Finding Daddy

And boy, did I have a friend.

Mr. McCoy didn’t really speak too long in biology, leaving the rest of the time as ‘get to know your classmates’ and goofing around with whatever devices you had in your backpack. Max and I couldn’t really seem to shut up. We were endlessly talking about music, video games, and movies. I was perfectly content to keep going for hours, which it turned out we kind of could. The final class of the day was our computer class that we had together.

“So I get to meet this boyfriend, huh?” Max asked, elbowing me playfully as we left with the rest of our class as the bells rang throughout the school.

“Yes, yes.” At some point I had asked Max if he had any plans after school. When I was informed he didn’t, I texted Felix to see if he was okay with him joining us. Felix easily agreed and told me he couldn’t wait to meet my friend (that he totally knew I would make). “I think you just want to meet him because of his car.”

“That might be a small helping factor,” Max remarked with a shrug.

Max and I had ended up having a lengthy discussion of Supernatural when he pulled up the site he watched it on and I freaked. I let it slip that Felix had ended up buying an Impala just for that reason and I swear he was drooling. I was then given a full, in-detail description of the things he would do to Jared Padalecki in the back of that Impala before I covered my ears and adultly chanted ‘I can’t hear you’ over and over. He ended up laughing at me, causing our entire class to raise eyebrows at us, including the teacher who decided to not touch our conversation with a ten foot pole.

And that’s the story of how I found out that Max was one hundred and twenty percent gay. Using his measurement of it, not mine.

“You car whore,” I scoffed playfully as we made our way to the parking lot where Felix told us he’d pick us up at.

“Oh, I’m a whore of many other things. Jared Padalecki, Mark Pellegrino, Bam Margera, Tom Hiddleston, David Tennant, Gerard Way - ”

“Okay, okay. I get it. You’re a car and man whore,” I chuckled. Max shrugged in response, neither arguing or agreeing with my statement. I shook my head as a small smile made its way onto my lips.

“You know, you’re pretty amazing, Danny,” Max spoke, bumping my shoulder with his own. I rolled my eyes, seeing him standing back up to his full height afterwards. Damn taller people.

“Psh, not really. I’m okay at best,” I shrugged off. Max turned to me face him with his hands on my shoulders. He leaned over slightly and locked eyes with me.

“No, I mean it, Danielle. A lot of people make fun of me and avoid me at all costs, but you didn’t. You’re the first person that I told about my gender identity who didn’t shun me or mock me. Well, besides my parents. You. Are. Amazing.”

I blushed profusely at that and ducked my head. Max let out an ‘aww’ before pulling me into his chest and began to rub my back. I chuckled, wrapping my arms around his waist. “Damnit. It’s not like I’m going to cry or something.”

“Yeah, but you look so cute that the world can’t see you in such a vulnerable state,” Max stated in a matter-of-fact tone. I laughed before finally pushing myself away from him. At that moment was when a honking made us both turn towards the parking lot. There sat the Impala in all it’s glory. Max was soon dashing towards it and slowly running his hands down the side once he reached it. I chuckled as I followed him to the vehicle, Felix smiling at me from his window which was rolled down.

“So I’m really hoping this is your friend?” Felix joked as he nudged a thumb back towards where Max was awkwardly hugging the back door, causing more people to stare at us than originally.

“That it is,” I agreed with a bob of my head. Suddenly the back door's window was getting rolled down and a grinning Ethan was suddenly noticeable. He had one arm resting on the hole of where the window had been, the other arm holding up his head by his cheek. On his face was a smirk as Max shot up and away from the vehicle.

“And who is this gorgeous man?” Ethan drawled, his smirk growing as he noticed Max blush and let his eyes roll over his body.

“I swear to God, Ethan,” Felix groaned, rubbing his face with the hand not on his steering wheel. Ethan was oblivious, winking at Max as he returned a sly smile. I got the basic logic that Max didn’t really get many compliments, especially since he seemed to shoot them down since he was uncomfortable in his own body. I couldn’t help turning my head to hide my smirk, happy to see him squirm in a good way. “Sorry about him. Once he found out that you were bringing a friend, he wouldn’t be talked into staying home.”

“I’m okay with that,” Max forced out, smiling a little wider and standing up straighter. I raised my eyebrow before turning to Felix and shrugging.

“In that case, let’s head out.” Max opened the door behind Felix and slid in while I walked around to the passenger seat and plopped down in the cool leather. Once we were all buckled in, Felix headed out of the parking lot and towards the pier.

“Ethan, down boy,” Felix scolded when we noticed him with his arm draped across the back bench and leaning towards Max with that flirtatious smirk that seemed permanently glued to his face.

“What?” Ethan turned to us with an exaggerated pouty face. “I can’t admire a fantastic work of art?”

“He’s not a painting, numbnuts. You are invading so many bubbles of personal space,” I sighed, shaking my head as I turned to look out the front windshield again.

“Am I really?” Ethan spoke. By his tone I guess he was looking at Max and asking that. I could even see him batting his fucking eyelashes. And from the roll of Felix’s eyes out my peripheral vision, I was assuming he was.

“A little, Romeo. How about you try taking me out first before you eye fuck me,” Max suggested with a twinge of smugness. I was smirking again, having to cover my mouth with my hand. Max and Ethan were fucking perfect for each other. Both of them had a raging ego once you rubbed them the right way and they were obviously interested in the other. After a few hours of talking, the real attraction will skyrocket with how much they have in common.

“Where did you find him anyway, Danny? I swear you found his soul mate,” Felix asked under his breath as the two in the back began to shamelessly flirt and he gripped my hand resting on the seat between us.

“Biology. Where we have a teacher who looks like fuckin’ Bruce Banner,” I recalled with a chuckle. His eyes grew wide as he looked to me at a red light.

“No way! You guys got McCoy?” With a nod of my head he grinned and turned back to the road. He started forward as the light turned. “That’s awesome. You’re gonna have an interesting year in his class.”

“Am I the only one that finds it weird he knows exactly what you’re talking about?” Max suddenly questioned from the backseat.

“Heck no. Last year he won the look alike contest we all had going. Second place was Mrs. Olson, the American Sign Language teacher, with Kat Dennings.”

“Whoa, whoa. You mean to tell me that there is a Kat Dennings look alike at our school?” I demanded, turning fully in my seat to give Ethan a wide eyed look of shock. He smiled, nodding with a quiet hum in confirmation. “Holy fuck, I have to see her!”

“I thought you were straight,” Max teased.

“I am, but have you seen her? I would become five hundred percent gay for that woman.” I paused for a moment, turning half way back to give Felix a shy smile. “No offense.”

“None taken. If Jensen Ackles wanted to fuck me, I would be gayer than Ethan,” Felix replied with a wink.

“I would support you a hundred percent,” I spoke, resting my hand lightly on his upper arm. We all laughed at that and proceeded to talk about who we would willing switch our sexual orientations for. Soon enough we were pulling to a stop in front of some nifty looking ice cream parlor fashioned like a 50’s diner. I cursed out loud, quickly pulling my phone out of my pocket just before entering the shop.

“Your dad?” Felix asked knowingly as Ethan paused, leaning against the door to keep it open and Max blinking just inside the entrance way.

“Yeah, I forgot to call him. Look, you guys go inside and I’ll be there in a second,” I replied as I pulled up his name. Felix waved Ethan away. He nodded and Max and him were seen standing to the side of the entrance and chatting inside. As I dialed Dad’s number, Felix slipped his hand into mine and intertwined our fingers. I smiled as he lifted our hands to his lips to kiss my knuckles one at a time. “Stop being so cute.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll try toning that down,” a raspy voice spoke. I gasped, beginning to choke from trying to start laughing at the same time.

“Damnit, Felix. You made me call my dad cute.”

“Well, he is adorable as hell,” Felix joke. Dad heard and sighed playfully.

“I think it says a lot about me when my daughter’s boyfriend is calling me adorable,” Dad grumbled. I heard laughing in the background, suggesting at least a few of the guys were with him.

“Wait, are you actually in the studio? I figured you would cancel again.”

“No, we’ve been too lazy already. Got shit to do, ya know?” There was some mumbling in the background and Dad let out a huff of annoyance. “Shut the fuck up, Johnny. It’s one phone call you gnome.”

“Dad, stop being mean to Johnny,” I sighed.

“It’s not my fault he makes it so easy,” Dad scoffed. “So how was school?”

“Good. Made a friend.”

“We told you.”

“Okay, okay. Enough with rubbing it in my face, okay? Felix already beat you to it. Now I gotta let you go because we have two people waiting on us to hurry up.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll see you tonight. Love you.”

“Love you, too.” With that we headed into the parlor, Felix holding the door open for me, and met back with Max and Ethan. Who were holding hands. Felix and I smirked at them until they noticed our faces. Both gave us almost matching scowls which caused me to snort in laughter.

“Shut up, you whore,” Max grumbled, hiding his face from me.

“Already dating, huh?”

“No,” Ethan scoffed. “We just like holding hands with people. It that so wrong?”

“No, but you two are just so adorable,” Felix cooed.

“Shut up,” they muttered in unison. Soon enough we were ordering our ice cream and shoving into a booth in the back corner. Within twenty-so minutes we were asked to 'please leave' because we were causing other patrons discomfort. Max and Ethan were all for telling the other customers off, but Felix quickly shooed them out while I gave the owner an extra ten for not calling the cops on us.

Max and Ethan got crazy on sugar and it was highly lucky on our part that the owner had skipped involving the police force on us.

We ended up strolling along the beach for a while before making ourselves comfy near the boardwalk. Since it was after school, there were quite a lot of teenagers rolling around. A group of them were playing volleyball, some were wave boarding, a couple of girls were sun tanning, and an alarming amount were having a picnic. I literally thought picnics on the beach were just some kind of sappy thing that happened in romance movies. Apparently it was also a thing after the first day back to school, too.

“I feel it would be more appropriate to do that on the last day of school,” Max spoke when I voiced my thoughts on the activity. “I mean, getting through the first day isn’t shit. It’s making it through a full year of this crap is what’s shocking and causes for celebration.”

“The first step is sometimes the hardest,” Ethan pointed out.

“Stop trying to sound philosophical. It’s a sad attempt, dude,” Felix joked. Ethan mocked him with his face twisting to look rude. I giggled at them as Max rolled his eyes, muttering something about them trying to ‘show off the testosterone’.

“Hey, you’re Danielle Sanders.” I looked up, tensing my entire body, and saw a girl before us. She had a volleyball resting on her popped hip with one arm hold it in place. The other hand pushed her sunglasses on top of her head, pushing her hair backwards from her face. She didn’t seem familiar, but she was blinking at me with such surprise, as if finding an old friend she had forgotten all about. “No way. You’re M.Shadows’s kid, right?”

“It’s none of your business,” Max snapped. I looked over to see him fuming. I couldn’t ignore the flicker of surprise in his eyes. but he just seemed mostly annoyed by the girl’s presence in general. She glanced over at Max and her shock, half open-mouthed look shifted into a knowing smirk.

“Oh look, you became friends with the freak.” Looking down she noticed Max clenching Ethan’s hand so tightly that his knuckles were turning white. “The pansy tranny.”

“I would highly suggest you stop using those kind of slurs to my friend,” I spoke the calmest voice I had ever heard myself use. Ethan and Felix shared a look before standing to their feet.

“Let’s go guys. We don’t need to stay here,” Felix spoke, trying to shoo me away.

“No. She owes an apology to Max,” I argued.

“Just leave it, Danny. She’s not worth it,” Max grumbled. He was keeping his head bowed and turned away from the girl whose friends were beginning to do a mix of calling her name and walking towards us. “Let’s go.”

“Yeah, you should leave. There’s a strict ‘no halfies’ rule here,” the girl sneered.

I could feel my entire body getting more tensed as she began to laugh obnoxiously loud, her friends soon joining in. One moment I was just standing there, watching her, and the next my fist was flying and blood was rushing out of her nose. I remember the high pitched scream and the volleyball falling to the red stained sand. The next thing I know, Felix is grasping my hand and running up the pier’s slope, laughing with two other voices as we raced from the throng of people that was still growing.

“Take that you fucking ignorant prick!” Max exclaimed, both him and Ethan flipping the group off, before we were all climbing into the Impala and speeding off. I let out a shocked laugh as Max leaned forward to wrap his arms around my neck and kiss my cheek. “Again, you are amazing!”

“What else are friends for?”