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Day one:
Organizing a beach trip with the poets wasn’t much of a hassle since they all lived in the same apartment and had off of college for summer break. It only took a dinner conversation, and then a week later, the poets found themselves at some beach on the east coast.
The condo they’re staying at is very nice and on the bay side. The beach is only a five minute walk which is perfect for the poets. The condo is a three bedroom, two bath, and has a good size kitchen and living room.
Neil and Todd take the master bedroom with the master bathroom attached to it. Charlie tries to take the queen bed to himself, but Pitts and Meeks get there first. That leaves Charlie, Knox and Cam to the two bunk bedroom. The three share a Jack and Jill bathroom with Pitts and Meeks.
“Okay,” Cameron says to Knox, throwing his duffle down. “You and Charlie can take that bunk bed and I’ll take this one.”
“No no no my dear Richard,” Charlie says, strolling into the room. “I’ll take this bed, and you and Knox can share that bunk bed.”
“Why do you get one all to yourself?” Knox inquires.
Charlie starts climbing up the bed he claimed as his. “Because this is land Charlie-ton.” The red head and hopeless romantic stare at the shorter man. “Name in progress…”
The poets sigh and let Charlie continue with his shenanigans.
-
“You’ll wake up and I’m not around. I’ve got my summer, summerboy, and we’ll still have the summer after all. I’ve got my, yes I’ve got my, I’ve got my summer, summerboy.” Charlie says with a dramatic finish. He sighs, and sits back down on the log.
“That was an… interesting poem choice, Charlie,” Neil says, giving him a half hearted smile.
The poets decided to have dinner on the beach that night. They started a campfire and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. After the food, they decided to read poetry just like in high school. Some things never change.
“Ah thank you. It was by the great poet, Lady Gaga,” Charlie says dramatically.
Knox laughs. “Did you seriously recite a Lady Gaga song as your poem, Dalton?”
“Well it was better than yours, Overstreet. You just talked about ‘The Fountain Of Love’ or whatever.”
Knox kicks sand at Charlie. Some of it blows over into Cameron’s direction.
“Oh come on. I cannot spend the next two nights sleeping in the same room as these lunatics,” Cameron laments. Charlie sticks his tongue out at him. “Meeks and Pitts can I take your room?”
“No,” Meeks says. “We still have to share a bathroom with that hoolagin.”
Charlie slaps a hand over his chest. “Meeks, I’m hurt. I thought you thought better of me.”
“Oh please guys,” Cam tries again. “It’s not like you two are even in a real relationship.”
The poets all snap their heads up at that. Neil, who was trying to get marshmallow off of Todd’s face, looks over to Cameron. “You can’t say that, man.”
The queer platonics look at each other, and make a mental decision on who’s going to explain their relationship to Cameron, for what seems like the millionth time.
As they start that, Charlie is howling with laughter. “Well someone is going into the soup.”
Knox lightly punches Charlie in the shoulder. “Shut up.”
Charlie grins at Knox. “What? He was being insensitive. Even I know better than to say something like that. He’s going in the soup.”
Pitts turns around from where he was talking to Cam. “That doesn’t even make sense, Charlie.”
Charlie sighs and shakes his head. “It’s alright Pittsy-poo. This is between me and Knoxious.”
Knox rolls his eyes at the nickname.
After Meeks and Pitts finish explaining what a QPR is, they turn to each other.
“Bet you 20 dollars Charlie and Knox get together before the end of this trip,” Pitts says quietly so the rest of the group didn’t hear him.
“No way,” Meeks says, shaking his head. “Knox likes girls anyways. Unless some crazy miracle happens, they won’t be getting together for at least another year.”
Pitts holds out his hands for Meeks to shake it. He does, and the deal is made.
-
Day two:
The poets wake early to get a good spot on the beach. For all the grumbling that happened getting up at 7am, everyone seems happy with their spot on the beach.
Neil and Charlie stay on shore setting up the umbrella and chairs. The rest of the poets go down into the water.
After Neil and Charlie finish their work, Charlie goes and joins the poets in the water. Neil stays back and pulls out a poetry book. It was the one Keating published a few years after the poets graduated. A few minutes later, he watches a drop of water fall on one of the pages. He looks up, and sees Todd, soaking wet, smiling down at him.
“Hi, honey,” Neil says, handing his boyfriend a towel. “Was it fun out there?”
“Yeah. I just missed you.” Todd sits down on the towel next to Neil’s chair. Neil automatically tangles his fingers in Todd’s now wet hair. “What are you reading?”
“Keatings book, want me to read you something?”
Walt Whitman nods his head and the actor begins reciting one of the teacher's works.
-
The poets decide to venture out into town later that day.
It’s a nice, seaside town with lots of little shops to stop into. They start with the obvious choice: a book store.
There are a bunch of little trinkets scattered around on tables in the middle and the books on the outer walls. Neil and Todd, hand in hand, go over to the poetry section. Cameron goes to fiction, Knox to the self help section, and Meeks and Pitts to the science section. Charlie decides to walk around the trinket tables and see what he can find.
It doesn’t take long before he finds something he can pester Knox about.
“Oh Knoxioussssss!!!” Charlie hollers and runs up to his friend. He’s holding up a pin of a knight with no arms and only one leg. He puts on a really bad English accent. “Tis just a flesh wound! Tis just a flesh wound dear Knoxious!” He’s jumping around the taller boy holding the pin in his face.
Knox pushes him out of the way. “Piss off. We’re in a bookstore. Have some manners, please.”
Charlie laughs and walks away, still looking at Knox saying “Tis just a flesh wound!”
After the bookstore, the stop in an old vintage store that has a bunch of old vinyls. Pitts and Meeks look like they’re in heaven. Charlie and Knox try on a bunch of old, vintage clothes and have a makeshift fashion show for the rest of the poets. The store owner kicks them out after Knox’s bumps over a vase. Charlie pays the damage for him.
They stop in a couple other stores. In one of them, Charlie buys Knox a pooka shell necklace. He says it “fits with his performative male persona.”
They stop in an ice cream shop at the end of their excursion. Summerboy, by Lady Gaga is playing on the radio in the corner.
Neil turns to Charlie. “Isn’t this the ‘poem’ you recited for us last night?” Neil says with air quotes.
“I’ll have you know that Lady Gaga is one of the world’s greatest poets.”
Todd snorts. “Yeah I think that’s debatable.”
Charlie scoffs at that. “Alright, Walt Whitman,” the poets were never letting him live that down. “I want to see you do better than the lady herself.”
Todd chuckles and orders mint chip.
-
That night at dinner the poets decide to say it’s Knox’s birthday. “For the plot” is what Charlie says about it.
It is not Knox’s birthday, nor will it be Knox’s birthday for a few months, but it gives them a discount and a free rainbow cake.
“Canabilism!” Charlie cheers when he takes a bite out of it.
“What do you mean,” Knox inquires.
“You’re gay. And eating a rainbow. Hence: canabilism.”
Knox groans. “I’m not even gay.”
“Uh yeah sure about that,” Charlie says with a smirk.
Meeks and Pitts gave each other a knowing look.
-
Day three:
It was a less than perfect day to be at the beach but the poets found themselves there anyway. Neil had insisted that they take advantage of the gloomy day since less people would be at the beach. And he was right. They were some of the only people on the beach besides the few families braving the rain.
Cameron had grumbled about the rain whenever it would roll in, but it never lasted long. Currently Cam, Meeks, and Pitts are building a sand castle. Todd and Knox are both on beach chairs reading. Todd is a couple hundred pages deep into Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women.” Knox is reading something called The Performative Male Bible (Charlie teased him about it earlier that day). Charlie and Neil are in the ocean messing around with each other.
At one point, Todd looks up from his book and sees Charlie barreling out of the water at full speed with Neil hysterically laughing behind him. When Charlie reaches the shore, he turns around, flips Neil off and grabs the soccer ball the poets had brought on their beach excursion.
When Neil comes out of the water, he goes straight for Todd. Todd hands his boyfriend a towel while saying, “What did you do to Charlie?”
Neil, still laughing, shakes his head and ties the towel around his waist. “I told him there was a shark.”
Todd laughs and reaches up to hold his hand. Charlie sees this and decides to poke fun at his best friend. “Oh gross, holding hands? Neil, that’s disgusting, go get a room.”
“So are we going to ignore the heart eyes you’ve been giving Knox this whole trip?” Neil counters, putting his free hand on his hip.
Charlie dramatically slaps a hand over his chest. “You must be mistaken, Neil Perry. I only have eyes for our dear friend Richard. Isn’t that right Richie?”
Cameron looks up to watch Charlie blow a kiss to him. Cam pretends to grab it out of the air, put it in the hole he’s been digging for the past half hour, and then kick some sand over top of it. “Only in your dreams, Dalton.”
Both guys laugh and Charlie goes back to his favorite pass time: bugging Knox. He grabs the book out of his friend’s hand. “The Performative Male Bible? Knoxious, seriously?”
Knox reaches back for the book and Charlie holds it out of his reach. “Charlie, knock it off, it’s not funny.”
“‘Always know where the nearest matcha place is in order to woo girls’” Charlie says reading out of the book. “Trying to woo girls, are you now?”
“Charlie, stop that.”
Charlie does not stop that and flips a couple pages. “‘Quarter zips are a must.’ Seriously? Quarter zips, Overstreet?”
“I look good in them.” Knox stands up and grabs the book out of his hands with a glare.
“Oh yeah, sure about that,” Charlie says under his breath.
Knox looks up very quickly, “What?”
Charlie is already walking away. “Nothing for you to worry about. Meeks, soccer.”
Meeks looks up from his sand castle and Charlie drops the ball he was holding and kicks it towards Meeks and Pitts. He misses drastically, and ends up knocking down their sand castle.
“Oh come on, man,” is Pitts' reaction. Meeks is already on his feet retrieving the ball from the pile of sand and moving to a more open area on the beach. Pitts, Cam, and Charlie all follow along. Knox sighs and stands up too, shortly followed by Neil and Todd.
The seven boys stand in a circle and kick the ball around at each other. It’s a little nostalgic since they all played soccer for some time at Welton together. There was that time in Keating's class when he dragged them outside to play a game. That was a fun English class.
At one point, Knox kicks the ball out of their circle and Pitts runs off to retrieve it from the dunes. Charlie looks over at Knox and sticks his tongue out at him. Knox responds to that by throwing his arms up in the air.
At one point, Neil kicks the ball to Knox, and Knox lets it go right past him. Charlie makes some rude comment to Knox, but Knox knows he’s completely joking cause Charlie has this stupid smirk on his face. Knox retrieves the ball and kicks it a little too hard at Charlie. Charlie bumps it off his chest and it goes towards Todd’s general direction.
“Someone getting a little frustrated, Knoxious?”
“Oh piss off,” was the response from Knox.
This keeps up for a bit and then it starts raining. Cameron looks up at the sky like it personally offended him. “Oh come on, the sun was finally starting to come out.”
The sun was not in fact starting to come out.
The poets all decided to keep kicking the ball around even if it was raining. The rain really didn’t change much except it made the ball a little harder to kick. Meeks kicked the ball to Cam, who kicked it to Charlie, who kicked it to Neil, who kicked it to Pitts, who kicked it to Knox. Knox then tried to kick it to Todd, but his foot completely missed the ball. Then when he tried again, he kicked it way too hard, sending the soccer ball into the nearest dune. All the poets grumble and Meeks takes off after it.
Charlie turns to Knox. He puts his hands on Knox’s shoulders, pushing him back lightly. “Oh come on Knoxious, it really isn’t that hard to kick a ball.”
Knox stumbles back over his feet and pushes Charlie back. “What’s your problem with me today?”
Charlie pushes Knox. “What do you mean?”
Knox pushes Charlie, again. “You’ve been picking on me a lot. First my book and now this.”
Charlie just laughs and they end up going back and forth pushing each other. Until Charlie takes it a step too far and tackles Knox down onto the sand. “Whatcha gonna do now, Knoxious?”
Knox stares up at Charlie's shit eating grin, and tries to push his friend off of him. Charlie stays planted on top of Knox, slips his fingers in the pooka shell necklace, and before he loses his nerve, he leans down and kisses Knox.
Before Knox can even process what just happened, Charlie is off of him and back in the circle of poets. Knox stays there, laying in the sand, completely dumbfounded. He looks up and realizes none of the poets saw what just happened. He looks around at the beach to see no one is around them except for a family walking by and he’s unsure if any of them saw what just occurred.
Someone - Pitts - yells for Knox. The hopeless romantic slowly stands up and brushes the sand off of his swim trunks. He takes his place next to Charlie and Pitts, slightly angling himself away from Charlie.
Charlie nudges his shoulder and under his breath says, “Wanna be my Summerboy?”
Knox tries to hide the red rising up his neck and coughs. “I need to cool down,” he announces to the group and jogs over to the ocean.
He gets a couple yards out into the sea, and just stands there, looking out into the ocean.
Charlie Dalton just kissed him. His best friend just kissed him. The smart mouth that Charlie has, just kissed him.
And it was just Knox’s luck that when he looked over his shoulder, Charlie was wading through the water towards him. Knox mentally kicks himself as Charlie takes his place next to Knox.
The two poets stand there, the water lapping at their chests.
“I’m sorry, that was uncalled for.”
Wow, Charlie Dalton was apologizing. There’s always a first for everything, Knox supposes.
“Don’t be sorry… I didn’t mind it.”
Charlie looks over at him, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. He is terrified he lost a close friend with some dumb and stupid decision.
“Well… I guess I kinda liked it,” Knox continued. “Just, kinda shocking. Out of the blue.”
Charlie nods and looks over at Knox. He finds the taller boy already staring at him.
Knox moves first this time and pulls Charlie in for a kiss.
Back on shore, Neil looks out to see where Knox and Charlie went off too. He nearly jumps on Todd out of excitement at the sight he sees. “Todd, Todd look.”
Todd looks over to where his boyfriend is pointing, and a smile appears on his face. Knox and Charlie were kissing. ”Don’t say anything to them yet though, Neil. Let them tell us on their own terms.”
Neil nods, remembering how annoyed Todd was when the poets found out about them, on account of Charlie being nosey.
-
Later that night at dinner, the poets are gathered around a table at some seafood place on the bay.
About an hour into dinner, Knox and Charlie hold up their intertwined hands. “We have something to tell you all.”
“We’re-“
Before Knox could get the rest of his sentence out, Pitts slams his hand on the table and whips his head to Meeks. “Ha! I told you! Suck that Steven!”
Meeks glares at his partner and hands him a 20 dollar bill.
Knox clears his throat, “Uhm yeah, so me and Char are together… hope everyone is good with that.”
Charlie doesn’t even bother to hide the blush on his face at “Char.”
Neil smiles and looks at Knox. “Yeah of course! I think I speak for everyone when I say that we’re very happy for you.”
Pitts nods his head excitedly. “I mean, we’ve all been waiting for it to happen.”
Charlie looks at Pitts who is still holding his 20 dollars like it’s 100 dollars. “Did you little shits place a bet on us?”
“Yes!” The queer platonic partners say, one more cheery than the other.
“They tried inviting me into the bet but I told them no,” Cam says from across the table.
Charlie and Knox both give Cam, Meeks, and Pitts a look. Todd eventually chimes in. “We are proud of you, truly.”
The new boyfriends smile at everyone at the table. Charlie squeezed Knox’s hand under the table. Things would be alright now, with the knowledge that they’d be by each other’s side. And after all, they still have the rest of the summer.