YOUR ONE LAST LINE |✔️|

t w e n t y t h i r d

The collection of screwed up balls of paper lining the pockets of North's jacket was getting ridiculous. He was beginning to regret the fact he'd encouraged Duck to leave more than a single message each time they spoke, as now the other boy was persistent in his leaving of small, daily thoughts behind for him. And North couldn't bring himself to stop collecting them, even if he never replied or read them. He didn't let himself linger on the reason why and was more than appreciative when his sister interrupting his brooding. With cold hands draped over his shoulders, Diana shook him lightly in greeting, nearly slipping her drink on him in the process.

"I knew I'd find you tucked into a corner having absolutely no fun," Diana teased, dropping her chin on the crown of his head as she swayed them to the music.

"Not a whole lot to do," North answered, drawing a hand from his pocket and ignoring the guilty feeling that accompanied it.

"Maybe if you said hello to someone you'd find yourself plenty busy," She remarked, nodding over at where Sara was busy playing cards with a group of people. "While it's not the most adventurous thing happening tonight, I'm sure Sara can deal us in if we headed over now. Or you could go help Terry carry in the rest of the drinks, which is what I was actually meant to find you for."

North sighed, slipping out from his sister's embrace and standing up on the back deck's steps. "I'll go help Terry."

Weaving his way through the crowd currently enjoying the warm evening weather and plush grass beneath their feet, North headed to the over to the fence. Opening the gate he raised a hand at the approaching Terry, carrying a keg with the help of a flush-faced senior.

"Rest of the stuff's in the trunk. Gables is unloading them now," He panted, blurring past North. Watching his friend dump the keg in the middle of the yard to the delight of his crowd, North slowly backed down the street and to the truck idling along the sidewalk. When a seemingly familiar head of hair popped up from the open trunk though, North stopped in his tracks.

"That was fast," The boy started, spinning around with raised brows that only extended further up his forehead in recognition. "Sweaty Palms."

The words made North flush more than he wanted to admit. Scratching the back of his neck he let out an awkward chuckle, feet remembering they were on a task and made their way over to the other boy. "I'm guessing you're Gables?"

"Who else," Charlie said, pointing at his hair. He rolled his eyes when he was met by North's lost expression. "Right, forgot you don't get references. Anne of Green Gables. Little red haired girl, ring a bell?"

Charlie sighed before North could reply, arms flexing as he gently sat a twenty-four pack of canned Diet Coke onto the ground. "God, you ever read anything, North? Either way, it's better a better name than what my old teammates gave me back in grade school."

"What they call you back then?" North asked, accepting the crate Charlie abruptly pressed into his chest.

The question earned him the same smirk from over a week ago. "Wouldn't you like to know."

Unsure how to respond, North eyed the remaining crates of alcohol lining the trunk dubiously. "How'd you get so much booze?" 

Charlie shrugged his shoulders, shutting the trunk before grabbing the pack of soda on the ground in one hand, hoisting a matching pack of Sprite in the other. "Dunno. Terry arranged all this while I picked up the soda."

"Oh," North added, proving yet again that holding a conversation was apparently a foreign concept to him. Before he could work out a follow-up response though Charlie had already begun heading back to the house. Jogging after him North was grateful to abandon the crate on the grass by one of the many snack tables dotted along the backyard, alarmed by the strain in his arms. Maybe Terry was right and his reliance on gym class was not a suitable way to stay fit.

Charlie barely batted an eye as he dropped the soda onto an empty table, not a hint of strain on his face. As the crowd huddled in on them, diving in to refill their drinks and generally chatter amongst themselves, North made to slip away and back to his comfortable perch on the deck steps when a voice called out over the crowd.

"Yo, Duck! Kendra's looking for you, says it's an emergency."

North's vision went white from shock, returning to him just in time to catch Charlie's aspirated look as he glared at the guy in a Hawaiian shirt yelling out to him.

"Why am I not surprised," Charlie gritted out, reflexively denying the hand which offered him a passing beer. 

North watched on in mild horror, unsure what to do, what to say, as Charlie sunk into the crowd, across the stairs, and disappeared from the house's open doorframe.