Danny & Steve [Completed]

Part 10

Danny got a job at the local grocery store as a bagger. He didn't ask permission. He just went out one day and came home with a job. He informed his parents, and they had nothing to say about it but to acknowledge that it happened. At least it got him out of the house, and they weren't going to yank him away from it. Danny also wrote Steve a letter. It was just a quick one, the sooner to get it to Mandy so she could mail it. It read:

Steve,

My parents are controlling everything that comes into the house. They're shredding your letters before I can read them. I'm not even sure if this will reach you, but I had to try. I can't stop thinking about you, and I'm going to work my way through school if I have to just so we can be together. If you can wait for me til next semester, I'm coming back.

Missing you,

Danny

He passed it to Mandy, who added a letter of her own, on pink and purple kitten stationary, even though Danny begged her not to after he read it. It went:

Steve,

I'm Danny's sister. If you ever hurt him, I'm coming after you. I'm mean, creative, and I hold grudges.

Don't even think about it,

Mandy

Letting her put that in was the price of her sending it, so Danny let it go. He hoped Steve would find it funny. Danny did, a little, what with the pink kittens juxtaposed with the open threats. That was Mandy through and through.

After the letter was sent, Danny relaxed a little. At least Steve would know he hadn't been forgotten, and he might pick up from Mandy's threat that Danny had support at home. Sometimes, Danny would hear Mandy arguing with their parents from upstairs in his room. She called them bigots, close-minded, she even called them terrible people. Danny would sink down in his bed when that happened and cover his head with his pillow til the yelling stopped. He admired his sister's fire, but he knew she'd never change their minds.

Days faded into days. Thanksgiving came and went, and Danny spent as little time with the extended family as possible, preferring his room to the hubbub. Besides, the aunts and uncles were sure to keep his younger cousins away from him. They were all so nice, though, asking him how he was doing, if he was any more resolved following his, uh, affliction. What made it worse is Danny knew they were honestly trying to be kind on one hand while not even trusting him with their kids on the other. He couldn't help but think of Steve's family and how the little kids were all over Steve like it was no big deal.

In the month leading up to Christmas, the family decorated the tree while he was in his room. They decorated around him, celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace while still maintaining the cold war in their home. They had managed two months so far without a single unnecessary word toward Danny, and they had not once spoken about what happened.

Danny didn't bother with presents for them. What could he get them that they'd want except for a straight son? He didn't have that to offer, so instead, he focused on Mandy. He found some cutesy-yet-threatening shirts she didn't yet own online, knowing they'd be perfect for her. He remained hopeful that Steve had gotten his letter, because he found another shredded one from him in the trash. He'd not been forgotten yet.

It was the middle of December when Steve's brother showed up in his Ford F-150 one afternoon. He pulled right up to the house and got out with Baxter in the cab, pressing a wet nose to the window. Danny was in the living room when he heard the exchange Brad had with his father.

"Is Dan home?"

"Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Brad. Dan and I are friends from church when he was going to school. I was just wondering if he wanted to go to church with me and my wife. We're doing a Christmas thing over in Pine Ridge." It was a slightly larger small town about an hour's drive from Borderton.