Childhood Friends/High School AU
@eqxilibrium
Cole had been best friends with Aiden ever since elementary school. He’d seen Aiden crying after some boys had knocked him down and were calling him giraffe. So Cole had picked up one of the balls that were nearby and chucked it at one of the guy's heads. Cole had stood up to them even as the shortest boy in the entire class, and they’d shoved him down but they’d backed off. Cole had helped Aiden up and though he’d tried to pull his hand away, Aiden had held onto it. And as far as Cole was concerned he’d never let it go since and Cole was okay with that.
Aiden and he were as close as two friends could be, there was no one Cole cared about more than Aiden. Aiden made him feel understood where his family didn’t, even though he and Aiden couldn’t be more different, he made Cole feel not so awkward or like he was incapable of emotion, that it was okay that his emotions were buried beneath the surface, that they were still there even if they weren’t obvious. And while he was someone who didn’t like to be touched all that much, there wasn’t a time when he didn’t want Aiden to be touching him somehow.
Cole hated his classes without Aiden, though the teachers prefered them because Cole went from someone not entirely engaged because he was whispering back and forth with Aiden, to someone completely silent. He was quick to rush to the lunchroom where he and Aiden would be side by side again. He saw Aiden sat at the lunch table him and their friends all sat at and rushed up behind him and gripped Aiden’s shoulder before sliding in beside him as close to his side as he could. He nudged him and almost out of muscle memory slid his hand into Aiden’s and said, “So my mom said you can sleepover tonight, as long as we don’t stay up past twelve again or let you convince me that we should make pancakes at two in the morning, also if she hears us talking even if we think it’s just whispering past twelve we’re not allowed to have a sleepover for two weeks again.”
