Fame Crazy (Sequel to Strings Attached)

Chapter 57

The page next to it is a continuation of it, with a picture of him helping Samandriel with homework while Gabriel helps Anna, none of them acknowledging the camera. It has to be from some point in Gabriel's high school career, probably Castiel's first year of online high school. Next to it is Castiel gaping at Chuck as he plays guitar. Even just looking at the picture, he can hear his father singing Fare The Well. Until then, he hadn't even realized Chuck knew how to play guitar. There's also a picture of Castiel and Michael playing Scrabble a few years ago because they're both bookworms.

"You and Michael need to take more pictures together, by the way," Kevin tells him.

"I don't like pictures," Michael informs him.

"Too bad," Charlie replies. "Finding this was a pain in the ass."

The next set of two pages just says, "School Dance," even though he can tell immediately that it has pictures from multiple dances. The first one is Castiel as Charlie's "prom date" in their junior year. It's a posed picture, just him with an arm around her shoulders, and her arm wrapped around his waist. The next is a picture the senior prom, with Charlie, Donna, Harry, and Ed as the actual seniors of the school and Castiel as Charlie's "date," Kevin as Donna's "date," and Sam and Gabriel as Harry and Ed's "dates," though none of the dates were actual dates more so as plus-ones. It was really just an excuse for them to be there as well. There's also a picture of Castiel holding Charlie bridal style as they both laugh.

He taps it once and looks up at her. "I remember that one."

"For two gay people, we made a hell of a couple," she says with a grin.

"Hell yeah we did."

The page next to it has a picture of Castiel and Kevin looking extra serious at senior prom just before they cracked up laughing. The two share a grin across the table as they remember it. Under is it a selfie of Castiel, Harry, and Ed just smiling like normal people at junior prom, with Charlie photo bombing with a goofy grin.

"Oh, Charlie," he says with an amused smile. "What are we gonna do with you?"

She just laughs.

Castiel pauses when he sees the last picture on the page, his smile slipping. He just looks at it for a few moments, his face expressionless.

"Castiel?" Michael says uncertainly. "You good?"

"Uh, yeah," Castiel replies halfheartedly. He taps the last picture and looks up at Charlie. "How did you get that?"

"Same way I got most of the school pictures," she replies. "Donna saved a digital copy of all of ours from her time on the school yearbook."

"Oh." He runs a finger over it gently, his thoughts momentarily drifting elsewhere.

"I couldn't just not put that in there," she adds. "I don't care if you guys broke up. Your first school dance and your first real boyfriend. No way was I skipping that one."

As much as it hurts to see his happier times with Dean, he can't say he wishes she skipped that picture. It was back during Dean's senior prom, when Donna photographed them just as they stepped inside the building so they didn't have the chance to shy away. They both have big smiles on their face just from being in each other's company. He looks down at their interlocked hands, when it just came naturally to them to hold on to each other like that. Back when everything was simple.