Work Text:
It started off with just a few drinks, a simple and easy date at a small local bar to say the least.
However, just a few drinks left Charlie a little tipsy, a bit braver and rambunctious than before.
“Man, I’m telling you, this shit was so funny I thought I was gonna pass out.” Your boyfriend was rambling about something that he saw on TV as you tried your best to listen.
It wasn’t because you weren't interested in what he had to say, it was more of the fact that in your drunken haze, it was hard to pay attention for long periods of time.
His words started to mix together as you fell further deep into this hole, nodding your head and muttering the occasional ‘Mhm!’ or “Yep!’ so you put on the sort of facade that you were fully aware of what he was saying.
It went on like this for a couple of minutes before you were snapped out of your cycle by him slightly raising his voice while looking behind you,
“Oh shit, they have a pool table?! Oh man, I haven’t played that since high school.”
You looked past your shoulder, a dimly lit corner sat a years-old pool table that a few patrons stood around but no one was actively playing it.
“We should totally play babe.” Before you even had a chance to respond, your boyfriend was already on his way to the front table to rent the table.
You could feel your stomach drop, you had never played pool before, and the feeling of embarrassing your drunk self in front of him was too much to bear.
You were going to have to brush them off because he was already on his way back with two cues and pool chalk.
“Alright, I got the table for about two hours, that should give us plenty of time to play.” Stuffing his wallet into his sweatpants pocket, he handed you your cue.
He noticed your body was trembling slightly as he did so, making him slightly laugh to himself, “Oh shit, you don’t remember how to play huh?”
You took a deep breath. “Not just that, I’ve never played pool before…” Your voice trailed off, rubbing the stick between your fingers as you looked to the dirty carpet of the bar to avoid his gaze.
“Really? Never? You never had you and your friends scrape together enough cash to do some pool at a bowling alley or anything like that?” Charlie raised an eyebrow.
You shook your head and shrugged, “I grew up in a small town, all we had were small parks to smoke weed at or some shit.”
A chuckle escaped his lips, “Got it, pool is simple enough to learn though. It’s all about the angles.”
Charlie walked along the table, setting up the pool balls into the rack in their starting positions before returning to your side.
Clapping his hands together, he held up his cue, “Alright, so I’m just gonna do simple rules since you’re a first-timer.”
“Like I said it’s pretty simple, see how the balls either have stripes or are solid colors? That decides the teams so I’ll be stripes and you be solids, ok?”
You nodded, still fidgeting with your pool cue as he continued.
“And what you’re gonna do here is try to hit the white ball with your cue so your team balls can land into the nearest pocket,” He stopped midway through his sentence as he lined up his cue to the white balls and hit it, sending all the pool balls into different locations on the table.
“Pockets are these things, by the way.” He pointed to the holes at each end of the table, which you gave a nod in return.
“What you’re NOT going to do is hit the 8 ball into a pocket until the end of the game when there are no other balls left,” He pointed to the ball and you recognized it immediately as it could easily be mistaken for an old child’s toy.
“There’s a lot more rules but we’re just gonna play like this for now, alright?”
A small smile appeared on your lips as you nodded, “Have you played this a lot hon?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah plenty of times. My uncle actually taught me how to play when I was a kid.” Charlie continued to hit one of the balls to try to land another into the pockets, succeeding in his goal as a ball zipped into the nearby hole.
“Awesome, ok babe now you try.” Resting a hand on your shoulder, he gave you a small smile.
Your stomach fluttered with butterflies, yeah, you could do this! Hell yeah, let’s do it!
You lined up the end of the cue to the white cue ball, having trouble with how you were holding the cue. Shit, it was hard. Charlie made it look so easy and yet here you were, already making mistakes as you dropped the cue from how hard you were holding it.
Suddenly, you felt a body press against the back of your own, making your cheeks heat up as you knew exactly who it was.
Charlie had picked up the cue from the ground and had it now in between his fingers as he guided it towards your own, putting his hands over yours as you held the cue.
“Here, you gotta hold it like this.” Charlie’s voice was soft as he placed the pool cue between your fingers, resting it between your index and middle fingers.
“Alright perfect, uh- yeah, and your other hand goes here.” He guided your other hand to the end of the pool stick, your hand wrapping tightly around it in instinct.
You tried to focus, you really did but the feeling of your boyfriend pressed against you while you two were slightly shitfaced was too much for you at that moment. You felt like your heart was going to beat out of your chest as he continued his non-intentional suffering.
“And you’re gonna pull back your arm like this,” He placed his hand on your elbow that was sticking outwards, slightly pulling it back.
“Alright, that- that should be good man.” He stood back, which made you release your breath, and admired his work, giving you a thumbs-up to let you know it was ok to shoot.
Taking a deep breath, you hit the cue ball that was lined up to a solid ball and successfully hit it into the pocket.
“Alright, yeah! That was great, you did great babe.” He walked up behind you, slightly stumbling over his own feet as he mumbled curse words to invisible hurdles on the ground.
“Thanks!” You used the chalk to rub the end of your cue, blowing it like it was the end of a revolver after shooting a bullet.
That earned a chuckle from the critter, “Calm down babe, you’re still a beginner.”
“Oh yeah? I bet I can beat you this round.” With an eyebrow raised, you challenged him as you raised your pool cue to his chest.
“What are you willing to bet? I’m all ears dude.” Crossing his arms, he raised his own brow as he leaned against the pool table.
“How about buying the next round of drinks?”
His smile grew as he let out another chuckle, “Fuck yeah, let's do it.”
The two hours quickly passed, and multiple rounds of pool and drinks had been consumed between the two of you as you both laughed loudly over your now-drunken pool skills.
The time for the pool table was over so you and Charlie were walking to the bus stop, bumping into each other as you tried to keep each other from not falling down.
“Wait wait wait, I won babe! You- You lost, I swear to God!” His arm was wrapped around you as he struggled to keep you up.
You chuckled as you held onto him, your cheeks flushed when you spoke, “Nooo, I won! You messed up at the end remember, it was three to two!”
“Yeah, three for me and two for you!” You two eventually made it to the bus stop bench, laying your head on his shoulder which eventually slid down to his chest.
You struggled to keep your eyes open, giggling to yourself when you thought about the events that just unfolded.
You felt his arm wrap around you, pulling you closer, “Tired?”
You hummed in response, earning a small laugh from him.
“Heh. Yeah, same. I’ll wake you up when the bus gets here, ok?”
“Mmm, ok.” You responded, letting slumber take over your body as you listened to Charlie’s heartbeat to lull you to sleep.