Coming Home [Completed]

Ch. 7: New Rules

Charlie obsessively checked and fixed his hair in the rearview mirror as he waited parked on the curbside for Lucas to emerge from his house for their date. He would have wanted their date to happen the next day after their meeting at the pool, but his mother took him out of town to visit family down by the shore for several days.

Charlie had been so eager for their date, even if he was still unsure if it could be called that, that he texted Lucas asking to meet today instead of their original plan of a Sunday afternoon date. Lucas responded back in the affirmative faster than Charlie had expected so he scrambled over to Lucas's house as fast as possible.

He texted Lucas just after he put the car in park, but the other boy seemed determined to make him wait a few agonizing minutes. That or he just hadn't noticed the text notification on his phone yet. Either way his non-response had thus far created a vacuum through which his mind wandered, thinking unprompted that this was perhaps a mistake, for a multitude of reasons, such as...

But, then, a knock came on the passenger side window that startled him in his seat. He looked over to see Lucas barely suppressing a laugh at his expense. Charlie's cheeks must have been completely flushed red after that.

Composing himself as best he could, Charlie hastened to unlock the door and Lucas quickly hopped in, exchanging a greeting. He looked fantastic, Charlie thought. Lucas Wright was sitting in his car wearing a rather loose shirt and these red athletic shorts that barely reached his mid-thigh, showing off his very tanned skin. The benefits of lifeguard duty, Charlie reasoned.

The look was casual, in contrast to Charlie, who was slightly more dressed up, in a patterned short-sleeve button-down and chino shorts. He worried he was making this date a bigger deal than it was. The word date had never actually been used in all their conversations. You're messing this up already, his mind scolded him.

"So you're sure mini-golf isn't too corny for a first date?" Lucas asked, with a surprising uncertainty in his voice. He had been the one to suggest the venue.

"Oh, it's the corniest, but isn't that what first dates are for?" Charlie responded in jest.

"You might be right on that one."

"Okay, then, let's go have some corny-ass fun." Charlie started the car and pulled out of his curbside parking spot, making his way to the town's mini-golf course, which doubled as an ice cream shop.

Charlie had expected a leisurely game, with more focus on them talking than on the game itself, but Lucas was uncharacteristically competitive. Charlie liked to win, too, so it actually became a tense game. Trash talk was volleyed back and forth between the two of them throughout the eighteen holes.

On the sixteenth hole, with the classic mini-golf windmill, Lucas made a dirty joke about holes and golf balls right as Charlie was about to put, sending his ball flying. The ball landed on the green of the seventeenth hole, which was being played by a family of four. The mother's scolding look only reddened Charlie's blush.

Charlie got them ice cream afterward since they had agreed beforehand that the loser would pay for dessert. An ice cream shop was attached to the mini-golf, so a second location was not necessary to fulfill the bet.

The two began actually getting to know each other, then, since there was very little non-competitive conversation going during their game. They started out with the basics, such as school, extracurriculars, family, college goals, etc. It eerily felt to Charlie like the same subject matter that he'd cover in a conversation with an elderly relative, which made him feel like this wasn't going well.

Then, they got into territory that he definitely would not cover with his Great-Aunt Eunice.

"What's your body count?"

Charlie gulped, surprised at the question, and decided to stall. "Do you count only full sex?"

"Yeah, let's say that."

"Then, one. What's yours?"

"Three. Really? Just one? I would've figured more from you. Shit, I didn't mean that anyway it's just that..."

"It's fine, don't worry. I've done other stuff with a few guys, more than a few really, but my ex was the only one I did everything with."

"You can say his name you know. It's not cursed."

"It feels like that it is sometimes," Charlie forced a laugh.

"Sorry, I shouldn't pry, but, um, there aren't many out gay guys at Pine Wood, especially sophomore year. It was really just me, then Theo, so when he needed someone to confide in I guess for some things it had to be me..."

Charlie visibly cringed, thinking his past mistakes were now coming back to haunt him.

Seeing this, Lucas hastened to add, "he never told me why you broke up, the second time at least; the first, it was pretty obvious."

Charlie burst out laughing at that, then quickly calmed himself. "I shouldn't laugh at that. I'm still ashamed of how I reacted."

"I get it. People make mistakes. They're called growing pains. You were fifteen, given absolutely no guidance from anyone of authority for how to handle what you were going through. Doesn't excuse it, but I'm not going to hold the actions of 15-year-old Charlie against 17-year-old Charlie."

"That's a relief. 15-year-old Charlie was a dick."

"Weren't we all?"

"Very true. I would like present-day Lucas to get to know present-day Charlie."

"I'd like that, but only if Charlie will stop talking about himself in the third person."

"Deal."

"It's weird. I feel like I already know you, well a lot of you, just from Theo."

"Wait, are you two like close friends?"

"Oh god, no. I wouldn't be here right now if I was. The gay community around here is small but I'd never try to hook up with a friend's ex. I guess you could say we were confidants? I don't think Theo's friends handled it well at first when he came out, so I might have been all he had."

"Really? Jude, I know he can say stupid shit sometimes, but Nolan's never struck me that way."

"Nolan's a good guy, but again fifteen-year-olds. We don't know how to handle shit, especially when no one's ever prepared us for it. He just took some time processing it. I think it was when one of your old teammates knocked Theo down real hard that time, it made Nolan choose a side and he chose Theo's."

At the time, Charlie'd had no idea about any of that. They were fighting around that time too, so Theo must have felt doubly isolated. He was glad that Theo had someone to talk to, even if it made the present conversation super awkward for him.

"Sorry I started this whole conversation about my ex on our first date..."

"Don't be. Better to get it all out in the open from the start."

"Shit, I called this a date didn't I?"

"You did, did you not want this to be a date?"

"No, I do. I just wasn't sure what you wanted."

"I want this to be a date, Charlie." And, with that, Lucas leaned over and gently kissed Charlie's lips, before pulling back.

"Your ex hasn't been wrong yet.

"What do you mean?"

"You're definitely 'socially clumsy' and you're a good kisser."

"I plead guilty on both counts."

"Your sentence is to come over here and kiss me some more," Lucas volleyed back.

"So now you're my judge, jury, and executioner?"

"And what about it? Now, get over here before I change my mind."