The Hawthorne Effect (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 30: A Word Per Month.

Good afternoon, sisters.
Here is a sort of small, but hopefully fulfilling chapter!!!
The excuse for the delay this time is that I moved into uni and I can't even begin to put into words how much of a stress that has been.
BUT now I'm back in some sort of routine, I hope my chapters will be more routine, too.

Thanks for the constant love y'all always give lil ol me, I hope this chapter was worth the wait.

♡

//

The silence coming from the front door is actually quite terrifying. I assume he's frozen, not really knowing what else to do.

I really can't emphasise just how bad this is to you. Like, this is beyond code red. This is more like code ABORT MISSION, ABORT, ABORT.

You may be wondering why this is such a bad situation. I mean, they're my best friends and I would trust them with my life. They wouldn't tell anyone if I told them, I know that for sure. It's just, me telling them about Charlie would probably cause some sort of civil war.

Charlie is their enemy. 

Okay maybe that's a bit dramatic, but the boy is definitely not someone they fucks with.

Yes, they know I like him - even if in the past few months I haven't really talked about him much in a bid to keep all suspicions as low as possible. But me liking Charlie is hardly something they both support, and this is because of the fact they only see the dickhead side of Charlie... i.e the side of Charlie that doesn't actually exist. You and I both know that Charlie is just a boy lost in the world of hegemonic toxic masculinity and is secretly a rebel that rejects all the rules that come with it. But you and I also know that Charlie has to keep with this whole "I'm a straight guy that's better than everyone else" facade to keep peace in this world that he finds himself in. Therefore, my friends think he's a dickhead.

Therefore, they hate him.

And all of that coupled with the fact that they would probably be majorly offended over me not telling them about everything that's happened these past few months leads to the likely hood of an unhappy ending being very likely.

So, in short, they can't find out. Especially unintentionally. And with that, suddenly my reflexes kick in and I'm up on my feet before I can even realise. When I poke my head out of the living room doorway as casually as I can, my fears are realised. Charlie is standing very stiff by an open doorway that houses a very confused Sian and a very angry looking Jess. I really do forget how much she hates him.

"Oh, hey guys." I sing, trying my best to put on an Oscar winning performance. "Did we plan something tonight?"

Jess responds slowly. "No," She makes her confusion obvious. "We thought we'd come over and see how you and Austin were getting along."

"Or, in other words," Sian pitches in. "Save you from him."

"Don't think I can't hear you!" Austin shouts from the room behind me.

Sian then turns to Charlie. "Not to be rude or anything, but you're here because...?"

Charlie gulps. "Err..."

"Miss Parks gave him his Media coursework back this afternoon and told him it wasn't good enough." I slide in and decide to go with the whole Charlie's a failing student in distress thing, because I feel like they'll believe that over anything else. "He came to me panicking because she's sending them off tomorrow to the exam board and if he doesn't hand it in, he'll get a U."