In Another Universe

Friday 21.10 If You Told Me To

"We need to talk." Yes, they did, Charlie thought, as he handed Isaac, sitting on the couch in the living room, a cold beer. He then opened his own and after a short hesitation, he sat down next to him. But he didn't want to start talking. After all, he made his move. He gave his ultimatum. Now, Isaac had to answer, to explain himself and only after would they be able to decide where to go from there. Sure, Charlie was flattered by Isaac's apparent choice, him, but that trip wasn't enough.

"I'm sorry," Isaac finally said in a breath, playing with the bottle in his hands.

"Hm?"

"She told me, uh, Emily told me you were at the party. So... I figured that... you saw."

Charlie couldn't help but sigh. Yeah, so what? He wasn't here, missing a party to hear facts he already knew.

"You weren't supposed to see that..."

"Is that supposed to make it better? Because it really doesn't."

"I know... that's not what I meant..."

After another annoyed sigh, Charlie turned to Isaac.

"Okay. Then what did you mean? I don't understand you. Everything was going fine between us and then you just pulled back out of nowhere and you went back to her... And after you were surprised that I didn't want anything to do with you? I don't understand you..."

Passing a hand through his hair, Isaac looked down, visibly ashamed, and took a sip of beer to give himself courage. As for Charlie, he wasn't sure any answer would be satisfying. To be fair, he wasn't sure how that attitude could be excused. Or that at least he could excuse it. Or move on from it.

"I don't... I don't really understand myself either most of the time but..." He shrugged. "I just didn't think you'd want to still be with me... once you really knew me."

This took Charlie off guard. As soon as Isaac pulled back, told him he needed time, he had thought the problem came from him. Maybe he finally realised that he wasn't as cool as everyone thought, or interesting. Or at least not as much as Emily. He probably had realised that Charlie just wasn't worth dropping his highschool sweetheart over. Maybe he didn't like that Charlie didn't want to hold his hand or kiss him in public, not yet at least. But none of his hypotheses involved Isaac thinking Charlie wouldn't like him, because that just wasn't a scenario he could imagine.

"What? You killed someone or something?"

Isaac chuckled and shook his head.

"Thank God, no I didn't. But it's not something like that."

"Well tell me then! I just don't see any reason why you would think I wouldn't like you!" he said, or yelled almost. It all seemed so absurd. But Isaac's eyes dropped to the floor and he started fidgeting with the bottle in his hands and Charlie came to the realisation that he had never seen Isaac stressed or anxious before. Not for their meeting, not for their almost-first-kiss, nor for the real actually. Never. He always seemed so confident and sure of himself. Yet, there he was, looking like a kid ready to be reprimanded.

"I'm bipolar," Isaac blurted out like he dreaded the word itself.

Charlie froze for a second. This was far from being what he expected, even though he didn't have any kind of expectation. He wiggled on the couch to get closer to Isaac and reached for his hand in the hopes of comforting him. Not everything made sense yet but he was going to get to the bottom of this.

"I...Okay, I don't.... know much about all this but...why, why did you think I'd react badly?"

"Because you said all that stuff about wanting to stay away from your mum 'cause she was crazy and everything..." he answered, tight throat, before finally looking up. Charlie tightened his grip around his hand. "So I thought maybe it was better if I removed myself from the situation before things could get too serious. And I guess I just went back to Emily because she knew and she's been dealing with all of that for a while now but...I was wrong."

Listening attentively, Charlie understood quite quickly what had happened, and how this was partly his fault. He took a deep breath as he felt Isaac finally hold his hand.

"I shouldn't have said that in the first place. It wasn't fair of me towards her... and towards you I guess..." He shrugged. "But I... I'm sorry."

"And I'm even sorrier. Listen, I shouldn't have reacted like that and just told you."

Charlie nodded. They both made some wrong moves but at least now, they were aware of it. And maybe, just maybe they could fix it. They could fix everything.

"But hey, you did now and you came here," he said, leaning towards him. "And I missed you.'

Talking, they could do all of that after. They could have all the time in the world to do some talking, just later. Breaking the distance, Charlie finally gave in to the pulsion he had as soon as Isaac appeared on the doorstep and kissed him. Almost immediately, his kiss was answered and reciprocated. And they will talk later, but as of now, he only cared about Isaac's hand in his hair and his own hand on his knee.

Isaac borrowed a shirt, which he swore would not be the last. Charlie lent him a little bit of toothpaste and a place in his bed. And then they pretended they were tired enough to go to bed. The rest belong only to themselves. Charlie would remember that his hands were cold, but Isaac kept them in his.

// I'm really sorry for the late update. I don't really have an excuse, just a lack of motivation. So tell me whether there are still people who care and if you want me to finish the story and I'll try to arrange myself with my motivation ahah