Chapter Text
“No way, fuck that. I’m not getting into a car with any of you losers.” Cameron ignores Charlie’s stupid pouty face. “And especially not with you, Dalton.” He gets up from the couch, crossing the room to their ridiculously small kitchen.
“Oh come on, it’ll be fun. Please? You love us, don’t you?”
“No, I don’t. I already live with you, I’m not voluntarily trapping myself in a metal box for six hours with you.” Cameron leans against the chipped countertop, arms folded across his chest.
“Where’s your sense of adventure, huh? We have a whole nine days off! Haven’t you always wanted to go to New York City? The City of Lights, they call it.” Charlie says theatrically, waving his hands around. Cameron snorts.
“That’s Paris,”
“No, New York City. Weren’t you listening?”
“Charlie, The City of Lights is Paris.”
“Paris isn’t the only city with lights, okay?” Charlie lowers his hands, shaking his head. “Stop distracting me. Just think about it, Cam. All of us going! The whole group! It’ll be great.”
There’s a beat of silence while the two stare at each other from across the room. Cameron sighs, puffing out his cheeks. “Whose idea was this?” Charlie grins.
“Well, my dear Cameron, it was a dark and stormy night-“
“Please just be normal for once in your damn life.” Cameron cuts him off. Charlie scowls at him, narrowing his eyes.
“Fine. Fine, okay. Me and Knox were incredibly-“
“I. Knox and I.”
“Do you want me to tell you what happened or not?” Cameron falls quiet. “Like I was saying… me and Knox were incredibly drunk.”
“This was a drunk decision?” Cameron cuts in again, ignoring the murderous glare Charlie throws his way.
“Fuck off, let me finish the story first! Me and Knox were drunk in his dorm when Meeks came in sober. Not a drunk decision! And you trust him, don't you? Meeks said that he wanted to go to New York with Pitts because they’re a disgusting couple and-“
“So, if we do go, we have to listen to them suck face for the whole time?” Cameron wrinkles his nose, just as Charlie chucks one of their ugliest pillows at his head. “Hey!”
“Stop interrupting, dickhead. We are going and who says suck face anyway? Are you twelve?”
“You say it, Charlie! You said it when Knox kissed that girl at your party. You said it yesterday!” Cameron throws the pillow back, hitting him in the chest.
“Not the point. Anyway, Meeks said he wanted to go with Pitts but thought it might be more fun if we all went too. And he wants to go through Massachusetts and Connecticut on the way over!” Charlie looks so excited that Cameron doesn’t want to burst his bubble. He drops his shoulders in defeat.
“Fine, I give in. I’ll go to stupid New York with you and our stupid friends.” Charlie whoops, throwing his arms in the air, smiling wider than Cameron has ever seen.
“Fucking finally! Now sit down and help me order the most disgustingly greasy pizza we can eat because I’m starving.” Charlie pats the empty spot on the couch beside him.
“We had pizza two days ago.” But Cameron sits, failing to hold back a smile of his own.
***
Cameron’s known Charlie for three very long years. Which he doesn’t like to think about because holy shit, they’re getting old. If you can really call twenty that.
But three years with Charlie Dalton is a lot. His personality is a lot. His voice is a lot. Everything about him spills from the seams and bursts from him like a flood.
Charlie is loud and weird and always happy for some unknown reason. Sometimes he overwhelms Cameron with how much everything about him is. He makes everyone around him shine and it’s a special skill that only he seems to possess.
Cameron used to want to be him. The jealousy boiled up inside of him for months until Charlie fell asleep on his shoulder after a night out drinking. That jealousy turned into another burning feeling that bubbled up under his skin and ran red-hot through his veins.
That one hasn’t left him. It’s still there, festering and boiling. Burning him from the inside out. But he’s gotten this far, hasn’t he? He’ll just push it deeper down until it disappears one day. Not that that’s ever worked for him before, but he’s willing to try.
Meeting the rest of their friends was a different story. One day it was just him and Charlie studying in their dorm. The next day it was them and a boy with a bad haircut named Knox. A few months after him, Neil Perry joined the group. He was loud and talented and became Charlie’s best friend almost immediately, which stung just a little bit. After Neil came Stephen Meeks. And after Meeks came his boyfriend, Gerard Pitts. They were the most disgustingly perfect couple. Still are, actually. Cameron can’t say he isn't a little jealous of them.
And it seemed like their little group was just right. They studied together. They ate lunch together. They got drunk together. Charlie kissed every one of them in a single night because he had one too many shots of vodka. (Cameron remembers that night much too clearly).
But then Todd Anderson came into their lives. He was small and quiet and a little anxious. He fit in perfectly. Like the missing piece to their puzzle. They took him under their wings and they’ve never looked back since.
Cameron and Charlie and Knox and Neil and Meeks and Pitts and Todd. They’re a bunch of nobodies. They’re a group of misfits who only really belong when they’re with each other. Maybe that’s why they’re still friends. Because if the group fell apart, they wouldn’t fit in anywhere.
If it fell apart, they’d be all alone. Maybe they’d split off into pairs or threes, but it wouldn’t be the same. Cameron can’t imagine trying to find new friends. Even if these ones annoy the ever-loving-fuck out of him. They’re the only people who’ve truly seemed to like him. Or at least tolerated him.
He hates thinking back on high school because he knows that if he had friends even half as good as the ones he has now, things would have been so much better for him. He would have felt safe within himself.
He wouldn’t have felt like he needed to be someone else. He wouldn’t have been a stuck-up, nosy, asshole who didn’t know how to function like a normal human being. He was a warped version of what he thought he had to be like for people to like him. Like he was looking at someone through a mirror at a carnival.
***
Cameron’s alarm goes off, waking him from his dream about flying to the moon on the back of a purple dragon covered in stars. He groans, reaching over to shut it off. But there’s already another hand there and he nearly jumps out of his skin.
“Jesus, calm down, it’s just me.” A grinning Charlie looks down at him, eyebrows raised.
“What the hell are you doing in my room?”
“I’m afraid if I tell you, your life will forever be changed.” Cameron buries his face in his pillow, ignoring Charlie pulling on his arm. “Just get up! We have important business to attend to.”
“Does this have anything to do with what I may or may not have agreed to last night?”
“Maybe just get out of your fucking bed and we’ll see.” Cameron sits up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“Since when are you a morning person, Dalton?”
“Since when are you not, Cameron?”
“Since it became spring break two days ago! I have a right to sleep in now.” His blanket is ripped away from him by the evil bastard hovering above him. “Damn it, Charlie. It’s fucking freezing in here.” He curls in on himself, frowning.
“Get up, get up, get up, get up.” Charlie chants, wrapping the blanket around his shoulders. “Get up!”
“I am seriously considering moving in with Neil and Todd. I cannot be your roommate anymore, I hate you.” Cameron swings his legs over the edge of his bed, ignoring the triumphant fist Charlie pumps in the air.
He grabs his wrist and pulls him out of the room, into the ‘living space’. Too small to be a room but too big to be anything else.
Cameron stares sleepily once he realizes that all of their friends are gathered in front of him. Leave it to Charlie to have them all over at fuck off o’clock in the morning.
“Gentlemen, he’s finally up! Please hold your applause, I know I’m incredible.” Charlie announces loudly. No one says anything and it’s so silent that Cameron swears he can hear crickets.
Neil clears his throat. “That’s great, Charlie. We’re very proud of you. But let’s move on to what we were actually going to talk about. Now I would like to welcome to the stage, Mr. Stephen Meeks!” It’s easy to see why Neil and Charlie are best friends. Both drama queens with a taste for performances. Knox whistles as Meeks stands up, giving them all a bow.
“It is such an honor to be here on this fine morning. I would like to thank all of you for joining us and actually agreeing on going on this trip.” He pushes his glasses higher up on his nose. “Honestly, I just want to figure out what the hell we’re actually going to do.”
“I thought this was your idea!” Knox calls, crossing his arms.
“It was! But you and Charlie agreed way too quickly for me to figure anything out, so we need to know exactly what’s going to happen.” Cameron raises his hand, sitting on the floor next to Todd. Meeks nods towards him.
“I say we just… don’t go?” Everyone boos him, Charlie being the loudest.
“Come on, Richie, it’ll be fun.” Hearing his first name is always strange. He knows that that’s weird because it’s his first name and it’s the only name Meeks insists on using, but still. He gets so used to hearing Cameron come out of people’s mouths when they’re talking to him. Same thing with Pitts and Meeks. It just sounds right. “Okay, does anyone else have any ideas?”
“I say we just take Knox’s van tomorrow and go. Figure it out on the way or something. Plans are overrated anyways.” Charlie says, pushing his hair away from his eyes. Neil nods.
“I second that. Who needs a plan, right?”
“Okay, that could work.” Meeks shrugs. “I’ll go with that.” Pitts squeezes his hand, nodding.
“My van sucks so as long as I’m not driving it, then yeah, let’s do it.” Knox grins. Everyone turns to Cameron and Todd, looking expectant.
“Sure,” Todd says quietly. Cameron knows he isn't getting out of this one so he drops his defenses.
"I'm not going to have any say in this anyway, so, fine let's go on this fucking road trip."