Trapped (egobang trans)

Chapter 38 - Acceptance

Danny walked into his next class a little late, holding a big wad of tissues to his nose that was still bleeding, though it was slowing down gradually. Nothing was broken, but it still hurt like hell. His teacher looked up as the door opened.

"Why are you la- Oh! Are you alright?" he exclaimed.

Danny lowered the tissue to show his slightly bruised nose.

"Got hit by a ball," he said simply, his voice all nasally from the blood in his nose.

"Well, I hope they apologized. That's quite the injury. Anyway, just sit down Danny and try not to bleed on my textbooks."

Danny nodded, blushing slightly as he said his name. Wow, she really didn't waste any time in letting the other teachers know.

Jon was in this class, and as Danny walked past him he couldn't help but catch his eye. Surprisingly, he didn't look at all hostile. There was something else there that Danny couldn't quite catch in the second that he was looking, but he shrugged the thought away as he sat down at his desk and looked to the front. He took a deep breath; the name might not spark many people's interest, but what would happen when the teacher called on him, and used male pronouns?

Confused whispers and people turning to look at him, that's what.

No one was subtle, which worried Danny. They all plainly stared at him, and he was willing to bet that this was the first time some of them had actually acknowledged him. He wasn't a genius, not like Brian. He didn't answer many questions. Still, somehow he survived, and by the end of the lesson his nose had stopped bleeding, though he was left with a horrifically bloody ball of tissue paper which he resolved to throw away as soon as possible. He was too awkward to get up during class to do it, so it had just sat on the corner of his desk.

Standing up to put his stuff away, Danny once again caught Jon's eye. Only this time Jon came over to him. Danny glared, having never liked him and already feeling his anger start to surface thinking about their first "conversation". Jon didn't seem to want to fight, but Danny was never very trusting. Especially of people who made such bad a first impression like Jon's.

"What do you want?" he hissed before Jon could even speak.

"Whoa, chill, I just wanted to apologize for earlier."

"Okay, thanks. Now go away."

"And I wanted to ask a question."

Danny sighed, "What?"

"Well, your friend earlier and our teacher just now have been calling you by male pronouns. I just wanted to make sure I'm right... you're a dude, right?"

His countenance was genuine, but Danny was still sceptical. He leaned on his desk slightly, narrowing his eyes at Jon.

"Yeah, I am. What's it to you?"

"I was thinking about our fight on your first day, and it occurred to me why you acted like that. I just wanted to clarify that was the reason, and apologize for it as well I guess."

His words shocked Danny. He felt his impression of Jon shift slightly. He was nowhere near liking him, but now that he heard that he saw it from his perspective too.

"You didn't know, so don't be too hard on yourself," he told Jon with a shrug.

A silence fell and it seemed that they'd both said what they wanted. Danny took that as an opportunity to leave before Jon thought of anything else to say. He picked up his bag and ball of tissue and walked past him, heading for the door while taking out his phone to check where his friends were meeting for lunch. Looking at his phone, he failed to notice someone and bumped into them as he left the room.