Little Things

Chapter Nine

Dean watched Cas pack his bag, throwing in the bright red pair of shorts they all had to wear. Up until now, Dean had always managed to miss gym, but he could no longer justify skipping the class. He would just have to deal with it, but even as he thought it, his imagination was already running away from him, and he was sure the real thing would be worse. The slight scent he caught of Cas's body spray told him that much.

'Hey, what do you wear, by the way?' Dean blurted out, before he could stop himself.

'Um - clothes?' Cas said.

Dean snorted, relaxing slightly. 'No, I meant your spray or whatever.'

'Oh, here.' Cas tossed him a bottle and Dean examined it. 'It's nothing special.'

It was a Bath & Body Works, bourbon scented.

'Thanks,' Dean mumbled, throwing it back to him.

'Why do you want to know?' Cas asked curiously, tucking the bottle into his bag.

'No reason,' Dean said, too quickly. 'You smell nice.'

Cas blinked rapidly, confused. 'Thanks?' he said, then turned and walked out of the room.

Dean slapped a hand to his forehead, groaning quietly. 'Great. "You smell nice", what a loser. Come on, Dean.' He followed Cas down the stairs and grabbed some toast before they both headed out to catch the bus.

Thankfully, Cas didn't seem to have noticed how awkward Dean was being, and was distracted by his phone for most of the ride there. Unfortunately, this also had the added effect of Dean remembering that they were headed to homeroom first.

Rhonda was there, as usual. She'd dyed her hair a brighter, bubblegum pink, so she was impossible to ignore, and she'd decided to take Dean's usual seat.

'Hey, Dean,' she said, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.

Dean froze for a moment, then turned around and left again, his legs moving of their own accord, bumping into Mrs Neilsen on his way out.

'Hey, where are you going?' she called after him.

'Library,' he lied, not looking at her.

He ended up in the bathroom, disappointed with himself for letting Rhonda get to him again. He refused to go home though. Instead, he locked himself in a stall and called Mary.

' Hey, sweetie, are you okay?'

'No, I don't think I am,' he said, his voice cracking slightly.

' What's wrong?' Mary said, alarmed.

'It's fine, it's just... Do you think - maybe - we could get back in with my old therapist?'

' Yeah, of course we can,' Mary said, her voice softening. ' You coming home?'

Dean took a deep breath. 'No,' he said eventually. 'I can - I can do it.'

' That's my Deano.' Dean could hear the smile in her voice.

'Thanks, Mom. See you later.'

He hung up and sat in the stall for a while, but froze when the door opened.

'Dean?' came Cas's voice. 'Are you in here?'

'Yeah,' Dean replied.

'Are you all right?'

'I've been better.'

There was a brief moment of silence. 'I got Rhonda to move if you want to come back to homeroom.'