[David & Izak] The Basketball Diaries

[arollingstoner]

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?"

Comments

[arollingstoner]

David quirked his brow a bit at the first comment - most guys he knew, no matter how geeky, had fooled around a little - but he let it pass. It'd only make Izak go red and choke, and while the first would be pretty interesting, the second would just raise uncomfortable questions from the waitress.

"Sure," he said instead. "Yeah. Not everyone finds Mike Sullivan attractive, you know." Including, if David had to guess, Izak's little sister, no matter how much she flirted with him. "I bet you're cute with your glasses, anyway. Let me guess, they're those plastic black types."

[nerdydna]

Well, fooling around wasn't really something Izak had had much chance at, honestly. He might have had a whole floor in the house to himself, but guest 'were not allowed' down there with him. Alone. Not that he'd make out with his friends, but whatever.

And in truth, it only took Hadyn backhanding him once when he was 11 for Izak to decide somethings weren't worth pissing your parents off that much. Even if, ironically, it had been Hadyn's reaction to the incident that disturbed him more than actually getting popped.

"Well, no. Guess not." He said, nodding before laughing a little. "Yeah. That's it. Total hipster frames." He'd worn them to school a few times, when his contacts were acting up or he lost one. If he'd have thought about it, he'd have thought David would have seen him in them at least once.

[arollingstoner]

"My little sister wears these lime green pointy frames with sequins on them that I swear she must have found at a junk store or something. Wears them all the time." David twirled his straw in his hand idly and watched Izak. "Yours probably aren't as bad as that. Leigh looks someone dipped the 1950s in acid whenever she wears them, I swear."

He leaned back as the waitress dumped cheese bread on the table, then grabbed one, dipping it in sauce and chewing thoughtfully. "So, do you want to fool around, or are you just in it for the pizza?"

[nerdydna]

"Nothing wrong with a hip retro look. Sarah's always telling me I need to be more adventurous, anyway. Maybe it is a girl's thing, though. Because I don't think I look so bad with my clothing. Or glasses." He said in a bit of a ramble before picking up a cheese stick and biting into it without any sauce.

Then he almost choked on it, looking both surprised and mortified at the same time after David's last question. The smartass in him had a witty comeback, one that he might have been able to pull off around his friends with even a smarmy smugness he'd learned from his Uncle. But the words 'why not both?' just sort of stuck in his throat and wouldn't come out.

"I-uh," he started, looking a bit bashful as he picked at the table, trying to regain some of his calm, coolness. "Well- I...I don't want to assume things, I mean. Buying dinner...or whatever, isn't like 'do me now' or something. No-not that I don't want to, because...I would. Like that. I just. Um...."

He trailed off, staring at the breadstick for a moment as he chewed on his bottom lip. He was so fucking hopeless, he thought.

"I mean....yeah. Yes. I. Would." There, he thought, he'd said it. Even if he couldn't quite look at David when he did.

[arollingstoner]

"Your sister's one of those fashion-y types. No one ever looks good enough for them. She'd probably try to make me over if I gave her the opportunity." The trick was not making eye contact. And moving fast enough to avoid critique.

Any other boy, David thought, and he'd be full of his own sly, witty quips. Another night, he might have said them anyway, to see just how red Izak Kagan could blush. He wasn't so much in the mood, though.

"That's good to hear," he said lazily. "Dad's not getting home 'till late tonight, if you want to go to my place."

[nerdydna]

"Yeah." The difference was that David didn't live with Sarah. Ty didn't have to suffer, but that was more because Tyler didn't open the door for Sarah and usually had something assholish to say when he spoke up. But, Izak thought, it was just sort of a brotherly thing. He and Ty got along alright, at least.

"Um." He started, looking up at David finally, and feeling utterly out of place in that moment. "Yeah. Yeah, sure. I mean. Sounds cool."

He was so going to be dead by the end of the night at this rate, might as well make it worth it. Right?

[arollingstoner]

David laughed a little as the pizza arrived, waiting until the waitress had left before he said anything.

"I rarely kill visitors, promise," he said as he flicked his hair out of his eyes. "It's not the opening scene of a Wes Craven movie or anything."

[nerdydna]

"I...wasn't worried about you killing me." Well, unless it was out of embarrassment or something. It could happen still.

"I just..." It wasn't like he could admit it was a virgin. Though, he thought, he kind of already had. So. Yeah. "I just...sort of feel like I'm gonna wake up any second now."

[arollingstoner]

"Mm." It was the kind of noncommittal sound that Adam Oliver excelled at, and it would annoy David if anyone pointed out that he sounded like his dad. Looked like him a little bit, too, as he raised an eyebrow and slid a slice of pizza onto his plate.

"You know, I'm just a guy. Not...I don't know, Bono or something."

[nerdydna]

"Pretty sure Bono is also just a guy. A rich guy." But then, so were they. Or so was Izak. One of them was going to inherit the Kagan family business. And even if they didn't, they were sort of set for life. Trustfunds, the stuff of wet money dreams.

"Sorry, I just..." He sighed a little. "No one's ever been interested in me before, so it kinda seems a little unreal." And for better or worse, David was a jock. And for all he knew this was a total Drew Berrymore, Never Been Kissed, plot set up from hell. "I'm not Tyler, who I am pretty sure has fooled around with everyone in his year."

[arollingstoner]

The Olivers were pretty solidly upper middle class. Or maybe it was salaried upper class; in any case, they weren't suffering, by any means, even with two kids in private school and an expensive downtown condo.

"Maybe you just haven't noticed that anyone's been interested in you before," he said. It was true that Izak wasn't a...magnet the way his younger brother and sister were; even David had noticed that both Tyler and Sarah were surrounded by very distinct hives of admiring types. But still, he was pretty sure there were a few boys and girls who went for the cute, awkward thing. Not just him.

He wasn't particularly unique when it came to guys, after all.

[nerdydna]

"Maybe." Izak agreed, though he picked at the table. It was a bit like being told you were an idiot, being told you'd never noticed people being interested.

Reaching out, though, he picked up a slice and took a bite. Mulling over things he chewed on the piece quietly before looking at David curiously. "Can I get away with asking how long I've been completely stupid and oblivious to your interest?"

[arollingstoner]

It was a hard question to answer, because it wasn't like David had been counting the seconds since he'd first noticed Izak. It'd been a slow noticing, to tell the truth, and he shrugged his shoulders as he took a drink.

"About three months, I think," he said. "Before basketball started. Around when Tyler was making you play goalie for his free kicks on the field."

[nerdydna]

Tyler talked Izak into being goalie for his free kicks a lot, which usually ended with Izak having a bloody nose and his little brother giving him a 'you are so pathetic' look while trying to patch him up. He always wanted to protest that Ty didn't, at least, have to hit the ball so damn hard.

"Ah," he said, after a moment. And then he laughed, more at himself than anything. "Sorry, I know. I'm saying that a lot. Just sort of impressed you noticed me more than Tyler, I guess." Ty was, in some ways, an athletic dream boat all on his own. With the bad boy attitude to boot. It made him rather 'hot' with the girls, and some of the guys.

[arollingstoner]

"You're brother's not really my type." Tyler was kind of broody and moody, which definitely made him catnip for the girls, but David figured he was quiet enough himself. If he got into a relationship with someone else like him, it'd probably be 100% moody silence.

"If you're trying to set him up, though," he added with a half-grin, "I'm pretty sure at least three of the basketball cheerleaders have been writing his name with theirs in little hearts."

[nerdydna]

"Oh yeah? I kinda feel bad for them then. Ty's not really into the 'relationship' thing, so much as the fooling around then dashing." He said, shaking his head. "I think he dated Caroline Smith for six months? That's probably the longest he's dated anyone."

And it, honestly, hadn't been much of a 'dating', Izak thought. Caroline just sort of refused to be broken up with. "You should introduce them though, maybe someone will tame his wild heart."

[arollingstoner]

David chuckled a little. "Caro was friends with my sister before she went off to boarding school," he said. "Ty's lucky he escaped alive. She's, uh, tenacious." He did look amused, though, at the idea of torturing the school soccer star with girls. Rivalries were rivalries, even when they were friendly.

"You kind of sound like the back of the romance novels I think they read," he said. "Could she, the third cheerleader in the basketball pyramid, take the wild heart of the school's brooding soccer star? Or would their separate sports keep them star-crossed?"

[nerdydna]

"She was determined to make him smile more than once a day." Izak said with a laugh before he shook his head. "And dude, seriously? Ty is that guy in those romance novels. Sarah and I have discussed this extensively."

Ty's issues were not painted on walls or anything, but it did make him very much the subject of budding romance novels. There was no doubt in that. "It is what he gets for not smiling, I think. Not trying to be 'happy'."

[arollingstoner]

"Yeah, sounds like Caro." She'd used to try the same on Adam and David, though probably with slightly more success.

"Maybe it feels like he'd be pretending," David offered, leaning back a little. "Pretending to be something you're not really can suck. Especially in the long-term."

[nerdydna]

"There....is a lot more to it. More than you probably want to hear." Definitely more than Ty ever wanted to talk about when it came to people. "Ty's just.....fighting a curious mix of biology and hormones. Honestly, trying to be happy couldn't hurt that much."

Well, maybe. In his opinion it couldn't hurt at all.

[arollingstoner]

David figured that if you were fighting biology and hormones, trying to be happy was probably just one more thing on a pile of things. He could sympathize, in a small way.

He shrugged. "Well, we're teenagers," he said lightly. "I've heard that our hormones are supposed to be out of control. That's what Granma keeps telling Dad when he whines, at least."

[nerdydna]

"Yeah, I know." Except it didn't stop Izak from worrying over people like his brother. It was a little ironic, too, that Ty was one of Elisha's and yet it was Hadyn he seemed most like at times. Mood wise. Izak had to worry about Hadyn too, and his somewhat unpredictable moods that crept up at times.


But that was not what having pizza with one of the hottest jocks was all about.

"Though, if we are gonna focus on hormones, it should probably be mine. And yours. Together."

[arollingstoner]

"I can't argue with that," David said. He wasn't much interested in psychoanalyzing...anyone, but especially not Izak's kid brother.

"Got enough sustenance to focus?"

[nerdydna]

"Yeah. Yeah I think I'll get through some adventures." He said, licking his lips before waved down the waitress for a box. They hadn't finished the whole pizza.

"For the road and all." He said, before pulling out his wallet and handing over a card to pay for the food.

[arollingstoner]

Slightly different world, David thought. Sure, he knew most of his classmates were on the ridiculously rich side - while he was on the upper echelons of the middle class side - but there was knowing that, and then there was an American Express with Izak's name on it. He only blinked once.

"I'll get it next time," he said lazily. "We can heat up the leftovers after some...adventures."