April
1989

Danny was shaken awake as the sun began to filter through the blinds, and the birds began to sing from atop the metal trailer. He groaned, burying his face into the pillow and tugging the covers over his shoulders for warmth.

But he was still be shaken, "Danny!" Scott whispered, "Danny, you have to go!"

Danny rolled over, squinting as he gazed up at the other boy. He ought to be disturbed by how similar Scott looked to his best friend, and yet, the more time he spent with Scott, the harder it was to remember that he was related to Peter. The brothers had the same honey eyes, but Scott's were warmer. The same cheeks, but Scott's were rounder. The same brown hair, but Scott's was longer.

Danny reached up to tangle his fingers into Scott's dishevelled curls, grinning as he tried to blink the sleep away, "You kicking me out?" He hadn't intended on staying the night - they must have fallen asleep without realising it.

"Pete's gonna be up soon." Scott whispered back, not mirroring Danny's grin, but wearing a worried look of trepidation instead.

Danny continued to stare at him with that carefree smile, then leant up to press his lips against Scott's. He pulled his warm body closer, and wrapped his legs around Scott's waist.

Scott kissed him back for a moment, giving in to the temptation, before forcing their bodies apart, "No." He said regretfully, "You have to go."

He knew that Scott was right. Danny just liked to be stubborn sometimes. He sighed dramatically, sitting up in bed as Scott began handing him his clothes, "Whatever you want, Scotty."

"I don't want you to go." Scott promised him, "But Pete...if Pete saw you..." He chewed on his lower lip anxiously, "Does he know you're...?"

Danny's smile faded, his green eyes meeting Scott's, "I'm not like that." He told him quickly, "I'm not like you."

Scott swallowed the pain that threatened to crawl up his throat, and forced on a breezy smile, "Yeah, sure, I know." He dismissed.

"You're a great guy and all, I just..."

"You don't-"

"Don't swing that way." Danny finished tying up his laces. "I mean, this...this was just a bit of fun, y'know?"

"Sure." Scott smiled again, and this time, Danny smiled back. "Oh, hey, uh...happy birthday, by the way."

A look of realisation settled across Danny's face, then his smile widened, "Shit, yeah. Thanks." He chuckled, "Sixteen today." He leant forward to squeeze Scott's arm - in that affectionate, yet painfully friendly way. "See you later, mate." He climbed onto Scott's dresser, pushed the window open, and gracefully clambered out, as if he had done it a thousand times before. In a way, he had done it a thousand times before - out of Peter's window, anyway.

Scott shut the window behind him and watched Danny cross the lot, then quietly sneak back into his own trailer.

Mate.

He might as well have called him a slur. That would have hurt less.

Half an hour later, the three boys reconvened in the yard that separated their two trailers. As May loomed as a tantalising promise of summer, the air wasn't so icy, and the need for hats and gloves was long gone. They wore thick woollen jumpers now, and light jackets, salvaged from charity shop bins.

Peter leant up to ruffle Danny's blond curls affectionately, standing on his tiptoes to try and make up for those few inches Danny had on him, "There's the birthday boy." He grinned.

"Yeah, happy birthday." Scott added, as if he hadn't already wished Danny a happy birthday, in the quiet solitude of his bedroom, just thirty minutes earlier.

Danny smiled brightly, "Why, thank you, boys."

The walk to school was tedious. They were in the awkward cusp between seasons, as spring faded out and summer crept through. The sky was dull and grey and cloudy. The wind nipped at their ears, and rustled through tree branches. And worse than the weather was the tension between Danny and Scott.

Or, rather, the lack of.

They were unchanged. As if nothing had happened. As if Danny hadn't shown up to the bakery, rosy cheeked and reckless, looking for something to destroy. As if they hadn't ruined each other. As if they hadn't indulged in their lust, with only a vague tug of regret lurking at the back of both of their minds.

It's not like Scott had expected Danny to act any differently around him. He wasn't expecting a kiss on the cheek, or a brush of a hand against his hip.

But he was expecting something. Tension. Awkwardness. Red cheeks. Flustered gazes and nervous laughter. The undeniable weight of something unspeakable hanging between them.

He could deal with secrets. But he couldn't deal with this. Danny's complete an utter nonchalance. It was torture.

Neither Danny or Peter managed more than a vague mumble of a goodbye thrown in Scott's direction when they arrived at school. They were too distracted by the sight of Jenifer, wearing pink eyeshadow, with her hair thrown up into a frizzy knot. She was back to her usual self, with the buttons of her blouse done up to the top, and her tie sitting neatly on her chest, if not a bit wonky. The outline of her stomach was undeniable in her uniform, but she seemed to wear the baby bump with pride; like a sort of personal accessory.

Danny's brows shot up in surprise, "You're back." He observed.

She shrugged, and gave him a smile that reached her eyes, "I've done five years at this shit-hole." She said, "I can't quit now - not this close to the finish line."

Peter felt a jab of resentment towards his two friends. They had both decided to drop out after exams, leaving him to trudge through his A levels alone. They had good reasons; Danny despised school, and frankly, wasn't very good at it, and Jenifer had a fucking baby on the way. Still, it didn't make him feel any better, knowing that they had reached the inevitable end of an era, and come September, he would walk through these corridors without his best friends at his side.

"Anyway, happy birthday, dickhead." Jenifer jabbed Danny in the ribs with her elbow, and he groaned in pain, "Couldn't afford a present - sorry, mate."

"Yeah, neither." Peter shrugged apologetically, "Find me when I'm rich and famous, and remind me I owe you a sixteenth birthday present, alright?"

Danny snorted, "Famous doing what exactly? Your life goal is to sit in an armchair, eating biscuits, and reading all day." It was when he remembered things like that that Danny marvelled at the fact that they were even friends at all when they were so agonisingly different.

Jenifer leant back against her locker, clutching a folder to her chest, "I have faith in you, Pete. You're gonna invent...like, a comfortable way to eat biscuits and read at the same time, without getting crumbs between the pages."

Danny laughed, and so did Peter, and sometimes, they forgot how stupidly young they were. With a baby on the way, a body full of bruises, and a future full of uncertainty, it was easy to trick themselves into believing they were mature enough to deal with it all. But when they laughed, wholeheartedly and unguarded, wearing ties and itchy school uniforms, they remembered that they were children. Children with the sweetness of adolescent still lingering on their tongues.

All three of them were pulled from this gentle moment of happiness by the the clattering sound of a metal locker. They looked up, and of course, it was Scott, shoved against a row of lockers, his collar clasped in the fist of one of the rugby lads. They weren't surprised by now - they had seen this same scene play out hundreds of times before - but that didn't make it any less unpleasant to watch.

"C'mon, Snowy." Jenifer called out, "Leave him alone."

Snowy - a nickname he had accrued after the terrible highlights his girlfriend had given him last summer - kept Scott pinned against the wall, his head turning to see who had disturbed him. Snowy was every awful stereotype about rugby players - crude, loud, pumped full of testosterone, and of course, a Stella drinker. His lips curled into an evil grin, "What's that?" He barked at Jenifer, "The whore sticking up for the fag? Can't see why - he's not gonna sleep w'ya. You 'aven't got the right bits."

Jenifer's jaw clenched, her hands curling into fists at her side, "Fuck off, Snowy." She hissed.

Danny nudged her cautiously, "Don't." He murmured, "He wants a reaction out of you."

"Listen to your boyfriend." Snowy cackled, then turned back to Scott, who was masking his discomfort in a fairly well managed mask of nonchalance. "This one's not worth it."

Scott tried to shove Snowy away, but only got pushed back into the lockers, hard. His face contoured in pain, but he quickly hid it, just as Peter had decided he had had enough, "Just fucking let him be, will you?" He growled at Snowy, "He's not done anything to you, so just-"

"Pete, don't." Scott shook his head at his brother. He spared a gaze at Danny, who wasn't even looking in his direction, but at his shoelaces, as though they were the most interesting things in the world.

They were saved by the shrieking of the school bell as the corridors began to shift and empty, everyone heading to their first lesson of the day. Snowy was bored now anyway, and walked away from the scene without so much as a backward glance. As Scott tried to readjust his shirt, he earned a few sympathetic looks from the others.

"You alright?" Peter pressed.

"Snowy's a wanker." Jenifer interjected.

Danny was silent.

"M'fine." Scott muttered, clutching his backpack strap like it was anchoring him down to Earth as he pushed past the trio, "Gotta go."