Page 2 of Only Time Will Tell

As we pulled apart, his tongue darted out, skimming his bottom lip. I wanted to lean over and suck it into my mouth but decided to toss in my game-winning move while the moment was here. I didn’t want him to think he was an experiment for me. It was important he knew that I wanted him to be mine in every way.

“Will you be my boyfriend, Charlie?” I asked him, still cradling his face.

He nodded.

Those eyes that were once so sad lit up as he grinned. The dimples I adored popped and his delightfully crooked smile, one that I knew was only for me, made my heartbeat faster. Right then, I knew I would spend the rest of my life doing everything within my power to make Charlie happy.

“Yes, Alex. Yes, I would love to be your boyfriend.” As the last syllable left his mouth, he jumped into my lap and knocked me backwards onto the brown shag carpeting covering the basement floor, kissing every inch of my face.

I tickled him, tackling Charlie as his giggles filled the air. When he cried Uncle, I gave him one last kiss before we broke apart and handed him his controller to resume our game. When I think back that moment could’ve gone so wrong and I’m thankful every day that it hadn’t. That day was the true beginning of the rest of our lives together.

We dated for a few weeks before telling our parents. Charlie’s mother had died from pancreatic cancer when he was younger, leaving his father and grandmother to raise him. Technically, his dad lived in the same house as them, but he traveled for business and was frequently gone for long periods of time. When he was home, he was the doting father, always loving and supportive. He did the usual dad things, such as teaching him to ride a bike and playing catch, even laughing along with Charlie at his inability to catch any sort of ball. When we decided to tell our family, his dad was out of town, so we told my parents first one evening during dinner.

Charlie seated at the dinner table that night came as no surprise to my family. He’d become a fixture in our household and I loved that. “Um, Mom, Dad?” I said, gazing back and forth between the two of them then dropped my gaze to my plate, swirling the mashed potatoes around with my fork.

“Yes, Alex?” dad replied, cutting into his steak.

I glanced at Charlie, and he squeezed my knee under the table reassuringly. “Charlie and I have something to tell you.”

“Go ahead, son,” my mom encouraged as she set her silverware down, giving us her full attention.

Nervously, I scratched the back of my neck and decided to rip off the Band-Aid and just blurt it out. “Charlie and I are dating.” Taking a deep breath, I held it as we waited for their reaction.

My parents smiled at one another then Dad chuckled. “It’s about damn time the two of you came to your senses.”

Charlie and I wore mirrored confused expressions but were beyond relieved at the same time.

“We’ve been waiting for you both to acknowledge the chemistry you have. Everyone around you sees it, what took you two so long to realize it?” Mom asked. Had we really been so blind?

Dad for some reason still found all this funny, “Good for you, boys. Now let’s eat before it gets cold.”

Having that out in the open gave us the courage to tell his grandmother the following weekend while we were helping her with yard work.

“Um, Granny?” Charlie asked, leaning against the porch pillar and wiping the sweat from his forehead.

“Yes love, what is it?” she asked, as she set a pitcher of lemonade and cups for us on the patio table.

Biting his bottom lip, Charlie fidgeted and mumbled, “Umm…”

“Cat got your tongue, boy? Spit it out before the ice cubes melt,” she lifted the pitcher to pour us each a glass, waiting him out.

He turned to me and I shrugged, so he continued, “Uh, Alex and I are dating.”

After she finished filling the last glass, she sat the pitcher down. “Telling me, is that what had your undies in a bunch? Boy, what’s wrong with you? I figured you’d been dating for a while now, considering you’re glued at the hips.” She smiled and kissed both our cheeks then walked back inside.

“Well,” I sighed, “consider my undies officially unbunched.” I’d caught Charlie at the wrong time with that one. He’d just taken a drink and shot lemonade out of his nose. “Sorry, my bad.”

We had literally stressed ourselves out over nothing and by being out to those who mattered most to us, there was no reason to hide our relationship from anyone.

I was afraid, though, that after our announcement, we wouldn’t be allowed any more sleepovers. But when I brought that up to my parents, they both laughed, then my mom shocked the hell out of me.. “It’s not like you’re going to knock each other up. All we ask is that you boys are safe and smart.”

Well, if there was ever any question where my smartass side came from, that was just answered. There wasn’t a deep enough shade of red to describe my face. Was it possible to have your brains boil when it was that red? I’d never wanted to run away as fast as I could more than I did right then.

Initially at school, Charlie took some ribbing until I stepped in. Being on the high school football team had most of the assholes thinking twice before they said anything, but a couple of dumbasses had to be put in their place.

For the most part, my coach and team were open and accepting of us. I mean, we didn’t stand in the hallways sucking face or anything, but we didn’t refrain from holding hands or having our arms around one another in the common areas. After coming out to my teammates, several others felt empowered to do the same, so those who had a beef with it kept their mouths shut. We weren’t trying to be LGBTQIA+ poster teens by any means, but we felt a sense of pride just the same.

Our unending make-out sessions had escalated to the point where rubbing each other off through our clothes was no longer enough. Not to mention the fact that I was tired of having to peel off crunchy boxers. But neither of us were prepared to take it all the way. Yet. I don’t know if it was nerves, at least on my part. I had read too much online about pain and preparation and was just…overwhelmed. Hurting Charlie, hell, hurting myself, wasn’t what I wanted.