It was a little after 9AM and Chase was enjoying the warmth and comfort of being curled up in bed enjoying the 2nd day of January, just letting time go by when his mom came into the room and told Chase that they were going to the mall and that he needed to be ready to go by 10AM.
It struck Chase a bit strange, but he thought that if mom was taking him to the mall then it might be a chance to get some more stuff out of her. Being a junior in college, meant that there was fewer opportunities now for Mom to go with shopping and buy Chase stuff and Chase definitely liked his stuffJ
Being a bit cold on this morning, Chase threw his favorite comfy gear on, his black North Face fleece, his jeans, and his Sperrys and took off. Still nothing too surprising until it is that they got to the mall and once inside, Mom told Chase that he had a 10:30 appointment at the eye doctor because she thought Chase was having some trouble seeing.
Chase’s face got bright red; the thought of needing glasses had not occurred to him and frankly was beginning to freak him out. He started to blurt out some objection, but Mom was having none of it. And so they went, Chase knew it pointless to fight it, because the alternatives were not pleasant.
Mom took charge inside, talking to the receptionist, filling out the chart, doing everything that needed to be done. Chase sat in the seat, just staring at the ground, thinking and trying to convince himself that his eyes were fine, but he had a nervous feeling that this was not going to go well.
The moment came, and Chase wobbled upright and headed back with the doc. The exam was going real well for Chase or so he thought until the doctor switched charts and asked Chase to read the farthest line down he could. Chase panicked, he was sure there was a line that he was not going to be able to read. He started to squint his eyes, but the doc would have none of that. No, no, eyes fully open. Chase got through a good deal of line 5, and made a guess below.
An uneasy silence came into Chase’s head, as it seemed like hours between then and when the doc informed Chase that he was going to have Chase look through this machine. Honestly, the rest of the exam was a blur for Chase, as he read lines until he could read all of the chart clearly both far away and up close.
Chase waited for the doctor to say the words “Chase, no big deal but you do need to be wearing glasses”. It hit like a cannonball to the stomach, he looked at the chart and it was clearer through the lenses but Chase hadn’t ever thought of glasses being a thing for him.
The walk from the exam room to the optical seemed like the longest walk of Chase’s life. And, the worst part for Chase was that his mom seemed so happy that Chase needed glasses. Ugh, what is wrong with her he thought?
The optician looked at Chase and gave him some options of what to get. Honestly, Chase did not care, but after some deliberation, they all decided on a medium size pair of black plastics for Chase. Luckily or unluckily, this being a mall optical, the glasses could be ready in an hour.
The hour between was a time of sitting in the pizza place sullenly eating pizza, drinking his Dr. Pepper and dreading the next part. After eating and wandering, they made it back to the optical and headed to the back. Chase sat down in the chair and waited for the optician to come back out with his new glasses.
She cleaned, polished, and then placed them gingerly on Chase’s head. Chase had a weird feeling as they were placed on his face, it felt weird to have these things on his face, but looking out did see that they did make things a little easier to see. However, when he looked in the mirror, he panicked thinking he had turned into a hideous monster.
No matter what Chase’s mom and the optician could say, he wanted nothing more than to just look at the floor and looked down all the way home. When he got home, he looked up just in time to see Mom taking a pic of his new glasses. Usually, he would argue but now he just grunted and headed up to his room to crash on the bed and take a nap.
He threw the glasses on the nightstand and laid down, but then about an hour later, he got a couple texts in quick succession. He opened his phone to see what was going on. It was 3 texts from friends of his, complementing and raving on his new glasses and look. Mom had gone and put his pic on Facebook. Chase got up and went over to the laptop and went to the page, everyone was liking the new pic and commenting on how awesome he looked.
Chase was puzzled by this, and then put on the glasses and looked again. Guess must not be too bad then; he thought and kept them in place. It seems like this holiday surprise may not be too bad after allJ
The next few days of break flew by for Chase as they do for every college student and then it was time to head back to college and for the spring semester. As Chase was a junior, thankfully he no longer had to put up with the dorm rules and had his own apartment with a buddy from college.
Chase still wasn’t 100% happy about having glasses but he did seem to wear them most of the time as it was a little better view with them. He got back to the apartment around Saturday lunchtime and had almost everything unpacked when he saw Nate pull up in the parking lot. Nate was about the only one of his friends who hadn’t yet seen Chase’s new look as Nate had decided to have a technology-free holiday because Nate thought it was the thing to do.
Chase and Nate were like Felix and Oscar but they both knew how lucky there were they really got along so good. Chase wondered what humorous remark Nate was gonna make about Chase being in glasses, knowing that this might be the sort of thing that Nate found worthy of legendary commentary. Chase closed his door and decided he’d finish unpacking before greeting Nate.
“Yo, Natester” Chase remarked as he came out of his room. But, there was no mention by Nate of Chase’s new look, in fact for Chase it was kinda of weird as Nate hardly looked at his face except for a brief look at first. It was like the glasses were a kryptonite for Nate.
This behavior continued on for a good part of the evening as they got everything ready for them to be back at college. Nate excused himself to his bedroom way early and Chase was left to sit on the couch by his self. It ended up to be a boring evening and Chase went to bed early.
Sunday morning, Chase did the usual guy thing and headed for the bathroom for the morning business. As of yet, the glasses were not yet a first thing in the morning deal and so they sat on the dresser while he went in. Chase headed back for his room and caught Nate holding his glasses and staring at them.
“What’s going on Nate?” Chase asked. Nate stammered out a negative reply and ran back into his bedroom and locked the door. Chase stood confused for a second and then the light bulb went off in his head.
While Nate had locked the door to his room, Chase knew where the secret key was that unlocked the door. They both knew where they were in case the other had done something stupid and so Chase put his glasses on, threw some basketball shorts on, and went into the kitchen to retrieve the key.
Chase put the key in the door and opened it, and found Nate trying to act like he was asleep. Silly Nate, Chase thought as Chase decided he would plop on the bed and since it was still only 7:30ish, wait Nate’s game out. “So Nate, what’s the deal?”
Chase looked over and saw a few tears on Nate’s face. This was really weird Chase thought and so he decided right then and there, this had to end. He reached over and grabbed Nate. “Okay Nate, sit up, we gotta figure out what’s going on here, you have barely looked at/spoken to me since we came back.”
Nate sat up and in a low voice asked Chase to leave him alone. Chase walked over to the dresser and got a tissue out of the box and wiped Nate’s tears away. He then proceeded to take off his glasses and place them on Nate’s face. “This is the issue, Nate right? You were in my room to try them on and found something out.”
Nate looked at Chase and just nodded his head. Chase took the glasses back off Nate’s face and put them back on his face. “So what’s the problem, Nate, look I ain’t gonna read the board for you in our 2 classes and then you’d still have a couple others so I guess we gotta go to the mall and see if you can get into one of those one hour placesJ”
Well Nate nodded again and the day continued on. Now, they were off to the mall to see if they could get Nate’s eyes checked.
With that decision made, Chase pulled out his smart phone and searched to see what he could find. He remembered he had went to Eyeworld at home and thought he could remember there being an Eyeworld at the mall here in town. Ch-ching, success for Chase, he found there was an Eyeworld at the mall and that he could even see that they had a couple of appointments available this Sunday.
“Yo Nate, what time do you wanna go?” asked Chase. Chase listened but could only hear the loud rumble of Nate’s snoring from the other room. Chase looked at the times, 12:45, 4:30 and 5:00, and thought that if Nate did need glasses, that he better choose 12:45 so that there would be the best chance of being able to get them before classes started back up on Monday.
Chase had a quiet couple of hours of productivity before Nate stumbled out of the room around 10:30 and declared that yeah, this morning was a bad morning and that let’s forget about all that happened earlier. Chase shook his head and waited for Nate to come back out of the restroom.
Chase listened and heard the shower head come on and knew that Nate was gonna be a bit in there and so he came up with an idea. He flipped his laptop and googled an eye test page where it had a printable eye chart. He printed it off, made sure it was correct and waited for his moment.
When Nate had finished doing his morning routine, he emerged clothed but not really dressed for going out. He walked into the living room and into really the lion’s den. Chase let him sit a minute before springing into action.
He walked over and taped a piece of paper on to the wall and then put a piece of masking tape on the carpet a few feet away. “Okay Nate, one thing real quick and I’ll drop this morning, just stand at the masking tape.” Nate smiled and walked to the tape.
“Now Nate, simply you can get me to shut my yap, just by reading the line of letters on that piece of paper on the wall that I didn’t cover up.” Nate had that cocky look about him and let Chase know that there was nothing but a blank piece of paper up there.
It was at this moment that Chase pulled the blank piece away revealing 7 letters on a sheet. As Nate looked now, a wave of uncertainty took over his body, he knew Chase had mentioned 7 letters but while Nate could tell there was writing up there, he couldn’t quite make them out. He started to squint his eyes, but Chase was watching him like a hawk and yelled at Nate not to squint. Nate froze and just stood there until Chase walked over and handed him his glasses.
Chase knew Nate enough to just be quiet and give Nate his glasses. Nate put them on his face and went silent. The letters were much more in focus, but even still weren’t totally perfect. His voice was low and he told Chase that they did help but he still couldn’t totally do it.
Chase just looked at Nate, and said simply, “Natester, then get ready, we have you an appointment at 12:45”. They got ready to leave the apartment and Chase jokingly laughed “I think I’ll driveJ)
Thankfully, Nate chuckled back and said yeah that’s probably a good thing.
They got to the mall and headed in. Chase told Nate to give him a buzz once he got done with his exam and that he’d come and assist in picking specs, but that he was gonna just chill til then.
Nate walked into the shop, and filled out the paperwork. The doctor came in, asked Nate the standard questions and pretty much the typical eye exam took place. Nate’s eyes were just a little worse than Chase’s and a rather easy fix, but that yeah Nate needed glasses.
The last 24 hours had been an emotional roller-coaster for Nate, he had come back all cocky, then seen his best bud newly bespectacled which sent all his hidden concern about his own eyes into the open, tried Chase’s glasses, realized it was better, panicked, and now was amazingly at ease about all of this.
Nate headed with his new script for glasses into the optical and handed it to the optician. She looked at it and told Nate that it was a pretty easy standard prescription and there’d be no trouble filling it this afternoon. He then bopped out his phone and buzzed Chase to get over here to help him pick out specs.
Nate decided that this could be fun and so proceeded to start trying on all sorts of glasses to see what he liked. He actually fairly quickly selected one of three that he liked and had them on the desk as Chase walked in.
Chase walked in and realized how much more relaxed he was then when he went through the same experience himself just a few days ago. He looked through the clear view at his buddy Nate standing next to the glasses case.
It was hard to believe when the vacation started but Chase was really beginning to admire the clear view he had through his glasses and liked the look of them on him.
“Well Nate, we know the result, so let’s see what you have picked out”. Nate smiled in a mischievous way and slid on a pair of 1970’s style big gold frames that were more suitable for that porn star look than anything else.
Chase started giggling and more in that girlish kind of laugh that he could do when he really let his guard down, and Nate started laughing at Chase’s laughing. After the hilarity had settled down, Nate was sure to let Chase know this was a joke pair and took a step to the real case.
He told Chase to close his eyes while he placed the actual pair on his face. Chase was being cool about all this and kept his eyes closed until the magic word by Nate. With the all clear being given, Chase opened his eyes and looked over at Nate.
Nate’s eyes were surrounded by a black plastic frame that for all purposed looked to be pretty much the same style as Chase’s. Chase had to take a deep breath, the image was really exciting but he didn’t want Nate to realize how amazing it was.
“Um yeah, Nate, those are cool.” Chase finally muttered out of his mouth. With the two of them only being a couple feet apart, even uncorrected Nate could tell that Chase definitely fancied more than he wanted to admit. The next part was for them to be fitted and prepped before the lenses were to be made and the glasses finished.
Chase stepped out into the mall and sat on one of the benches while Nate went through the final steps of getting the glasses prepped to be made. He sat out there and talked to himself. “OK, Chase, get yourself in order, Nate is getting glasses the same as yours, but we have to remain calm.”
Nate emerged from the store and spotted Chase in la-la-land, “Yo Chase boy, there’s a $20 bill on the floorJ “. Chase flew up and started looking frantically while Nate exploded in laughter. Chase turned purple and followed Nate down the path.
Having some time to kill, Nate and Chase headed for the mall food court to grab some vittles while they were waiting. And, again Chase could barely eat his food while Nate ate his cheeseburger along with ½ of Chase’s. They were nursing their sodas when Nate looked at his cell and decided that it was time to check on his glasses.
They headed back to Eyeworld and towards the back seating area just as the optician brought a pair of glasses out of the lab. It was Nate’s and the optician joked that Nate must have had ESP about them being ready.
Nate sat down in the seat and waited patiently as the glasses were cleaned and placed gently on his face. The fit was almost perfect from the beginning, a couple minor tweaks and Nate declared them perfect.
It was like turning on a new HD set for Nate, everything was so crisp and clear, everything sharp and electric. It was awesome, he looked in the mirror and saw this cute black plastic frame on him, gently caressing his face, illuminating the eyes.
He turned to Chase and Chase could do little but choke out that they looked good. He knew at this point that Chase was in serious dig mode and that it was time to get Chase to be honest about things.
Chase drove home and looked straight ahead, his mind racing about Nate and what was going through his head, he wasn’t sure what was going to happen but that it was too much. Thoughts he didn’t want to deal with at this point in time.
Nate sat relaxed in the front seat, enjoying the view, kicking his own Sperrys on Chase’s dash, an event that would usually draw Chase’s ire but Chase was too much in thought to chastise Nate at this time.
They got home and Chase quickly headed for the bathroom and straight into his room. Nate let this go on for about 90 minutes, but it was nearing 5PM now and Nate was wanting to see how far he could get so he thought this was the time.
Nate went into his bedroom and changed into a simple black tank top and his new pink briefs, the hair messed up slightly, and his glasses firmly on and knocked on Chase’s door. Chase muttered some excuse, but Nate put the key in the door and walked in.
Chase looked up from the bed at Nate and peered over at Nate, but the view was a little less than perfect as Chase had a tear in his eye and his glasses were on the bedside table.
“Can you please leave me alone?” was all that came out of Chase’s mouth as he struggled to deal with everything that was flooding his body. He had a bunch of tough academic courses this semester and now this, his roomie was now causing him so much turmoil.
Nate’s face and attitude changed and became more subdued as it was very clear that Chase was in the midst of an emotional rollercoaster. Realizing that he was playing with a keg of dynamite, Nate excused himself and went out into the living room. The decision had been made to allow Chase all the freedom that he needed at this point.
Looking down at himself, Nate realized that his attire was not the best for keeping things low-key so he slid on his favorite hoody and basketball shorts and started watching some television. He noted that it hadn’t been the television after all, but his eyes which were why he had thought the television had been on the decline last semester. He chuckled aloud.
For Nate, the rest of Sunday night would be pretty boring. He fixed himself a frozen pizza and munched on it while relaxing, and waiting to see if Chase would emerge from his room. Chase stayed locked up in his room until Nate slid a note under the door telling him, that Nate would go into his own room for a bit if Chase wanted to grab a bite. This was done and all would be quiet as they prepped for Monday morning and the start of the new semester.
There would be no running into each other on Monday morning as they were on different time schedules and parts of campus. Nate was so busy with his school stuff that he only briefly wondered to what Chase was up to until Nate walked up the stairs to the apartment after being gone from 7AMish to what was now a little before 3 in the afternoon. He opened the door and saw Chase dash into his room as he walked in. This was not going to be much of a semester if this is how everything was going to be.
The story would repeat itself for the first week of the semester until Nate walked in the door on Friday. Yeah, he had said he was going to leave Chase be, but walking in the apartment and seeing Chase run for the door yet again was beginning to be seriously annoying.
Nate did the usual things he did after coming back to the apartment; he went to the restroom, changed clothes, had a snack, and looked at his mail/e-mail/Facebook.and Twitter. But, now he looked over at the clock and it was 4:30. His buddy had been out of service all week and it was going to be a non-acceptable weekend if things didn’t get resolved.
He decided that it was probably best not to be as provocative as the tank and pink undies bit, and so had on his hoodie and track pants when he knocked on the door. “Yo Chasester, we gotta talk”
Chase whimpered out another go away, please out the door. It was rather pitiful and depressing. Nate turned away from the door and headed into the kitchen to pull out the same key that Chase had used on him a week ago and put it in Chase’s lock. The door slowly opened and Nate found Chase just sitting on the floor looking dejected just staring ahead but without his glasses.
Nate looked over and saw Chase’s glasses sitting on the desk, he walked over and picked them up and brought them to Chase. “Chasester, there’s a bunch of stuff we gotta talk about, but first dude put your glasses on.” Chase got defensive and was starting to give some reasons, so Nate just leaned over and put them on Chase’s face.
Chase knew it best not to struggle, so he let Nate place them on his face, but it was too much for Nate to be touching him and so Chase definitely got hard down there. He looked down and it was too late, his shorts were being tented and he started to cry. Nate looked and knew what Chase was going through and so without a word being said, leaned over to Chase and engaged in a passionate kiss.
Statistics: Posted by Jamie32 — Tue May 14, 2013 12:50 am