Candy Rings

The Promise of a Sealed Future

The summer before high school, everything had changed. It wasn't just their growing bodies or raging teen male hormones, it was the things they experienced that summer that had changed the course of history forever.

Karl and George were hanging together in his room, both boys occupying Karl's bed. Karl lay at the head of his bed scrolling through Twitter, liking anything he found interesting or funny. George lay at the bottom of his bed, doing the exact same thing.

They had nothing better to do as Dream was at a doctor's appointment and Sapnap was in Texas for the next few days visiting family. George had messaged Karl asking if he could come to his place and hang as he was bored. So, they were bored together. Despite not even speaking or doing anything, just being in each other's presence was enough to suppress a bit of that boredom they felt.

Just sitting there didn't mean their brains were also quiet and content. The long silence brought dangerous thoughts. It's why Karl hated any type of silence. He would fill it with loud music blaring through his headphones that would cause hearing problems later on in life and YouTube videos he replayed every night before bed to fall asleep.

George's thoughts were just as dangerous. He had so many unsaid thoughts he wanted to share with Karl, but was scared of how Karl would react to them.
But, he knew now would be a better time than ever to express what was truly on his mind.

George looked up from his phone to look at Karl who was still lazily scrolling through his phone.
Before he could change his mind, he tapped Karl with his foot.
Karl looked up at George who to him looked nervous.

"What's up?" Karl asked, setting down his phone to give his friend all of his undivided attention.

Bittersweet chocolate met periwinkle gumballs and George knew he would feel safe sharing his thoughts with the boy who went out of his way to speak to him on his first day of school.

"I want to try something out, but only if you say yes. If you say no, we can pretend that I never asked and go back to scrolling on our phones." George spilled, sitting up to look directly in Karl's eyes.
Karl could see George was holding onto something and he needed to get it off his chest before it became too overwhelming for him to handle.

Karl nodded and sat up to sit directly in front of George, both their knees touching due to their close proximity.

"I-I want to kiss you." George blurted out. He closed his eyes at the confession. He wasn't ready to look at Karl's reaction yet.

When he opened his eyes, he saw dilated pupils and red cheeks.
George hadn't fully explained all the implications of his confession to which Karl had taken in a completely different manner.
Karl wasn't romantically attracted to George, or anyone for that matter, so he didn't know how to respond.

George could see the way it made Karl feel so he explained his thoughts further.

"What I mean by that is, I want to see how I feel when I kiss a boy. And you're the only boy I've ever really trusted enough to tell this to. It's silly, I know, and a bit weird. Just forget it." George tried to dismiss the dangerous confession he had made with a forced laugh.

But Karl didn't think it was silly. If anything, he was curious too. He always had those thoughts swimming in his head, thoughts of breaking society's norms and giving in to his urges. Though, he never knew he had those urges until George confessed his very own.

"Okay, I'll do it." Karl says before he could change his mind.
George was taken aback by the response and it took him a minute to realize Karl was being serious.

"Promise things won't become awkward between us after this?" George asks, holding out his pinky finger to Karl.
It might have looked silly and immature for two boys who were about to start high school to still be using pinky promises as a way to seal their trust, but the sentiment meant everything to Karl and George. And that's all that really mattered.