Short stories with my original characters ^^

As soon as he came, he left pt.2

Scout raised his hand to the others face. Carson stared at it with a bit of hope in his eyes, he could feel his face glowing red.

He tensed up and looked at Scout's ever-closer face.

This moment felt like it came from one of those movies he watched when he was younger.

Was he going to get his Disney happy ending?

Everything was moving in slow motion and he felt sick waiting for the outcome.

Scout reached out and rubbed a bit more sunscreen into his cheek and leaned back, going back into his former position.

Carson blinked and looked at him with his mouth agape.

Scout looked at him with vague confusion before his smile dropped in a second. He seemed to realize what he had done. The other sent him a sympathetic and shy look, feeling bad for embarrassing the other.

"Sorry, I got a little close." He chuckled nervously "That was my fault, I'm so used to doing hiking with my brother. I should've asked, I'm so sorry!!"

Carson, who was still in a state of shock, locked eyes with him yet again. He smiled and tried to blow it off like he didn't look like a cherry

"Oh- it's um- um- no problem- I don't care, no, no not at all" he ended off the sentence with a nervous laugh.

He was going for a confident cool sorta vibe, trying to just play it cool.

But he ended up feeling like an awkward mess.

Scout looked at him with relief "I'm glad you're alright with it! I'm sorry, again"

This guy was too good for Carson, apologizing? How cute.

He smiled at the other boy "Of course, now why don't we head out?"

Scout smiled and scrambled over to his car. Taking out a red beat-up backpack, stuffed to the brim he slung it across his shoulder.

He then threw a large water bottle over to Carson with a wide smile. Carson caught it (barely, curse his hate for sports and lack of hand-eye-coordination) and for a second marveled at his catching skills before he smiled at his friend in thanks.

Then, they began to walk.

~~

After about a solid hour of walking in the dense thick forest Carson turned to Scout.

"Scout, can we go check out that bench?" Carson said gazing at the other boy with a smile.

"Sure! It'll be like our own little trail! Who doesn't love a good off-road adventure?" he said, walking off the path with a smile.

Carson smiled "I could name a few people." Definitely not thinking about his sister, definitely.

They began to walk side by side, their elbows occasionally knocking together.

Carson noticed how Scout seemed to know where to walk and how he carried himself with such confidence. He subconsciously noted how he was tripping over his clunky boots occasionally. He also was occasionally explaining a few things, cute facts about birds and plants he saw.

"Have you been here before?" Carson said, voicing what he had been thinking for the past five minutes.

"Once, when I was younger but not since then, no. I've been trying to cover every state park here in California so I try not to come to places I've already been to. I guess I just never noticed that bench before, huh"

Carson looked around "I'm used to going off trail a lot. My dad used to take me outside at places like this, I was pretty young too. All of the time, I get why you like it so much, you would've liked him. He stopped taking me after he got sick and I guess I just didn't bother coming anymore."

Scout looked at him sadly "I'm really sorry, that's horrible, Is he alright?"

Carson looked away and messed with the stitching on the edge of his sleeve "No, he died a while ago car accident." He murmured as he pulled a thread from his coat.

They sat in silence for a beat. A very, very, very awkward beat.

Carson laughed awkwardly "Sorry, that was way too serious" Scout giggled and looked at him with soft eyes. "I don't mind, it's cute."

"Why, thank you" Carson replied with flushed cheeks, hoping he didn't sound as embarrassed as he felt inside. But there was a smidge of pride and giddiness in his words, the thought that Scout thought he was even a tad bit cute made his rib cage feel full with joy.

At the top

"I get why you'd want to come back here, this is so beautiful I've never seen anything like this" Carson said as he looked around the clearing around the bench. Trees were so spread apart, that they looked like a toddler had flipped their plate of broccoli onto the ground. There was a steep hill a few feet away from the bench and the forest was much thicker under it.

Scout smiled "You've officially gotten the hiking experience, it is so pretty,"

"So the whole point of hiking is to see a sight like this, correct?" Carson questioned.

Scout laughed "You're completely correct, that's it!"

Carson looked at it again "Beautiful." He looked at Scout with a smile "Let's sit."

They scramble over to the bench happily and Carson, eager to be the first one to get on the bench, jumped like an MMA fighter onto the poor bench.

The bench, as my grandmother would say: bless its soul, immediately crushed under Carson and left him sitting down on a few old rotten planks of soggy wood. Scout immediately started to wheeze as he laughed hysterically.

Carson looked away from him and could feel his cheeks burning "I guess it was old."

Scout smiled "I'll give you that, it already looked like it was barely together" Laughing more as he added, "Or maybe it's that you jumped on it like a wrestler."

Carson giggled, maybe it was a bit funny. "I did not! It just wasn't ready for me and my manly strength."

Scout smiled and sat down next to him on the recently deceased bench. "Okay big guy, whatever you say just don't go around breaking any more benches." He teased and put his hand on the other boy's hand.

Carson thought for a split second that he was dying.

Well, he knew he wasn't really dying, but how else could he explain the buzzing noise in his ears and his face heating up again? It was the only logical explanation since he's never felt like this before. He might've been just been having an allergic reaction to something. At least he brought his EpiPen in case of an emergency. And dying seemed like a pretty huge emergency.

Scout, noticing how Carson panicked, moved his hand away. Carson glanced at him and clasped his hand around the other boy's hand again, trying his best to communicate to him that it was fine and he wanted him to hold onto his hand. Carson looked at him with a sheepish smile and Scout returned the smile.

Carson reveled in the warmth from Scout's hand and the breeze that blew his dirty blond hair lightly. He closed his eyes and tried to remember this moment, imprint it into his memory, and make sure he would never forget this day.

His heart then seemed to sink into a pit in his gut.

Scout's wrist was dangerously thin, all of his health classes seemed to tell him one thing, malnutrition.

2,472 words, also I totally haven't been working on this for like two months 👀