Down the Hall, To the Right

Chapter 7

Dean had driven home in complete silence. Even the radio wasn't on. His mind was blank, and his hands were turning the steering wheel and his feet were pushing the pedals. His walked directly to his room and Sam simply shrugged the strange action as his brother feeling tired. Dean realized what had happened and that Castiel would be waiting on his call. Dean picked up his phone, but instead of calling Castiel, he dialed Charlie's number. He paused. Charlie was the one who had gotten him into this mess. He cleared the digits and typed in Benny's number instead and when his friend picked up on the other line, Dean explained to him his situation.

"Brother, you've got yourself in one hot mess." Benny chuckled.

"Yeah, I know that, Benny. I need to know what to do." Dean replied.

"That's your road to choose. Left or right, go on the date or don't. I don't want to help you decide what happens next, Dean. That's for you to decide." Dean groaned at how unhelpful Benny's statement was. "But whatever you do, go easy on him." Dean said his goodbyes and sarcastically thanked his friend. He thought about what he had said; did Benny want him to cancel whatever this was with Castiel? Dean didn't understand why he dreaded this thought other than that he didn't want Castiel to be upset or hurt. He knew the last person he wanted to talk to about something like this was probably the only person he could go to for help. He walked to the room, and knocked hesitantly. A voice allowed him to enter, and he followed.

"Mom, I need some help." Mary was reading, and she put down her book and gave her son a reassuring smile.

"Sit down, honey." She said, as though she had done this a million times. Dean sat down and sighed.

"I told you about Castiel, right?" Dean asked, wondering if he and his mother were on the same page. She nodded. "Well, I want to be really good friends with him, so I asked Charlie for advice on how to do that, and she told me to ask about, um, having lunch together. And I was trying to make it sound completely platonic, but I kind of messed up and he replied with 'I'd love to go out on a date with you'. I'm not really sure what to do." Mary had been nodded and listening intently.

"Well, it seems to me like you have two choices. One, you can tell him that you didn't mean for it to be a date. That could either lead to Castiel saying okay and going with things just as they were, or it could make him feel embarrassed and could put your friendship in an awkward standstill or stop." Dean visibly cringed at that thought. There was something about Castiel that was simply electric, something that Dean didn't want to let go of. "Or two, you can go on the date." Dean was confused at that, so he allowed his mother to continue. "You can let him down easily, and then ask him if you can still stay friends. He'll most likely say yes, because you had the heart to try things out, rather than coming to an assumption." Dean liked that idea. Castiel was a deep person who liked people of worthy character and this plan of action would certainly show that. He was about to thank his mother, when he realized she still had one more thing to say. "Of course, that is if you don't like the date. If you do like it..." She trailed off and looked at Dean, watching him as he turned bright red.

***

Inias was looking through Castiel's wardrobe, pulling different articles of clothing off of their hangers and out of their shevles to study closely, only to be strewn across the floor. There was a pile of shirts, pants, trouser, dress shirts, and sweaters thrown all over his twin brother's bed. Castiel was sitting at his desk, his bed far too much of a mess to sit on. He had tried to tell Inias to stop and that he would find his own outfit without making a mess, but he wasn't having it. "No, Castiel, this has got be just reight, y'know?" He had said. "I mean, you don't want this to be your last date with Dean, do you?" Castiel had replied with "No, of course not, I really like Dean." And with that, Inias had continued to make a complete mess of Castiel's room.