Another Way To Love (LGBT)

IV

Evening came by in a blur, and Cooper's mother was out of the house doing God-knows-what.

Meaning Cooper and I could finally start making a plan.

"Alright my poor, lost little sheep," Cooper started dramatically as he got up from the couch, pulling me along with him. We stood in the middle of the living room, with only a couple of lamps on with shitty yellow lighting. Cooper was still wearing his stupid trapper hat, and it was making a funny shadow on the wall behind him. "Sweep me off my feet."

His words snapped me out of my thoughts as I met his gaze. He was looking at me so expectantly; it was making me a bit nervous.

When I failed to say any words in the next five seconds, Cooper groaned loudly.

"Okay, let's try this. We're at the bake sale, I'm Nina," He pretended to flip imaginary hair over his shoulder. "I'm gorgeous and perfect and a literal angel. I'm selling cupcakes. You walk up to my stand and are next in line. What do you do?"

"Uh..." I thought for a moment. "I buy a cupcake?" I offered.

But Cooper just nodded encouragingly. "One cupcake?" He asked in a high-pitched voice.

"Uh, yeah, sure." I cringed. "You don't need to do a girly voice. It just makes me feel stupid."

Cooper snorted, but complied. "That'll be five bucks." He held out his hand.

I pretended to hand him money. "T-Thanks."

His face morphed into something akin to a pout. "Well gee, Gar. That was almost perfect. You just forgot one small thing, the part where you ask her out."

My face grew hot as I anxiously tugged at the sleeve of the sweater. Even after showering and changing into pajamas, I couldn't help slipping the sweater back on; it was just so cozy. "I feel like an idiot! Who practices shit like this?"

"Fine, don't practice. Ask her out at the moment without a plan." Cooper told me simply, knowing full well there was no way I would actually do that.

Gritting my teeth, I spoke up. "Um...Nina?"

Cooper wiggled his eyebrows at me. "Yes, Gar- Gray." He corrected himself halfway through, and for some reason hearing Gray come out of his mouth irritated me. It just sounded so wrong.

I did my best to ignore the weird discomfort in my chance and continued. "I...I was wondering...if you'd um...if you'd like..." I licked my lips, refusing to make eye contact. "Huuughh...errr...to go out...or something? Maybe?"

Cooper stared at me in pure silence for a moment.

And then he was snickering behind his hand. "That was terrible."

My embarrassment came back twice as hard and I couldn't help grabbing a pillow and hitting him in the face with it.

But Cooper just laughed before stumbling forward and grabbing my shoulders. "But you tried, that's what counts." He told me sincerely. "It was a good first attempt! But you are wayyyy too stiff. I could feel your anxiety radiating off you like some kind of disease."

I clicked my tongue. "I can't exactly control it, you know. I just feel stupid doing this." I admitted.

"You need to relax." He insisted, before suddenly his eyes brightened in the way they always do when he's hit with an idea. "Yeah, yeah, let's relax!"

I watched Cooper rush over to grab his phone off the table, typing away on it with incredible speed.

Before I could ask him what he was doing, music suddenly filled the space.

The song wasn't anything special. Just some pop music that was likely considered the latest trend, but that didn't matter.

What did matter was I knew where this was going and Cooper was already heading towards me.

"Cooper- Cooper no, no, don't you dare- COOPER—" Cooper snatched my hand and my waist and tugged me close, laughing as he dragged me into an obnoxious and horrific excuse for a ballroom dance.

He knows I hate dancing. I have no rhythm. "Cooper, let go!" I complained as he tugged me around, trying to fight off the smile threatening to form on my lips.

"You need to relax and loosen up. Dancing is the best way to do that!" He declared happily, suddenly spinning us around.

I yelped at the sudden action and almost fell over, but he kept me upright.

Cooper suddenly stopped our dancing, but didn't move his hand off my waist or let go of my other hand as he looked me in the eye. "Hey, it's only me." He reminded me with such sincerity that I almost had to look away.

And any embarrassment or stupidity I was feeling vanished. I sucked in a breath.

I allowed Cooper to guide me along through our poor excuse of a dance, and every time I tripped or stepped on his foot, he didn't bring it up.

And it was fun. It was comfortable.

It was us.

We laid on the floor, exhausted from all of our dancing. We only stopped dancing when the playlist Cooper set on his phone finally stopped.

"Feel better?" He asked me after a moment.

"Yeah." I replied. "Thanks."

He didn't respond to that, instead changing the topic. "Hey," He started rather hesitantly, I felt his eyes on me. "...Where do you see yourself after high school?"

I continued to look up at the ceiling. There was an old crack in it that the Watsons never bothered to fix. "I dunno," I told him. "I'll probably just end up working some office job that pays the bills."

Cooper was weirdly quiet for a while, and when he did finally speak, his tone was soft. "...My dad asked me to think about college and medical school and shit. He told me when he got back from his next job that I better have an answer figured out."

I turned my head to look at him. It was his turn to refuse to make eye contact, instead favoring the ceiling.

"I looked at the brochures. I did look into college but..." Cooper trailed off, closing his eyes. "I don't want to be a doctor. I don't want to be some big academic. I just...want to enjoy life. I want to see the world and have fun and hang out with you, I just..." He sighed. "I'm going to have to tell him I'm not going to college."

Nothing I said would make it better. I couldn't make his problems disappear.

"You're gonna go on a lot of adventures." I noted simply.

He turned his head and grinned at me. "We're gonna go on a lot of adventures." He corrected me.

I've had people warn me before. Tell me that friends don't last after high school and that we're lucky we've lasted friends this long.

But Cooper and I knew better. That even if we were on opposite sides of the planet, we would spend every moment figuring out how to get back to each other.

At some point, Cooper and I stopped talking, and our eyes grew heavy.

And we fell asleep on his living room floor, like we were the only two people in the universe.