Somewhere In The Middle

Knit's Love At First Sight

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon at the Hubbard house. Erik was lounging around the living room enjoying an episode of The Owl House. Ever since his father Damian and Rayn's father Ken started dating, Rayn has been spending more and more time at Erik's house. This meant she was around to accidentally spoil every single show, movie, or book Erik could possibly want to enjoy.

Today however, Rayn was off visiting her mother Janis, so Erik got some peace and quiet to watch his show. He cracked a smile at a joke that was made before there was a knock on his front door. Groaning subtly to himself, Erik paused the episode and pulled himself up off the couch to go see who was there. His annoyance lasted only a moment before he realized the person interrupting him happened to be a surprise visit from his boyfriend Caden.

"Cade? Hey!" Erik answered letting a big smile spread across his face. He was greeted with an equally enthusiastic response from Caden. Usually Caden took some time to warm up to a new location—even if he's been there many times before. He wasn't one to stampede through a place he just arrived at. However, this time Caden chirped excitedly,

"Hi babe! Guess what?! I have a surprise for you!"

"Really? Well, damn okay! Don't leave me hanging! Come on in and show me!" Erik chuckled and stepped aside for Caden to come in.

"Okay! Okay, check THESE out!" Caden dug around in his backpack he brought and pulled out two matching sweaters. "Aren't they GREAT! I got one for each of us!" He handed the smaller sweater to Erik.

"Oh wow, babe! I love them! Where did you get them?!" Erik gushed excitedly taking the sweater and holding it up to his body. "Oh my gosh—these are so adorable!"

"I know! I saw them in Marshals and literally screeched in happiness that they had two in our sizes! The best part is they are big enough that I can comfortably wear a shirt underneath with a bow tie!"

"Well here, let me try it on!" Erik giddily hurried off to the bathroom and came in only a few minutes later with it on. He gasped happily seeing Caden had put his on too. "Oh my god—! This is the best thing that's happened to me all MONTH!"

"I'm so glad you like them! I know I've given you one of my hoodies to wear but you can't really wear it comfortably because it's so big on you." Caden giggled, "Now we can match and show the world we are in a relationship!"

"Perfect!" Erik smiled walking to Caden's side and wrapping his arms around his boyfriend's body. Being the shortest in the friend group—and one of the smallest in their whole grade—Erik's head could rest comfortably on Caden's chest. It was amplified by the fact Caden was one of the tallest. "Thank you, baby..I love them!"

"I...love you." Caden mumbled loud enough for Erik to hear. Unfortunately, he immediately started to sweat and feel like he made it awkward. "Sorry—I should have—"

"I love you too." Erik cut him off having to look straight up to look into his eyes. "We should wear these tomorrow at school. If you...want to anyway."

"Uh...yeah, I'd like that!" Caden grinned feeling his nerves settle.

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"You two are literally adorable! Ahhh!" Abbee gushed seeing the two in their new sweaters. Caden held Erik's hand proudly on top of the lunch table as opposed to hiding their hands underneath.

"Yeah, you two look great! Abbee tried to get us to do the whole matching outfit thing as a couple...but I said no!" Rayn nudged Abbee's arm. Even though the two have split—they have decided they love each other too much to hate. Besides, they were the mom's off the friend group—without them, where would everyone else be?