Being Wrong | ✓

Part 17

On Thursday both Charlie and Travis went back to school, and now that they were dating Charlie figured he should probably try and brave sitting with Travis at lunch again. There were just so many people in Travis' group of friends. It was overwhelming.

He didn't really know about how to go about approaching them, though, so he just kind of lingered next to the closest building and watched them as they ate and chatted. Charlie was just starting to feel really awkward when the girl sitting next to Travis nudged him and gestured in Charlie's direction. Travis immediately got up and walked over to him.

"Hey," Travis said as he leant against the wall next to Charlie.

"Hi," Charlie said.

"You doing okay?"

Charlie nodded.

"You want to sit with us?"

Charlie nodded again.

"All right, come on."

Charlie was surprised when they approached the group and people he didn't even recognise greeted him cheerfully by name. Had they been there last time? Probably. Charlie had been so nervous he doubted he'd been taking much in. He had the same problems with schoolwork, but studying from his textbooks at home was helping with that. Maybe if Travis had pictures of his friends he could show him when they were alone he would actually be able to get all these people straight in his head.

But maybe it didn't matter. These were Travis' friends so he figured he ought to get along with them, but he wasn't sure he actually needed to have much to do with them himself. One friend already felt like an awful lot to manage. He didn't know how most people coped with having several.

They made room for Charlie and Travis to sit together on one of the benches, and Charlie sat right up close to Travis' side. When Travis shuffled over to put space between them, Charlie quickly moved to fill it. He felt safer when he was close to Travis, shielded, and now that they were dating it wasn't weird, was it? Couples sat close to one another all the time. He'd seen them do it even at school.

Travis leaned in close and murmured in Charlie's ear, "Do you want everyone to know?"

"Know?" Charlie asked.

"That we're dating," Travis whispered.

Honestly, it wouldn't have occurred to Charlie to consider keeping it a secret. He hadn't told his grandparents, but that was simply because he didn't really talk to them in general. Why wouldn't he want Travis' friends to know?

"I don't care," Charlie said.

"You'd basically be coming out, too," Travis explained in a hushed voice. "It's kind of a big deal. You might want to think it over before making things obvious."

Charlie made a sound of frustration and rolled his head against Travis' shoulder. Keeping secrets sounded like a needless complication and he didn't see the point. They already knew Travis was gay, and they didn't seem to care about that. Why did it matter if they found out about Charlie as well?

"You want to tell people?" Travis asked quietly.

"I don't care about telling people. I just don't want to have to pretend."

Travis smiled as he let out a fond huff of laughter and wrapped his arm around Charlie's shoulders. "Well, everyone's staring at us by now anyway."

Charlie hadn't noticed, but when he glanced around at the rest of the group he found that Travis was right. All eyes were on them. Eliza leant over the girl sitting next to her and raised her fist to Travis, and Travis smiled at her and shook his head as he bumped it with his.