wickerpark | [David & Izak] The Basketball Diaries

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[David & Izak] The Basketball Diaries

Dad had texted just before practice that he was going to be late again - and Mom was in London tonight, anyway, sleeping off her last international flight - so David hadn't seen much point in going home. Probably would have just been Rosa's enchiladas, he thought. Not that it was a bad thing, but sitting at the kitchen island in their silent apartment wasn't exactly his idea of a good time.

Of course, the problem with going to school where he did was that everyone else he knew - even the other guys on the team - were too worried about whether they'd get into Notre Dame or Stanford or wherever to do anything that might approach fun. Never mind they'd all been admitted now. Hell, he was even admitted now, even if his five acceptances didn't have Ivy cachet. They were all stuck in the habit, even now that grades didn't matter anymore.

Well, whatever, he thought as he sacked out on a bench and glanced in all directions before he slipped a joint out of his pocket. Just a few more months of this, then they'd all be away. It probably didn't much matter now.

He barely saw the shadow of someone coming by him as he was lighting up, and David's eyes flashed upwards, uncharacteristically sharp and incisive for a moment. Then he saw who it was, and he grinned.

"Hey, Kagan. You're out late. Riding herd on your baby sis?"

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"Huh?" Izak turned at the sound of his last name, at first not sure who had said it. Looking down though, he saw David and just sort of stared dumbfounded. David Oliver was talking to him? He was shocked, stunned, speechless.

'Say something, Zak.' He could just hear Sarah saying, before he snapped out of it. "Oh, no. Tyler and Sarah have this thing they have to do today..." Dr. O'Neil got them every Thursdays. "So...I'm just....walking. Home. Well, I've got to catch a bus, but it's like another hour cos I missed mine. But...should you be doing this, that, smoking like that...in pub-lic."

Great. Well done.

"The cops finished their rounds fifteen minutes ago," David said as he took a drag. "Considering the neighborhood, the next one's probably not going to happen for....probably forty. Forty-five, maybe, the Gold Coast isn't exactly the crime capital."

He gave Izak a crooked smile. "I've got an in at the district attorney's office. You want one? I've got three more in here."

"Huh." That was way too clock knowledge right there. All Izak could do was scratch his head before shrug and sighed. It wasn't really that big of a deal. Oh well. "Oh, no. My dads would kill me... My one dad especially. He has this thing." Hadyn, honestly, seemed like he'd been a wild teen but that just meant his kids didn't get away with much.

"But...thanks." Erm, but no what. "I was thinking of getting some food actually. My dad is on call at the hospital, and the other one is doing so art show. So it is a free for all at home." Not really. Elisha was likely still at work or something, but he'd be home for dinner. Especially since the twin's had a birthday soon. But, whatever. Hadyn wasn't home so he could get away with shooting Elisha a text that he'd be late and at a friend's. No problems there, and no 'we eat as a family' guilt trip.

"Yeah, mine pinches the bridge of his nose a lot. I've never been able to convince him it's oregano." David flashed Izak a grin and stood up, picking up his basketball and tucking it under his arm.

"I could eat. There's a pizza place a couple blocks away that's not completely horrible. Don't you guys have a car or something?" He asked, brushing his hair out of his face. "I'm surprised you're taking the 73 back uptown."

"And they don't ground you, for life?" God, that must be nice. His cousins had it pretty easy like that, but then no one dared back talk Uncle Victor either, so he imaged they just toed the lines in Hong Kong. But Hadyn was just sort of a hard ass, which uncle Jordan said was their dad's fault. Made sense really, seeing as whatever happened between Hadyn and Grandpa Novak was never spoken of- literally. So it must have been pretty epic.

"Oh we do, but you know. I like the bus, and the whole pretending I don't live in a super rich house in Wicker Park. Kinda makes you feel awesome, being a part of the real world." He said as they started for the pizza joint. His bus habit was just one of the many ways, really, that Izak put off getting home as long as possible.

"Mostly Dad yells at Uncle Charlie. He's got a little...garden," David decided. "Besides that, I've heard stories from both of them from college. What can they say? I'm not doing anything Dad didn't do himself." Which didn't mean Adam didn't try to say it, but it went in one ear and out the other where David was concerned.

Still, they had a system. David didn't let himself get caught, and Adam pretended that his younger brothers weren't passing his son weed.

"You're lucky," he told Izak. "We've got a downtown condo. It's the five minutes on the brown line, absolutely no excuse to be late."

"Yeah, Lucky is a word for it." Izak said with a snort. "I'm also Jewish and force fed bagels while people discuss how 'not Jewish Izak' is." He shrugged a little. "Not that I'm really complaining, but it is sort of a thing." Though being Jewish was 'debatable'. His surrogate was Jewish, he was told. And Elisha was.

Hadyn was sort of a convert who just wasn't very good at being Jewish.

"We used to live downtown, though. In one of those high rises. Before the twins, and whatever. But it was kinda small for a family of five, so they got a house."

"Ahh. We're...I dunno. Something or other. Don't think any of us have seen the inside of a church." He couldn't really see Adam or Karina insisting on the baptism thing, honestly.

"Maybe we would have been neighbors." But probably not. State's attorneys and flight attendants didn't make so much that they could afford a luxury high rise. As it was, Dad bitched incessantly about the mortgage. "There's only four of us, and my sister goes to school in Connecticut, so no reason to size up the place. Plus, Mom's out of the country most of the time anyway. A house would just be twice as empty, you know?"

"There isn't anything particularly exciting about being Jewish." Izak said, shrugging again. "Not missing much, I don't think. Especially not the stereotypical remarks about how 'you must be good with money now please loan me some.'"

Then add 'gay' with 'gay dads' into the mix and bam, you were ripe for the teasing. Sarah was so lucky. Tyler was so unlucky. Tyler didn't just get the first name Uriah, but he also got the hair.

"But I guess empty houses must be great sometimes," he said, almost wistfully. There was no way Izak was ever hooking up in his house, none. Not even as an adult. "Privacy, I mean. Gotta be blessed."

"I don't think anything's exactly inherently exciting," David said dryly. "We've got to make up our own exciting things, you know? At least, that's what my uncles are always telling me."

He was about ninety percent sure that Charlie and Toby were baiting Adam a little bit with that philosophy, but also about ninety percent sure that was Charlie's actual philosophy.

"Well, yeah," he added. "There's definitely privacy. Then again, you never know when the parents are suddenly going to show up with coworkers in tow, so you can't be having too many drunken orgies either, you know?"

"Oh, I don't know. Being a lion seems to be exciting. At least that's the impression I get from watching The Lion King. Or being a ninja. G.I. Joe. The list can go on." He said, smiling a little. He sort of wished he could be more like Sarah, right now, with her naturally flirtatious words.

"Yeah?" He said, before shrugging. "Don't know. I might take that over parents who know everything about your day." Well, sometimes. There was honestly no reason to ever trade in Hadyn and Elisha for the parents of some of his friends. He was damn lucky, really. So very damn lucky. "That, though, might just be a Jewish thing. Because I swear, the minute something happens, my dads know and then I am getting a call from my Aunt Debbie. And then my cousins, and uncle, and so on. But only on the Jewish side."

"Now, see, I always wanted to be Jack Sparrow. Or one of the really cool FBI agents on Criminal Minds. But Jack Sparrow's a little closer to my thing." David sent Izak a half-smile and brushed his hand through his hair, but he didn't expect that Izak would get the point. He'd been sending the same messages for about three months now.

"So...the sitcom tropes about Jewish families are all completely true," David said with a sober nod. "Can't be too bad though, right? I mean you guys are all pretty much on the straight and narrow. It's not like you get caught shoplifting at Saks or some crap."

"Yeah, sure. If you don't mind dying of an STD." He said, the point flying over his head. He wasn't very good with hints, honestly. Science and all that? Excellent. Social ques? Terrible. "Mm. But I guess the ship would make up for it. Full of half naked, also probably dying of STDs....men. Would definitely put the money in for a nicer looking crew I think."

As for the sitcom tropes, he just laughed before reaching up to scrub his hair. "Yeah, a little bit. Their all a bunch of talkers, you know? Talkers and feeders...never tell my Aunt Debbie that you're a little hungry, because you'll end up with like mountains of fried food as a 'snack'. I almost fill bad for my Pops, Hadyn. She's always trying to tell him how he needs to put on weight, you know."

"They can't all be dying of STDs," David reasoned. "Statistically, I'd think that sea battles and drowning would probably combine to take at least as many. Plus, you know, scurvy." Scurvy was historically the big killer of sailors. Which wasn't to say that most of them didn't have syphilis too, it was just that scurvy was probably going to do it's work before treponema palladium rotted your brain.

"My grandma's always shoving food down Leigh and my throats, plus my cousins whenever they're in town," he says. "Mostly cookies. She's a big one for cookies. Dad isn't sure she really knows how to make anything but a dozen variations on chocolate chip. Not that either he or my mom can talk." Adam and Karina were experts at calling out for delivery.

"Statistically? No doubt. And that is just the sea battles and drowning- not to mention any ship accidents that occur. You know, fall from the nest. But it is highly likely they did all have syphilis, and there by technically dying of it. It just takes longer to rot a brain than to be shot with a canon ball." Izak rattled on, standing a little taller in his confidence of his argument. He'd been on the debate team throughout high school, and it gave him a sort of calm. At least when it came to arguing things.

"I like cookies." He said though, grinning. "Oh man, rugelach. Have you ever tried rugelach? The best cookies, I promise. Hands down. I can get you some."

"Most of Europe was dying of syphilis. Probably." When David went off to college...wherever, he'd probably end up majoring in history.

He shook his head, though. "Never even heard of it. My cookie experience is strictly white-bread all-American cookies. You know, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, that kind of thing. Grandma does some amazing snickerdoodles, too. You could kidnap me some rugelach, and I could bring you snickerdoodles."

"Yeah, well. Consider it a lesson in have unprotected sex." He said with a bit of a smirk. "And be thankful for modern medicine that can cure ridiculous amounts of stuff these days. Though you know, the medial ages was not so in the dark as we think. They at least figured out that if you didn't want to have a kid, you just have sex with a dude. Of course, only the nobles really got away with that." There probably wasn't much doubt as to what Izak would major in. He was typically found buried in Maths or science books. He was also one of the few people who would legitimately geek out over explaining complex equations.

"Oh yeah, sure." He said, nodding and smiling. "Yeah, like a cookie swap. I could do that." He stopped in front of the Pizza shop and pointed up to the sign. "Well....we're here."

Izak was, David thought, the type of guy you'd have to kiss to get to shut up. It might not even stop him if you tried, and he was tempted to, but...well. They were at the pizza place, anyway, so he just pushed it open and slouched towards a booth.

"What kind do you want?" He asked. "I mean, the sausage is good, but it's Chicago. The sausage is always good. It's the law."

He would stop if kissed. At least he imagined he would, though he didn't have a whole lot of experience with the whole thing. Following David into the shop and sliding into the other side of the booth.

"Uh, no can do. Most sausage is pork." And, well. Pork was a no go. They might not have been the most religiously observant family, but they did try to avoid eating the wrong things. Even if Turkey bacon was just not the same as real bacon. "I actually stick with the veggie pizza, with a splash of pineapple. You?"

"You're missing out on the best parts of the world, man," David said, though he managed to not wrinkle his nose at the idea of veggie pizza. With pineapple. It was a travesty, he was pretty sure.

Still, he supposed sacrifices had to be made. "I think the veggie pizza's okay here," he said. "It's got broccoli and artichoke hearts on it, though, if those are no-gos. Roasted red peppers, too."

Izak would never understand people's objection to pineapple on their pizza. He wasn't the only one that liked it. For one, he'd gotten it from Hadyn- who like him, enjoyed the sweetness of the pineapple mixed in with the more savory flavors. And two? It wouldn't have been on a menu if someone out there didn't buy enough of it.

"Nah, man. That actually sounds really good. Usually we have to remind places that black olives are from the devil and we don't want them- my dad and me, I mean. But everything else if kinda golden." He said, smiling. "You sure you're okay with the veggie stuff? I mean...most people don't really go for it."

David would point out that anchovies are, too, and he was pretty sure he and his mom were the only ones who really liked them on a pizza. "It's not a pizza unless it's got at least three kinds of greasy meat on it at our house," he admitted. "I think Dad might be allergic to most veggies. But it's not going to kill me, yeah?" His eyes twinkled a little under his floppy brown hair. "I wouldn't want you have to go confess to your rabbi, or whatever.

"Besides," he added as he leaned back, glancing over his shoulder at the waitress who was finally heading their way. "I hear they're good for me. Are you good for me, Izak?"

"I-uh-wha?" Izak started, blinking and staring as if he wasn't sure he'd heard David right. He had a hundred things he could have said to the whole Veggie thing. For one, Hadyn- sort of crazy when it came to diet. For another- he didn't really care much for meat when he thought about it too much. Especially the greasy kind.

Yet all that just sort of died when all he could do was stare. And then let David order, only managing to get out a choked 'coke' for what he wanted to drink.

After the waitress left, he sort of shook himself out of it. "I....I-I-I don't know? I mean, um. I'm sort of just...nerdy. And not all that into pot. And I....really like you, so I'm going to just....just shut up. Now. Oh God." He muttered the last part, feeling himself turning bright red slowly. Sarah was going to kill him for how pathetic he was.

David laughs a little, low and amused, but not cruel. "Dude," he said. "We go to the Latin School. No matter how much Mike and them act like meatheads, we're all pretty much nerdy in our own way, or we would have had our asses kicked out and into lesser but equally exorbitant private schools by now." Even David kept his grades up pretty well; more of a humanities guy than Izak was, but still.

"I really like you too," he said, brushing aside the pot thing. No one was as into pot as he was, anyway, which was possibly...mildly concerning.

"Yeah. Well....some people are still more nerdish than others." He assured David, as he smiled at the waitress as their drinks were brought to the table. But David saying he liked Izak...that just sort of baffled him a little.

"You....do?" He asked, genuinely surprised by that. "I...didn't really think I was your type." He managed to get out, scrubbing his hair. "Not that I'm at all unhappy. I like...beyond. I just. Uh...Surprised."

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I'm alive.

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I thought I'd tagged this already .....

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