Unraveling [BXB]

Chapter 15

On Saturday morning, Chase stood outside the train station, shifting between looking around and staring at his phone to avoid looking like he didn't know what he was doing. He'd shown up fifteen minutes early just to make sure he wouldn't be late. He knew Wren wouldn't board the train without him, but he still couldn't shake the fear that there was a possibility of that happening, so he just decided to make sure it wouldn't.

He had gone back and forth for almost forty minutes about what to wear for their...definitely not a date. He'd tried on six different shirts, five pairs of pants, and stared at the skirt laying in the back of his closet for nearly ten minutes before just throwing on a pair of black skinny jeans and his favorite patterned brown and green oversized sweater. Looking at himself in the mirror, he had started to wonder if Taylor had been right about that midwest emo band kid comment. He did look like someone who would listen to the kind of obscure band that had an overly complicated name and a lead singer who would probably be outed as a sexual assailant in the next five years.

Admittedly, he felt a bit underdressed when he saw Wren walking toward him wearing a black turtleneck under a dark, rose-printed button up that was halfway unbuttoned and tucked into black pants which had a silver chain draped from one of the beltloops. All he could really do was stare for a minute as he tried to find something to say about it. Fuck, he had no right to look that good in anything.

"You're looking more bisexual today that usual," Chase finally said, meeting Wren's eyes.

"It's a special occasion," Wren said with a small smirk as he walked past Chase and nodded, gesturing for him to follow. "But if it gets you to look at me like you just did, maybe I should dress up more often."

"I wasn't-"

"Yes, you were," Wren said, pulling out their tickets to show the man at the counter before he walked through with Chase and stepped onto the train.

"Do you think I look like a closeted midwest emo band kid?" Chase asked as they were sitting down and Wren laughed softly, looking over his outfit.

"Is that not what you were going for?"

"No. I was going for...I don't know, casual and mildly mysterious band kid who's possibly a pothead."

"You want to look like a pothead?" Wren asked, a tiny, amused grin never leaving his face.

"Maybe? Potheads are cool, right?" Chase asked, then glaring as Wren but his lip to keep from laughing.

"Yeah, Mouse, of course they are," Wren said. "If it makes you feel better though, I think most Midwest emos are also potheads, so you're hitting the nail on the head either way."

"Oh, fuck off," Chase said as he shoved him and Wren just laughed.

— — —

"Alright, we've got roughly two hours until people start really showing up, so what are you feeling first? They've got a shark exhibit, a reef area, and a freshwater exhibit, but that's on the other side of the building so we might want to save that."

"Do they have sea turtles?" Chase asked.

"Oh yeah, that's this way," Wren said, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he walked into one of the darkened tunnels with Chase trailing closely behind him.

There really was almost no one in the building. Granted, it wasn't a very well-known aquarium and it was barely seven in the morning, but it still felt a bit surreal to be walking through empty rooms bathed in blue light and surrounded by fish tanks.

"Oh, stop here for a second. You see that yellow, kind of angry-looking fish?" Wren asked, pointing to it. Chase nodded, keeping his eyes on it. "That's a frog fish. Their teeth are too small to break down food, so they swallow their prey whole. They can also eat things twice their size."