It was about 12:20 in the morning. Twister had invited Otto to his house for a sleepover this afternoon and Otto brought over pizza from his dad. Unfortunately, it was one of the weird combination ones. It had grape jelly and what appeared to be chopped up hotdogs.. It didn't really matter because they weren't eating it. After hours of watching T.V and messing around, it was finally time to settle down. Well, at least give the illusion they were going to bed.
"Just wait 'til you see this cool thing I found on the internet!" Twist said enthusiastically while ripping out a piece of notebook paper. Otto sat down against the bed and folded his arms behind his head."Better be good," He grinned. "But if you say it's cool, then it must be."
Twister's heart did a little leap in his chest as it always did when Otto complimented him or just talked to him in general. He then drew a line down the middle of the paper then another line across that one horizontally. Then, he wrote 'yes' and 'no' in the sections. When Twist was finished, he grabbed two pencils and ran over to where Otto was waiting.
He laid the paper out in the middle of them and placed a pencil on the middle line and another pencil on top of the other. Otto looked rather confused and leaned forward to look at the paper. "Yes..Yes..No...No?" He looked up at Twister in confusion and the other boy just smiled.
"It's called the Charlie Charlie Challenge, Otto. It's like one of the ghost summoning boards, but less complex!" Twister explained.
"You mean the Ouji Board?" Otto inquired.
"Yes, that. But less complex!"
"Sounds rad. And really spooky." Otto seemed to be interested in this which made Twist undoubtedly happy. He sat up a little straighter. "Now we've got to say 'Charlie Charlie, are you here?' together. Ready?"
Otto nodded and held out his hands. Twist gave him a bewildered look. "Don't we have to hold hands or something while we do this..?" Otto seemed a little embarrassed when he asked this, knowing by the face Twister was making that his assumption was incorrect. Before Otto could draw his hands away, Twist grabbed them tightly. The other looked a bit surprised and Twister felt heat beginning to rise to his cheeks.
"I-It's, um..not mandatory that we hold hands but we can.. Can't we?" Twist was looking down nervously and Otto just chuckled. "Yeah. Yeah we can."
Twister smiled and then closed his eyes. "Ready, Otto man?" Otto nodded but then soon realized Twist wouldn't know, since his eyes were closed. "Yeah, I'm ready."
Twister took a deep breath and cracked on eye open to see if Otto was ready. The other boy had his eyes closed as well. Twist smiled, the began.
"Charlie, Charlie are you here?" They both said together in the mostly quiet room. Twist opened his eyes and so did Otto. They slowly looked down at the notebook paper. The pencils hadn't moved in an inch
"Huh. Guess it didn't work." Otto said, actually pretty disappointed. Twister, enjoying this moment and afraid Otto would pull away his hands, suggested they try again. And they did. Again..and again.
"Hey dude, it's totally fine that this didn't work. I'm not mad at you." Otto said after the fifth time.
"No, wait! Just one more time. Sixth time is a charm." Twist grinned sheepishly. Otto rolled his eyes and tightened his grip on his best friend's hands. "That's what you said about the third time.."
"But I'm serious this time, Otto man. Come on, just one more?" Twist puffed out his cheeks in his best pouty face. Otto had to admit, that was pretty adorable. The skater scoffed but couldn't hide a smile. "Alright. Just one more time."
But as they closed their eyes and Twister prepared himself to do the chant again, Otto snuck a peek. Twist looked as if he were afraid of something. At first, Otto thought it had to be this ridiculous Ouji Board rip off but then realized if Twist were afraid he wouldn't have suggested it. It had to be something else. When Twister opened one of his eyes, Otto gave him a mischievous smile. He opened both eyes and looked into Otto's.
"You ready, man?" He asked quietly.
"Oh, yeah. I'm ready."
Just as Twist was beginning to close his eyes again, Otto threaded his fingers with the other boy's. When Twister began to say the 'Ch' in 'Charlie', Otto pressed his lips against his best friend's. Twist let out a surprised gasp and his hazel eyes widened. Otto just placed his hand on Twister's freckled cheek and held the kiss for a moment. He pulled back slowly and looked into his friend's eyes. Twist was stunned, his cheeks tinted pink
"O-Otto.." He began but Otto cut him off. The other was pointing at the paper. "Look Twist, Charlie's here."
To Twister's surprise, the pencils had shifted to the yes sections. He knew it was no ghost, though. It was because of Otto leaning forward to steal his kissing virginity. He was still in a daze.
"Hey, dude. It's..wow. We stayed up until 2:00 in the morning!"
"Yeah..wow." Twist said dreamily. Otto rolled his eyes and pulled the boy to his feet. "C'mon, we should go to bed. Big game tomorrow, remember?" Twist just looked at him then shook his head.
"What was that for, huh Otto?"
"Just trust me, man. You really needed it."
"What does it mean?"
"Whatever you want it to." Otto said with a grin before laying down in his sleeping bag Twist's parents sat up for him. Twister said nothing after that and turned off the lamp. When Otto's breathing slowed to a soft snore, Twist rolled onto his back and smiled happily at the ceiling. He didn't exactly know what Otto meant by 'Whatever you want it too' and just hoped it was crazy talk from how tired the boy probably was. It didn't really matter, though, right now. All that mattered to Twist is that he got a kiss from his best friend, Otto Rocket.