Too Scared To Say Something Sooner - TMD [Mainly Chadam]

Chapter 18: Banksie Almost Barfs

A/N This is a shorter chapter, but I think I'll have two or three more -hopefully longer ones- to go. I'll try to have them done on schedule, but in the meantime, I'm working on Prompt 40 for my Solangelo book and the Unwritten Scenes book for this, too. But this is done early, so I should have a small head start.

Adam

I made both Charlie's bed and mine and put all of the clothes on the floor in the hamper to be taken down to the laundry room while waiting for Charlie to get back. I was a little concerned because by the time I'd finished, breakfast had already been over for about fifteen minutes, but I tried not to harp on it too much.

I ended up pulling out my book -the third in the series I was reading- and read to pass the time instead of continuing to clean our now clean dorm.

I was so engrossed in my book I didn't realize Charlie had come in and sat on his bed until I saw that Charlie's red Converse just were in my line of vision. I jumped almost flinging my book at his face.

"Jesus Christ, Charlie!" I exclaimed, clutching my chest. Charlie just blinked. "You scared me." I took a deep breath.

"Oh," he said. "Sorry."

"It's alright. You ready to go?" I marked my page and closed my book, setting it on my nightstand.

"Yeah," he stood, his bed creaking a little as he did. He offered a small smile after he put on his shoes and grabbed one of his flannels from off his bed post, but I could tell something was up.

"What?" Charlie asked when I stared a second too long.

"Nothing," I said, deciding not to push. I could pry a little later when we got back if he still seemed off, but for now I wanted to deal with the least drama possible.

Even though coming out to Julie had gone better than I ever could've hoped (despite almost being outed to the entire team -thanks again, Julie for the save) it'd drained a lot of my mental energy. I had spent most of the time before it stressing.

I was still relieved I actually told someone though. It was like a small invisible weight was lifted from my shoulders.

'You still have the rest of the team. And Charlie.' A voice in the back of my mind reminded me. I told it to shut up and continued down the hall after Charlie after locking our door.

At the fair, we bought tickets and walked around, looking at all the games. Finally, Charlie chose what he wanted to play first and we had an all out competition to determine who would by lunch.

The rules were simple: whoever won first out of three, and we would switch off who chose what game each time.

I ended up winning -my winning game was air hockey and I totally bragged about it- and made Charlie by us lunch from a small hot dog stand nearest to us. We ended up getting slushies, too, but I insisted I pay for those since Charlie bought lunch.

It was fun not having to worry about anything; school, my dad, coming out, even hockey was becoming a little stressful.

Sitting on a warm wooden bench with Charlie, surround by smiling families and people, it was almost kind of like a dream. I could barely remember another time I wasn't worrying about anything.