"Mom," Danny droned and rolled his eyes.

She shushed him and raised her phone once more. "Stand still and smile, Daniel Reed."

He huffed and adjusted the strap of his backpack. He's been standing in front of the garden in their front yard for over ten minutes now. His mom wanted to get their yearly first-day-of-school pictures. She had to of had over one hundred pictures by now.

"Alex?" he complained, trying to find some sympathy.

Alex smiled and continued to stand next to his mom, clearly showing where his loyalties lay.

She lowered the phone and said through gritted teeth, "Smile."

Danny obliged and posed for another minute or two. Finally, Alex stepped in and offered to take a picture of the pair. Now, with his mom standing next to him, he smiled genuinely. He wrapped his arm across her chest and pulled her snugly against him. He lowered his head to press his cheek against hers.

He squeezed her a final time and stepped away.

"Have a good time at school, Darling."

She leaned up and fixed the johnny collar of his polo shirt. Her bracelets clashed into each other. "Do you like the shirt?"

He nodded. He was testing out a new design for her. It was navy with white trim on the collar. It fits tight around his arms, but he didn't mind that. In fact, it made his arms look bigger than they actually were, so it was a win in his book.

"It's a nice material."

"Good."

She waved him off as he entered his car and drove down the street.

Danny drove as quickly as he could, carefully walking the line of way-over-the-speed-limit-but-not-quite-fast-enough-to-get-pulled-over-for-reckless-endangerment. He wanted out of this car as soon as humanly possible.

He looked in his rearview mirror with a glare.

The seats were clean, he would know, but he still felt as if the leather was ruined. The car was tainted point blank period. He couldn't sit in here anymore.

He suited up in full hazmat to clean the back seat the day after the illicit affair, but he only managed to wipe one fingerprint from the rear window before he lost his cool and needed to take it to the cleaners. There was no visible mess, but he still couldn't stomach it.

Danny groaned when he finally pulled onto campus. Hundreds of kids were still milling about in the parking lot and on the front lawn. He really didn't want to talk to any of them.

He spotted Kie's car and made a beeline for it. He waved apologetically to a group of guys hanging out in the back of a pickup, calling him over.

Danny rounded her car and opened the door for her. He bowed and said, "M'lady."

He smiled when he saw her roll her eyes in amusement.

She stepped out and said, "Thank you, kind sir."

He took her hand and kissed it.

When JJ opened the rear door, Danny tsked. "Mighty brave of you, Kie, to let him in your back seat."

"Shut up," JJ said and tossed his flask back in the car before closing the door. Danny observed his supplies or, rather, lack thereof. He had a single binder and a pencil.

Danny fist-bumped Pope, who said, "If I remember correctly, you said your back seat was up for grabs."

He regretfully did remember that time. John B's van is normally the go-to option, but one night, they all called dibs before going into a party. Danny suggested one large orgy, but he was shot down and instead offered his car as a backup. It's never been acted upon before since none of them got lucky at the same time. Technically there's still open season on his car, but that was before—whatever.

Danny narrowed his eyes at Pope. "Wise ass. I'm rescinding that statement effective immediately."

JJ leaned against the car, arms crossed, looking all too cocky in Danny's professional opinion. He said, "You wish it were you. Just admit it."

Danny chuckled and shook his head slowly. "The only thing I'll admit is that I'm not very smart. If I were, I'd of sent you the cleaning bill."

Kie gasped and swatted JJ's shoulder. They started walking slowly towards the entrance of the school. "You left that big of a mess? No wonder he's pissed."

JJ ignored her and leaned closer to Danny, chest pressed against his arm. His breath tickled Danny's skin as he whispered, "You didn't deny it."

No, he didn't.

As JJ took a step away, he let his eyes trail Danny's body. "What are you wearing?"

"What? You don't like it?"

He could've sworn JJ said he liked when Danny dressed up.

"Well, no—"

"I like it," Kie interrupted. "It's very dilf."

Danny chuckled and eyed someone particularly hard when they kept staring at his friends. When they turned away, Danny replied, "I'm the guinea pig for my mom. She's testing her spring line."

Well, technically, he volunteered. But they didn't need to know that.

He turned his eyes to JJ and had to fight off his displeased frown at the blinding purple mark on JJ's neck. "What are you wearing?" He realized belatedly how bitter his tone was, so he cleared his throat and looked ahead. He should've asked his mom for a spare turtle neck.

"Oh, this?" JJ asked, especially smug, and tugged the collar of his shirt. "I'm trying out accessories this year. You like?"

Danny glanced at him. They connected eyes, and Danny held contact. "You already know the answer to that."

He tugged free of Kie's hold and walked ahead. He stopped next to Pope at the Memorial. Half a surfboard leaned against a boulder with John B's name painted on it. At the bottom, there were pictures of him, and flowers surrounded it all.

Kie glanced over her shoulder at the rest of the kids in the yard. "I feel like people are starting at us."

"Oh yeah," JJ mumbled and surveyed the students around them. They all looked back.

Danny adjusted the strap of his backpack. "Nah," he said and shook his head. He knelt down and straightened a picture of John B. It was one of him and his father. "They're just looking at JJ's enormous hickey. Really quite blinding, actually."

Someone flicked his ear, and he flinched away. He covered his ear and scowled back at JJ's innocent face.

"Jealousy's not a good look," he said.

Danny tried not to choke on all the gloat in JJ's tone. "Everything's a good look on me, sweetheart."

"Guys, I can't be late," Pope said and began walking to the doors.

"Hey," Kie called. "Hey. We gotta stick together."

Pope paused and faced them partially. He latched onto Kie's outstretched hand.

"Stick together. Yeah," JJ said and walked forward. Kie snagged his arm and looped hers through.

As they walked inside, Danny lingered behind them and glared in warning at anyone who stared back. His prediction for the year ahead was that he'd be getting into a lot more fights if he kept overhearing them talk about John B.

***

By some stroke of luck, they all ended up in Mr. Sunn's class in the middle of the day.

It was the first day of school, and they were already neck-deep in the Roman Empire. Danny tried to take notes since Mr. Sunn said it'd be on the exam, but he couldn't focus. His eyes continued to draw toward JJ's neck like a beacon.

Danny sat in the very back. JJ sat diagonally to him on the right side, Kie sat one desk in front of Danny, and Pope sat one in front of her. He wished he was as focused as Pope, who hadn't lifted his pencil since the bell.

When JJ glanced over his shoulder at Danny, he tore his eyes away and focused on his notes. They didn't even take up a quarter of the page.

Danny thought JJ had to of been taunting him. He sat at an angle in his chair, giving Danny a front-row seat of the obscene mark. His stomach twisted painfully. Every time he looked at it, he remembered exactly how JJ got it.

He closed his notebook and stuffed it into his bag. He couldn't take it. He'd have to sit in front of JJ until that thing healed.

He caught Mr. Sunn's eyes and inclined his head to the door. The teacher nodded without breaking stride in his lecture.

Every teacher Danny had thus far told him if he needed to leave the classroom in any way, that he was allowed to. They were giving him a lot of leeway with his injury, and Danny wasn't going to squander that opportunity. He suspected his mom had something to do with it.

Danny stood and left the classroom.

He wandered aimlessly but ended up at his locker. He closed his eyes and slumped against the locker, knocking his forehead against it. After a breath, he leaned back and opened it just to do something.

He stared unseeing inside.

What in the world is wrong with him?

He was out of line. Danny wasn't JJ's keeper. He was allowed to do whatever he wanted, even if it included receiving hickeys from tramps.

No!

No. Jenny is nice. She's a sweet girl who always takes the time to talk with Danny.

Hickies are fine. They're fun. Cool. Neat. And they're—God, no, Danny hated them with a passion. And he especially hated seeing one on JJ's body. It screamed OFF LIMITS which was something Danny would not allow.

Jenny couldn't toy with JJ like that. She couldn't do something that significant to him and then do it to someone else the next night. It wasn't right. JJ deserved better. Danny could—

He groaned and buried his head in the locker, barely managing to stifle his yell of frustration.

Maybe he should go cool off in his car? And if he so happened to end up at the shop, well, he'd call it a silly coincidence.

Just as he was going to, multiple footsteps running down the hall caught his attention.

He really shouldn't have been as surprised as he was when he saw the trio running toward him with wide smiles on their faces. Danny stared back with an eyebrow raised.

Were they coming to skip with him? He's a bad influence if so.

"Come on!" Kie yelled and grabbed his wrist. He followed after them until they exited the double doors into the courtyard.

Four picnic tables lined the concrete. A pair of students sat at the first, but Kie staked her claim on the third. She pushed herself onto the table, planted her feet on the bench, and stared intently at her phone.

"I mean, is that even possible?" she asked. "I mean, Shoupe said that they didn't make it. He said that."

Pope sat across from her at the fourth table. "Okay, but I. . . I think we're overreacting, 'cause we can't rule out the possibility that this could all be some kind of weird, cruel hoax."

Danny stood between the two in the walkway and peered at them in confusion. They haven't looped him in. "What's going on?"

"I'm just gonna ask," Kie said and typed on her phone.

JJ was pacing in between the two tables, so Danny snagged his wrist and hooked his arm over JJ's shoulder to keep him still.

Danny took the phone and nearly dropped it when John B and Sarah stared back at him. "Is this some sort of joke?"

JJ shrugged. He said, "What if it's actually him, though?"

"Then I don't know, okay? I don't know," Pope said.

Kie's phone dinged, and Pope asked, "He responded?"

"He's typing. He's typing."

A text popped up and asked if JJ was there. Danny handed him back the phone. He replied, 'I'm here Bree.'

Instantly there was a reply, 'Did you pimp my short board?'

Danny chuckled in relief. It was John B.

"It's him," JJ said with a watery smile.

"It's definitely him."

A weight lifted in Danny's chest, and he leaned back against the brick wall. He stared up at the sky as the rest of his friends shared excited hugs. He smiled so wide that his cheeks ached. But it was a great pain, one he was happy to endure.

"Yeah!" JJ exploded in excitement.

"Laying super low in Nassau," Kie read. "How the hell did they get to the Bahamas?"

"You can't kill a Pogue, dude," JJ said.

Pope added, "Especially John B."

Danny walked to the picnic table and sat next to Kie. He leaned over her shoulder and read the incoming text. 'Can you clear my name? Wanna come home.'

"Hell, yeah, we'll clear your name, boy," JJ said.

"Be in touch. P4L," Kie said.

Danny smiled and ran his hand through his hair in disbelief. His best friend was alive. John B was alive.

"P4L, man," JJ said. "That's what I'm talking about!" He jumped up onto the table and yelled, "P4L, baby!"

Kie stood and placed her hand on her head. "Holy shit, dude."

Danny jumped from the table and opened his arm. His friends joined him as they hugged each other in relief and absolute glee.

***

Danny sipped on his fountain drink and chewed on the end of the straw as they walked down the ramp of The Wreck.

"Kiara," Mrs. Carrera said from under the umbrella of the outdoor seating. "I need those setups done by five!"

"There are other people that work here," Kie said.

"None of 'em my children."

They continued to walk down the dock, and Pope muttered, "I feel that. On a deep, emotional level, I understand that."

Danny paused and turned around to face Mrs. Carrera. He walked in her direction and said, "I can help, Mrs. C. I didn't pay for this drink." Danny shook the cup, and the ice crashed into the sides.

She set her pen down and shook her head. "That's not necessary."

"No, really. I insist." Danny smiled and waited her out.

She nodded reluctantly, and Danny said, "Awesome. I'll set them up after I talk with them."

He jogged the rest of the dock length and tossed his backpack next to Pope sitting on the bench.

"You know, why do you always insist on making my mom love you more?" Kie asked, annoyed. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him.

Danny batted his eyelashes. "Just part of my charm."

JJ snorted. "What charm?" he asked and propped his foot on the bench next to Danny.

Danny interlocked his fingers and rested them on JJ's knee. He set his chin on his knuckles and peered up at JJ with a playful smile. "Mon Coeur, my charm would make you melt."

JJ inclined his head toward Danny and whispered, "Doubtful."

"Wanna bet?"

Danny tuned out Kie and Pope brainstorming to clear John B's name and held eye contact with JJ. The only time his attention was pulled away was when JJ's tongue darted out to wet his lips. He watched, transfixed, the way JJ's lips spoke, "Yes."

"Perfect."

Kie hopped from the bench and pulled JJ away. "Would you two pay attention, please?"

Danny hardly caught himself from falling forward at the shift in weight. He narrowed his eyes at Kie but obliged. Scheming now, charming later.

"John B will get nabbed sooner or later. So if we're gonna clear his name, we need to have done it yesterday," Kie said.

JJ held up a finger. "I'll tell you how we do it."

"So you have it all planned out?" Pope asked skeptically.

"As a matter of fact, I do. We kidnap Rafe."

Pope blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"

JJ continued, "We kidnap Rafe, tie him up and stick the gun in his mouth and just wait till he starts squawking."

Danny nodded. That sounded like a perfect idea and an excellent way for him to get revenge. "That's good."

Pope sent Danny a look.

"You know, torture's a war crime," Kie said.

"Yeah, so how exactly do you plan on clearing John B's name from a prison cell? Because that's a felony."

"All right, well, what do you got, Pope? I was just trying to keep it simple. You know, one-stop, and we're done. And, I mean, he shot Danny. All right? What's a little maiming in the grand scheme?"

Danny sat forward and held out his hand. "No, no, no. That's a good idea. We can take him up in the apartment above the shop. No one will hear, I promise. We can play Brennan's Christmas music to wear him down."

War criminal or not, Danny wanted Rafe dead. He shot Danny, and he framed John B, and the asshole's walking around scot-free.

He's avoided any possible contact with Rafe because he knew he wouldn't be able to control himself if he ever saw him.

"Dude, no," Pope said, exasperated. "Guys, all we need is another material witness. That way, they can corroborate Danny's story."

Danny sighed and sat back against the bench. "Fine. Boring. But, whatever." He glanced over his shoulder to the boats in the water and mumbled, "I'll just torture him myself."

"What?" Pope said. "No! Seriously, let's be for real here."

JJ nudged Danny's leg with his boot. "That sounds good in my book."

"I am being 'for real.'"

"Oh my God," Kie complained and placed her hand on her head.

"Now is not the time." Pope continued, "We saw Ward's plane fly right over our heads with the gold inside of it. He didn't fly it. If somebody else flew, they were there on the tarmac. They saw Peterkin get murdered. We just have to find whoever that was and get them to confess on record."

"How do we do that?" Kie asked.

"A little light espionage."

JJ smiled. "A little ghost recon."

Danny groaned and killed the mood. "Guys, I can't."

"Why not?" Kie asked.

"'Cause if I get caught interfering in this investigation, I'd be charged with Obstruction of Justice. And, shit, I can kiss prison goodbye; my dad would murder me."

"Couldn't he just, like, drop those charges?"

Maybe if he had a different son. Danny simply shook his head in answer.

"You know what?" he said and stood. "I'll just call you guys. I'll still be there, but like, not there, ya know?"

"With what phone?"

Danny hummed in consideration but then said, "My mom's got a phone. Problem solved. It's in her fitting room."

"You still have a landline?" Kie asked.

"Don't make fun. This landline is saving my ass."

***

Danny pulled the settee over to the small table stand in the corner by the skyline windows. He picked up the phone and dialed JJ's number. It was the only other number besides his mom's that he had memorized.

"Sup, dude," JJ answered.

Danny shifted on the settee until he was comfortable. He pulled the cable to the phone until it was completely stretched out. "Hey. What's happening?"

"Pope's planting his phone in Gavin's car. We'll be able to listen on his AirPods," Kie said.

"Cool, cool," Danny said.

"Anyone there?"

"No," he answered. "Just me."

"Good," Kie said. "No one can know we're doing this."

"How's it been going, you know, with Pope and all?" JJ asked.

Danny was about to ask him what the hell he was talking about when Kie answered, "It's good."

"It's good? All right. In the bedroom, is he, like, kinda freaky, 'cause it's Pope, you know?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I don't know. Just kinda curious. Just spitballing here."

Danny furrowed his eyebrows. He had to of missed a huge chunk of the conversation because he wasn't following at all. Kie and Pope? Is that who JJ was referring to?

"You don't need to spitball."

"Hold up, hold up. What are you talking about?" Danny asked.

"Nothing."

"Danny, seriously, keep up," JJ said. Danny just hardly heard him add, "Almost forgot how blind he is."

"Hey!" he yelled, affronted.

"It's true!"

"We could sit in silence," Kie deadpanned.

"She's pokin' Pope."

"No way!" Danny exclaimed and shifted to lie on his back. He let his legs hang over the edge of the settee and stared at the ceiling to watch the clouds through the skylights. "Kie, I can't believe you haven't shared this with me."

"It's not like—there's nothing to share."

"Ouch," Danny said and winced. "That's cold. So, I shouldn't expect you two in my back seat anytime soon?"

"Dude, seriously? Are we still milking that?"

"Yeah, we're still milking that!" Danny hollered. He stood and paced as much as the cord would allow. "One: the seats are premium Italian leather that I didn't fucking prep. Okay! Like you can't just get liquids on them without proper prep work!"

"Oh, my god," JJ muttered through the receiver.

"And two," Danny shook his head and had to take a breath before he'd start yelling at the top of his lungs. "Two: I found her thong in the center console. What the fuck? No, JJ, seriously, what the fuck?"

He heard Kie laughing over the line and glared at his reflection in the window. He wanted to wring JJ's fucking neck.

"That's my bad." He chuckled like an asshole."I forgot about that."

"Oh, is that your bad? Is it your bad?" Danny resumed his pacing. "Was it a little something special saved for later? An excuse for you two to have round two because 'oh, hey, whoopsie, I forgot my thong. Better go back and get 'em. Oh, no, wait, I can't find them. JJ, I need your help.' And bam, you're fucking in my back seat again!"

Kie's laughter still poured in from the receiver, and Danny's temper only grew.

"I think I'm very generous, okay, but I draw the line at random girls' thongs in my car. That seems reasonable, no?"

"Yes," JJ said. Danny could hear the amusement in his tone. "That's reasonable. I'm sorry."

"Danny, I told you they were in there. Why didn't you stop them?" Kie asked.

Danny froze in his steps. His mouth dropped open, and he couldn't come up with a plausible lie. "Uh," he said dumbly. He didn't say that the mere sight made him physically sick or that his chest ached like another bullet wound. He said, "I didn't end up making it there."

He heard a door open and shifting against the seat.

"Okay. Phase one is complete," Pope said. "Everything—Are we all good?"

***

"I want to tickle the wire," Danny said. "I'm the best. I can do it!"

They were going to call Gavin and tell him that they knew he lied about what happened on the tarmac. Hopefully, it would spring him into action, and they'd be able to find more definitive proof.

"Danny, no," JJ said. "You're not even here. How would we have a phone talk to another phone, like, it wouldn't work."

Danny shook his head. "You don't know that."

"Yes, we do know that," Pope said.

Danny collapsed on the settee and grumbled, "None of you love me."

"You're so dramatic," JJ muttered.

"Should I do an accent?" Kie asked as the next best person in line to make the call.

"Definitely disguise your voice," Pope added.

Kie spoke in a posh English accent, "How would you like me to talk?"

"No," Danny said. It was good, but not what they needed.

"Not like that," Pope said.

"Batman," Kie said in a deep rasp.

"Sure," Danny said bemusedly.

JJ added, "Spot-on."

"Let's do it."

Danny heard the muffled, disfigured ringing through the receiver. He begrudgingly admitted he may not have been the best person to make the call.

"Hello?" Kie said in her deep, gravelly Batman voice.

Danny covered his mouth to hold in his laugh.

"I can't," she whispered.

"Just talk," Pope said.

Kie cleared her throat and repeated, "Hello? Is Gavin there?"

Danny could hardly hear the response and wished he could turn up the volume on the landline. Kie continued, "I know what happened on the tarmac. It was Rafe Cameron. But you already knew that, and you lied about it. We're gonna prove it. You could have saved her, Gavin, and you didn't. And you're not getting away with this."

He heard the click and whooped. "That was fucking baller, Kie!"

"Yeah, I was scared. Good job."

"All right," Pope said. "We tickled the wire. Phase two complete."

The floor creaked in the hallway, and Danny lunged over the settee to slam the phone down to end the call. He huffed and draped himself over the cushions just as Alex stepped through the door.

When he saw Danny, he paused and took in the scene.

Danny copied him and took in the furniture pulled close to the phone, his huffing breath, and the shirt that just so happened to raise up his stomach. "Uh. . ."

"Who were you just talking to?"

Danny shook his head and pursed his lips. "No one."

"No one?" Alex repeated. He walked across the room and hovered his hand over the phone.

Right on cue, the phone rang, and Alex quickly picked it up and raised it to his ear before Danny could snatch it. Danny pulled on his arm futilely.

"Oh, JJ," Alex sang. "How lovely of you to call. Danny's hand was just thinking of you—"

Danny scrambled to the receiver and pressed the button to end the call.

Danny cleared his throat and scratched the back of his neck. "It seems he's, uh, busy."

Alex smiled. "Bummer."

"Yeah. . ."

Alex laughed quietly to himself and walked over to Irene's desk after returning the phone. He sat in the chair and logged into the desktop.

Danny pushed the settee into its original position and prayed it didn't leave any scratches on the floorboards.

"I remember when Ty and I would have phone sex," Alex commented easily as he continued his work on the desktop.

"That is so not what was happening."

"Sure, champ," he dismissed and sent Danny a wink. "The fun part was the sneaking around."

Danny groaned and ran his hand down his face. He walked to the desk and sunk into the chair across from Alex. There was no point in even trying to change the subject. Once Alex locked onto something, he didn't let go. That's how he got this job and how he got his husband.

"Ty was always so descriptive. I swear that man's words are handcrafted by the devil."

"That's so good to hear. Please, tell me more."

Alex picked up a pen and flung it at Danny. "You shithead."

Danny laughed, and they descended into silence.

He didn't mind it. It was comfortable to just exist in Alex's presence. He was almost lulled into a trance by the rhythmic typing.

"Hey," Danny was asking before he even knew what he was saying, "What do you think about hickies?"

Alex lifted a shoulder but didn't pause in his typing. "They're hot."

Danny pursed his lips. He supposed there could be some appeal.

The printer whirled to life and began spitting out countless stacks of paper.

"So, you and Ty like to give them to each other?"

Alex pushed off the ground, and the chair rolled to the printer. He grabbed the stack and stapled it. "Yeah. Not as much now, but we did."

"And. . . if someone else gave him a hickey? How would you feel?"

He returned to his original position, placed the papers down, and set Danny with a look. "Are we doing this thing where we talk about me, but we're really talking about you?"

"No."

". . . Right."

Alex stared at him, but Danny's resolution held steady. After another minute, Alex broke with a put-upon sigh and picked up a pen. He signed in various places throughout the stack of paper while saying, "Since Ty is my husband, I would feel very upset if I saw someone else giving him a hickey, and justifiably so."

Danny nodded. Made sense.

"And if Ty wasn't?"

Alex looked at Danny with a blank expression. "Is this what I think this is about?"

"Well, if you think it's about me asking you how you'd feel if Ty received a hickey from someone else, then yes."

"You really are a little shit, huh?"

"Shocking how you're just figuring this out now."

"Danny," Alex said and leaned back in the seat. "Be real with me. Tell me what's going on."

Danny closed his eyes and ran his hand down his face. He stood, walked over to the windows, and peered into his backyard.

He's been muddling with his feelings since the Boneyard, but he wasn't sure if he was justifiable in feeling them. Mostly, all he felt was anger and then some, but everyone else brushed it off like it was insignificant, so he wasn't sure if he was overreacting.

Kie teased him. JJ dismissed him. And Pope acted like everything was run-of-the-mill.

He allowed hook-ups in his car, so it wasn't like JJ was breaking a rule and going behind Danny's back. But yet he still felt. . .

"We were at the Boneyard, and I watched JJ and this girl go to fucking town. She was sucking on his neck, and he looked—whatever," he started and kept his back to Alex. "And then later in the night, Kie told me they were going to fuck in my car, and I didn't believe it, so I went to go see. But, they were, and yeah, it's whatever."

The chair pushed out from the desk, and footsteps closed in on Danny. Alex entered his peripheral when he leaned his shoulder against the windows.

"And everything made me so god damn angry, but everyone else acted like it was normal, so I wasn't sure if I was crazy for feeling like that."

"'Course not. It's your car."

"Right," Danny muttered. "My car."

*****

(alexithymia- when a person has difficulty identifying and expressing emotions.)

Danny—refuses-to-even-think-for-a-second-he's-jealous—Sarver 🤝 JJ—I'm-gonna-fuck-in-this-man's-car-to-make-him-jealous—Maybank
= fucking idiots

Thanks for reading! Happy holidays.