Chapter Text
“ Susie watched as Dustin Sweetness with his strong jaw, clear brown skin, and sparkling green eyes moved from her freckled face to Eleanor's as the bottle stopped at her tiny figure. ‘Alright!’ Tony called out, ‘Eleanor, Dustin, the closet is all yours!’ Susie watched despondently as Dustin fondly took Eleanor’s hand and led her to the coat closet the teens were using to play seven minutes in heaven. Susie couldn’t believe for the second time in two years she was witnessing Dustin –”
Derek didn’t get to finish the sentence before Dex was ripping the worn paperback novel out of his hands.
“I can’t believe you read this shit!” Dex said loud enough for the whole dining hall to hear. He had the gleeful look he always got when he was about to chirp Derek.
Truthfully, Derek wasn’t just reading this shit. He was rereading this shit...for the third time. If only Jason Heartsong would release the final book in the No Tears Left To Cry series, then he could hyperfixate on something else. But he wasn’t about to tell Dex any of that.
They had the attention of the hockey team and half the dining hall. Dex opened back up to the page Derek was on and began to read aloud.
“ Susie couldn’t believe for the second time in two years she was witnessing Dustin walk off with another girl when she knew she was the only one he wanted. After what felt like a lifetime, but was only a few minutes later, Dustin and Eleanor emerged from the coat closet. His curly hair mussed and her pink lipgloss was smudged. Susie flushed when Dustin glanced over at her.”
Dex closed the book and set it back next to Nursey with a constipated look on his face. Derek expected him to make a comment about his choice of novel but he just sat back in his seat and let the team talk.
Ransom and Holster spoke first, spitting out food as they talked, “Dude! Are you really reading that YA trash! If you need us to hook you up with someone we can do that you know.”
“ No . I’m fine. Chill. It’s just a good book series,” and then because he couldn’t stand the attention just being on him, he added. “Ask Chowder.”
Chowder gave him a funny look as two dozen heads swiveled to face him, “Look, I tried reading that series for your sake, Nurse, but honestly I think you just like it because Dustin Sweetness is literally you.”
“ Dustin Sweetness ! Good Lord,” Bitty called out.
Derek rolled his eyes. “It’s not that terrible guys. It won a Teen Vogue Best YA Love Story Award two years in a row.”
“I think that just makes it worse,” Lardo interjected.
Derek struggled to find the words to defend his beloved teen romance novels. Jason Heartsong would never embarrass him the way Dex just did.
Derek looked over at Dex who was studiously cutting apart his chicken breast. His face was flushed a deep red. What did he have to be embarrassed about?
“I’m not an English major, but even I can tell you that book isn’t worth your time,” Dex said.
“You know what,” Derek said. “I think you’re all acting this way because this story is about high schoolers and no one respects when teenagers say they’re in love. Quite frankly—”
He was cut off by a collective groan from the team as they moved on to a new conversation. No one wanted to hear Nursey’s soapbox rambles about YA fiction.
Nursey looked over to Dex for support or at least some sort of acknowledgment, but all he got was a shrug as Dex stood up to dump his tray.
“ Susie and Dustin locked eyes under the fairy lights that lit up the gym floor. She wondered if he was thinking the same thing that she was right now–all her mind could focus on was his lips, the curve of his broad shoulders, and the way his hands felt on her hips as they swung to the beat. Dustin opened his mouth and said —”
Dex couldn't figure out what Dustin said to Susie to save his life. “I’ve loved you since I first saw you...no, too cliche. You look so sexy in that dress...no, too sexual they’re only seventeen. Oh shit Eleanor I didn’t know you were coming to the homecoming dance...no, Eleanor moved away at the end of book two.”
Dex groaned and threw his head back, resting it on the back of the chair. Secretly being the New York Times Best-Selling YA author Jason Heartsong was hard work. It meant only writing when no one else was around and never being able to consult anyone when he had writer’s block.
But it was also helping him pay his way through Samwell University and hockey, so he took the good with the bad as best he could. If it kept him off his uncle’s lobster boat, then it couldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
He sighed and minimized his word doc. He had a deadline for the first draft, but he knew he couldn’t write anymore that day. He felt completely drained from the creative process. Nursey’s poetry writing was nothing in comparison to his novel writing.
He pulled up Twitter instead. He wasn’t Bitty levels obsessed with his Twitter, and he diligently kept it private, but he did use it sometimes to blow off steam. Dex’s fingers hovered over the keyboard for a few seconds before he began to type. Slowly, the words came to him. They might not have been the most original tweets, but he felt better after writing them.
@gingerrealness: the worst thing about the closet is EVERYTHING
@gingerrealness: especially when you can’t get out
“Dex!” Bitty called from the Haus kitchen. “When you get a chance, could you take a look at the dryer. It’s been acting up again.”
Dex sighed, minimizing the open Twitter tab on his computer and standing up, “Sure, Bits.”
Writing novels and Twitter rants would have to wait until later.
Nursey walked down the Haus stairs in pursuit of snacks, most namely a bag of Hot Cheetos, but when he saw Dex’s laptop unattended on the infamous green couch, he decided to pursue knowledge instead.
He only wanted to get back at Dex for embarrassing him at team dinner, not expose a hidden chamber of private information. So really he wasn’t even being that evil.
“Poindexter really left his laptop out like that? Whack man.”
Derek picked up the computer and sat on the couch with it on his lap. Shaking it awake, two tabs were minimized at the bottom. He clicked on the word doc titled “WHAT SHOULD IT BE TITLED” because it looked more promising than Dex’s most likely boring and conservative tweets.
Derek started reading where Dex had left off typing:
“ Susie and Dustin locked eyes under the fairy lights that lit up the gym floor. She wondered if he was thinking the same thing that she was right now–all her mind could focus on was his lips, the curve of his broad shoulders, and the way his hands felt on her hips as they swung to the beat. Dustin opened his mouth and said —”
Derek reread the sentences on the screen twice to make sure he was reading what he thought he was reading, then threw the laptop onto the couch cushion next to him.
His first thought was this: Why was Dex writing No Tears Left to Cry fanfic?
After a quick flip through the document, he realized it wasn’t fanfic. His style was too similar to Heartsong’s own. He sat in silence for a long second piecing it all together.
Then his next thought came: William J. Poindexter was Jason Heartsong.
But, honestly, his third thought felt the most urgent: What did Dustin say?
“Holy shit.” Derek quickly minimized the tab and clicked on Twitter as he heard footsteps coming towards the living room.
In an attempt to be chill about the entire situation, Derek flipped on the TV as Dex walked into the room.
“Sup, Poindexter?” His heart was beating as quickly as Susie’s when Dustin held her hand for the first time.
Dex narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing on my computer?”
“I’m not on your compu—” He tried to lie. But when he looked down to where the laptop was sitting wide open next to him, he knew he was busted.
Dex snatched up his laptop and looked at what was on the screen, his face and ears immediately going bright red.
“I didn’t mean to read it,” Nursey said. This time the lie sounded a little more convincing than the last.
“This is personal Nurse! I had that tab minimized for a reason. I can’t believe you.”
Dex stared at him sharply, but Derek saw his hands shaking just little as they held onto the laptop.
“Look,” Derek said, kneeling on the couch and looking at Dex straight on from where he stood behind it. “It wasn’t an accident. That’s true. But I didn’t know I would find... that .”
“Then what were you trying to find Nurse.” Dex’s voice was steely.
“I was...trying to get you back for embarrassing me at dinner the other day,” Derek did feel bad for intruding into Dex’s private matters. “But it does seem kind of ironic, now, doesn’t it?”
He was trying for humor, but Dex’s face stayed just as stormy. “Nothing about this is funny to me.”
“Look if you really don’t want me to tell anyone—”
“I don’t,” Dex said quickly.
Derek smirked deviously. “Then maybe we can strike a deal.”
Dex looked at Derek skeptically, “What do you mean?”
Derek kind of couldn’t believe this conversation was happening. Part of him knew this was the same Dex he’d always known—the Dex that was infuriating and smart and always challenging him. But another part of him couldn’t help but freak out inside: this was also the author Derek had had a crush on for years as he eagerly read each book in the No Tears Left To Cry series. And here he was now right in front of him, and any hope that he was something other than straight was crumbling before his eyes. Because this was Dex. And Dex just happened to write the most popular heterosexual love story since Twilight.
There was only one thing left to do then. Blackmail him.
“I mean...if you want to keep your secret just between me and you and not the team and the rest of Samwell, I’m going to need something from you.”
Dex swallowed and fidgeted slightly. “What do you want from me?”
Derek grinned like Dustin Sweetness and clapped Dex on the back.
“You’ll know when the time comes.”
With that, he left the living room, back in pursuit of a bag of Hot Cheetos.