Locked Away

Chapter 7

[Oscar's pov]

Before we had even stepped in the door, my mother was calling our names.

"Oscar! Austin! My baby boys." She ran over and held us in a tight embrace, and since when has Austin been her 'baby boy'? "I set everything up, it's going to be great!"

"Mum what are you-" I started

"Nope, shut up. Follow me, sweeties."

I looked over to Austin, he had just as much confusion written on his face as I did. My mom led us down into the basement and into the home cinema, which had been completely transformed.

All of the beanbags were gone and two of the multiple sofas had been pushed together on the back wall. In the middle of the room was a small, circular table covered by a white sheet with fancy cutlery and wine glasses set out for two. There was a candle placed in the centre and rose petals were scattered on the surface and the floor.

I turned to my mom and stared at her in a mixture of awe and embarrassment.

"Mother!" I whisper-shouted.

"Son!" she fiercely said back, "Now just sit down at the table and give me five minutes.

"I guess this is our first date then, huh?" Austin smirked

"Shut up, we're not together." I thought about what I was going to say next, when it came out, it sounded...jokey? "You're not even gay."

"Oh, am I not?" he said blankly.

Wait...what?

"W-what do you mean?" I shakily asked.

"You don't know if I'm gay or not." He smiled, that made me feel a little guilty.

"But there are always rumours, saying that you've been with all the girls in our year." I was gaining curiosity now.

"Hmm," He thought for a second, "'Been with', I guess. But I don't like, go out with them. They're just to... keep me satisfied. Make-out buddies, I call them."

"I see." I was starting to feel nervous for reasons unknown and my palms were sweating. "But I mean, I don't wanna sound rude, are you like bi or pan or – I dunno."

"Well, I guess I'm bi, I'm not sure. One thing I am sure about though," He started and I was almost leaning forwards in anticipation. "Is that I really li-"

"Here we are!" My mother sauntered into the room, cutting Austin off and ruining the moment.

"Mother, you're a fucking killjoy!"

Before she had a chance to reply, Austin said, "I never knew your mom was into My Chemical Romance."

And I mean, I couldn't help but start to giggle.

"Aw," Austin cooed, "I made you giggle." This then only made me blush.

Anyways, back to my mother, she was dressed like a waiter and had two plates of food in one hand, and a bottle of wine in the other. She placed one plate in front of each of us, and poured us both a glass of wine.

"Enjoy your date, lover boys." She excitedly said, clapping her hands, skipping away.

"She's so fucking weird! How do I even live with her?" I complained.

Austin let out a deep laugh, "Nah, she's pretty lit."

"Did you just call my mother 'lit'?"

"Yeah I did, fight me." I shook my head laughing, "Hey, this meal looks good though!"

In truth, he did have a point. We each had two lamb shanks with boiled kale and roast tomatoes, dauphinoise potatoes and a red wine gravy. I tucked in and the lamb melted in my mouth.

"Oh mer gawd." Austin moaned in delight through a mouthful of food, "This is so good, why does it taste this amazing?!"

"Well, I mean, she is a chef so..."

"Oh, that makes sense." He chuckled, "Can you cook like this? Did she teach you?"

"Erm, I guess I'm pretty good. I can't make anything this mouth-watering, but I know how to do enough."

"Useful, you'll have to show me someday."

"Sure." I smiled. "So what about you?"

"What do you mean?"

"C'mon, you know lots about me now. You know my hobbies, my backstory, my interests, my house layout, my mom!"

"Yeah, that cause you're interesting. I want to know more actually. But me, not much to know. I'm about as interesting as a wooden spoon."

"Hey," I whined, "wooden spoons are interesting!"

"Yeah, right." He counteracted, "Enlighten me on that."

"I mean-well-its-they-You don't know when you look at a spoon in a store what it's been through. It would have been separated from its tree- the one it grew as a part of. And when someone walks by it, it could be there like, 'pick me, pick me', but then they walk past and ignore it. That poor spoon, how sad that must make it. THEN, there's the fact of how many boiling hot liquids it must have been dipped into, how horrible that would have been!"

"Okay, you proved your point." He took a mouthful of potato, "Wooden spoons are interesting."

"See! You basically just contradicted yourself... you spoon."

"This is too funny." He humoured, "Fine then, what do you want to know?"

"I dunno...Ooh, why you're a jerk to everyone...except me?"

"I guess everybody pisses me off. You don't though, 'cause you're pretty amazing. I think, I think you've changed me..."

"In what way?" I was getting a little worried

"Just I'm not that much as a prick as I used to be. It's like, back before I met you, I never turned up to class and when I did I would always treat people as my slaves. In the hall at lunch, I would slag people off and brag about myself. I used to be so big headed and cocky, so horrible and such a ...low person. But now you've come along and I'm all smiles and happiness."

"Aw, you think that?" he nodded, "That's so sweet, I'm glad I met you then."

"Same here, Oz, same here."

By this point we had finished our meals and were onto our wine. Not once did our conversation falter or stop until my mom came back in to put on a film (The Notebook, which definitely didn't make me cry) and to take our plates and glasses away. Austin and I cuddled on the back sofa, not bothering to move when the film was finished.