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Ronnie and Charlie are standing by the wall in the gym by themselves, at a school dance trying to avoid being seen by anyone else. Ronnie had been threatened by Scotty Thomas earlier that week, and he said he would beat Ronnie up for snitching. Ronnie thinks it’s bullshit, he didn’t even mean to snitch this time.
Charlie didn’t even want to go, thought it was stupid to since they weren’t friends with anyone there and why take the risk of getting beat up, but Ronnie had said he didn’t care and he wasn’t gonna let some asshole make him scared to do things. Usually they wouldn’t even go anyway, spend the night getting high or drinking vodka they stole from Charlie’s mom, but Ronnie had wanted to make a point, and who would Charlie be to let him be a dumbass by himself?
After a few songs, Ronnie and Charlie are sitting down and talking while eating from a shared plate of chips they got from the snack table. Charlie’s looking around the gym randomly, barely listening to whatever Ronnie’s saying. He makes eye contact with a kid standing in a group a few feet away, and it takes him a second before he realizes it’s Scotty. Unfortunately, Scotty comes storming over, eyes locked onto them.
“Ah, shit.”
“What?”
Before Ronnie can even process what’s happening, he gets punched across the face and falls out of his chair, hissing “ah- fucking- shit dude!”
Charlie feels a rush of anger immediately and shoots up out of his chair, then pushes Scotty back by his chest. He tells him to “fuck off and leave him alone!” and punches his jaw, though it’s not too strong and doesn’t do nearly as much damage as he would like.
Scotty just laughs. He spits in Charlie’s face and calls him dirtgrub, but walks away without any more issues. Charlie fumes as he does, but quickly turns around to help Ronnie, finding he’s no longer there.
He’s not on the floor, nor anywhere around where they were sitting, so Charlie sets off to find him. He walks down the hall and calls for him, checking in the bathrooms and a few classrooms he passes.
Eventually he finds Ronnie in the nurse's office, rummaging around in the fridge in the dark.
“You okay?” he asks and Ronnie scowls, shaking his head.
“Fucking no, Charlie. Son of a bitch sucker punched me..”
Charlie grabs a few pieces of paper towel and pushes Ronnie out of the way, opening the ice drawer and taking some out. He drops the cubes into the paper towels and bunches it around the ice, holding it out for Ronnie. He takes it and leans back against the nurse’s desk, holding the ice against the side of his face.
“I told you we shouldn’t come.”
“Oh shut the fuck up,” Ronnie says, face scrunching up at the coolness of the ice.
Charlie leaves the fridge open and sits up on the desk next to Ronnie, reaching back and turning on the desk lamp. It’s dim, the lightbulb’s starting to die out. Charlie just kicks his feet and plays with his shirt for a few minutes, the only noises being the faint music from the gym, the humming of the fridge, and Ronnie moving the ice around.
“Sorry you got sucker punched.”
Ronnie shrugs. “Not your fault. I’m the one who said we should come.”
Charlie looks at him, and the lighting is a little funny and definitely not flattering, but he still thinks Ronnie’s pretty. And he knows Ronnie would kill him if he ever called him pretty, so Charlie makes sure to keep that thought in his head exclusively. Ronnie’s frowning, looking sad and angry, and Charlie wants him to stop.
So he does what any good friend would do; try to inflate his ego.
“You know, if he was any not-coward-like, he wouldn’t have sucker punched you. He was scared you’d beat his ass. Dickbag’s a pussy.” Ronnie snorts a little and nods.
“Massive pussy.”
“Plus he basically ran away after,” Charlie lies. “Like he scurried away like a bug. Total, massive pussy.”
Ronnie laughs and looks at Charlie, catching his eyes. “He only ran because you were totally gonna bite him, Charlie.”
“Well if he was a real man he would’ve taken it!” They both laugh now. It dies off after a moment and they look ahead again with a small sigh. Ronnie’s moved a little closer now.
After a few more minutes, they hear the music in the gym slow down, and Charlie wrinkles his nose.
“We’re 16, no one slow dances now. Except couples, and that’s because they’re basically groping each other on the dance floor, gross.”
“..yeah.”
He looks over at Ronnie and sees him biting the inside of his cheek.
“What is it? You’re doing that thing with your face again.” Ronnie shakes his head.
“Nothing.” After a few seconds, he talks again. “Not nothing. Whatever.” He lowers the ice from his head and tosses it in the trash can. “Ice is melting.”
Charlie tilts his head.
“Uh-huh..” A few more seconds pass.
“Wanna dance, I guess?”
Charlie looks at him confused, eyebrows furrowed. “What?”
“I dunno, do you wanna dance?” Ronnie says, quieter this time. His fingers are tapping on his legs quickly, nervously.
“Dude, did you hit your head when you fell back there, or..?”
“I didn’t. I mean, my head hurts but, not that bad Char.”
“You wanna dance with me?”
“Yeah, I guess. I mean, I’m asking, so..”
Charlie smirks a bit and nudges Ronnie with his shoulder. “You wanna dance with me like couples do~?”
Ronnie stands up straight, head ducked a bit with his shoulders up high, like he wishes he was a turtle and could hide in his shell.
“Never mind, man. Maybe I did hit my head-“
“I do too.”
Ronnie turns to look at Charlie, shoulders coming back down and eyebrows raised.
“Huh?”
“I wanna dance. Fucker.”
Ronnie just stands there for a few seconds looking stupid before he holds out his hand. Charlie takes it and hops off the desk. He slowly puts his hands around Ronnie’s neck, stepping closer as Ronnie’s hands find their way to Charlie’s waist. His touch is tentative, like any second he’s going to retreat into a corner and hide there while saying “I’m not gay, dude.”
Thankfully, he doesn’t.
They slowly shuffle side to side, awkwardly avoiding looking at each other. As it gets too uncomfortable to be so far apart, they slowly move closer to each other. They make sure to keep their bodies from fully touching, but it feels less stiff now. Charlie looks up at Ronnie and finds him already looking back. He smiles a bit.
“This is weird isn’t it?” Charlie asks.
“Super fucking weird.”
…
“I like it.”
“Me too.”