This is my first submission so constructive criticism is welcome.
My gratitude to nomoretears00, who sent the email encouraging me to post, and did so much more you are awesome!
Thanks to Cari Z.
Blackstallion21 is my amazing, talented editor. If there are any errors it's on me, I keep rewriting.
This is a copyrighted work of fiction by the author seeker71. All rights reserved.
Nicolao scanned the occupants of the bus looking for his usual seat. His mouth quirked sideways in disappointment, the bus was unusually full and he would have to stand until something opened up. Perhaps he would have to forego his morning snooze to work. He grimaced again at the idea, adjusted his bag and began to make his way to the first open pole towards the rear.
"Um, you can sit here."
Nicolao turned to meet the eyes of the speaker it was the kid on the first seat behind the driver. That was not just who he was today, it was how he identified him in his mind. The small young man sat there every morning, his ears covered by headphones, a cap pulled low over his eyes and his things sprawled next to him, preventing anyone from sitting beside him.
"Sure, thank you," he responded as the seat was cleared. Once the backpack was snugly settled under the seat Nicolao eased his large frame down and placed his own bag at his feet. He caught the bus driver looking at him in the rearview mirror. He recalled one of his first times catching this bus; a boy got on and motioned for Kid on the First Seat to move his things. The woman's voice was too forceful as she barked a loud no, and directed the other male to open seats in the back.
Maybe Kid on the First Seat is her son, he thought.
But that did not seem right to him. The clothes were clean but threadbare, and that backpack had seen better days. Since the driver had no objection to his sitting there and he was getting nowhere with his own musings, Nicolao decided to go fishing.
"Thank you again for the seat, I am Nicolao," he flashed him his friendliest smile and extended his hand.
"No prob... I mean you're welcome," the young man sighed, flustered, "I'm Davey." He tried to keep his breathing under control. He had offered the god of his fantasies a seat, but he did not think it would lead to actual conversation.
Thinking is not your strong suit idiot, he chastised himself mentally.
As they shook hands he met Nicolao's eyes and dropped them quickly to his lap. That small movement gave him hope that Davey was interested in him after all he liked what he saw thus far. Davey was about five foot and seven inches, almost foot shorter than Nicolao, slim, with pouty, pink lips and sad, dark blue eyes he pictured briefly all of the ways he could drive the sadness from his eyes, and had to shake himself to reality. He had to know how old he was before he got ahead of himself.
"So Davey, do you know why it's so crowded?"
"Oh, it's orientation down at Tech. It gets like this at this time of year. Time for the schools to dump the dead weight, and most people like me scramble to Tech to finish up. It won't last long. Most people will lose interest in a week or two then things will go back to normal." Davey's voice was low, he would go weeks without speaking, and his vocal chords strained to perform when they were called upon.
Nicolao leaned in closer causing the smaller man to swallow nervously.
"I don't quite understand, what is dumping the dead weight? I have only been here a few months and am not quite familiar with all things local."
"Oh, well um," Davey shrugged, somewhere in this explanation he was going to reveal to Nicolao the god, he was a loser, but at least he could look into those liquid brown eyes for this one morning. "This county has the best school system in the tri-county area based on standardized test scores and stuff. They keep on you about attendance and making improvements on your tests, cause the better the scores the more money and recognition."
Davey furrowed his eyebrows as he paused, Nicolao still appeared interested. "If you miss more than ten days or are not up to your yearly improvements you are either dumped from the rolls, encouraged to transfer to another district, get your GED or do one of the alternative trade schools. This is the week after interim, people know whether they will make it this semester or if times up, so folks are looking at their options."
"The dead weight dump is the district dumping kids." Nicolao was disappointed, not only was Davey apparently a high school student, but his new home town was as mired in class division as he suspected. "I suppose those with disabilities are also dumped."
Davey looked at his companion the big man's expression had darkened. "No, actually those with disabilities have a file and their scores are not counted. It only affects people with no diagnosed disabilities."
"And you are one of those dumped kids?"
Davey wished he was invisible, his common prayer to an uninterested God. "I'm in my last year of school and I'm twenty years old, not really a kid." He looked out of the window, he couldn't make out things in the distance without his glasses and he preferred it that way. His eyes naturally obscured the world from him, and the world never took him under scrutiny, so they were mutually blind to one another in his reckoning.
"But you kept going and soon you will be finished."
Davey returned his gaze to him, unsure if the man was having fun at his expense. He had been talking to a twenty year old high school senior, and still didn't appear fazed. Davey could not process that he still wanted to talk to him, even as Nicolao filled the silence.
"I have a younger sister, Nieves. She was what, my family just called slow," Nicolao looked upward, visually picturing his sister, the corners of his mouth lifted in a soft smile.
"I tell you she tried so hard to understand what came easily to the rest of us, and the neighborhood kids were not always kind." He shrugged his broad shoulders, brought his gaze from the past, and winked at Davey.
"The taunts never went too far, I made sure of that. But what I was always so proud of the way she never quit trying, never stopped, even when it seemed to be a waste of effort and time. Nieves was diagnosed with Visual Processing Disorder when she was fourteen. You should be proud you didn't quit." Nicolao held Davey's eyes, and was rewarded with dimples as he smiled.
He could hardly believe it. The object of his crush was not only gorgeous, but he was kind, had protected his sister, and was actually telling him, he should be proud.
He doesn't know I'm a fag though, Davey told himself.
Davey was naturally small, which most of the worlds a-holes equated with him being gay. He was not twitchy, but somehow the a-holes always knew, like it was tattooed on his forehead.
"Did Nieves finish school?"
"No, actually she got her GED, she got knocked up her senior year, but that had nothing to do with her disability."
Davey cocked his head to the side, not knowing what to say, then joined Nicolao as he laughed out loud; he noted the laugh was near soundless.
At least he is looking at me now, and he is not jailbait, Nicolao thought.
They were quickly approaching Davey's stop, he wished he had more time. Nicolao was probably not gay, but maybe he could be a friendly face on the bus.
"Nicolao and Nieves what kind of names are those?"
