Being Wrong | ✓

Part 24

Travis had been looking forward to spending a quiet day lazing around with his boyfriend, but then Charlie had texted him about going to buy a new computer with his grandma and okay, yeah, that was probably more important. It probably wouldn't take more than an hour anyway.

Charlie seemed excited about the whole thing. Or... nervous? But mostly excited. He kept asking Travis questions about computers and if you needed a special kind to do this thing or that thing. He didn't stop no matter how many times Travis assured him that any new computer could do every single thing his old laptop did, no problem at all. Travis didn't mind.

It all came to a resounding stop the second the entered the computer shop. An alarm was going off on one of the displays. One of the store employees was scanning his badge to get it to stop, but two seconds later it would start up again.

And besides that, the whole store was just... sensory hell. Travis had never really noticed before, but there were multiple screens with shifting displays, flashing sale lights, and music playing too loud. Beside him, Charlie had gone stiff and blank eyed.

Travis turned them around and walked out, trusting in Charlie's grandma to follow them. He was sorta surprised when she didn't kick up a fuss.

It wasn't until they were back outside the shopping centre that she finally questioned them. "What's wrong?"

"That whole thing..." Travis gestered back towards the shopping centre. "I don't know if that's going to work. Charlie?"

Charlie shook his head firmly. His eyes were downcast and his mouth was tight. He looked like he was trying not to cry.

"Well, we can't get a computer if we don't go into the shop," she said. "What are we supposed to do about this?"

Travis almost laughed as something really obvious struck him. He was so used to just doing things how he did them that he hadn't even considered alternatives. "Well, yeah, of course we can. I have the internet back home. We can just order one online."

Charlie's grandma looked uncertain. "I'm not sure I trust all that online shopping business."

"We can figure out which one to get and then you can go pick it up, then. That works, right?"

"That would work." She let out a sigh and some of the tension drained out of her. "I suppose that's the way to do things sometimes, isn't it? Finding solutions is more productive than getting all worked up about problems."

"I mean, I think that's probably always preferable, just sometimes much harder. Or at least... less intuitive?"

Charlie looked much less upset now that a solution had been worked out. It seemed, just this once, Travis had been able to divert them from the path of disaster in time.

#

Travis opened his laptop on the coffee table and let it get started on booting.

"Sorry," he told Charlie's grandma. "It's old and shitty, so it takes a few minutes to get going."

It felt really weird having her in his flat, sitting on his sofa.

"You keep this place surprisingly clean," she commented.

She kept looking around at everything, and even though apparently it was because she was impressed with his housekeeping skills it was incredibly uncomfortable. It wasn't surprisingly clean compared to her place — it was surprisingly clean compared to what she expected of a teenage boy.

"Uh, thanks." Travis said. "Can I get you something to drink? Orange juice? Water? Uh... beer?"

"You have beer?"