Picnic ⭐🌹
Noel Gruber had been in love with Ricky Potts since the sixth grade.
He loved him before he knew he was gay.
He loved the way Ricky would fiddle with his hair whenever he was focusing, or the way that his hands were always cold.
Noel could name ten things about Ricky that he loved in ten seconds, then some more.
You could understand his excitement when Ricky asked him out on a date one afternoon after choir practice.
He had went over to Noel, who was struggling to place his computer charger into his backpack.
'Can I take you somewhere?' He signed to Noel, who just stared at him absolutely shocked.
"What..?" He must've been dreaming. Ricky Potts wanted to take him on a date.
'If you'd like… I'd like to take you somewhere… like a date' Ricky's hands were shaky as he signed, his pale face painting a light pink across his cheeks.
"You really want to go out… with me?" Noel points to himself, and Ricky nods. His own face suddenly matches the boy in front of him.
"I'd love to Ricky, when and where?"
'Saturday? 6 pm? I'll pick you up and show you'
"You've got yourself a date!"
~•~•~•~•~
Saturday rolled around and Noel was absolutely panicking. He couldn't decide what to wear! Was it casual or fancy?! Ricky never liked fancy stuff… he went with a safe option of a red sweater and jeans.
He was panicking with his makeup, having to be calmed down by Mischa Bachinski, his best friend.
"Noel, man, it doesn't matter what your makeup looks like. Rickster will love it."
"Yeah but what if it's too fancy!"
"Noel."
"What?!"
"He's here"
"What."
Mischa was leaning against his bedroom window, pointing to Ricky's mom's car. Shit. Noel put all his stuff away and gave Mischa a quick fist bump before running outside.
Right after that he realized he forgot to put shoes on, and bolted back inside, Mischa chilling on the couch.
"You forgot your shoes by the way." Mischa said, not looking up from his phone.
"Gee, what would I do without you." Noel flipped him off before putting his shoes on and running back down.
He hopped into Ricky's mom's car and sat next to Ricky, waving to him embarrassingly.
'You forgot to put on your shoes…'
"You saw that…?"
Ricky nodded, and Noel felt his face heat up.
He heard Mrs. Potts laugh before starting to drive.
"So… where's our destination?"
'Surprise'
Noel let out a soft huff, before laughing and leaning against Ricky anxiously, "Alright,, alright.."
It was a couple minutes before Mrs. Potts stopped in front of a park, turning to look at the two boys.
"You two have fun! And be safe and don't do acting stupid!"
Ricky rolled his eyes before getting it off the cart with Noels help.
Ricky made his was to the trunk, taking certain things out.
"Do you need help?" Noel offered to take a picnic basket that smelled like strawberries and other things he couldn't focus on.
Ricky nodded and got a large blanket and even larger bag out, which Noel took as well. The two made their way to a large empty spot in the park as Mrs. Potts drove away.
Ricky and Noel spread the blanket out and sat on top of it. Noel instantly felt relaxation and comfort, stretching a little bit. The soft grass with the fuzzy blanket was refreshing.
"This place is nice," Noel looked at Ricky, smiling as he blushes, "I'm glad you asked me out here."
'It was nothing' Ricky smiled and Noel gently pushed his shoulder jokingly.
Noel laughed and looked in the picnic basket as Ricky took the stuff out. There were two plates, and two glasses. There were strawberries, sandwiches, and a vanilla cake with velvet icing.
These were…
"All my favorite foods…" Noel looked at Ricky, blushing brightly, "You remembered?"
'Of course' Ricky was equally as red, smiling. Noel leaned closer to hug Ricky, who hugged him back tightly.
Noel pulled away to look at Ricky, smiling brightly. Ricky watched Noel, studying his expression as he leaned closer. Noel probably got the hint, because he started to lean in as well. Their faces were inches away, Noel's stomach was doing twirls and knots because he was about to kiss his crush since the goddamn sixth gra—
A child crying to their poor mother about not getting ice cream interrupted everything, and Noel pulled away. Ricky frowned for a second before doing the same thing.
"Should we eat?" Noel smiled. Ricky nodded and started dishing everything out to the two.
As they were eating, Noel couldn't help but continuing to stare at the giant black bag that Ricky brought. It was heavy, like a bunch of metal pipes were stuffed into it.
This thoughts were dragged back into sad reality when Ricky tapped his shoulder. Noel looked at him, smiling as he took a final bite of his sandwich.
"What're you looking at?" Noel teased, smiling
'A pretty boy' Ricky signed back just as teasingly. That made Noel flustered and dropping the sandwich into his lap.
Ricky laughed, taking the sandwich from Noel's legs and finishing it. "Hey!" He laughed and took a strawberry from Ricky's plate as revenge.
'Sorry! I like teasing you' Ricky signed as he moved his head to Noel's lap. The poet smiled and started playing with Ricky's hair.
"Its okay, I don't mind." Ricky smiled in response and took one of Noel's hands, lacing their fingers together as he stared at the sky. It was getting dark and that made Ricky really excited.
Noel noticed and tilted his head, "What're you smiling about, Potts?"
Ricky responded with grabbing the black bag, and pulling out different metal parts. Huh, so metal pipes was the right answer.
It wasn't, because Ricky then pulled out the rest of the parts of the telescope.
Noel pieced everything together, they were gonna watch the stars. That's adorable. He started to giggle softly as he watched Ricky put everything together easily.
Once he finished putting together the telescope, he motioned for Noel.
'Come! The stars are out and I really want to show you everything and tell you about all of the stars' Noel was absolutely in love with how Ricky got excited, so he agreed and crawled over to the telescope and next to Ricky.
The two spent over two hours watching constellations and stars, Ricky telling him about each constellation and different myths between them. This all made Noel fall in love with him all over again.
Noel was watching a shooting star go by, when he felt something hit his head. He reached to his hair and felt something damp.
A rain drop. Oh no.
More started to fall asleep Noel quickly covered the cake and strawberries. Ricky panicked with him as it started to rain. They all put everything away laughing and squealing.
Noel dialed Mischa for a ride home as he covered Ricky's head with the red jacket he brought.
After twenty-ish minutes, Mischa drove over to them in his crappy little Subaru and the two boys couldn't have gotten inside a car faster.
The two were giggling the entire ride and Mischa thought they were drunk. Really drunk.
They weren't, just awkward.
Mischa drove Noel to his house first.
Noel was sad about the moment ending, taking Ricky's hand and whispering their future plans in secret.
Once they made a plan for another date, Noel scooched over to get out of the car before being pulled back by his wrist.
He turned to look at Ricky, who pressed a gentle kiss to his lips.
Noel looked at him in shock, unable to kiss him back because Ricly pulled away too fast.
He went to say something, but there was thunder and that made him book it into his house.
As Mischa drove away to Ricky's house, he looked at Potts through the mirror.
"You really like him don't you?"
'Worse' Ricky signed, 'I love him'