Chapter One
Alex
You can tell a lot about a person by sharing something as simple as a kiss with them. When my lips first touched Charlie’s, I knew. That kiss was everything–and more. Right then and there, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that we were destined to be together. Forever.
It was during third grade when Charlie and I first met. He transferred to my school mid semester. Quiet, shy, and he kept to himself, playing with no one whereas I’d been there since kindergarten, growing up with the same group of familiar faces and was never alone.
In the corner of the playground, he’d sit and watch us goof off, but never joined in.
For some reason, on this particular day, a couple of the boys in our group started picking on him.
I stood back and watched, waiting for Charlie to react, until they shoved him and he fell to the ground, and curled up in a ball.
That wasn’t cool and I couldn’t stand back any longer.
I don’t know why he wouldn’t defend himself, but he was a lot smaller than us and the pick on someone your own size comment I’d heard before led me to step in.
As one of the largest kids in our grade, the others tended to follow my lead and luckily, this time proved to be no different.
After I yelled at them to knock it off and yanked Billy Jones off him, they backed away and left Charlie and me alone.
I introduced myself and it was from that moment on we’d become inseparable.
Sure, friends I had many of, but Charlie was my first and only best friend.
Our friendship morphed into weekend sleepovers at each other’s houses.
He became a regular fixture at my family dinner table.
We quickly learned that if we teamed up and helped with each other’s chores it went faster and gave us more playtime.
We’d wander through the surrounding forest area our houses backed up to, poking at slugs, having pretend battles and visiting the nature center regularly.
We offset each other perfectly. Charlie was book smart where I was into sports and holding the reigning title of class clown.
More often than not, Charlie would have to force me to buckle down and study so I could pass my classes and wouldn’t get held back.
It’s one thing when your parents tell you to do your homework, that is an automatic ignore.
But when your best friend pointed out all the fun stuff you’d miss out on if you failed, well that put a whole new perspective on it.
Without him, I probably would’ve repeated several grades.
Charlie remained my voice of reason through high school, college, and even into our adult lives.
The day Charlie came out to me is ingrained in memory and one I occasionally drew.
Remembering how brave he was and that he trusted me with his deepest secret meant a lot.
Sure, I’d kissed both guys and girls, but it was meh at best. My sexuality wasn’t at the forefront of my mind up until this moment.
My every waking thought was of Charlie, so when he told me he was gay, my life, our lives, just clicked.
This was my chance to make him mine in all ways, and hopefully not ruin the friendship.
Nothing was worth losing Charlie over. I remembered his words like it was yesterday, when this conversation happened during our junior year of high school.
We were sitting in my basement engaged in an intense game of Mario Kart.
“Um, Alex?” Charlie asked, launching his on-screen attack.
“What’s up?” I responded, dodging a tortoise shell his Princess Peach sent sailing toward my Yoshi.
“I need to tell you something,” he said as he paused the game.
That kinda pissed me off because I was on the verge of knocking his pretty princess off the racetrack. “Dude, I can totally listen and play at the same time.”
“This is important, Alex, and I need your undivided attention,” he huffed.
I tossed my controller down and turned toward him. “Okay, spill it.”
Charlie fumbled with the controller in his hands, flipping it a couple of times before drawing a deep breath.
“I’m…um.” He squared his shoulders and nodded to himself before finishing.
“I’m gay.” Not being prepared for those two little, unknowingly long-awaited words, I sat there, stunned.
Was it really going to be that easy to have the one person I wanted?
Hold it, what??? But that means - OMG, that means I have a chance??? Noting my inability to respond, which he took as a negative, his face reddened, and he stuttered, “I, uh, I’ve gotta go.” He stood and turned toward the door.
He was only two steps away when I grabbed his wrist. “Why do you have to go?”
“I’m sure you don’t want to be friends with a faggot like me,” he mumbled, looking everywhere but at me and that wasn’t gonna fly with me.
I tugged him down beside me and cupped his face in my hands. The pads of my thumbs gently wiped away the tears as they slid down his flushed cheeks. “I don’t ever want to hear that word come out of your mouth again.” And then I kissed him.
He froze for a moment before he finally kissed me back, melding our lips together, and when he sighed, I knew he was mine. That single life-changing kiss took our relationship status from friends to lovers.
As we pulled apart, his tongue darted out, skimming his bottom lip.
I wanted to lean over and suck it into my mouth but decided to toss in my game-winning move while the moment was here.
I didn’t want him to think he was an experiment for me.
It was important he knew that I wanted him to be mine in every way.
“Will you be my boyfriend, Charlie?” I asked him, still cradling his face.
He nodded.
Those eyes that were once so sad lit up as he grinned. The dimples I adored popped and his delightfully crooked smile, one that I knew was only for me, made my heartbeat faster. Right then, I knew I would spend the rest of my life doing everything within my power to make Charlie happy.
“Yes, Alex. Yes, I would love to be your boyfriend.” As the last syllable left his mouth, he jumped into my lap and knocked me backwards onto the brown shag carpeting covering the basement floor, kissing every inch of my face.
I tickled him, tackling Charlie as his giggles filled the air.
When he cried Uncle, I gave him one last kiss before we broke apart and handed him his controller to resume our game.
When I think back that moment could’ve gone so wrong and I’m thankful every day that it hadn’t.
That day was the true beginning of the rest of our lives together.
We dated for a few weeks before telling our parents.
Charlie’s mother had died from pancreatic cancer when he was younger, leaving his father and grandmother to raise him.
Technically, his dad lived in the same house as them, but he traveled for business and was frequently gone for long periods of time.
When he was home, he was the doting father, always loving and supportive.
He did the usual dad things, such as teaching him to ride a bike and playing catch, even laughing along with Charlie at his inability to catch any sort of ball.
When we decided to tell our family, his dad was out of town, so we told my parents first one evening during dinner.
Charlie seated at the dinner table that night came as no surprise to my family. He’d become a fixture in our household and I loved that. “Um, Mom, Dad?” I said, gazing back and forth between the two of them then dropped my gaze to my plate, swirling the mashed potatoes around with my fork.
“Yes, Alex?” dad replied, cutting into his steak.
I glanced at Charlie, and he squeezed my knee under the table reassuringly. “Charlie and I have something to tell you.”
“Go ahead, son,” my mom encouraged as she set her silverware down, giving us her full attention.
Nervously, I scratched the back of my neck and decided to rip off the Band-Aid and just blurt it out. “Charlie and I are dating.” Taking a deep breath, I held it as we waited for their reaction.
My parents smiled at one another then Dad chuckled. “It’s about damn time the two of you came to your senses.”
Charlie and I wore mirrored confused expressions but were beyond relieved at the same time.
“We’ve been waiting for you both to acknowledge the chemistry you have. Everyone around you sees it, what took you two so long to realize it?” Mom asked. Had we really been so blind?
Dad for some reason still found all this funny, “Good for you, boys. Now let’s eat before it gets cold.”
Having that out in the open gave us the courage to tell his grandmother the following weekend while we were helping her with yard work.
“Um, Granny?” Charlie asked, leaning against the porch pillar and wiping the sweat from his forehead.
“Yes love, what is it?” she asked, as she set a pitcher of lemonade and cups for us on the patio table.
Biting his bottom lip, Charlie fidgeted and mumbled, “Umm…”
“Cat got your tongue, boy? Spit it out before the ice cubes melt,” she lifted the pitcher to pour us each a glass, waiting him out.
He turned to me and I shrugged, so he continued, “Uh, Alex and I are dating.”
After she finished filling the last glass, she sat the pitcher down. “Telling me, is that what had your undies in a bunch? Boy, what’s wrong with you? I figured you’d been dating for a while now, considering you’re glued at the hips.” She smiled and kissed both our cheeks then walked back inside.
“Well,” I sighed, “consider my undies officially unbunched.” I’d caught Charlie at the wrong time with that one. He’d just taken a drink and shot lemonade out of his nose. “Sorry, my bad.”
We had literally stressed ourselves out over nothing and by being out to those who mattered most to us, there was no reason to hide our relationship from anyone.