angel baby (heavy editing)

24

They got to the rail road at the same time and Oliver fought the urge to hide his smile. Why would he want to smile? Nothing about their encounter was funny or exciting. It was very weird. It had been two weeks since it started but it was still weird.
They say in silence for a few minutes and it was awkward for reasons Oliver didn't understand.
"Happy Birthday"
Oliver's eyes almost gouged out hearing Chris's voice for the first time in weeks. He didn't know why it surprised him so much. He was nearly used to Chris not saying anything, he almost forgot he could speak at all.
Minutes passed before he spoke,
"Uh, yeah, same"
It was even weirder now. Oliver fought the urge to run. He didn't want to be friends with Chris. It was weird. Weird.
"So-" Oliver started again. The silence was even weirder. He had thought about the word "weird" so much for the past week he felt a migraine kicking in.
"You can talk now" Oliver said.
Chris nodded not saying anything.
"Then what was that before?"
"Sometimes I don't like to talk"
His voice was messing with Oliver's head.
"And why is that?"
"I don't know. I just don't want to. It gives me an headache when I'm forced to"
Oh. Oliver was trying to understand. Was it due to some childhood trauma or was Chris just weird like that? That word again.
"Is it because of your... disability?"
Oliver felt uncomfortable for some reason. He didn't like the day.
"Maybe, maybe not. My doctor says she's not sure if it's caused by my autism or if it's in isolation on its own. She says it's nothing to be worried about since it doesn't affect my health"
Chris's voice was robotic to say the least. Oliver expected it but it was still surprising.
"Uh. Cool. I guess" Oliver didn't know why his vocabulary had reduced to monosyllabic words.
He didn't feel comfortable anymore. Perhaps they should end whatever this was. It was absurd.
Suddenly, a present bag appeared in his line of sight. He turned, looked at the bag and then Chris, confused. He hadn't even noticed it.
"Mom told me to give you this"
A funny feeling arose in his stomach. He didn't like this.
"Uh, thanks"
He collected it and looked into the bag. He pulled out the content of the bag. The first item was a small box. He pulled open the box and in it lay a bracelet, a blue colored bracelet.
Oliver fought to swallow the lump in his throat. There was nothing special about it. It was handmade and the materials were probably very cheap. The funny feeling all but increased. He closed the box and looked into the bag again. He brought out a small frame. It was a pencil drawing of...Paul?
Paul? What did Paul have to do with anything?
"Wait, this isn't from Lia" he turned to face Chris who had the crimson color growing by the tip of his ears. Oliver almost, almost, found it cute.
"This is from you" Oliver pointed out as if it wasn't obvious enough.
"Do you have a crush on my boyfriend or something?"
Oliver recognized where the inspiration of the drawing came from. It was that day at the cafeteria (that day seemed so significant). Paul was smiling at whatever Oliver told him. Of course, Chris added his edge to it. The boy in question was frowning at him.
"I don't have a crush on Paul. I only like Derek"
Oliver frowned? Derek? The school nurse?
Oliver wanted to laugh, for many reasons.
"So older men, am I right?"
The blush spread to his cheeks.
It's always the quiet weird ones.
"He's only three years older than me" Chris retorted.
"Does he even know?"
Chris nodded, "We're going out to grab lunch tomorrow"
Oliver frowned. Something dipped in his stomach. He must've had a bad meal earlier.
He should be arrested. He didn't say it out loud though. It was legal and weird but then so was Chris. Good for him, he thought.
"So you're gay? Grandmother is going to have lots of fun with you"
Chris didn't comment. So, gay then.
At this point, Oliver didn't understand his parents' intention with the issue on ground.
His phone beeped. He wanted to ignore. His gut told him to but he checked anyway.

Mom: I don't know where you've been disappearing to these past few weeks but come home now. Lisa is here and there are big decisions to make.
Oliver frowned. He didn't want to leave.
What the fuck? He wanted to. He just didn't want to go home.
"I have to go now"
Chris looked at him and something twisted further at the expression on Chris's face. He needed to get the hell away from there. He needed to bolt.
"So see you tomorrow"
He turned to go.
"I can't tomorrow"
Oliver stopped, those warned hitting him, almost physically.
He turned.
"Okay. Why?" He asked with indifference. He didn't want to look too interested, not that he initially was. He was looking for an out anyways. He seriously doubted Chris could decipher whether he was indifferent or not. The boy barely understood emotions. The boy was weird. That fucking word.
"We're moving away. It's far from here. I don't want to but Kathy says it'll be good"
Oliver hated Kathy. She spawned Chris nonsense.
"Yeah, alright, bye"
He turned to go, waking towards his car.
He wanted to turn, turn back and say something because that was potentially their last encounter, last peaceful encounter but he kept walking.
He didn't turn around. Turning around would mean he cared and he didn't.
He didn't.

(I'm sooooooo sorry for this late update. Thank you for reading!!! My book is currently 89 on the "gay" tag and I'm 100 reads away from 3k reads, I'm going to faint (I legit will, it's like four in the morning) I'm so grateful for the support. Thank you!!!!!)