Down the Hall, To the Right

Chapter 8

Dean was sprawled across the soft couch in Charlie's house. Benny roughly shoved Dean's legs to the side, causing him to let out a lazy grunt of surprise. "So, Dean," Benny asked, his southern drawl stretching the syllables. "Are you going to tell us about your date?" Dean buried his head further into the couch.

"Yeah, Dean-o. Let's hear about it." The redheaded girl pulled a chair out and sat down. "How'd it go?" Dean's silence continued and Charlie sighed. "Dude, we've got like, 5 minutes before Cas gets here." Dean's head rose almost immediately.

"Cas is gonna be here?" His eyes were wide like a child opening birthday presents. Benny smiled knowingly at Charlie.

"It must've went well." Dean flipped over and sat up. Glaring at both of them, but saying nothing.

"Well, he's not denying." Charlie said.

"Shut up." Dean snapped. "It didn't go 'well'. It went awesome. Castiel is an adorable son of a bitch." While Dean was talking, the group of friends was heavily distracted by his story, and they didn't seem to notice Castiel walking into the house. He heard Dean talking about their date, albeit a little grumpily, But Castiel supposed he must have been tired. A smile made its way onto his face, but it faltered when he heard Charlie speak.

"It was really nice of you to go for Castiel, Dean." Charlie said. Dean groaned. "It was also nice of you to finally admit your feelings for him." Dean buried his head in his hands at that comment. But it was true, Dean wouldn't have had the guts to ask him out or admit his feelings about Castiel.

"Oh, yeah, Dean totally did that just to be nice." Benny mocked. Dean finally gave in, agreeing with his friends.

"Guys, c'mon. I would've gotten around to it eventually. But thank God Cas helped me to it faster." Dean joked and Charlie couldn't help but agree.

Castiel shrugged out of his jacket, it was his old red one, which was much easier to get out of than his coat from last night. He blushed at the memory of Dean helping him out of his coat. "It was really nice of you to go for Castiel, Dean." Charlie's voice came through the walls very easily, due to the fact that she was using her "excited voice" which meant that she was being even louder than usual. Castiel couldn't quite understand that statement, and he wasn't paying attention to his feet, which were applying the pressure to toe off his shoes. The shoe shot across the front room, creating a loud smack that muffled the rest of her sentence.

He heard an unknown voice saying something about being nice, but he wasn't paying attention. He couldn't understand why it would be of nice Dean to go on the date with him. Usually, that would imply that Dean was doing it for another reason, other than simply wanting to go. Castiel frowned. Did that mean that Dean hadn't wanted to go?

Castiel recalled the other day, in the office when Dean had asked him out. Or had he? Dean seemed to be stuttering a lot and Castiel had wanted to help him out, so he said he'd go out with him.

But Dean hadn't mentioned a date.

Castiel's heart jumped. Dean had asked if they could meet up for lunch. It was supposed to be completely platonic, not involving romance in any way. Castiel stared at the wall opposite him in silence. He was so absorbed in his own thoughts he hadn't even heard Dean's response to his friends' chastisement. Castiel reached for his show and slipped it back onto his foot without a word.

When he walked to the door, no words escaped his lips.

When he started up the engine of his car, even the radio was silent.

When he arrived home, he didn't answer the questions of Hannah or even Inais.

When they banged on his door, he didn't open the door and explain. Not even when Michael came around.