List of physical intimacy
• playing with their hair
• tucking their hair back
They like each other's hair | (2157 words)
"Oh, man, that's the most fun I've had in a while,” Chase laughs, head tilted back.
“I can't, the part where I fall,” Brendan snickers.
“And then you tried getting back up, but then you fell again harder!” Chase takes a big sigh and shakes his head, wiping away at his teary eyes. “Pure gold.”
“Well I'm used to falling,” Brendan shrugs, turning to his laptop. “Ok, we watched it like a hundred times, I'll get to editing the footage.”
“Yeah, sure.” Chase nods. ”I have to get to work on my homework.” He grabs his backpack, getting out his math practice questions and sits on his bed.
“Oof,” Brendan winces. “You don't want any help?”
Chase waves his hand. “Nah, I'm ok. Thank you though.”
“Help yourself,” he says back.
With Brendan's back turned to him, Chase picks up his phone, deciding to take a small break before working.
He should've taken that help, actually. Math really isn't his strongest subject in school. But Brendan's tried to help him before and they didn't have the best luck. Long story short, Chase was more confused in the end then when they'd started. If he'd asked for help again, he would've been asking for help in physical science too. He's even worse in science. If he had the opportunity, a tutor would be of better fit.
In reality, Chase wouldn't want to bother his friend with this. Brendan has his own life. That's pretty clear. His own homework, his own chores at home, his own friends, and his own girlfriend. Over anything else, Brendan seems the most busy with Kimberly. Like, Chase wants to play games at his house, oh Brendan can't, Kimberly and him are going on a date. Chase wants to hangout, oh Brendan can't, he and Kimberly are doing homework together. Chase wants to discuss an idea for a video, oh Brendan can't, Kimberly and him are already filming a video. Brendan apologizes every time and promises they can do something later. They almost do every time but it gets a bit tiring to hear. Chase knows how it sounds and even though he thinks himself not petulant he'd rather not think about it.
The blonde lets out a sigh, setting his phone down and stares at his friends back.
Brendan's still editing away, laid back, quiet and focused. No movement in his body besides his arms. Criss cross apple sauce on the desk chair. The sound of his typing turning into echoes in the room. It's pretty quiet.
The boy looks small in the chair, Chase notes. Or maybe the chair is just big.
His neck doesn't show. He has long hair, for a guy. Dark chestnut curly hair that almost reaches past his shoulder blades. His hair has always been long.
That's something that Chase remembers. Every kid in their town grew up together, and he doesn't remember much about anyone else but he sure does remember a lot about that particular curly head. More than even his family. It's just what comes to him more. Chase doesn't know why that is but he guesses it's probably because he spends a good amount of his time with him.
Brendands hair has always smelled good. Chase remembers. Because in this one memory, Chase was in a playground, playing tag with his friends. The whole thing's hazy but one moment he was chasing his friend, and the next he's on the ground, on top of some other boy, and his hands really really hurt. He's crying but the boy beneath him is also crying. Harder than him. He remembers his mom running over, yelling, asking him if he's ok. She gets him off the boy, grabbing his hands, checking them for injuries. And then the boy's mom also comes over, doing the same. They end up hugging and Chase did feel bad, he said sorry and the boy did too. But the least vivid thing was the smell of the boy's hair. It smelled so nice, it felt like after his mom bathed him, when he's in bed, and fresh warm blankets get thrown on him. A clean, soothing, and powdery scent.
Chase wonders if it smells the same now.
“Yeah,” Brendan pipes up.
“On second thought, I think I could use a hand.”
“Oh...sure! Just let me save my changes. I can edit the rest at home. You'll probably need extra help.” With that, Brendan wrapped up in 5 minutes and sat down next to Chase with his own pencil in hand. “So you probably need help with everything like last time right?"
“Yeah,” Chase murmurs, scratching the back of his neck.
“No big deal,” he shrugs. “Let's just start.” He scoots closer to Chase's side. “Last time we didn't get far. So I think I have a better way of explaining this stuff to you using football.” He looks up at the blonde, expectingly.
Chase raises his eyebrows. that doesn't make sense. How would that work?”
“Whenever you're out on the field, you're essentially doing math in your head. You just don't realize it. Look at it this way.” Brendan scoots even closer. He rips out a paper from a notebook and starts drawing out a rectangle.
They're really close now. Chase's nose is not far from Brendan's head. He could take a sniff and it wouldn't be obvious. God, no, he's not a creep, he's just curious. His plan actually worked. Get Brendan close enough so he could see if his hair smells like it used to.
“So this is the football field, right?” Brendan points down at the paper with his pencil.
Chase suddenly, subconsciously takes a loud sniff of Brendan's hair. Before Chase can process what he even did, he says, “You smell nice.” It's after that he freezes.
Brendan tucks his hair behind his ear, scooting away. “...Thank you.” He speaks tiny. It's barely above a whisper. He plays with his pencil. The piece of curly strands fall back down.
And Chase tucks. It. Back.
Oh no. He needs to say something back before it gets too awkward. “You-you're wel-come.” And he stuttered. He's so done for.
Brendan doesn't say anything. He keeps on clicking a pen that somehow found a way in his hands during the whole situation prior. “You know, I really need to go use the bathroom.”
Hugo's presenting his footage on the screen in the video club room. Brendan isn't interested in it. It's nothing special really. Not even funny.
Chase is well, asleep. Ms. DeLeo let him once he explained to her he arrived home late from a visit to one of his relatives, barely got a wink of sleep because of early morning lacrosse practice. Video club without Chase is always generally boring. So Brendan's bored with nothing to do.
It would've been more entertaining showing his footage if Brendan didn't have to help Chase with his homework the other day. He could've finished editing when he went home. He could've but he…didn't. When he got home, all he could think about was, what was that? Why would Chase do that? He spent most of his time distracted by the thought that, before he knew it, it was 10 minutes past midnight and he had to go to sleep. Even now, the next day, he can't figure it out. He can't put his finger on it. Whatever, he shouldn't be hung up on it, it probably meant nothing. And he doesn't want to give himself a headache.
Back to Chase, the poor guy really is knocked out. He's got his head in his crossed arms on the desk, and he's very lightly snoring. Checking the time, it looks like he's been wiped out for 20 minutes, at least.
Hugo's done screening his footage. Barton's up now.
Brendan doesn't bother looking. He instead looks over at Shoshanna whose putting snap hair clips into Mauricia's hair, done in two french braids.
It looks cute. Brendan wouldn't mind having clips in his hair but Shoshanna probably wouldn't want to play with his hair. His hair is all tangled up because he doesn't take much care of it. It's curly and long for a guy. His mom even used to take care of it but she stopped once Brendan told her he could do it himself. The curls didn't end up seeing a product beyond shampoo and conditioner past that day. It's his fault really for neglecting it.
Oh, too bad. If they can't be used on him, he might as well try to use them on someone else.
He gets up and walks over to the girls table.
“Hi, Mauricia,” he waves to her. “Hi, Shoshanna. Do you mind if I could take some of these?” He holds up one of the bag of clips.
Shoshanna sighs, rolling her eyes. “What are you gonna use them for exactly?”
“Um, well.” He shifts his footing, scrunching his mouth to the side. “Well just, you know, nothing importa-”
“Just spit it out Brendan.”
Brendan let's out a big breath. “Fine. I was planning to use them on Chase because he's, well you know, asleep.” He motions over to the blonde.
“What happens if he wakes up and catches you? What if he gets mad? What if he gets mad at me? What if-”
“I'll take all the responsibility! Don't even worry about it!” He smiles hopefully at girl.
She rolls her eyes again. “Well, this doesn't involve me.” She crosses her arms. “Whatever, go ahead, use them, I don't actually care. “
“Thanks so much, Shoshanna! I owe you one!”
Brendan nods before going back to his desk, and dumping out all the colorful clips on the table.
He stares at Chase. Still sleeping. Good, operation can commence.
First, let's check out his hair. Brendan stops himself before touching it. Wait. Would Chase get mad? No. No, Brendan doesn't think so. It's not even that big of a deal. Nothing's permanent so it's fine.
Ok, back to the hair, Brendan slowly runs his fingers through the top of his hair. No knots. Doesn't feel brittle. It's pretty soft. Wow, cool.
Now, the first clip. He grabs a red one. He searches the head of hair on where to put it. In the middle, he decides, snapping it in. Perfect. Pretty, even. It matches well, red suits Chase. Two orange ones next. One near the front and one in the back, towards the left. Orange looks good with his hair. Next is a cute pink one with a white button on it, bigger than the rest. He snaps it above his right ear. Brendan lays back to admire his work. A little messy but he's no hair stylist. He continues to put 3 other ones, doesn't like it, rearranges them before putting the rest in the bag.
He perches his head in hand, elbow on his desk, satisfied with his work. Mauricia's video is still going so he watches it with the rest of the club.
Before he knows it, Ms. DeLeo tells them to pack up before the bell rings and asks Brendan to wake up the sleepy head.
“Chase,” Brendan whispers, shaking Chase's shoulder. “Chase,” he repeats.
The blonde grunts, his head rising. He runs his hands over his eyes, shaking his head. “It's so cold.”
“Oh, yeah, Ms. DeLeo lowered the air conditioner.”
Chase hums, tugging on his sweater.
The bell rings. Chase jumps.
“Chase, dude, why do you have those on your head,” Barton asks, passing by.
“What?” He grunts, voice groggy.
“Check your head,” he laughs, going out the classroom.
Chase immediately has his phone out, switching into the camera app.
Brendan has to laugh. The blonde looks up.
“...You did this?” He points a finger at the curly head.
The boy laughs again. “I'm sorry! I was just bored and well I didn't have anyone to talk to.” Brendan averts his eyes to the ground. “I am sorry.”
A chuckle arises from the boy across.
“I'm joking. I'm not mad, iit's totally fine.” He takes out the clips, dropping them in the bag and closing it once done. “Thanks for the laugh.” He smiles.
“And my hair clips,” Shoshanna questions, hands out.
Brendan drops them in the girl's hand. “Yes, I'm giving them back! Here. Thank you again!”
She snatches it from his hands. “I'll take that.” She puts it away in her backpack. “I thought about what you'll do for me and I decided. You have to give me five dollars. There's this book I've wanted to read and my mom doesn't want to give me the money. So.” She shrugs. “Have it in my hands before next month.” With that, she spins on her heel, and goes out the door.
It's Chase's time to laugh this time.
Chase shakes his head. “Let's go.”
Hope you enjoyed!!🤗 I actually finished a work for once!
The second scene was my favorite to read :) It took way less time writing that one out.
In full honestly, I had the first scene fully written out, ready to be edited, but i ended up changing it all bc i wasnt happy with it. This version was better suited for like how Restart feels. (I know, doesn't make sense to yall probs but to me it does😭)
I was also debating wether Brendan would confront Chase about the sniffing and touching his hair but I jst didn't know. OR like just look at him, not say anything, and go back to teaching...
I think I got a little better in characterization here. imo. not the best but better.
The pace, as always, feels like trash to me.
I use one of these words too much...lmk if y'all think y'all know which one it is.
Other than that, y'all, pls don't be afraid to to give advice or critic. I allow you to :)
