it and there was David standing there. His hair and clothes were rumpled and there were a few
bruises on his arm.
"David, Oh my God! What happened?" Alan exclaimed. "Here, come on in." David stepped in. He
was shaking and his eyes were filled with fear. "Calm down, sweetie. You're with me now." Alan
coaxed the pretty boy lead singer of Depeche Mode.
"Hold on, sweetie. I'll get you a cup of tea. " Alan went to the kitchen and started preparing a cup of
tea for David.
It seemed like David had stopped shaking and calmed down a bit.
"Alan, I was coming out of this cafe after I ate dinner and these guys were pointing at me and they
were yelling 'Look at the fucking queer!' and they approached me and tried to beat me up."
"Oh my god, David. Are you all right? I remember in Florida, when we were touring, a bunch of
guys leaning out of trucks called us queers, but at least they didn't beat us up,"
Alan told David as he stroked David's dark brown hair.
"Can I spend the night here?" David asked.
"Sure, of course you can. You can borrow the shower too."
After David left to take a shower, Alan turned off the TV and sighed. He hated seeing David hurt,
emotionally or physically. It was painful to him when he heard that he was hospitalised after an
overdose on heroin a long time ago. But it was painful to him to know that David almost got beaten
up. David came out into the sitting room with a pair of pyjamas that he borrowed from Alan.
David slept like a little boy on the sofa.
Alan slept on the floor near him.