the butterfly project | destiel

5 | apologies.

the next day, castiel walked into english with an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. he knew dean was mad at him still. he didn't know how he knew, but he knew. he could feel it in the air that something just wasn't right and honestly, he didn't think it would bother him as much as it did. he plopped down in his seat, silently hoping that dean would plunk his seat down in front of him again like yesterday and they could pretend nothing happened. he wasn't so lucky.

dean was sitting across the room silently brooding. when everyone else moved their desks together he simply sat stationary. he felt castiel's eyes on him but he convinced himself he didn't care. he hated the fact that the boy had made assumptions about him so soon. he had higher hopes than that. he suddenly understood that it probably wouldn't ever work out between them. he sighed and realized that there was no getting out of this project with the boy he didn't like, but he just needed a day to cool off. just one day.

they didn't share a word for the whole class period, and either the teacher didn't notice or she just didn't care.

after the bell rang and they were released for lunch, castiel made the decision to apologize to dean. he really did take a liking to the boy, and he knew deep down that he stepped out of line when he made those comments. he walked into the cafeteria and his eyes trailed over dean's usual table. after not much effort he found who he was looking for.

"hey garth." he caught him while everyone else was in line for food and for that he was grateful. garth gave him a warm smile and castiel had to admit that it made him feel a little better. "if someone wanted to..." cas began nervously. "um, apologize to dean. how would they go about that." garth gave him a look of understanding.

"get him a burger. the man loves burgers." garth laughed lightly. "oh! and some pie. he might literally marry you though so be careful." castiel ignored the blush that rose to his cheeks and nodded. he thanked garth and walked to catch up with charlie in the lunch line, a new air of confidence surrounding him. he would fix things with his crush.

~

the rest of the day passed, and a night, and another awkward english class before cas got to execute his plan. he walked out into the parking lot when the lunch bell rang, the sun glaring off his glasses. he pulled out his pass, prepared to show it to any staff that tried to stop him but no one did. he got into his car and pulled out onto the road. he made his way to a restaurant called the roadhouse that he learned from garth was dean's favorite. charlie offered to come with him but he declined, jo was sitting with her today and he didn't want to take her away from that. he walked into the restaurant that he soon learned was actually partially a bar as well and made his order. the woman who helped him was blonde and actually looked a bit like an older version of jo. he grabbed the bag of greasy food, thanked the woman, and made his way back to the school.

while cas was out getting dean a burger, dean was chatting up a girl he had been talking to. her name was lisa and dean had been flirting with her for a little while now. she had long dark curly hair and tan skin. a nice figure, too. she was sitting next to him at lunch, obviously flirting by the way she laughed at nearly everything he said and went out of her way to touch him at every available opportunity. dean was eating up the attention, happy to get his mind off things for a little while. suddenly, he looked up to meet her eyes and was met with a pair of lips against his own instead. he was taken aback.

"whoa, what?" he said, breaking the short kiss. lisa looked shyly down at her lap before she responded.

"i... i know we're not soulmates." she said. "i already tested it myself." she showed dean the back of her arm where she had drawn a simple, thick line with a sharpie. dean looked down to his own arm and saw it was blank. he wasn't disappointed, he already figured lisa wasn't his soulmate. she didn't seem like the butterfly type.

"but." she continued, meeting dean's gaze. "it's 2018. lots of people are dating without being soulmates. we can be happy together and not be soulmates, dean. be my boyfriend." dean met her gaze, considering this for a moment. he liked her, that was for sure. she was pretty and sweet, but not a pushover. dean always liked brunettes. he shrugged before placing a gentle hand on her thigh and squeezing.

"okay." he said. they smiled at each other and it felt sincere enough, but dean couldn't shake the feeling that he was making some kind of mistake. like a guilty pit in the bottom of his abdomen.

"hello, dean." he heard a gravelly voice behind him and turned around to see castiel. to his surprise, everyone else at his table had left for their free period. lisa blushed and clumsily grabbed her things to leave as well, as if they had been caught doing something forbidden. dean wasn't pleased to be interrupted by someone he didn't exactly like at the moment. luckily, lisa reached down to kiss dean's cheek before she left and it skyrocketed his mood. this took cas aback, but he didn't have enough time to think through it before dean was talking.

"what is it?" he asked, only leaving a little bit of a harsh undertone to his words. castiel looked like he was suddenly pulled out of a daze. he suddenly remembered why he was there and brought the sack of food out from behind his back and showed it to dean with a gummy smile. dean's eyes widened.

"please accept this sandwich as a gesture of solidarity." castiel said. dean took the paper sack and rummaged through it. cas continued speaking. "i apologize for my behavior. i shouldn't have acted like that." dean looked up and smiled at the dark haired boy warmly. earning his forgiveness proved easy, just like garth said. dean then must have noticed the pie.

"dude you got pie? shit, thank you!" dean stood up and suddenly cas found himself wrapped in an embrace. "i accept your apology. i was out of line too." he said more seriously. castiel stuck his hand out after they broke apart from the short hug.

"friends?" he proposed.

"friends." dean assured and shook his hand firmly before they starting making their way out of the cafeteria. castiel stole glaces at dean while he took bites out of the food and he tried not to think of the way his calloused hands felt. he admitted to himself that the man was adorable with crumbs all over his face.