Sucks is Such a Strong Word (Danvid)

The Afterparty

I'm honestly just writing this all on the fly and am making no promises about length or completion. Just a warning. Also, fyi, Max is still 10 in this AU. Thanks for reading!

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Thank gosh it was a Saturday. David rolled over in bed and looked at his clock. 11:45 am. He had never woken up so late in his entire life, well, excluding The Great Lawnmower Incident of '06. The party the previous night had left him an emotional wreck. Gwen's words kept repeating over and over in his head, the broken record only interrupted by the words of Daniel himself. "He's not supposed to be out of jail for a long time, so it's nothing to worry about"..."killed one of the guards"..."Most people have a hard time trusting someone who's been to jail"..."Fifteen years added to his sentence"..."Maybe you could help me decide". Ughhh. It was all so contradictory. None of it was adding up.

If Daniel had fifteen years added to his sentence, then the only way he could've been at that party would be if he had escaped from jail. Which would mean that David had spent his night making out with an escaped convict. But, then again, there could always be something going on that David didn't know about. I mean, it was rude for him to immediately assume the worst of Daniel, especially when he had been so kind last night. There had to be something he was missing. He tried to think back and remember if there had been anything going around about someone escaping from the county jail, but David didn't watch the news enough to know. When the questions finally got under his skin, he got out of bed, pulling out his phone and googling 'Sleepy Peak escaped jail Daniel'. The only thing that came up was an article from years ago when Daniel first got arrested. He grimaced and tried 'Sleepy Peak escaped murderer'. Nothing. Maybe it wasn't true, what Gwen told him. Gossip traveled quickly in a small town, but it was still easily distorted. Maybe Daniel didn't kill a guard after all and was out of jail legally. Yeah...maybe. David decided that's what he was going to tell himself until he was actually able to clarify that he hadn't kissed a murderer.

By the time David actually got himself dressed and went down into his kitchen, Max was already sitting at his table looking rather bored.

"What's up, fuckface?"

"Max, language. And how did you get in? Why are you here so early? You're not supposed to be over for tutoring for another two hours." The boy just kept staring at the table where he was currently writing the words 'Kill me' over and over on a piece of paper.

"Yeah, well, my parents were back on their shit again, and as much as I hate you, I decided to take the lesser of two evils. So don't mention it again, moron. Oh, and I have a copy of your house key." David nodded, trying to hide his sympathy. It usually only made Max more angry.

"Why isn't your sister with you? Did she go out?" Max nodded.

"Gwen went out with that one girl really early so I just came by myself. Hey, do you have anything to eat?" David smiled, walking over to the pantry.

"Sure thing. Are sandwiches ok?"

"Yeah, whatever." He whipped up a couple of meals for the two of them and then sat down, eating in silence. Max finished eating before him, and decided that staring straight at David was the best entertainment he had at the time. "What's wrong with you today?" David stopped eating.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for one, you woke up really late, which Gwen says you never do, and usually, you would be talking my ear off about one thing or the other. You've just been kinda, sitting there this whole time. What happened to you? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love quiet David more than the usual annoying David, but it's really...weird. Did you and Gwen fight or something?"