"A dollar fifty??"

Oscar held the bottle in his hand in the general store, looking at the label and back at his friend, Beau. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the bottle and then back to the shelf, comparing the prices on the bottle he held with the others. 1.50$ on both. Oscar sighed, digging into his pockets.

"thats a whole fifty cents more than it used to be.."

Oscar groaned, pulling out 50 more cents from his pockets. Beau jokingly sighed after the other, smiling as he watched the other's frustration.

"Your favorite brand's gettin pricy, Oscar."

Beau teased, patting Oscar's back. Oscar turned to him, looking up to meet his eyes. "I aint gonna buy two of these, thats damn ridiculous. You opposed to splittin' one?" Beau chuckled, shaking his head. "I aint opposed, if you don't guzzle down all of it in one sip."

"deal."

The two made their way back to Beau's wagon, a cloth covered wagon where he lived, a mattress inside lit by lanterns with a pistol hanging off the side. Beau leaned up against the wagon, Oscar right beside them as they popped open the bottle and exchanged sips.

Oscar and Beau had met when they were only boys. They were both only 9 when they met in the woods by A local farm. they spent every morning at dawn playing, Oscar finding weirdly shaped rocks to give to beau, Beau playing tag with Oscar and accidentally shoving him into the mud- they were boys together. But Beau could never play long- and eventually stopped showing up when they turned 12. Oscar knew why, Beau had told him- But they didn't really like to talk about it much. but when Beau and Oscar reunited at 17, it was as if nothing had changed yet everything was different.

here they stood, sharing a bottle of Sarsaparilla as the sun set upon the ranch belonging to a mutual friend of theirs where Beau parked his wagon.

Oscar was the first to break the silence after a few long minutes.

"Do you ever miss playing every morning like we did?"

Another quiet moment passed before Beau responded.

"I miss our ignorant youth. And yeah, I do miss it sometimes."

Oscar chuckled. "look at you, being all poetic." Beau smiled, shaking his head. "its just the truth, don't know how else I'd put it."

The two looked into the sunset together, the moon peeking out to greet the sun before taking the night shift. Oscar took the last sip as he always did, setting the bottle aside.

"Beau, did you ever keep any of those dumb rocks I gave you?"

"Had to leave em behind. I kept em somewhere special but I couldnt take them with me."

Oscar nodded, biting his lip nervously as he prepared himself for what he really wanted to say.

"Y'know why I gave em to you?"

Beau thought for a moment before chuckling, looking down at him. "Well I know some of them were rather phallic shaped, and we were dumbass kids."

"no-! no, the other ones. the other rocks."

Beau rolled his eyes with a little smile. "They always looked somewhat like hearts."

"yeah."

multiple quiet minutes had passed, the sun having left them to their own thoughts, the moon keeping them company.

"...I always thought you were real sweet."

Beau shook his head with a little smile, running a hand along his own chin.

"the hell are you tryna do, butter me up?"

"no! no-" Oscar quickly shook his head. "I've just.. seen you in a bit of a different light lately."

Beau thought for a moment about his words. he wasn't dense, definitely not stupid either. He could read between the lines.

"Are you sayin' you want to go beyond what we have?"

Oscar looked down, kicking at the dirt with his old torn up boots, looking back at him.

"..You're real smart, Beau. always have liked that about you."

Beau chewed on the inside of his cheek, sighing. "I cant even read, Ozzy." "you know what I meant."

Beau knew what Oscar was trying to say. it was clear, But he wanted to hear it from his lips. His.. sweet, soft lips... he shook his head, shaking the thoughts to the side. He decided to be the one to put the question out there, see if Oscar would answer.

"Then what are we?"

The dreaded question. Oscar froze up, unsure of where to go from here. he didn't think he'd get this far. he was scared, knowing this would be the end of this era and onto the next for him. but he wasn't going to just ignore him. he deserved an answer.

"...More than friends, Id like."

"I think we can work that out."