Chapter Text
Your name is Dave Strider. You have been a teenager for roughly three and a half years. You spend a lot of time thinking about life.
From the time that you were very young you have had a basic understanding of a nuclear family unit, and also the understanding that your family does not fit into this American ideal in any form or bastardization of the concept. This had never really bothered YOU per se, but plenty of other people seem to take mad offense to it. The first problem seems to be that you don't have parents. Of course, you technically have parents, or at least had them, but they have long since kicked the bucket in what you infer to be a nasty car crash that took place around six years ago. You aren't really sure though because nobody talks about it. The other thing that appears to make people upset is that your two older brothers are gay, and you are at the least not very straight. You live in Texas, and for some this is a problem.
You share the apartment's only room with your slightly older brother Dirk, who is eighteen. Your oldest brother, who you and Dirk only ever call Bro, sleeps on the futon in the living room. He is twenty four. The apartment is small and a little cramped but the three of you try to make the best of it because it is what you have. Bro is not always around because he has to work a lot of the time. The bills wait for no man, he says, and you and Dirk are still in school. You know he's sorry about it though.
Speaking of school, you go back tomorrow. Dirk is a senior and you'll be a junior, the two of you share a group of friends in the way that you share a lot of things, so you end up spending a lot of time with each other there. You and your brother are undeniably cool, and you like to mention it whenever possible, but Dirk tells you once that this could get you beat up if you say it to the wrong person so you try to be more careful. You are neither happy or sad about going back to school, it just is. A lot of things are like this for you lately. Halfway in the back of your mind you wonder if you should be worried about that, but you aren't really, it just is.
And though you try to ignore it whenever possible, you are sad and drained a lot of the time. Ignoring it is all you can do because if you don't ignore it you might have to admit that things are getting bad for you again, and that scares you more than anything else. You remember what that was like before when things got bad, how worried Bro and Dirk were, how much money shrinks cost, the head meds they put you on, (That really you should have still been taking, but that shit is expensive) and you know that you can't do that to them again, so you ignore it. Emotions are not cool, sharing them is even less cool, you keep it to yourself.
You think that Dirk at least might know something is up. The way he looks at you sometimes is almost like he knows, and you know he's not stupid. You also know if you put on a good enough happy face he won't press it. Everyone has rough patches, yours just tend to get a little more rough than other people's. You are very good at at putting on a happy face anyway so you don't think it will be a problem.
Currently you are sitting on your bed messing around with your phone. A certain dweed named Egbert is supposed to be getting back to you on some plans the two of you made to go to the mall and he is taking his sweet damn time messaging you back. Finally you hear a ping from your phone.
-- ectoBiologist [EB] began pestering
turntechGodhead [TG] --
: EB: daaaaaaaave
: EB: sorry I took so long
: EB: but I'm here now!!!!!!!!
: TG: the plans
: EB: oh yeah! sorry man I can't go today!
: EB: remember when I broke my glasses?
: TG: how could i forget
: TG: the lenses looked like the spiderweb shit your girlfriend likes to draw on everything
: TG: including my new backpack as of last week
: TG: not cool by the way
: EB: okay well my dad decided we needed to get them fixed TODAY.
: EB: so I can't really go anywhere!
: TG: nah it's cool man
: TG: just don't die from lack of magnificent strider ass until tomorrow
: TG: i know it's hard
: TG: but you can do it you brave young american
: TG: perseverance is key or some shit
: EB: haha dave I'll do my best!
: EB: okay i have to go, my dad is calling!
-- ectobiologist [EB] ceased pestering
turntechGodhead [TG] --
You're a little bit disappointed that the mall trip got cancelled, but John did really need those glasses for tomorrow, that kid is as blind as a.... something really blind. You're too tired to think of a properly long and drawn out analogy right now. Because of this, and the fact that the house is actually kind of quiet for once, you decide to go to bed early. You put your phone on your nightstand, turn on your side, halfheartedly pull a throw over yourself.
Tomorrow you'll see Egbert and everyone else. Now is just a time for sleep.