Chapter Text
It was a little known secret that Charlie Kelmeckis liked boys. Children would bully and pry at Charlie with mean words that Charlie didn’t know the meaning of. The only thing he did know is that he didn’t want to be whatever the ‘bad’ things that they called him. Thankfully his best friend wasn’t far behind when Charlie was getting snickered and jeered at.
At home he never told his family about what the bullies would do and thankfully never came home with any marks that would indicate otherwise. Besides his best friend Michael and his family there was another bright spot in his life, there was a boy. He lived just a few houses down from Charlie’s, they met one day at Sunday church and even though his family knew that Charlie was ‘different’ as they would put it they decided to let them play together. I mean the Kelmeckis’ were seen as a nice family with their oldest son even being the junior varsity quarterback of the local high school.
Charlie would go over there as Michael wasn’t allowed out very often after school. The boy’s parents were out most of the time at work until late at night. The boys would run through the sprinklers on hot days or run around and play games. Sometimes they would even walk around the neighborhood like him and Michael did sometimes.
One day they were playing a game the boy had seen on TV late the previous night. A game called truth or dare, this was the first time Charlie had played it as well. The boy explained the rules and they were soon on their way with it. They did funny dares like “I dare you to run to the other side of the house and back in 20 seconds” or “I dare you to try and like your elbow.” When it came time for truths they asked a myriad of questions about each other, their families, what their favorite food was, what they liked to do in their time alone, their favorite things, and many more. It all culminated with one important question. “Can you hold my hand?” The boy asked with his palm opened as it laid on the carpet floor between them.
“Is that a dare?” Charlie replied confused. “No.” The boy's eyes were as wide as his cheeks were flush. “Sure.” Charlie obliged and put his hand in his. “So is it my turn or yours?” Charlie asked nonchalantly. The boy’s eyes were fixated on their clasped hands. “Uh-- yeah. Your turn.” The boy responded. “Truth or dare?” Charlie smiled. “Truth.”
“Is it true you have a crush on Susan? I think Michael might.” The boy chucked. “No Charlie, I do not have a crush on her.” Charlie nodded his head a bunch looking away from him. “Ok ok, ok ok.” The boy tried to muster up words as he looked at the side of Charlie’s face “I-- I have a crush on someone else.” Charlie turned his head back to him. “Oh. Who?” He looked down at their hands and back up. “You Charlie.”
“Me?” Charlie asked. “Yes, you.” Charlie had never thought that someone could love him besides his family but that was a different kind of love. The way his sister loves him is a different kind of love from this. He started to slowly rock back and forth as he looked back and forth between his hand and the boy's cheeks as his cheeks started to turn a similar shade to them. Both rosy cheeks stared at each other. “Truth or dare Charlie.” He stopped rocking, eyes stuck on his cheeks. “Dare.”
“I dare you-- to kiss me.” Charlie thought for a second to process everything before he started to lean towards the boy stopping himself halfway. “I can’t. I’m sorry I’m nervous, I haven’t kissed anyone before.” The boy scooted closer to Charlie. “Then Can I?” Charlie nodded and the boy leaned the rest of the way, meeting Charlie where he stopped. The quick kiss sent both of them feeling electric. Charlie looked away again, rocking back and forth. They kept their hands together until Charlie had to head home. They both waved goodbye at each other and that one fateful game was just the start to a beautiful relationship.
School ended and summer began, kisses and hand holding continued between the two as time went on. But sadly it couldn’t last forever. 5th grade had ended and 6th grade would be starting after the summer. Charlie’s parents were going through bills to try and figure out where to take Charlie to figure out what was going on with him and Charlie overheard one day that the boy’s family might be moving at the end of the summer so he decided that they needed to have the most fun so the boy wouldn’t forget about him when he leaves. Charlie’s brother one day even let them go with him to his practice.
“You’re gonna be a big star one day.” Chris ruffled Charlie’s hair. “Both you and Dad think that. But I don’t know we’ll see how it goes, sport.” Chris changed his soft look from Charlie to his ‘friend’. “So kid, how about you? You thinking of getting into anything?” The boy stammered “Uh- yeah. I’d like to work on cars.” Chris liked his answer. “Really! I got an old Camaro at the house I’m working on to hopefully drive soon. Maybe I’ll let you help me one day, it’s not everyday that Charlie makes a friend. I appreciate you being there for him.”
The boy happily agreed. “Really? I would love that! And Charlie is amazing . I would be crazy not to be his friend.” Chris got up from the bleachers and put his hand on his brother’s shoulder. Walking away he shouted back to the two. “Make sure you head to the parking lot Mom should be here soon! I’ll meet you guys there!”
The boy started going to Charlie’s too which made the Kelmeckis’ happy to see Charlie excited about his ‘friend’. One night Charlie was even able to have a sleepover with both Michael and the boy, sleeping in the living room so they could watch TV late, watching a horror host introduce an old black and white picture. As the night waned on Michael fell asleep quickly leaving just Charlie and the boy. They held hands together as they fell asleep next to each other in their sleeping bags. The next morning wasn’t as serine.
Charlie woke up to shouting as his hand was violently pulled from the boy’s. His mother in one movement swung her son behind her, her beady eyes stared hard at Charlie as her face grew red. She turned her attention to Charlie’s father shouting too many profanities for Charlie to count; his father followed suit with his own. “Grab your stuff we’re leaving!” She yelled at the boy. He ran to Charlie’s bedroom and quickly grabbed his belongings before coming back to his sleeping bag next to Charlie. It had been the first time that Charlie could see the boy clearly since the sudden awakening. His eyes were full of fear as he mouthed that he was sorry to Charlie hurriedly pulling the bundle under his arm. His mom and him headed towards the door but Charlie doesn’t remember anything other than the hushed words. The only thing he remembered was when he came back was how comfortable his knees felt pressed against his body and how exhausted he was even though he just woke up, looking up his family were staring at him worried, and Michael was sitting next to him looking at him reassuringly. He fell into Michael’s arms and began to sob before shortly falling asleep in his arms.
The next day at church the boy’s family said that Charlie had “corrupted” their son which confused Charlie as he never knew that there was anything wrong with what they had been doing and the boy never seemed to dislike him in any way. The known secret had been confirmed and it spread through the congregation and beyond. His family didn’t fully understand it with some family members better than others but his father knew one thing, his son was most likely going to be a Mayview kid even before all of this happened and that he and his wife needed to figure out what was going on with Charlie.