Chapter Text
Summer breeaaaaaaaaak!!! Chuck had been waiting for this for Forever, and he wasted no time skipping out of that fucking school to go jack off with his friends all summer. He pulled out his walkie, and clicked it on.
*Hello, Auggie, Stella, do you copy*
*Yes, Chuck, we're here*
*Let's get this gig rolling, then! I'll be at your place in 10, Augs*
*[Sigh] Yep, doors unlocked*
Hanging out with Stella and Auggie was always great. They listened to music, made plans for the summer, and periodically checked to see if there was anything good on TV.
Unfortunately, Stella had to go home early that day, which left Auggie to deal with keeping Chuck entertained. He was perfectly fine with reading for the rest of the night and just existing in the same space as his friend, but Chuck couldn't handle the quiet well enough for that to be a viable option. That's how they ended up sitting on his bed, watching horror flicks late into the night.
Auggie wasn't a fan of horror, per se, but Stella had been trying to get him into some and Chuck seemed excited by the idea, so that was that.
Chuck was Very excited by it, but not for the reasons Auggie thought. Chuck loved fucking with his best friend, and noticed how, when Auggie got a bit too into a horror movie, he acted really funny. This time, he looked over to find Auggie pressed against his backboard tensely, with his fists balled up in the blankets.
As much as Chuck loved seeing Auggie all strung up like that, he decided that was his queue to prod at his friend a bit.
"God, Auggie, relax! It's just a little murder," he chuckled, watching his friend.
Auggie's gaze tore away from the screen. "Huh? Oh, yeah, it's- I'm fine." He unballed his fists and crossed his arms over his chest, defensively. Chuck couldn't help but smile at that.
"Sure, whatever you say. Because Bates tooootally doesn't irk you out."
"Whatever, Chuck, if you actually watched the movie maybe you'd let yourself enjoy it a bit too."
Chuck watched some of it, but mostly he was busy watching Auggie. He was transfixed by the screen; totally immersed in the movie. When the big jumpscare played, he jumped and gripped onto Chuck's shoulder, suddenly wide eyed. As inappropriate as it was, Chuck smiled at that and slung an arm around Auggie to comfort him. If Auggie registered the movement at all, it didn't bother him, and somehow that made Chuck all the more pleased.
Once the credits rolled, the two boys sat and talked about the movie. Chuck made fun of Auggie, Auggie jabbed back at him, all the while neither tried to move from their position on the bed. That is, until a couple minutes later when Auggie shoved him off of it because, "I'm not a fuckin chicken, Chuck, I watched your stupid movie and you better shut the fuck up or I'm not gonna watch any more!" He left Chuck snickering on the floor to go get blankets for him to sleep in.
In the moment of silence, Chuck sighed and leaned against the bedframe. That had been fun. He really liked hanging out with Auggie, liked watching him get scared and cling to him like that, and liked how they could fuck around with each other with the mutual understanding that neither of them was actually mad at the other. At least, that's how Chuck interpreted it.
When Auggie came back, Chuck still had a stupid grin on his face and was a bit startled by the mound of blankets that Auggie dropped on top of him. "Make yourself comfortable, dickwad."
"You're making me sleep on the floor? That's not very good host behavior, Augs," Chuck pouted. Auggie ignored him, instead going to flick off the television and turn on his lamp to read by. Chuck organized the blankets in a somewhat reasonable pile to sleep on, and then sat there for about 10 seconds before he was bored again.
"Wanna play truth or dare?"
Auggie stared at him for a few seconds before responding. "We're not twelve."
"Why not? Sounds like 12 year olds are better at having fun. Hate to break it to you, but your stupid romance novel is only entertaining for one of us."
"It's not a- Fine, sure." Auggie put his book down, and Chuck hopped onto the bed facing across from him. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare."
Auggie groaned. "Okay, fine, uhm… I dare you to…" He looked around the room, trying to think of something interesting. "Okay, okay. I dare you to flip through tv channels until I say stop, and then reenact whatever's happening on that channel."
Chuck smiled. "You're on." He hopped up, and started flipping through the channels as fast as he could. Auggie stopped him a couple times on static channels (which Chuck insisted counted, as he pretended to have a fucking seizure each time, but Auggie made him keep going), before finally landing on one.
It was The Sound of Music. The lady and the guy were in that gazebo thing. Chuck hopped up, and when she said something about finding something, he searched around the room animatedly looking for something, before holding up a random pencil and miming like it was exciting. Auggie laughed and shook his head, which Chuck took as an absolute win. Then, they started singing, and Chuck didn't know the words so he tried his best to look dramatic while lipsing watermelon over and over again towards Auggie.
"Okay, okay," Auggie laughed, "you done?"
He was not. Right at that moment, the slow singing was interrupted by some more dialogue. The guy was telling the lady when he first started loving her, and of course Chuck wasted no time in reciting this proclamation, with slight delay so he'd actually know the words, to Auggie, with as much sincerity in his face as he could manage. Was he imagining it, or did Auggie actually blush a little? Shit, he must be a really good actor, Chuck thought.
Then he tugged Auggie off the bed and held both his hands, leaning back and using Auggie as a counterweight to keep himself upright. Auggie rolled his eyes and shook his head but he didn't try to stop him.
"No, not like that, look, they're leaning on their heels like this."
"I'm pretty sure I'm doing it fine, Chuck."
"Oh wait they're moving, gotta be quick!"
Auggie laughed as Chuck stepped quickly closer to him, still holding his hands (goofy ass). "They're moving slow as shit, I think your fine."
Chuck just smiled, glancing from the TV to Auggie quickly several times and adjusting how close they were accordingly, until they were just inches apart. Chuck wasn't laughing anymore, just staring up at Auggie with an unreadable expression held over his features. Auggie's back was to the television, so he didn't see when the characters kissed. He didn't know what to make of the sudden, uncommon stillness freezing Chuck to the spot, but he noticed. Chuck licked his lips before pulling away abruptly, dropping Auggie's hands and wiping his own sweaty ones on his pants as he backed off onto the bed.
"So uh, yeah. Truth or dare, Auggie Bear!" Chuck's voice was slightly tense. Auggie stood in the middle of the room for a moment, pretty disoriented by what just happened, but he finally said 'truth'.
Chuck was panicking. Fuck, what was he supposed to say? Something normal, with an appropriate ratio of looking at and not looking at Auggie. Don't stare don't stare don't stare… Fuck! Okay, this is fine, look like you're thinking of something to say, yeah, now say what you're thinking… "Do you have a crush on anyone?" FUCK.
Auggie was quiet for a long moment before he responded. "No, I guess not. Sorry to be disappointing."
Eventually Chuck got himself back into his normal rhythm, and everything was fine. When it was time for bed, Chuck laid on his pile of blankets and pillows to sleep. Auggie was lightly snoring long before Chuck felt his mind settling in even a little bit. Once alone with his thoughts, his brain ran circles around that moment, reenacting the scene with his friend, and he couldn't stop picturing Auggie's face and how close they were, and the feeling of being leaned on like that during the horror movie with Auggie pressed against him because he was scared. The closer he got to sleep, the more freely his mind wandered, leading to him imagining things like what it would have been like to kiss Auggie at the end of that song instead of running away, holding his hands again, what sounds he might make… all good ways to jerk yourself awake over and over again with panicked thoughts about what it all means. He's not a queer, he's not.. this doesn't mean anything, he just got too far into the joke and now it's fucking with his head. But he couldn't make himself believe it. He couldn't actually convince himself that he didn't want it, that he didn't want to spend all his time with Auggie and tell him about anything and everything that he found exciting and hold his hand and… and….
Fuck… Chuck has a crush on his best friend.