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“But it happened easy, darling. Natural as another leg around you in the bed frame”
“It’s just such an odd spot to have a mole…” Charlie says as his finger grazes the dark spot in the pit between Knox’s fingers. The other chuckles, feigning hurt from the remark. Charlie twists the hand in every which way, trying to make sense of how such oddities occur. Maybe it’ll look different under different lights? “I’ve never seen anyone else have a mole there!”
The boys lay in the moonlight, awake at the early hours of the day. Their naked bodies wrapped in each other and their sheets twisted around limbs. Pillow talks are part of the post-sex routine in the Dalton-Overstreet dorm room and tonight’s was no different.
“I’m a medical mystery. The first of its kind” Knox says, stifling a yawn. Charlie looks up at him and drops the former’s hand to hastily prop his knee up into view, twisting it slightly inwards. Straining with the awkward position he’s put himself in, he barely makes out: “Well, check this! I got it from a bike accident when I was eight!”
Knox laughs and inches closer. The scar is faded, white, but visible. Knox suspects it could be at least an inch or two on the side of his knee, the scar slightly raised above the skin. “Did it hurt?” “Damn right it did! One minute, I’m trying to learn how to ride my bike. the next, my mom’s holding down a bandage to stop the bleeding!” Charlie exclaims before dropping his leg.
Knox rolls his eyes with a chuckle before raising his arm into the moonlight seeping through their window, pointing at a scar on his forearm. “Got this when I was chasing my younger brother. He’s real lucky I’m a klutz or else I would have gotten him.”
Charlie puts out his left palm, showing a small mole on the corner on his hand. “See this? I got it when I was 10.”
Knox bursts into laughter. “What do you mean you got it?”
“I swear this mole was never there! It just appeared one day!”
They both howl with laughter, filling the silent room with unbridled joy. Knox fakes acceptance on the theory as the other continues on his never-ceasing defense, betting that there must be a childhood photo of him out there, pre-hand mole, making both of them laugh even harder.
As they slowly come down of their high, Knox notices a mark on the other’s chest. He point at it, his finger softly touching the bump. “Where’s that one from?”, a ghost of a smile still lingering.
Charlie looks down and his face changes. It was subtle. The kind that if you blink, you’ll miss it. Knox isn’t sure what it was but something visibly dims in the other’s eyes. He looked confused, hurt, then uneasy. “Oh, that’s nothing”
“What do you mean? It looks bad” Knox pries, studying it closer. It was a deep concave mark, in an almost-perfect shape of a circle. He notices a few other identical ones scattered around his pecs. They all looked stretched, with a slight dark ring surrounding each of them. All a shade or two lighter than his actual color. Charlie holds the other’s poking finger and pulls it down gently. “Just a few scars I got, nothing major” he replies, clearly trying to change the subject with a shrug.
Knox’s brows furrows even more, his curiosity now at an all time high. “What? What are you hiding?”
“I’m not hiding anything!”
“Yes, you are”
“No, I’m not. It’s really nothing!”
“Yeah that’s totally what someone who’s lying would say”
Charlie rolls his eyes in annoyance, his lips forming a thin line. Knox can see his eyes tremble, forcing himself to repress an unwelcome feeling (Fear? Shame?) while also trying to find an excuse to give his witty, pre-law boyfriend that would suffice.
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and Knox knows he got him cornered. Okay, time to be vulnerable, he imagines Charlie saying to himself. He knows being open is hard for him. He lets Charlie take his time, mentally preparing himself for whatever he would end up saying. Doesn’t matter if it hurts; as long as it’s the truth. Plus, It can’t be that bad, right?
“My uh…dad was an avid smoker…and drinker…when I was younger.” Charlie starts. “I encountered him on a pretty bad day one day and…” he trails off, staring at the ceiling, his eyes empty.
Knox winces and suddenly wants the world to swallow him whole. Stop stop stop Knox screams internally, his heart clenching in anger. What kind of father puts out his cigarette on his son’s chest? He takes a quick look at Charlie and can see the tears slowly brimming. He looked…young. Like he had suddenly turned into a child again and impossibly, Knox’s heart breaks even more.
“Charlie-“
“Yeah. Some dad, huh?” He sarcastically says with a fake smile, quickly wiping an escaped tear from the corner of his eye. “‘Best dad award’ right there” he adds, looking away as if something more interesting was on the other side of the room.
Knox doesn’t know how it happened. But one minute he was staring at the other and the next, he’s climbing on top of Charlie, straddling and staring down at his lover as he tries to block all the emotions bubbling inside him. He leans down and kisses his chest, his scars one by one. His lips travel from Charlie’s sternum, to his collar bone, to the base of his neck.
“Knoxious-“ he starts, implying that sex is clearly not on the table right now as he tried nudging the other off.
“Hey. Listen to me right now” Knox replies, snapping his head up and staring at Charlie with a straight face. “You didn’t deserve that. Ever. You hear me?”he asks, as serious as he could with a never-breaking gaze. Charlie stares back, unsure and unconvinced, his lips quivering. A moment passes before he silently nods, earning a small smile from Knox.
“Yeah?” Knox whispers. “You know that wasn’t supposed to happen and it’s not ever gonna happen again, okay?”
Charlie nods again. “Yeah” he replies, a fresh batch of tears now streaming on the sides of his face. Knox smiles and plants a kiss on Charlie’s lips, trying to convey as much love and care into it as he could. Both end up giggling again as Knox peppers kisses on Charlie’s face, bombing his face with his lips.
“Okay, okay, you’re gonna kill me over here” Charlie jokes, gently pushing Knox off and they resume their original position. A beat passes before he turns on his side and inches closer, hooking his leg over Knox’s as they both stare into each other’s eyes tenderly. Knox grins, feeling accomplished with making the other smile again. His eyes no longer recounting the harsh memories he once had. It was filled with something brighter, something better.
“So…” Knox starts, lifting their intertwined hands. “Tell me more about this mystery mole”
“I swear to god it was never there!”