David Miller

why is he gay

## Queer

> "I know sometimes I do crazy things, but being in love with a GUY? Come on!"
>
> David, *Episode 66*

**David Miller** is a prominent character in *Jackson's Diary*. He is a senior at Jeanes High School along with his sister Brenda and his boyfriend Exer.

## Appearance

David has longer, wavy blond hair and blue eyes. He is usually depicted as cheerful and frequently appears with a positive expression on his face. He is of average height, being taller than Exer and only slightly taller than Jackson. He has a slim build and is usually seen wearing colorful sweaters and button-ups with jeans and, on occasion, sunglasses. Queer.

## Personality

David is incredibly upbeat, carefree, and outspoken about his emotions. Queer. He's shown to be incredibly well-liked, by girls in particular, social, and with a few exceptions, seems to get along well with everyone at his school. He's often overshadowed by Exer socially, but David hasn't been shown to mind.

David can be incredibly socially oblivious, as seen by his ignorance of Exer's hatred for Jackson and, more prominently, his failure to pick up his best friend's obvious crush on his sister. Although he could just be pretending, his straightforward personality makes it seem unlikely.

David is also willing to stand up for people, women in particular, as shown in the first episode when he called out Ricky and Marty for cat-calling a girl. Including the time when he mistakenly went after Jackson for allegedly harassing Brenda in the locker rooms. This not only proves his care for his sister, another one of his most prominent character traits but also his respect for women, which wasn't common in most men at the time the story takes place. David was also very forgiving when Jackson revealed that the theft was all a misunderstanding and forgave him.

## Relationships

### **Family**

* Brenda Miller
* Christine Miller
* William Miller

Brenda is David's twin sister. She is the older one out of two, but David is extremely protective of Brenda, often obsessing over her interactions with others and scaring off boys who attempt to flirt with her. David cares deeply for his sister, describing her as "lovely" to Jackson and supporting her during musical auditions, even though he finds the activity to be lame. He enjoyed watching his twin on stage. Brenda and David care for each other and look out for each other constantly.

David’s often protective over his sister as to when he thought Jackson had harassed her, he was furious and wouldn’t talk to him. There were also cases as to which David became angry with people who appeared to be hitting on Brenda in any way.

When David found out that Brenda and Exer had dated behind his back, he was devastated, but after a few episodes and apologies, he forgave Brenda and even encouraged her to get back together with Exer, despite his own feelings. He cares greatly for her and only wants what's best for her, even if it means putting himself aside.

David's mother hasn't spoken at all, and we have only actually seen her once. In episode 54, she left a note for David and Brenda, saying that something came up at work and that she couldn't make dinner for them that night. David was disappointed, but not surprised, so she probably spends a lot of time at work. She makes her first real appearance in episode 89 and continues to be seen throughout recent chapters. She also is

seen in episode 107 cussing W!ll¡@m out.

William is David's abusive father. His appearances were brief at first, but he did talk for a bit in episode 81. David and Exer were biking to David's house, and stopped on his lawn, faces a few inches apart. David's father happened to be watering their garden, and saw them. He called out to them and spoke to Exer, and when Exer mentioned that he quit football and now worked at a cafe, David's father had a subtle change of attitude towards him.

David and his father aren't on good terms. Brenda mentioned that their dad put a lot of pressure on David, and David's father chose not to converse with him when he saw David and Exer together, instead talking to Exer. When he saw them together on the bike, both David and Exer looked like they'd been caught off guard, and David hurriedly got off.

As the season progresses, David says some concerning things about his "father". It is briefly revealed that David is used to having nights where his "father" doesn’t speak to him. He states that the evening his father didn’t speak to him wasn’t the first time. This suggests that their relationship is distant, even neglectful in terms of emotional connection.

In episode 87, David is at the Campbell’s house when they’re interrupted by a loud honking. David’s father impatiently shouts from the car “David, come on!” to which David immediately panics and jumps to his feet. It is clear that David is very fearful of his father’s temper as he rushes to collect his bag, stating “sorry he always does that”. W!ll¡!m is shown to be an antagonising presence, as he patronisingly comments on Harry’s appearance and occupation. Before leaving with David in the car, W!ll¡@m coldly responds to Exer’s polite farewell with a look of slight distaste. Both Campbell’s acknowledge W!ll¡@m’s tough personality, with Exer commenting “yeah, if you wanna call it that”. Exer seems to be fairly put off by David’s father, despite always being polite.

During episode 101, W!ll¡@m goes to pick up David from his mother’s house following a trip that was cut short due to a work emergency. After growing suspicious of David wearing Exer’s clothes, he argues with Christine, calling her a terrible mother for allowing David to comfort Exer during the earthquake. He suddenly grabs David by his arm, forcibly dragging him to the car and slamming the door shut in his face. Later in the episode David voiced his concerns on a phone call to Exer. David mentions how he believes things are now more tense with his father and he shows genuine fear following the way W!ll¡@m had looked at him within the previous events.

In episode 105, W!ll¡@m looks disgustedly at David over his shoulder. When there is nobody in the house but him and David, he smacks David's papers off the table and demands that he takes off his walkman. David takes it off, and W!ll¡@m confronts him about being at the party with Exer. He says that he saw everything with his "lover", and that he has never been more disgusted or disappointed in him. David's heartbeat is shown to get faster, and W!ll¡@m says that he will have to take drastic measures. There is a trigger warning on this episode for abusive parenting.

In episode 106, we see David outside of his mother and Brenda’s home with suitcases and a bruised, beaten face. It is revealed in the form of a flashback that David’s father had physically abused him multiple times following the events of episode 105. He is seen to be calling him names, pulling his hair and cornering him against the wall. David is shown to have a black eye and many scrapes and bruises. W!ll¡@m then threatens to send David away to another school so he will never see Exer again. To this, David bravely defends himself by refusing his father’s orders, to which William responds “No son of mine will be a homo” and proceeds to disown as well as kick David out of the house, into the cold streets.
### **Friends**

* Exer Campbell
* Ronald Novikov
* Jackson Smith
* Pamela Lopez

David and Exer are best friends, and it is revealed that the two first met at the arcade when they were eight years old and have stayed close friends ever since. David tends to be much more of a carefree peacemaker than the broody Exer, but the two still get along incredibly well and have been deemed the "kings of the school" due to their popularity. Exer is often considered to be a "bad influence" on David, especially by Brenda, but David continues to idolize his best friend nonetheless, oftentimes turning a blind eye towards his unjust behavior towards Jackson. David has, at some point, developed a crush on Exer (although it took him a while to realize it), first seen when he accidentally marvelled at the sight of his friend shirtless. When Marty and Ricky were harassing David for what they interpreted as homosexual behavior towards Exer, Exer was quick to stand up for his friend, which left David embarrassed but also extremely grateful. In Season 1's episodes, in particular, almost all of Exer and David's interactions have ended with

David blushing or seemingly flustered, as seen in Episode 37 when Exer recalls how they met and the importance of their relationship. David is aware of these feelings but frets over them due to Exer being male and his friend. This crush has been going since at least their junior year. In the last few episodes of Season 1, David almost admits his feelings towards Exer but backs out leaving Exer's questions unanswered. He cares deeply about Exer and doesn't like to see him feeling any sort of negative emotions. After hearing about Exer's secret relationship with Brenda, David had been ignoring Exer and expressed dislike towards him-but this was mainly due to how betrayed he felt. Later, Ronald takes him to the (cat) cafe Exer works at, and Exer and David make up and are friends again.

In later episodes (75+ especially) interactions between Exer and David usually end with at least one of them staring at the other fondly. Later in episode 95-96 , after calming down Exer, David is invited by Harry to stay the night. After a short call with his mom he and Exer end up talking in Exers room. There Exer admits that David makes him calm, David is seen blushing. He too admits that being with Exer makes his days better and then goes on to say that he wishes he could take Exers pain away. Exer then grabs his hand and states that he’s already been doing that, the two then end up moving closer as if they were going to kiss, where episode 96 ends.

Episode 97 starts immediately after 96, where Exer and David are very close to kissing but before they can, David realises what’s happening, panics and pushes Exer away. After this, Exer repeatedly apologises to David insisting that he’s not gay and asking him to forget about it, leading David to tell Exer about his feelings for him. After Exer admits that he’s not sure how he feels for David, David leaves to go home and talk to Brenda. He confides in her about his feelings and she eventually convinces him to not let their relationship end here, even if Exer somehow doesn’t like him back. David then starts to run back to Exer’s house when it starts to rain and he ends up meeting with Exer in between their houses as Exer was also on the way to David’s house. Here, Exer confesses his crush for David and they share a kiss.

In episode 99 we learn that after their kiss, David spent the entire weekend at Exer’s house, not even going home to get a change of clothes for school, as we see him wearing Exer’s clothes instead of his own (the first outfit we ever saw Exer in all the way from episode 1). When questioned about this by Brenda and Pamela, both flustered, David and Exer leave as soon as the bell rings for class, trying (and failing) to hide their new relationship from their friends.

Later that day, at lunch, still trying to keep their relationship a secret, David gets Exer to go with him to the kitchen early so that they can be alone and talk. Exer teases David a bit before thanking him for staying with him at the weekend, where they kiss again. When the rest of their friends get to the kitchen the secret immediately falls apart with David telling Brenda that they confessed and kissed, earning David a very wholesome supportive hug from them.
David took a liking to Ronald since the first time they met at school, and he and Exer were quick to accept him into their friend group. David seems to admire Ron in every way possible, fawning over his muscles, height, and rock-star-like appearance. Ron and David are shown to be close friends, and they are frequently seen hanging out together and joking around with one another. Ronald is the only character who is aware of David's crush on Exer and his bisexuality. At one point, Ronald and David are spending time together when a song comes on the radio that reminds David of Exer. Ronald notices this and tells David that he knows about his crush on Exer, and reassures him that it's okay. Ronald later takes David to the cafe where Exer works, making David and Exer reunite and giving them the chance to talk things out.

Unlike Exer, David wanted to befriend Jackson the moment he moved to their school. In the early parts of the story, David got into the habit of ignoring (or just entirely missing) Exer's hatred for Jackson and making attempts to hang out with the new kid while at the same time brushing off Exer's toxic behavior towards Jackson as not too harmful. David was quick to judge Jackson for apparently stealing Brenda's skirt and failed to listen to Jackson's rational explanation, instead favoring harsh revenge with a lack of clarification. The instant David realized it was all a misunderstanding, he immediately apologized to Jackson and took full responsibility for the situation, being the only one out of the R.E.D group to do so. He quickly tries to make amends with Jackson, ignoring Exer's obvious protests, and by episode 39 the group is all getting together incredibly well and hanging out frequently. The two are so close that David would not mind if Jackson were to start dating Brenda, his sister, who he is very protective over.

Later, when Jackson and Exer got into a fight, David's opinion of him fell dramatically after he saw Jackson hurting Exer. However, in season 2, Exer finally comes out to the group about what happened between him and Jackson, and David was very apologetic towards Jackson, even going as far as telling the whole school that he and the rest of the REDs were unfair to and bullied Jackson.
David, much like the rest of the Jeans High School, has an extreme dislike for Pamela in the beginning of the series. Despite his usually forgiving and non-hateful demeanor, she appears to be the one person that David has an unjustified distaste for. David is shown to openly dislike Pamela, making rude comments about her while she is in earshot of him, and calling Brenda out for hanging out with her. This is due to the past complications between her and Exer. In the past, Pamela accused Exer of being involved in witchcraft. Now, she has made up with Exer and apologizes for her accusation when nobody seemed to believe her. David was more apprehensive about her being friends with them than Exer himself was. Luckily, he's now on good terms with Pamela since Exer made up with her. He forgave Pamela since Exer forgave her. David does not show hatred for her anymore and considers her as a friend.

## Trivia

* David is not good at speaking in Spanish, so he asks Jackson to teach him, later in episode 25 gushing over Jackson and Pamela’s fluent Spanish.
* He finds the Spanish language attractive.
* David is a senior in high school.
* The author has confirmed that David is bisexual in a Q&A. This information was also confirmed in the original story before it was featured.
	+ It's shown that he has a crush on actor Brad Pitt after waking up from a dream.
	+ The author revealed that Brad Pitt was David's first male crush.
	+ David is a closeted bisexual and fears being outed.
	+ David seems to have a male preference in general.
	+ David is seen complimenting and gushing over multiple different male characters, especially through the first season.
	+ It is mentioned that David has had multiple short and failed relationships in the past.
* David is shown to be a bit of a lady's man, with Exer commenting on the number of women he's dated.
	+ In Episode 6, it is confirmed that Mariah Lake is one of his exes.
* The main similarities between Brenda and David are their eye color and bangs.
* After Exer gets beaten up by Jackson, and David is knocked unconscious, we can see that in the infirmary, Exer put his jacket on David so he would not get cold.
* During the Halloween when David was dipping girls, Exer let David dip him without him knowing.
* David has a very unhealthy relationship with his abusive father.
* Both David and Brenda’s birthday are on June 12 which makes them Geminis.
* David and Exer are together.
* David’s favorite from the detention squad is either Jolie or Timothy.
* His favorite color is sky blue.
* His parents divorced when he and Brenda were 13.
* btw Exer and David are not friends anymore (they’re dating)