ALPHABET SEX *CHARDRE* **Discontinued**

8: A Night In

After school, Charlie decides to invite me over to his place for the night. It is a school night but I'm sure mum wouldn't mind. I dash home to grab my stuff and it turns out mum is going out for the night so she says that it's fine for me to stay at a friend's.

When I arrive at Charlie's, it takes a while for someone to answer the door. After 5 minutes of knocking, I sit down on the step and wait for someone to answr. Another 5 minutes pass and I start thinking about leaving. But something stops me. I knock again and this time Charlie opens the door immediately, his eyes bloodshot and face stained with black and blue bruises. "Charlie, what the fuck happened to you?"

"I came out," he answers shakily. "I told my friends that I was bi and they attacked me." He bursts into tears, falling into my arms.

"Well, how about we go upstairs and give you a well deserved pamper?" I suggest.

Charlie groans. "I may be bi, Leo, but I'm not a princess."

"Everyone needs to look after theirselves, Charlie," I say, pushing him to stand up. "Especially when you have moments like these in your life. Now get that beautiful ass of yours upstairs and into the bath."

Charlie tramples his way up to the bathroom. I shut the front door behind us and haul my bag up the stairs and into his room. As Charlie runs himself a bath, I take the chance to look around his room. There's barely any photos of his family or friends and his walls are depressingly white. Some of the paint is even chipping off his wall. On his desk, he has his laptop screen up. I flick my finger over the touchpad and a porn site pops up immediately. This is what he must've been doing to cheer himself up. I click off the website and into Spotify, searching for my own account to find my instrumental music for Charlie. I take his laptop into the bathroom where he is about to get in the bath. I set his laptop up on the side and press play on the music. He climbs into the bath. "I'll come in and check on you in half an hour, okay?" I kiss his forehead and he nods his head.

Back in Charlie's bedroom, I set up my own laptop on Charlie's desk and hum away to some music as I scroll through Twitter and Facebook. 

Oh my gosh, did you hear that Charlie Lenehan came out as bi? He's such a fag, I can picture him and Leo together and ew it's a disgusting preview. Callum Moore. He's also a gay twat that hates bi's. I thought, being gay himself, would stop him from hating the homosexual but apparently not. I close down my laptop, realising that now is not the time to be worrying about other people's lives.

Instead, I turn on Charlie's TV and flick over to Film 4 which is playing Grease. It'll do for the moment. I get changed into my pyjamas and then, by the time I've done that, it's time to check on Charlie. In the bathroom, I rest my arms on the side of the bath, Charlie's head bobbing above the surface of the water as he stares at the ceiling. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," he replies. "Although, I think it's time I got out of this skin-crinkling bath now."

I chuckle. "I'll go grab you a towel." While Charlie drains the bath, I grab him a towel from a basket in the hallway. "Here you go." I hand him a towel and he begins to dry himself off as he stands on the bath mat, the bath water still draining. "What do you fancy doing now? We could watch a movie, do a letter of the alphabet or we could just go straight to bed?"

"I'm too tired for a letter of the alphabet," Charlie replies. "I don't mind watching a movie for a bit but I can't promise I'll stay away for all of it." As Charlie gets into his pyjamas and quickly dries his hair, I put my phone on charge, get into his bed and wait for him. When he gets into bed, Grease is still on so I set the sleep timer and we both cuddle up, staring at each other more than watching the movie. "I really like you, Leo."

"I really like you too Charlie." He nuzzles his head into my neck.

"I was thinking maybe we could go on a date at some point?"

"I'm not so sure, I don't really go out a lot."

"We don't have to. We can do stuff like this. Bowling. Cinema. Nights at each others. And, not going to lie, we can have pamper nights together as well."

My face lights up. "And, not going to lie, you could really do with a face mask." We both laugh.

"Leo, please. Please, will you be my boyfriend?" I don't answer. I've been waiting for this question for ages. I press my lips to his. When I pull away, he asks for confirmation. "I'm guessing that's a yes?"

"Yes."