Bilateral ✔

Chapter 42 - He's staying [Daniel Quinn]

Thursday, after midnight

     Daniel never liked to feel like a charity case. But the Sanders family had found a way to support him and his family in a way that felt different. It didn't feel like charity at all when they did it.

They had ways to wrap thing up in words and ways that made it feel like they considered it supporting 'a part of the family', as if Frey and him had already been dating for years.

Frey just insisted on spoiling him as his boyfriend, causing it to feel like he was just showing him he liked him a lot. He played it of as jokes, as spoiling, as normal to support him in any way possible.

Or he just told Daniel he wanted to stay the night with him because he felt better when Daniel was around, and he needed to feel good because he felt shitty due to the medication.

He played it of as if he was doing it for himself, while in reality Daniel knew Frey just wanted to help him with his mother.

It was sweet, and Daniel couldn't oppose to it in any way. He too wanted Frey to stay over for the night. Not to help with his mother, but just for the sake of being with him.

To hold him, kiss him goodnight, and watch him fall asleep in his arms. It was the best feeling ever. But it would be Frey's first time staying over, and Daniel didn't forget all the complaints Mitchel had about his lumpy matrass, or the fact it was cold in his attic room because it simply wasn't isolated well.

What if Frey would complain too? What if he would start realising what it would mean to date a poor guy like him?

What if Frey really was the condescending idiot Daniel had thought he was for so long?

He was nervous, and he was wondering why on earth he had agreed that Frey went back home with him after work. Maybe it was too early in their relationship for Frey to see just how poor they were? Downstairs it looked like a decent home. Sure, everything was second-handed and in poor condition, but it was complete.

A complete living room, a complete dining room, an almost complete kitchen. They had more pots and pans than Frey's father had anyway.

Hannah's room was pretty decent too, with a bed that Joyce's mother had paid for, a nice little desk for her to draw or do homework. A big pink closet full of clothes that people had given her. Plenty of toys—even if they were second-handed and old.

But looking past that, their bathroom had a leaking bathtub and a showerhead you had to hold up yourself. They did have an upstairs toilet, but it was broken and wouldn't flush, so they never really used it, unless Hannah or his mother had an emergency. The small window in the bathroom couldn't even close properly so there was a constant draft, and the mirror on the wall was blurry, broken and hardly usable.

His own room was the worst; besides a bed, there was one closet where he kept the few clothes he had. Besides that, there was a washing machine that had seen better days, a dryer that made an awful lot of noise—which was a reason not to use it a lot—and washing lines where they hung their wash to dry.

He basically slept in the laundry room, if he was being completely honest.

One lightbulb in the centre of the room was all there was when it came to lighting, and he had to walk in the dark with his arms stretched out to get to his bed. Daniel knew for sure, Frey would surely laugh at his poor room.

Which was probably why he kept biting his lip until it started to bleed.

Frey kept going on how great he thought it was Daniel had gotten a promotion, well, the promise of one as soon as he got 18, and how he deserved it. He also had informed Daniel that he didn't have to worry over his father's inheritance—or the lack thereof—because it would automatically get declined after two months.