So Operation Fuck Shit Up was a go, but Conrad had a feeling that he should've seen this coming. Not only did he get a surprising email last night, he also felt this electrifying feeling in his gut when Charlie touched him and he wasn't sure if it was both of those things combined that sent him into a total panic or if it was just everything else coming down on him all at once. But nonetheless, Conrad wasn't sure if he could look at Charlie the same. To be fair, Conrad wasn't able to look at Charlie the same since he came back to the beach house at the start of last summer.

     "Are you sure it's a good idea for us to be here when the open house is going on?" Charlie asked.

     "The whole point is to cause a ruckus so Aunt Julia will be unable to sell the house," Conrad pointed out, "that's kinda why we're doing this thing in the first place."

     Charlie playfully thumped Conrad upside the head. "Thank you, Captain Obvious. I just wanna make sure that we're not gonna do anything illegal or stupid or any sort of shit that could have you wind up in jail." He then booped Conrad on the tip of his nose, smirking knowingly all the while.

     "How come you think it's gonna be that me that's gonna end up in jail?"

     "You started throwing punches down at the beach while you were piss-drunk at that party from last year. And you still got escorted home by a cop."

     Conrad retorted as he and Charlie bounded up the stairs, "But I didn't end up in jail."

    "First time for everything." Charlie swung the front door open and was greeted by the warm smell of muffins wafting from the kitchen as he set aside his sandals next to the door in the foyer. "Something smells go—"

     In the kitchen was Julia, tending to whatever was in the sink only to turn around to see who was walking in. "Charles, I wasn't expecting you to be here, either."

     "It's Charlie, actually. No one's called by my full first name since I was ten," Charlie corrected as he stood awkwardly next to Conrad in the entryway. Skye, Julia's child, sat at the island, also fully basking in the awkward light of the situation.

     "I didn't know she was gonna be here, too," Conrad muttered.

     "It's 'they', not 'she'," Skye was quick to respond and Conrad took the correction in stride, casually nodding in acknowledgement.

     To help break up the tension, Charlie measly added, "I'm gonna go change. Retract your claws, tiger cub." He clapped Conrad on the shoulder, grasping it before letting go and making his way up the stairs to the bathroom and shower.

     Skye looked between Conrad and Charlie who was now out of sight and looked back at Conrad with a knowing look in their eye. "Is he always like that?"

     "Like what?" Conrad asked, eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

     "Touchy," Skye chose their carefully and simply left it at that.

When he was finally dressed and changed, Charlie bounded down the stairs at the sound of a knock at the front door. Curious, even though he knew the whole "stranger danger" spiel, he went to go answer it and behind the door was a short woman with red hair, salmon pink shirt, and cargo shorts. Considering how small of a town Cousins was, Charlie would've been able to point her out and recognize her but she wasn't ringing any bells.

     "Uh. . ." Charlie stammered, "can I help you?"

     "Who are you?" the woman asked, and if Charlie was dense, he would've missed the snivelly tone in her voice, but he wasn't dense so he didn't miss it.

     Before Charlie could answer, the door was nudged open a little wider and there stood Conrad behind him as he said, "He's my boyfriend, and unfortunately there isn't going to be an open house today."

     "Ignore them, ignore them." Julia rushed up to the entryway to make her way past the two boys to talk to the woman outside. The door shut behind her which left Conrad and Charlie to stand in the foyer, once again awkward and silent.

    "Boyfriend, huh?" Charlie teased, taking the opportunity to be a little shit so he could ignore the uptick in his heartbeat at the term of endearment.

     Conrad looked down at his feet, abashed. "It-it slipped out, alright? I wasn't thinking."

     "It's okay. I'm not mad. But I am curious. Why boyfriend?"

     "It's nothing. Skye just said something earlier and it just. . .I don't know."

     Charlie raised his eyebrows slightly, intrigued. "Well, what'd they say?"

     Conrad shrugged, as if it was nothing. And it really was nothing. He wasn't sure why he was thinking so hard about it (okay, he knew, he just wasn't ready to admit it yet). "They called you touchy."

     "Like, sensitive?"

     "No. Like, physically. You're always touching me or a part of me like it's just another Tuesday. And of course, I never really noticed because no one called you out on it." (Or that I never really minded, Conrad tacked on as an afterthought before promptly shoving it down and squaring it away).

     Charlie also shrugged, unsure of what to do with this information. "Well, touch is part of the five senses. I'm just using what I know."

     "But you do it like you need to touch me or else you'll die."

     "Do you want me to stop?"

     The question threw Conrad for a loop as much as it stopped his breathing for several seconds. His mouth went dry around the corners as well as his throat as he tried to tamp down on the bubbling no that was coming up. He didn't want to be dramatic, but some part of him felt like he needed Charlie to touch him, too, or else he felt like he wasn't solid, like he didn't exist.

     "No" the answer was pin-drop quiet, but Charlie was able to hear it as he began to invade Conrad's space like he always did (within rational means, of course). Conrad looked away, finding an interesting spot on the floor to rest his eyes on so he didn't have to meet Charlie's intense gaze. He should've known not to look because now he felt the crook of Charlie's finger underneath his chin so his line of sight could be directed towards him.

     "There you are. Thought I lost you for a second." Charlie shoved his hands into his pockets and the two of them just stood there, looking at the other and waiting. For what, they didn't know. But it was only a matter of time.

So the open house was cancelled, but it didn't mean the house was still without its problems. The air conditioning had conveniently broken before the realtor (Charlie now realized who she was) got here but now Charlie felt the need to change his shirt again with how hot it was inside. Everything felt sticky to the touch with the humidity that surrounded them as they all stood around the island, Julia at the table frantically flipping through a mammoth of a binder, looking for someone to come fix the air conditioning. Charlie could tell what it was from where he was standing because when he was thirteen, he had an oddball Architectural Digest phase where he wanted to know anything possible about houses and interior design so Susannah let him look through that binder as a jumping off point.

     "So what do we do? I'd rather not stay because it feels like a million degrees in here," Jeremiah asked, looking around.

      "We could go to the boardwalk," Charlie suggested, shrugging, "I feel like I haven't been there in forever."

Author's Note  ╱ 090624

we hit the double digits guys !! this would've been longer and included them at the boardwalk doing everything but writing takes brainpower and i haven't had enough of that since i work almost full-time now but i figured that could be its own thing since i'll have a lot of ground to cover then

thank you for reading :)

feedback, thoughts, feelings, and keyboard smashes are always appreciated <3