BUGBOY | DORBYN [DISCONT.]

02

daniel's cheek pressed into his fist, bottom lip jut out as he forced his air up to the strands of hair whipped across his forehead.

class was boring.

the paper balls thrown at the teacher's direction didn't even distract that much. she just picked them up and put them in the trash.

"...so, what's the product of the equation? anybody got it yet?"

nobody answered, either still working on it or not caring to do the work in the first place. so, the teacher scanned the room.

"corbyn! have you finished it?"

"uhm, i got—"

"oh my god, miss! miss, please i'm going to shit myself— please let me go to the bathroom!"

daniel's friend, ethan, was poor in his act as he hunched over the desk with a loose hand covering his stomach. his face was taunting, playful, and the teacher sighed.

"go on, mr. vermont. you don't need to ask in an emergency, please refrain from disrupting class next time."

he took his phone off his desk with a quiet mutter of, "sick." leaving the room with an odd walk to amuse the class. daniel's eyes fell on the folded index card that sat on his notes, it was obviously a dare.

what daniel didn't pay attention to, though, was the sliver of paper that came in his direction and bounced off his shoulder.

it was folded twice, into a small square.

his shoe reached out, stomping on the note and dragging it into himself before leaning down to grab it.

of course his shoe print was on it, but it didn't affect the entire message so it was okay.

i dare you to date that bug nerd.

daniel's eyebrows scrunched up, swallowing at the scribbles. leon.

his head raised, a wide eyed expression as he shook it, an obvious no. he'd rather have to deal with the consequence.

his eyes found their way back to the paper, fingers running over the dirt stain of his shoe as he ran over the words again.

a paper bounced off the back of his head, hand raising to where it hit as the ball quietly tapped against the floor.

"buckett, am i going to have a problem with you too?"

as daniel reached for the crumpled sheet leon shrugged, pouting in fakery with his hands up in defense, "so sorry, miss. won't happen again."

either date him or come out to the whole school, moron.

i didn't say you had to be public, just mess around, have some fun. we're running out of entertaining shit here.

daniel's expression fell blank, catching the teacher's gaze as he nodded in understanding and crumpled up the papers together, stuffing them into his backpack to feign that she had his attention.

if only she knew the troubles i have to face now.

"so, seavey. what's your move?" leon's legs dangled, green eyes boiling his skin. they were outside, at their signature tree. the daredevil tree, some may call it, but daniel thought it was too cheesy of a name.

there were six of them, ethan vermont, leon buckett, freya samuels, julian smith, olivia wales, and daniel.

four boys, two girls.

they started in elementary. a simple truth or dare game, increasing to weekly, daily, so on, so forth.

the rules got changed.

instead of the boring, simple way, where if a dare was refused you had to tell the truth, they changed it. the truths got boring. they ran out of things to talk about. the daredevil name kicked in when others learned about the rules.

do a dare or face the repercussions.

it doesn't sound bad unless you see it, truly. they've all got something to blackmail, something to dig for.

daniel's was simple. he was gay. nobody knew but them, and there was a reason for that.

corbyn besson, for example, was called cruel things by the assumption that he was gay, let alone the weird shit about bugs.

daniel didn't want to respond.

"i don't know."

a giggle reached his ears, evil, menacing, and high-pitched. it wasn't long before freya stretched out in the grass, pink hair popping off the greenery.

"what's so bad, dani? you usually kick into overdrive, consequence and dare." she rolled over, chin in her hands as her eyes glimmered with mischief.

"date bugboy." daniel's eyes scanned the schoolyard. corbyn was hard to find, he didn't know the boy's schedule, but daniel knew he'd seen him out here before.

"consequence?"

by now, the whole group was tuning in. freya's legs kicked in the air, daniel fiddling with his jacket. he could handle any other eyes but theirs, they were always uncomfortable, heavy, expecting.

"out myself." he mumbled, eyes meeting leon's as julian's brows furrowed.

"wait, but—"

leon answered julian before he even got to speak.

"it'd be a private relationship. something for him to mess around with. a toy."

once again, their eyes fell to daniel, olivia leaning forward from her seat.

"so, dani, what'll it be?"

EXTRA NOTES
lil introduction for y'all 😌🤚
but yeah i apologize if i'm ever bad at uploading but this year is kicking my butt
hopefully this'll make me more motivated tho