Leondre's POV
I was right when I said it would be a long day. We had to re-film the cover so many times, I was about to fall asleep before we finally got a good one. Then we went out to eat, and yes it did take us that long to get the cover done. We got back to the studio an hour later and filmed the YouTube video, and spent a couple of hours both coming up with ideas and fooling around. We then had extra time left over so we came up with different beats and started writing a song. Now, it was 4:00pm, also known as time to go home.
I managed to make it to Charlie's car without falling, thank god. When we got in the car, Charlie spoke up.
"Do you want to go out to eat or go to my place and order takeaway?" He asks me pulling onto the road.
"Let's go out to eat, I'm really tired and hopefully this will wake me up for your house." I say, really wanting to spend some time with him tonight. I don't care if we play games or watch a movie or even just talk, I wanna spend time with him.
"Alright, as long as you won't fall asleep in your food." He started laughing at me. I rolled my eyes but couldn't help but to smile at him.
"Leave me alone bro that was a one time thing." We both started laughing even harder but didn't have to pull over this time.
"Where do you want to eat?" He asked as we got to the centre of the city.
"Ah anywhere that has a vegan option is fine." I reply, looking out the window at all the stores and people and houses. He hums in response and I go to turn the radio up. We both start singing again but there is a rap in the song and I'm the only one during that part. Not five minutes later we pull up to a restaurant.
I followed him into the homey restaurant and was hit with such delicious scents that my stomach started growling immediately. Charlie walked up to the hostess.
"Table for two please." He spoke clearly and politely to the lady.
"Okay. Follow me to your table please." She said as she shot us an over the top smile. I shuffle my feet awkwardly and looked at the floor and following where Charlie's feet went. We came to a stop at our table and I sat down across from Charlie. I turned to the hostess and she passed us our menus.
"There will be someone here to wait on you in a few moments." She shot us another big smile before walking back towards her podium at the front. I opened up the menu and decided on what I wanted, as did Charlie. Our waitress came to our table soon after, shooting me a not so subtle wink before leaning so low on the table that she just might as well have not worn the damn shirt. I kept eye contact with her the whole time I stated my order, and she stood back upright when she turned to take Charlie's order. God, way to not make it obvious lady. As she walked away I could tell she was exaggeratedly swaying her hips from side to side. I rolled my eyes and turned back to Charlie, who was bright red from trying not to laugh. He lost the battle though, and let out a loud gasp of laughter before quieting down. I simply stared wide-eyed at the table and spoke up about the experience.
"I just saw so much that I don't want to see e-this early in my life." I kept my stare at the table. Jesus Christ, I almost said I don't want to see it ever. Not yet, I'm just not telling him yet.
"Aw mate that was priceless." He breathes out shoving his face into the neck of his hoodie to try and muffle his laughs and leaned over the table. I started to laugh along with him at how worked up he was over it. We must have spent longer laughing than I thought, because soon our waitress was back with our food and drinks.
"Here you are." She winked at me again and then "dropped" a napkin, and turned around to bend over and shove her bum in my face. I kept eye contact with Charlie, but he was going to break it any second because he was hit with a second wave of heavy laughter. I just rolled my eyes again and smiled at him, completely and blatantly ignoring her. I didn't look at her again until I heard her scoff and storm away. I couldn't hold back my laughter this time, even more so when I saw she had written a name Lizzie, a phone number, and an Instagram name, all presumably hers, on an extra napkin she placed conveniently on top of my utensils. I may not have liked her but I shoved the napkin into my pocket anyway as Charlie and I laughed.
It took Charlie and I a lot longer to eat than usual because the waitress walked by about every five minutes and we stopped to laugh for a while afterwards. Whilst eating the last of our food, we came up with a plan to get back at the waitress. No, Charlie and I were not going to do anything, but I was going to call her out on her rudeness and forwardness.
We had just finished and Charlie called her over for the bill. When she asked if it was split Charlie replied that it was together before I could get a word in. When he had paid and we were leaving the restaurant, I made eye contact with her and beckoned her over with my finger. She smiled smugly and made her way over to me.
"Yeah?" She asked innocently, batting her eyelashes and playing with her hands.
"Hi love," her eyes widened then closed halfway as if she was dreaming whilst awake. I continued, "I just wanted to let you know that if you continue that inappropriate behaviour then your boss will find out and you could quite possibly get fired." I ended my thoughts with a smile almost as big as hers earlier, while she stared at me bug-eyed.
"Oh, uh-um, thanks for the suggestion, sir. I'm so sorry. Have a nice day." She looked so sad and ashamed as she looked to the ground and wished me a nice day. She deserved it but I couldn't help but feel bad.
"Hey, call me Leondre." I smiled a real smile at her and she gave me one back, before waving goodbye and walking back towards the tables. So she was kind of...open with herself, it doesn't matter. She seemed like a nice person after the act dropped and there's no need for me to be mean if she's just acting.
Charlie was waiting for me in the car and was probably going to think I was coming out of the restaurant smiling because I was happy with what I had done. And I was, but I was happy about the part he didn't know about too.
"So how was it bro? Did she cry? Scream? Whine? Sass?" The questions were shot at me with no time for me to answer.
"Mate it went fine, I told her and she got really sad and ashamed, and apologized by saying, 'Thanks for the suggestion sir. I'm so sorry. Have a nice day.' And I just told her to call me Leondre because I felt bad and she seemed nice once she dropped the act." Charlie was silent until we reached a stop light.
"So do you think you might like her?" He asked me just as the light turned green and the cars in front of us started to move forward.
I sighed, I should have seen this coming. "Probably not, as of now, but you never know." I said distantly before turning to look out my window at the city lights. I didn't like lying to him, but I wasn't ready to come out to him yet. "Thanks for dinner by the way." I said without looking at him.
"No problem man." He replies shortly. The drive to Charlie's went by quick as we talked about nothing in particular.
When we parked in Charlie's driveway I was at his front door with all of my things before Charlie got there. He walked into his house before me and we went straight up to his room first. I put all my stuff in the corner where I usually did except my laptop, which I took with me when I laid on "my side" of his bed. He followed with his laptop, laying on "his side" of his bed. I already knew what he was doing so I just laid there with my eyes closed until I heard sound of a video coming from his laptop. I opened my eyes and looked at the screen just in time to see a kid fall off a trampoline. I let out a loud laugh, and Charlie followed.
We weren't kidding when we said in that YouTube video that all we do is watch fail videos. We were only watching the videos for about fifteen minutes before Charlie's laptop died.
"Shit, Leo can we use your laptop now? I could get my charger but your laptop is right here." He asked while sitting his laptop on the floor next to the bed.
"Of course man, here," I said passing him my laptop, "you know the password." I closed my eyes again as he took my laptop from me. It was silent for a moment before Charlie cleared his throat.
"Hey man, why is your wallpaper a photo of Zac Efron shirtless? No offence mate but that's kinda gay." **this is just for the story, I'm not saying that you are/could be gay if your wallpaper is Zac Efron or anybody else shirtless** He informed seeming extremely confused. And I had my answer, I had planned it when I changed it. All I had to say was 'Tillie must have changed it again.' Now, time to put my plan into action.
"Well that's good because I am gay." As soon as the words were out of my mouth my eyes widened and tears stung the corners of them. What the hell did I just do? That's not what I was supposed to say, that wasn't supposed to happen. I had everything planned, and because I was so tired I messed it all up.
"What?" I heard Charlie's soft voice question, and the sound of movement as he shut my laptop and moved it on the floor next to his and turning on his side so face me.
I could already feel the tears start to fall, so I turned my head to the wall, hoping he wouldn't notice. It was inevitable though, as soon I was sniffling and shuddering.
"Leo, please look at me." Charlie said in the same voice as before. I couldn't look at him though, I wasn't ready. I just sat up so I was leaning my back against the headboard, turning my head towards the wall completely. I managed to stop the sniffling, but the tears were still streaming heavily like two waterfalls down the sides of my face. I stayed there until I felt Charlie moving, and all of a sudden I felt two arms wrap around me. I froze in spot. I didn't know how to react. So, I still just sat there with the tears falling silently until he spoke again. "Leo, I don't care if you're gay or not. I fully accept you, and you're always going to be my brother, no matter what. This isn't going to change anything." I let out a big sigh of relief, and finally gathered the courage to turn and face him. He had tears in his eyes as well, but none had fallen yet. I couldn't say anything, my throat felt locked. So, I went for the next best thing and threw my arms around his neck instead. He wrapped his arms tighter around my waist, and since we were sitting next to each other, it was kind of uncomfortable, but I didn't care. This is what I needed right now. I nestled my face into his neck, and only a couple of minutes after I remembered that I was crying.
"I'm sorry." I whispered, pulling my head away from him and untangling my arms from his neck.
"What for Leo?" He let go of my waist but rubbed my arm.
"For getting your shirt wet." I smiled shyly. He pulled his shirt collar away from his neck to look at my tears soaking his shirt and smiled as well.
"I don't care bro, as long as you're okay." He made eye contact with me again. I looked down and cleared my throat, I was feeling really emotional right now and needed to take my time.
"Thanks Charlie. I lov-" I cut myself off and looked into his eyes again, my own probably clearly showing my worry. Was this crossing a boundary now? He looked at me almost sternly.
"I love you too Leo. I told you it wouldn't change anything." The tears immediately sprung back to my eyes and pulled him into a tighter hug than before, and with so much force that I almost knocked him off the bed. He started chuckling after a few moments, and I sat upright to question him.
"I was just thinking about today, and that this is probably the reason you were so uncomfortable with our waitress. I'm sure anyone would be, but you seem to have enough reason to. Now I know that you really don't like her." He started laughing harder and I couldn't help but join in. A couple of minutes later we decided to watch some films and go to sleep instead of watching more fail videos. So, we went downstairs and said goodnight to Charlie's family, grabbed some snacks, came back upstairs and changed into our night wear, and got cozy into the bed. We were just about to start the film but I paused Charlie's hand that was on the mouse pad. He looked at me curiously.
"I just wanted to say thank you again for tonight." I said quietly to him.
"Leo, I told you it's fine, and we're still the same. Now, dig into some of the vegan options I bought for you." We both started laughing as Charlie clicked play on the first film.
I really was lucky to have him in my life, and to have him this close to me. He was my brother.
This should have been up earlier but I didn't have wifi for a lot of the day, and I was sick yesterday.
See you next chapter Snowflakes!!