The Hawthorne Effect (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 20: Friends.

TW: This chapter contains scenes where there is mention of sexual harassment and non-consensual actions. Please do not read if this will affect you.

Once again, I'm SORRY FOR TAKING FOREVER TO UPLOAD!
I actually try to upload every Sunday... but you can see how that's going.

As always, thank you for reading! ♡

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It's strange.

I never once thought of my bed as cold, but, as we lay here, now I wonder how I ever managed to survive sleeping without him to warm me up.

For the first few minutes of us laying together, I get the sinking feeling that I still won't be able to sleep - even with his body pressed against me.

However, the second that Charlie falls asleep, his breathing slows and transforms into the softest of snores. It's rhythmic, soothing, and kind of adorable.

I move myself a little closer to him and nestle myself into the curve of his body - as if he's shielding me from the terrors that exists beyond the duvet we share. His breathing soon acts as a lullaby, caressing my senses and guiding me back into a safe slumber - free from nightmares and Mason's bloodcurdling figure.

Finally, I sleep.

I sleep for what feels like a thousand hours.

Well, that's until I wake up again a few hours later to find it's still the middle of the night.

I open my eyes once again and stretch my arm out for my nightstand. I'm surprised it's actually within reaching distance, to be honest, but I guess it's because Charlie's taking up more than his fair share of my side of the bed. When the time pops up on my home screen, I have to stop myself from groaning loudly.

It's 5:47 in the morning, and I know there's no way in hell I'll be able to go back to sleep. I feel too rested, too awake.

So I just lay there and think. I think about the party, about Mason and about Charlie.

I get this sinking sort of feeling when my thoughts stray to the conversation Charlie wants to have with me about our relationship. And, to be honest, I don't actually know what else there is to be said. He knows how I felt when he got with Tamara, he knows how much I like him and he knows a little bit about what happened with Mason.

All of this leads me to believe that he's got more to say about things - otherwise he wouldn't have suggested that we talked. But what things? It can't be his feelings for me, because we're friends now - even if it doesn't exactly look that way in our current sleeping position.

Wait, that's a good point actually.

Most friends don't sleep spooned together - and they definitely don't give each goodnight kisses.

"Cliché." I whisper quietly to myself when I recall on that fact.

Why did he give me a kiss? Granted, it was just on the top of my head. But surely if you're trying to be friends with someone who you have a romantic history with, you would deliberately stay away from those form of affection to prove the point that you no longer like each other.

That's exactly what I'm doing - keeping my hands to myself, my vocabulary platonic and my feelings for him locked away.

But that's not what he's doing.

It's almost like he's trying to recreate this world that he mentioned. The world where him and I could exist without compromise.

In fact, that would make a lot of sense.