It was the day of their date, Clive had managed to get the house all to himself so that they could have their little date without any interruptions or unwelcome visitors.
They were sitting at the dining table, Luke making final touch ups to their list of things they’d need from the stores while Clive was nearly dozing off on one of the chairs.
“At this point beans on toast don’t sound bad.” Clive whined.
“We’re going to have a nice proper meal Clive. Stop whinging already.”
“Okay so here’s a list of things we don’t have at your place and will need to buy.” He said, passing the piece of paper to Clive.
“What’s all this posh stuff?” Clive asked as he skimmed through the list.
“Ingredients to make posh pasta.”
“Luke, we can hardly make pasta, let alone posh pasta.” Clive argued in a whispered voice not wishing to expose their incompetence, not that anyone else was in the room.
“Don’t talk rubbish.” Luke replied simply lifting himself off the chair and heading towards the door, “now let’s go grocery shopping.”
•••
“Do you think we should buy condoms just in case?” Clive asked cheekily, sneaking a glance at Luke who was pushing their shopping trolley past the ‘health’ aisle.
Luke only scoffed, shaking his head at Clive’s empty worlds. They were almost done picking up every item on the list save the ice cream which they had left for the end, “do you really want to get ice cream?”
“Why do you ask with such contempt?” Clive asked, narrowing his eyes.
“It’s not very romantic.”
Maybe Clive had done the wrong thing by agreeing to this date, he couldn’t ever imagine being with someone who didn’t prioritise ice cream.
“It’s plenty romantic!” He argued, “and it’s vanilla.”
Luke didn’t understand how that could suffice as an argument but he let it slide.
They soon got their stuff to the checkout line and were out of the store in no time.
“I can’t wait to get started! I’ve never done anything like this before, I’m not sure if I should be anywhere near the stove with my grasp of cooking but you’ll be there so everything’s gonna be alright!” Clive rambled on excitedly as Luke stared at him with adoring eyes.
“Carol has taste.” Luke laughed, his words causing Clive’s eyes to widen once he realised.
They were back in Clive’s kitchen unloading their purchases onto the counter top.
Luke positioned himself in between the condiments and the stove when he caught a glimpse of Clive picking up a pink cloth from one of the drawers.
“Here,” the boy said as he unfolded the cloth revealing a soft pink coloured apron, he tied it both around Luke’s neck and back hurriedly and just as swiftly turned him back to face him.
“My wife’s so pretty.” He said with a mocking glint in his eyes before gently catching Luke’s lips in a chaste kiss.
Luke laughed into the kiss slightly shaking his head at Clive’s attempt to tease him. He’d be Clive’s wife any day.
“Alright what do you need me to do?” Clive asked, slinging his arm over Luke’s shoulder in the most bro way possible like they hadn’t just kissed seconds ago.
“You’ll have to sit right there.” Luke said, pointing toward the dinning table at the far end.
Clive gaped at Luke, “are you trying to get me out of here?!”. Clive asked with a torn expression his arms crossed over his chest as he looked away dramatically.
Luke loved Clive and all but in no way was he going to have Clive mess up their date, Luke had to sweep Clive off his feet with his mad cooking skills and wouldn’t even let his date stop him from doing so.
But how could he say no to Clive? He couldn’t and so he didn’t.
“Okay, I’m trusting you Clive don’t make the both of us regret this.” Luke said tugging at Clive’s sleeve earning a beaming smile from the latter who immediately started picking up random items off the counter excitedly.
•••
“Right I think the waters done boiling” Clive said with his hands on his hips looking at the pot of water on the stove.
“Yeah?” Luke asked, making his way to Clive only to find out that Clive hadn’t even turned the stove on.
“Okay.” Luke said with a tight lipped smile, “thank you for all your help, you’re a wonderful boyfriend. Why don’t you go set the table now? With those ritzy candles you were talking about.” He said, placing a grateful kiss to the boy’s cheek.
Clive processed every word, almost. Being addressed as Luke’s ‘boyfriend’ however was not processed. He thoughtlessly nodded and slowly walked out of the room.
‘We’re boyfriends already?’ He thought to himself trying to contain the smile that was now fully taking over his face. He didn’t believe in the rules of dating, no he didn’t care, at least not when it came to Luke. It’s surprisingly scary how much he liked Luke, he wasn’t going to scare the boy away though, whatever this was that they had going on, he wanted it to last forever.
•••
“Simple yet stunning.” Luke replied impressed at how elegant their minimalistic candle light dinner looked.
It wasn’t anything fancy, it simply caught the essence of two teenage boys in love trying to do what they can with what they have. And maybe that’s where the beauty lay for the both of them because they knew they’d much rather have this than any expensive restaurant.
They dug into their food as silence fell upon them, neither of them looking at the other owing to their shyness.
“Uh, where’d you get the candle?” Luke asked awkwardly, not knowing what people did at one of these dinners other than eat in agonising silence.
Clive shrugged, “Nice isn’t it? Not scented or anything. I like these so much better.” He said eyes not leaving his plate.
The silence was back.
“Oh my God what do people even do at these sort of dinners?” Luke hissed, not being able to handle the pressure of being such a wreck in front of such a beautiful boy.
Clive perked up, “I’ve got just the thing!” he said before dashing out the door. Luke visibly relaxed now that Clive was gone but tensed right back once Clive returned with a bottle of wine and two tall wine glasses.
“And guess what, it’s way more than £4” Clive said with a sardonic smile.
“How much more are we talking?” Luke asked with his chin resting in his hands as he sent Clive a sceptical look.
“Let’s just enjoy shall we?” He replied with a sinister grin on his face.
As usual they were piss drunk after only two glasses, giggling and playing footsie under the table. Their dessert, fully forgotten in the freezer.
“We can’t finish this bottle, it looks super pricey.” Luke said, turning the bottle around in his hand.
“Yeah, also we’ll have to refill it with something cheaper, mum would be livid if she finds out I’ve touched her precious wine.”
Luke looked at him wide eyed, “We can’t just adulterate good wine.”
“Adulterate.” Clive chuckled, totally out of his senses, “okay then we have only one solution. We drink the entire bottle and then refill it.”
It was a stupid solution, and they definitely wouldn’t hear the end of it from Clive’s mum but nothing mattered to the both of them at that moment.
And so they finished the bottle.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if I woke up in a puddle of sick.” Luke said, accenting each word as he felt his head reel.
“Take a look at this one,” Clive said, passing another bottle, “I don’t think she’d remember having this one.”
They were rummaging through the liquor cabinet trying to find a bottle that could replace the high priced one that they had downed not so long ago.
“Yes, let’s use this.”
They were back in the kitchen, Clive trying his best to steady his trembling hands as he transferred the cheap wine into the expensive bottle while Luke struggled to hold the bottle without feeling like he was going to fall off the chair.
“Stay still!” Clive pleaded. “I am!” Luke slurred dramatically causing some of the wine to spill onto himself, “oh bugger.” He said calmly.
“Let’s just be done with this.” Clive sighed.
They placed the bottle back in the cabinet before making it to the living room. “You sure your mum won’t be back today?” Luke asked as he plopped down on the floor.
“Positive.” Clive slurred doing the same.
“Your t-shirt.” Clive pointed towards the wine stain that was almost dried out, it wasn’t very visible because Luke had a black t-shirt on.
Luke laughed, “I can’t believe we were dressed like this.” He snickered at their brilliantly bland outfits.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re indoors.” Clive chuckled as he tugged at his warm socks.
Luke had his legs sprawled on the carpeted floor with his elbows resting on the couch that sat behind the both of them, eyes shut and smiling, “thank you for giving me a chance.” He said softly.
Clive looked over at Luke, his heart fluttering at the mere sight of him, he lifted himself up and placed his legs on either side of Luke almost fully sitting in his lap and kissed him dearly.
“When are we doing this next?” Luke asked breathlessly after their kiss.
“Tomorrow and then the day after and the day after that and t-“
“So forever then?” Luke chuckled.
“Yes.” Clive replied rather hastily before capturing Luke’s lips in a loving kiss again.
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