In Another Universe

Friday 16:23 This Is Me

"Boo!" William said, putting his hands in front of Charlie's eyes.

Charlie jumped, surprised. He knew who that was, but he didn't hear him coming. To be fair, the park was quite busy at that time of the day and anybody could have just been wandering around. William sat down on the bench next to him and Charlie took out his earphones.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Will asked.

That he did. He did ask for a word with him and they settled for this late afternoon, in the park close to their school. Charlie didn't want to talk about it at school. It would be risky, people could hear. At least, the people around them now didn't care about them and what they were talking about. They were just two teenagers. The fact that one of them was shaking didn't even matter to them. William had noticed, however, and he knew it wouldn't be an easy discussion.

"I... I wanted to apologise. I know I was weird lately, and just... just generally not a good friend."

"Right... I won't say the contrary. You were odd, mate. But we're all worried. You always look knackered, you barely say a word. We don't really dare talking to you, you've been so narky. But... we all get that something's wrong, that's pretty clear. We figured you'd rather be alone until you sort things out."

"Yeah..." He said with a slight nod. "It's a... You'll probably find it stupid but... It's because of someone I like... Maybe even a bit more... but..." He didn't finish his sentence, biting nervously the inside of his cheek, waiting for Will's reaction, which happened to be mostly a frown.

"Okay. I won't lie, mate, it does sound a little out of the blue but... I'm sure you have your reasons. Who is it? Lea?" He turned towards him, thoughtful, and Charlie shook his head.

"No... Not her. Hm... Not..." He paused for a second under William's weirdly knowing look. "Not a girl."

Playing with his fingers, Charlie looked for his friend's reaction. Until now, everything was a given, it was things William knew about. Will nodded slowly before rubbing his hands together, still silent, which made the little Aussie worried.

"You don't seem surprised..." Charlie said. That was his observation. No furrowed brows, no confused looks. Was it that obvious?

"Would you prefer me to be surprised?"

"I don't know actually... I guess I just thought you'd be..." He shrugged.

"So it's not a girl... Is it me?" He asked with a laugh.

"Not with that hair," Charlie replied, happy to be able to laugh with his friend again.

"You're the worst. Okay. Is it Tom? Jack?"

"No!"

They both laughed, which made Charlie feel more confident about that discussion. It was far from the anger or misunderstanding he had expected. It wasn't too bad.

"Well, that narrow it down. Do you even know any other guy?" William said, scratching an invisible beard.

"Yeah...hm... remember the guy who brought me back my scarf?"

"Oh! Him! The "he's no one" guy. You cheeky liar," William laughed. "Seems nice enough. So you two are together?"

Charlie's smile dropped and he looked down.Will put a hand on his shoulder to try to reassure him a little.

"I guess that's a no... Well..."

"He has a girlfriend."

"And he chose her instead of you? He doesn't know what he's missing."

Charlie looked up at William, a slight smile. All week he thought he was alone, that people would just reject him. After all, isn't that what Isaac did? But he seemed to have imagined the enemies.

"I gotta tell you something, though," Will said slowly, which brought back Charlie's worries. "I knew... I already knew about... you."

"You mean you guessed?" Charlie asked, confused. What could he mean by that? He didn't think it was obvious by any mean.

"No... Okay, I heard about it and... it somewhat made sense you know. I didn't know if it was true but there are rumours. I thought you would have told us so I didn't believe it at first. But..." He shrugged, looking at him. "I told them to stop spreading stupid rumours. It's just.. kind of unfair that they decided it was their to tell."

Again this rumours thing... It caught up to him so much quicker than he expected. He hoped he could at least be the first to tell the people close to him, but he was apparently too late.

"Sorry... I should have told you I was gay before." He quickly realised the words he used. Gay. That was the first time he actually said it to refer to himself. "It's weird saying it out loud."

Weird, yes, but he also felt better. A lot better. Almost empowered.

"No... Okay, maybe I would have liked to know but... it's fine. It's your thing," He said with a smile. "You know what? I'm getting cold. Let's get a cuppa somewhere and you can catch me up with what happened with you."

Charlie watched him stand up, pass a hand through his hair and make a head gesture to tell him follow him, which he did. He didn't expect to be that understood, but he even less expected that everything would be like before. Or almost everything. Some of the weight on his shoulder was gone, floating as Brighton's wind was coming up.