to see what the 8th graders have in store for us. 8th graders start filling the room. i told them to sit wherever they would like, and that these are their permanent seats (for the most part). i stand in front of the class to introduce myself as their new band director. as i talk about myself, i catch a glimpse of a blonde and brunette pair. they both play the saxophone. one plays bari, the other plays tenor. it seems that they are somewhat inseparable, which reminds me of my years in middle school. they look at each other as if it is just each other in this room and i'm not talking! "ahem, zach and.. dauston. please pay attention." they both turn to face me and their faces are red. i'm sure they're just being idiotic 8th grade boys. when i finish telling the class about myself, i ask them to tell me their name and play a note for me. i just need the name, but i like doing ice breakers for my classes. i get to the flutes, and a girl named lacey plays, and i have this feeling in the back of my head that she will annoy me all year. i ignore that though and finally get to zach.. then dauston. they both look at each other and giggle before they play their notes. it's concerning, to say the least, but yet again, i'm sure it's just two idiotic 8th grade boys. as they start packing up and preparing to leave, i see them talking. i only hear the last thing that dauston said, which was, "no! no! i can't be like that, zach. i'm not one of those, okay? go find a girlfriend or something.." i saw him walk off angrily and zach looked very hurt and upset. i wasn't one to intervene, so i won't. the bell rang and they left to 9th hour. this continued for sometime and dauston always says almost the same thing. then one monday he says, "i'm going to be honest with you, zach, i hate those gays so much. i will never be like them. if you're one of them, maybe we shouldn't keep talking. bye." he walks away from zach and out of the door and zach is almost sobbing. i couldn't let this go on for any longer. awful things like that happened to me all the time in middle school, and i know how excruciating it is when your friend says something like that to you. "zach, is there something going on between you and dauston..? or you would like there to be something?" he looks at me blankly with tears welling in his eyes. "no, no, no. uh.. haha! we're just joking. i guess he took it a little too far today. i'll talk to him, it's okay.. haha!" i could tell he didn't want to tell the truth, but i let it be. a month or so goes by and i barely see any interaction between zach and dauston. i do see them talk from time to time, only when gavin is around though. i could see the hurt in zach, but if he didn't acknowledge it then i wouldn't either. a couple weeks later i hear dauston has a girlfriend. zach doesn't come to school for 3 days in a row. i was worried about him, i hate seeing people, especially my own students upset. when he finally came back to school, he was eerily quiet. zach is a very.. talkative person. he thinks very highly of himself, too. it surprises me when he keeps quiet in band class and advisory practice. while he's packing up. i pass by him and i just can't help but say, "you can talk to me if you need, zach," and walk off. i could feel him watching me walk away. i hope that, if he doesn't talk to me, he talks to someone about the stuff going on...