I paced back and forth in my room, smacking my forehead with a fisted hand. Almost every breath was a sigh, and I couldn't decide if I wanted to sing, cry or get drunk — which I had never done before, but had heard it was a good time.

I was waiting for Charlie to arrive at my house, and every second I was left to stew in my dumb amazing life was another that I wanted to just run and scream on a dock somewhere. Finally I heard the familiar, yet no less irritating, creeeak come from the walls and floors, which I heard every time someone walked down the hall to my room. I opened the door before Charlie had a chance to knock.

"Get in here NOW, Chuckles!" I said — he entered. He sat down on my bed, looking at me with wide eyes, a never-ceasing spark dancing on the outskirts of his black irises.

"Rae came out," I said.

"Of what?" Charlie asked.

"The closet," I said, bluntly.

"Why was Rae in a closet? Ohhhhhhhhh..." His eyes widened when he finally connected the dots.

"Yes! She's gay!" I said. "Or pan! Or bi! Or queer! Or +! It doesn't matter! All that matters is that she is definitely into me! No, I shouldn't have said that, now my hopes are up! But I'm tired of having my hopes down! What do you think?"

"I think I want to go scream on a dock somewhere!"

"ME, TOO!" I exclaimed. "Maybe we should! I know where a dock is! Or am I thinking of a port? Wait, what's a dock?!"

"Nobody cares about docks, Jack, we need to get serious," he said, sitting me down onto the bed, making hard eye contact again. "Tell me exactly what happened."

"Well, we walked to the teacher guy's house, you know, the one we vandalized. She felt guilty for what we and Phil and the wads did, so we offered to help clean the house tomorrow—"

"Is that something you are going to do?" Charlie asked, knowing manual labour made me squeamish.

"Yeah?" I said, sighing deeply. "Anyway, we talked and walked for a while, and it was really fun! Really, really fun. And then me, my mom and Phil were eating dinner and the phone rang. My mom answered it, and Rae's mom started screaming at her. When my mom got back to the table I grilled her about what they were talking about, and she said that Rae just came out to her and her father... And I may have come out to my mom, too, but I may have misread the vibe, and I'm not going to ask."

"O.K., well — A, good for you. And — B, from that description I get the feeling that the condensed story is she spent all day with you, and then came out as gay. That's an awesome story, but I think that's the sort of thing that would happen in a teen movie, but not in real life. Sadly, no matter how many times we pinch ourselves, this is real life. And real life sucks. That leads me to believe that it's a coincidence."

I hung my shoulders in heartache. "What if it's not?" I asked, puppy-dog eyes engaged.

Charlie sighed. "Fine. Did you notice anything... kinda coy? Like little hints that she's gay for you?"

I thought back thoroughly. "Well, on the way back, we were making conversation —which I nailed, by the way — and I said how being unusual, or being called unusual, is a great compliment, and it kinda looked like that meant something to her. Oh! And on the way there she asked if I wanted to play a game. She said it was a stupid-question-game that her mom made up for first dates. Eh?!"

"That's pretty damning, but let ask you this," he said, and I leaned closer. "Did she say 'or whatever' after 'for first dates'?"

"Yes...? DAMMIT!" I exclaimed, hitting my bed with clenched fists. "But-but-but-but how could it possibly be a coincidence? If it is, then it's the biggest coincidence in the history of fucking everything! This sucks balls!"

"Hold on, no need to bring the balls-word into this — The King Of Romance is here to solve all your lovey-dovey dilemmas!" Charlie said it flawlessly, like he had written it down beforehand. "Now that we know she's gay, you are definitely in the running. You said you two are gonna go clean the old guy's house tomorrow, right? Well, that's a perfect time to win her over for the third time!"

"Charlie, I don't wanna do the 'win her over' thing again. I'm tired of it." His adorable, determined face sunk into itself. "Maybe if we don't do all this thinking, scheming, planning — whatever you want to call it — maybe I'll be less nervous and more... me-ish."

"Why would you want that?!" Charlie exclaimed. I crumpled my face in gall. "Oh, my god, I'm kidding! I respect that decision." He put his arm around me. "Ugh, my little baby girl is all grown up!"

"Shut up, I'm older than you," I said, elbowing him. "Wait, what time is it?" I looked at my phone. It was much later than I had expected.

"Shit, I gotta get home!" Charlie said, picking up his jacket. "See you later, Jack. I have a date with the ladder outside my second-story window."

"Don't fall and die," I commanded him.

"I never do," he said with a wink. He opened the door and speed-walked down the stairs.

As I fell back on my bed, I couldn't shake the idea something amazing would happen the next day.

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Yo! Thanks for reading this chapter. And, for the record, Jack is right: Something amazing WILL happen the day/the next chapter! Eeek! :)