Charles was now in fifth grade and he was sitting with his peers, laughing about how his best friend, Austin, slipped in the hallways and fell on top of one of the teachers. "But seriously, how did you even slip?!" He asked, running a hand in his blonde curly hair.
"Right? Like, the floor wasn't even slippery," Jacob, someone in their friend group, added. He took out an apple and bit into it, waiting for a response from Austin. The boy rolled his eyes. "I've told you all millions of times, my shoelace was untied!"
"Yeah, yeah. Let's change the topic, we've spent the last two hours talking about that." Charles said, doodling on the table. Austin hummed in agreement and unwrapped a fibre bar packet, taking a bit into it as he did.
"So, do your parents have sex?" Jacob asked, making the other two gawk. "What?" He shrugged and took his homework out.
"What kind of question is that?" Austin questioned, slightly moving away from him and closer to Charles. "Right?" The boy nodded in agreement. Jacob rolled his green eyes and fiddled with his pencil. "I'm just asking, do they or do they not?"
"Well, when I was younger; I did run into my dad on top of my mom.... and they were naked." Charles states and chuckles. Austin frowned and tried to picture it; if they had something covering them or not. "So I think so, considering we just learned about sex."
"Was there a blank--"
"No."
"Jeez!" Jacob and Austin laughed loudly but only stopped when the professor gave them a warning. They pursed their lips and tried their best not to laugh, but miserably failed.
"Mr. Williams and Mr. Brown! If you two keep on laughing you'll be sent to the office." The professor warned, pointing between them. Austin managed to keep shut, but Jacob couldn't help it. "Alright, Mr. Williams, the office you go!" The teacher pointed to the door and walked Jacob out.
"Well, do they give each other hickeys?" Austin quietly asked Charles. Charles frowned and tilted his head. "Hickeys?" He questioned, looking at his friend for an answer. "You don't know what hickeys are?" Austin snorted and covered his mouth.
"No, I don't." He took Jacob's paper and read over it to check if the answers were correct. "Mind telling me what they are?" He asked, erasing the wrong answers and putting the right ones.
"There those reddish-pinkish things on parts of your body; looks like bruises. And they're wet too." Austin said, taking a snack out of his lunch bag. Charles then realized what he was talking about: sorry bites.
"Isn't it sorry bites?"
"What the hell is 'sorry bites'?"
"What you just said?" Charles furrowed his eyebrows in utter confusion and let his chin rest on the edge of his palm. Austin did the same, wondering what Charles meant. "I don't get it."
"I think my parents just call it sorry bites and not hickeys." He shrugged and drank some of his water. "Oh, okay. Well, tell them it's hickeys." Charles smacked the back of Austin's head.
"I'm pretty sure they already know, and why do you ask such weird questions?"
**
Charles unlocked the front door to see his parents cuddling on the couch, their lips connected, and a romantic movie on. "Kid in the house!" He covered his eyes and walked towards the kitchen, tossing his bag onto the barstool.
The voice of their son causes them to pull back and Alice's cheeks to flush. "Don't worry, baby." FP pecked her lips and got up, walking towards Charles. "How was school today, Chuck?"
"Interesting." He took some strawberries and bananas out and the blender, grabbing a cutting board and started to cut the fruits.
"Oh yeah? How?" FP sat on the barstool and smiled when Alice came as well. He wrapped an arm around his wife's shoulders and pulled her closer. "Well, I did give a girl at school sorry bites."
His words made his parents' eyes widen and jump off the stools. "You what?" Alice asked, covering her mouth with her hand.
"I gave a girl sorry bites." He said his sentence again and smirked to himself, taking some milk out of the fridge. He knew it wasn't true, but he wanted to see his parents' reactions.
"You're lying, Charlie." FP didn't move from his spot and stared at his son. Charles blended the mixture and drank the smoothie. He looked at them and shook his head, smiling at them.
"Wha-- I--" Alice shook her head. "That's not true, Charles!"
"You're right, it's not." He laughed and put his cup on the counter. "You should've seen your faces!" He laughed even more and grabbed his earphones from his pocket.
"That's not funny, Chuck." FP pointed at him warningly. "Don't trick us like that ever again," Alice added, rubbing her forehead roughly.
"Done." He nodded and walked towards the stairs with a book under his chin, his iPod and headphones in one hand and his smoothie cup in his other. "But just so you both know: it's called hickeys." He winked at them before rushing up the stairs.
