Mesmerized

Staring

At one point, him staring becomes a thing. And by now he knows that anything that relates to Charlotte that he can call a thing, is going to cause him some embarrassment or it'll make him feel some type of way.

But even as he tells himself that, he finds himself looking at her more and more.

Right now, for instance.

He's supposed to be listening to Ray's story about that one time he went to Hawaii. But he's looking at her, trying to catalogue every movement, every smile, every facial expression and basking into the sound of laugh. He watches as she talks to Jasper and smiles at how she swats Schwoz's hands away from her quesadillas.

So cute.

"Uh, Kid?"

Henry's eyes fly towards Ray, who he finds is, again, smirking.

How shocking.

"My eyes are up here," Ray says playfully.

Henry looks down in embarrassment, before looking back up at him again. "So we were at you losing your trunks in the ocean, and...?"

"No. We were at 'so cute'," Ray says, adding the quotation marks with his fingers.

Henry blanches.

I said that out loud?!

Ray shoots him a look, before deciding to grant him some reprieve for once and resumes with his story. But every time that his eyes stray back to Charlotte and then move back to Ray again, he finds Ray smiling, quietly judging him.

He chooses to ignore it.

Like he does with every other facial expression which is directed at him nowadays.

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Tbc.