Damien Carmichael leads a double life. By day he's a high school senior at an elite prep school, just trying to get through his last year without any trouble. He has a girlfriend and up until this year, he was the star player of the lacrosse team.
...
"All set?" Damien asked. Oliver held out his arm for him. Damien blushed a little, slipping his arm into Oliver's and the two made their way down the stairs and out of the Manor for the last time.
Damien gave one last lingering look towards the Manor with a sigh and followed Oliver towards the driver's side. Oliver held the door open for him. Damien smiled to himself, "Thanks," he said, climbing into the car. Oliver closed the door behind him and Damien yawned a little, setting up his GPS for the nearest Starbucks. He may have lived there for years but he definitely didn't drive enough to remember that sort of thing so early in the morning. Oliver smiled as he looked around the car.
"This is impressive," he said.
"We always go for comfort since we tend to go for long trips so often. Like camping and the drive to Westlake," he shrugged.
"You go camping?"
"Well, we have a massive motorhome. So I mean I guess it's less camping and more glamping, but you know what I mean."
Oliver chuckled, "Not gonna lie, the thought of you in nature is kind of hard to believe."
"We hang out in the forest all the time," Damien replied.
"That's hardly being in nature," Oliver said, as Damien made his way around the fountain and down the drive towards the road.
Damien shrugged, "How do you figure?"
"Well you're not sleeping on the ground in a tent. I mean I'm sure a motorhome is great, but it's not like real camping."
"True."
Damien sighed, his father had always said traveling with someone was one of the greatest tests of a relationship. If you can handle traveling anywhere with someone, that is a relationship that is meant to last, he'd say. He supposed this was a pretrial run of them traveling together for the summer, and thus far he wasn't sure he could say it was going all that well.
For a while, Damien remained silent. The only sound coming from the outside road, and the occasional voice direction from the turn-by-turn navigation. At this point, Damien would have settled for any coffee he could find, but he didn't want to stray off course now. He found himself lost in thought, he had been hard at work on a novel that was somewhat about his life, and he'd spent the better part of the last few weeks wondering whether or not he should bring it up to Oliver. It wasn't strictly about them, but considering it was his life, it was hard to think that their relationship wouldn't play some role in it in the end.
If he was honest, Damien had largely kept it to himself out of superstition. He didn't particularly like to talk about a story before he had everything more or less settled in his mind. He had outlined a fairly large portion of the story as it stood, but the problem was when you base your story on the first eighteen years of your life, and really if he was honest, just the last six months or so, he couldn't help but wonder where it should end.
There were so many options and it was hard for him to decide where he wanted everything to go. He wanted his characters to have a happy ending-- even if he didn't know how long things with him and Oliver would go. Not that he didn't have time to figure everything out with the story. He had only written the first ten chapters, and he didn't have any sort of deadline at present.
Damien had been so preoccupied with his thoughts that he hadn't even fully registered that they had reached Starbucks until a woman had come over the loudspeaker to take their order.
For a brief moment, Damien had completely forgotten what he had intended to order, he needed coffee, but a part of him also wanted a tea or something. With a shrug, Damien decided to get himself a regular coffee now, something iced and a passion-tea lemonade for later on in the drive, with ice on the side. He wasn't especially skilled at eating and driving, so he had opted for a simple bagel for his breakfast, knowing he could eat something more substantive back at Westlake.
"What would you like hon?" he asked.
"Just a black coffee," Oliver replied. "Hot, and with extra sugar please." Damien nodded and placed his order. Drinking black coffee straight had always been, to Damien, a sign of someone who had had a particularly rough life, and certainly, Oliver proved that. He also ordered a breakfast sandwich.
"Oh that sounds good," Damien said.
"I could feed you some if you like," Oliver suggested after they had purchased their order and driven away. Damien smirked as he got back on the freeway, he was certainly tempted. He had always loved it when Oliver fed him before, but he didn't really want Oliver to give up his whole breakfast for him. Smiling, Damien patted Oliver's hand and tore off a piece of his bagel, plopping it into his mouth.
"Don't these cars have that driver assist feature where they drive for you?" Oliver asked.
"Technically yes," Damien replied. Though he had never really used it. Cruise control was one thing, and he barely liked to use that. Oliver eyed him, giving him a look Damien didn't quite see, and for the rest of the car ride, the two remained relatively silent once more.
Damien wasn't sure if that boded particularly well for them in the travel department test. He would have to ask his father later. He only hoped that they were enjoying their time in Paris more than he was enjoying his drive back to school.
Two hours later, they arrived back at Westlake and pulled into the parking lot on the side of the school with a sigh. It was still a bit of a trek back up to the Castle, but Damien was grateful to finally have arrived. He was more than ready to crawl back into his little bed in the dorms and sleep until lunchtime.
Oliver appeared at his side a few moments later, the two of them just looking up at the Castle. "I'll be honest, part of me will miss not having the clubhouse all to myself. Having to be in the dorm again, it's going to feel crowded I bet."
Damien frowned, he had almost completely forgotten about that. He had spent the better part of December and the first week of January just enjoying himself and trying not to even think about the first part of the school year.
"We'll always have our spot in the forest," Damien said with a grin.
Oliver smiled, and nodded. "So, now that we're boyfriends, do you suppose the whole school knows?"
Damien hadn't considered that. They had held hands once at lunch, and no one had really cared, so he suspected no one would really bat an eyelash if they did know. He was fairly certain he didn't really care what anyone thought, though this had always been difficult for him and he could only hope it would last.
Oliver made his way to the back of the car and pulled out their duffel bags and Damien's backpack and hauled them up onto his shoulder.
"You know I can carry my own stuff, right?" Damien asked.
"I know," Oliver replied with a smile.
"I just don't want you to feel like your my caddy or something."
Oliver eyed him, "I like carrying your bag."
Damien shrugged, he was far too tired to argue that point, so he decided not to, and simply made his way up to the Castle.
The entrance hall was decidedly devoid of life, much to Damien's delight. "I don't know about you, but I am exhausted," he said. His coffee/tea combo had lasted him all of a half-hour, and he was still tired. Damien eyed the staircase wearily, not for the first time, he rather wished Oliver could simply toss him over his shoulder like their luggage and carry him up the stairs. Oliver made his way up first, and Damien trudged up behind him, loathing the fact that they didn't have access to that bloody elevator.
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