Chapter Text
Charlie would not have agreed if he’d known it would come to this. If Tao had ever dreamed of this situation coming up, he probably would have made Charlie sign a contract in blood saying he would never get in a car with Harry Greene. Tao would probably not approve of Charlie timidly agreeing to join the rugby team for an after-game trip to McDonalds. He’d already made quite clear he didn’t understand ‘but Nick asked me to’ as an excuse. And it hadn’t actually even been Nick who asked him this time, it had been Christian, followed by calls from a few others, although Charlie thinks he would never had replied ‘oh, um, yes?’ if Nick hadn’t walked up behind him, the smell of his shampoo enveloping him and making him dizzy enough to blurt out something stupid.
Really stupid, it turned out: instead of a mostly neutral parent person driving them (although, perish the thought of ever having to encounter Harry’s parents), the car Charlie’s being ushered to is being driven by Christian’s older cousin. Harry’s claimed the front seat, supremely rudely given it’s Christian’s cousin’s car, but no-one says anything. Perhaps because they don’t want to share a back seat with Harry. Charlie has just finished climbing through to perch in the middle, Nick getting in after him and Christian just opening the door on the other side, when Sai surprises Christian by diving through the door instead.
‘Um, hey?’ he says.
‘Budge up!’ Sai says cheerfully. ‘No-one’s got any room for me, I have to come with you guys.’
‘And what, leave me behind?’ Christian is protesting.
‘Nah, it’s four blocks, we can fit an extra person in the car,’ Sai is saying. ‘Shove over, Charlie, you sit on Nick, Christian, come on, we’ll fit.’ He’s actually pulling Christian in through the door and shoving Charlie with his hip, expecting him to get up. And climb into Nick’s lap. Charlie is going to die.
Harry is hooting in the front seat. ‘Jesus Sai, don’t make Charlie too happy,’ he jeers.
Nick is frowning. ‘That doesn’t sound very safe, Sai …’
‘Bit rough on Charlie, Nick,’ Harry says, and Nick shoots him a furious glare.
‘Shut your mouth, Harry. I meant it’s not safe for Charlie not to have a seatbelt,’ Nick says. He looks worried.
‘You’re such a dad, Nick,’ Sai groans, and Charlie lets out a chuckle despite himself. ‘That’s so true,’ he says to Sai.
‘It’s fine,’ Christian’s cousin says, starting the engine of the car. ‘Just get it sorted anyway. Fuck, you kids are rowdy.’ Harry laughs but turns around and asks something about the car, to Charlie’s relief.
There is literally nothing for it but for Charlie to lift himself back out of the middle seat out of Sai’s way, and sit down on top of Nick. This is so embarrassing. The shampoo scent tickles his nose and so does a piece of Nick’s actual hair, as he pulls on the seatbelt for extra give for the strap to reach over the two of them. He’s frowning in concentration and Charlie doesn’t know how he can handle it. Nick gives him a quick smile as he lifts the seatbelt strap over Charlie’s head, and then he curves himself around Charlie to do up the buckle. He’s struggling to clip it in and Charlie starts to lean forward to try to help but that only makes the strap pull too tight to reach the buckle. Charlie lets out a tiny sigh of defeat and slumps against his handsome crush’s chest. Why not admit this is happening.
‘All right there, Nick mate?’ Sai asks of Nick’s struggles with the clip, but at least he doesn’t actually say anything homophobic, which feels like a miracle to Charlie, and Sai wriggles himself around and helps Nick clip the seatbelt in, finally. ‘There you go, dad,’ everyone’s belted,’ Sai says teasingly. ‘To Maccas!’
‘Drive on!’ Christian yells, and the yelling and hooting doesn’t really falter as they make the drive.
‘Sorry,’ Nick whispers in his ear under the noise, which Charlie could have done without, given everything else.
‘It’s fine,’ he replies, although it’s not. Although also, it is, because it’s Nick. Nick’s not said anything bad and is sitting as relaxed as if his friends hadn’t just made his gay friend with a secret crush on him (god Charlie hopes it’s still secret, at least from Nick. At least from Harry, and from Nick …) climb into his lap.
The car takes a corner too fast and they are all thrown sharply to the side, Sai suddenly knocking in to Charlie, Nick and Charlie sliding towards the window. Charlie’s face is burning: Nick’s arm had involuntarily wrapped around his waist as they were jerked to the side.
‘S…’ Nick starts to whisper, again, but Christian and Sai are shouting gleefully. As the car takes the next roundabout they holler and deliberately swing their bodies from one side to the other, pushing everyone to one side, then pushing into each other. ‘Whooaah, heeeyyy,’ they chant, laughing.
Nick puts a hand out flat against the seat in front of them. When Sai and Christian both press their weight down again as the car turns, hollering gleefully, Nick braces his arm so that no-one hits Charlie. Nick keeps looking straight ahead, looking very unimpressed by his friends. Charlie can’t help but look sideways, at the strong arm caging him in.
-
The rugby team settles across two booths in the busy Tuesday-evening McDonalds. Pros: Charlie is next to Nick, and they have discovered a mutual unusual hatred for the book The Little Prince; cons, Harry is at their table. Everyone flinches a little as Harry jumps up to get more food, loudly complaining that the first lot of food he’d scarfed down hadn’t been hot enough. Charlie tries (not very hard) to hide his disdain as he watches him go.
‘You all right, Charlie?’ Nick asks him quietly. He tries to smile but guesses it doesn’t quite convince Nick, who taps Charlie’s knee with the back of his hand under the table. ‘Do you want me to call my mum to get us a bit early?’ Nick asks. Charlie looks rueful.
‘I might have already asked my dad, actually. He just has to pick up my little brother and then he’ll be here to take me home.’
‘Okay,’ Nick says.
‘I didn’t know you had a little brother, Charlie,’ Sai says, all friendliness.
‘He’s a super cute kid,’ Nick says eagerly, as Charlie laughs and denies this.
‘No, he’s really annoying,’ Charlie says, ‘in a completely different way to how annoying my older sister is.’
‘Oh, there’s an older sister too, is there?’ Otis asks. ‘Is she fit, Nick?’ Nick winces and looks at Charlie.
‘Please get me out of answering that question,’ he begs, and Charlie laughs.
‘I think Nick finds Tori a bit … intimidating?’ he suggests. ‘All my friends seem to. I don’t know why, she’s annoying but also really nice.’
‘CHARLIE!’ Harry crashes back into his orbit. He throws his food down on the table and leans over towards Charlie. Charlie feels a slight pressure against the back of his neck; Nick’s arm where he’s resting it along the booth behind Charlie’s head. Nick is looking unsmilingly at Harry. Charlie swallows. Harry grins at him. ‘Charlie, mate. News for you. Very handsome fella just served me my chips, and he was wearing a gay rainbow and everything. Started to ask him out for you, mate, but some harpy bitch made me get out of her way. What do you think mate?’ Harry guffaws. ‘He’s that one, over there.’
Charlie doesn’t look over as Harry is telling him to, but he finds his voice. ‘Harry. Do me a favour. Please don’t be my wingman.’
‘That doesn’t just go for Charlie, Harry mate,’ Christian chimes in. ‘Please promise me you won’t ever ask out a girl for me, either.’ Several of the boys laugh, and Otis adds, ‘Yeah, me too, I’m begging you, Harry.’ Sai asks something about their upcoming match that’s a little too obviously changing the subject, but Charlie feels grateful all the same. Harry’s malice always feels a bit like a loaded gun that might go off, but the other boys seemed to have eased his finger off the trigger for now.
-
‘Sorry, love, I should have put a flea in his ear and sent him away a bit earlier,’ says the plump brunette woman to the teenager behind the counter. She adjusts her bag, which has a grubby toddler’s toy sticking out of it, and peers into his face. ‘Are you okay?’
He gives her a practiced smile. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Not complaining about you giving him a telling-off, though.’
‘You shouldn’t have to put up with that,’ she mutters, as she places her order. He takes her money and looks over her shoulder, and he smiles and actually takes a half-step back.
‘Wow, okay …’ he says. She raises an inquiring eyebrow. ‘I mean that guy was a dick and quite possibly taking the piss about having a gay friend at all, but I just saw the guy he was talking about and he is pretty stunning.’ He indicates the table with a subtle nudge of his shoulder and his customer turns slightly to look.
‘Oh,’ she says.
‘Ah,’ he says.
‘Oh well,’ she says consolingly, ‘even if that one’s taken, I’m sure someone lovely will come along soon.’
‘Um, thanks?’ he says, shaking his head and taking the next order. He does glance up and stare a few times at the beautiful boy in the booth opposite, but every time, he also sees the other boy with the broad shoulders who clearly can’t look away from him. He wishes them luck with their dick of a mate.
-
Charlie would never have thought he would be relieved to be standing out in the freezing cold and the dark outside a fast-food restaurant. He is definitely checking going out with the rugby lads off of his to-do list, forever. Some of the other boys are nice enough, but Harry Greene generates a force field of edgy, nasty energy that is not worth putting up with in social situations. Nick barely spoke a word to Harry, and didn’t say much to anyone other than Charlie the whole time either. Charlie wonders about that.
‘Oh. Hello.’ Charlie looks over and sees a boy with a fleecy hat pulled down against the cold, smiling at him. He’s just come out the side door of the restaurant and down the set of steps with a railing that Charlie is leaning against. The other boy leans against the railing opposite, mirroring Charlie’s pose.
‘Oh, um …’ Charlie doesn’t know what to say. Does he know him from somewhere?
‘I just finished up my shift, waiting to be picked up,’ the boy says.
‘Did you have a good night?’ Charlie asks, to be polite.
‘Bit of a rough one, with those homophobic rugby lads coming in,’ the boy says lightly. He looks down at his shoes and laughs. He has a nice laugh and quite an attractive smile. His eyes crinkle as he looks back up at Charlie. ‘Sorry, I know you were actually with them. Which, what’s the story there?’
‘You’re assuming I’m not a rubgy lad?’
‘I am making that assumption, yes.’ The boy smirks at him.
‘Well, I have to tell you that you are incorrect. I’m sorry about the homophobia, specifically, and the … laddishness generally. But they are … my teammates. On the Truham rugby team?’ It sounds very strange when he puts it like that. But he smiles back, anyway. ‘So you’re wrong about thinking I’m too weak to be a ruby lad.’
‘I mean, I was actually thinking you’re too pretty.’ Charlie is speechless at that. The other boy stands up away from the railing. ‘Do you— ’ he starts to say.
‘Charlie!’ He looks up in astonishment to see Nick running lightly up to him, his coat zipped against the cold.
‘What are you doing here?’ he asks him. ‘I thought you were going home with the others.’
‘Christian told me you were waiting for your lift.’ Nick is frowning at him. His skin is pale in the reflected light of the lamps in the car park across from them.
‘Yeah, I told you, my dad’s coming to get me. He just had to come a bit later.’
‘I didn’t want you to be waiting alone,’ Nick says, shaking his head, and as if that settles everything, he moves past Charlie and turns around to lean against the stair rail next to him, crossing his feet at the ankles.
‘Charlie?’ Another voice says his name. In surprise, Charlie looks over to the guy who he’d been talking to. Possibly flirting with. He walks up closer to them, still smiling slightly.
‘Can I put my number in your phone?’ he asks. Charlie just stares at him, mouth dropping open. He feels a bit panicky. He’s not sure if he wants to say yes, but has no idea how to say no, and Nick is right there next to him. Charlie hears Nick make a small sound; probably of surprise. What does he do? The boy waits for a couple of seconds and then dips his head with a rueful expression as Charlie doesn’t say anything.
‘Right, well, I guess I am just a stranger in a dark carpark. And my lift’s here. But, um. My name is Jay, and, I’m in Year Ten and you know where I work? If you ever want to drop by. Charlie.’ He gives one more handsome smile and jogs away across the carpark to a waiting car. Charlie stares after him, still in shock. What just happened. Why could he not say anything.
‘Was that rude?’ he asks aloud.
‘Did you want to give him your number?’ He hadn’t really meant to ask Nick that question, but he answers anyway.
‘I don’t … know … I dunno! I’ve never really… literally no-one has ever asked for my number before! I didn’t know what to say.’
Nick lifts his chin. ‘He seemed very sure of himself.’
‘We were talking, earlier …’ Charlie explains, feeling himself blush. That had actually been flirting, hadn’t it.
Nick pushes his hands in his pockets and he scuffs against the edge of a step with one shoe. ‘Well, it doesn’t exactly seem like a good idea, talking to someone you don’t even know when you’re all by yourself at night. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming to wait out here alone? You just disappeared, and then there’s some guy like, asking for your number, in a car park. Did you even think about what you were doing?’
It’s not exactly been an easy night so far, and Charlie is stung by the harsh tone in Nick’s voice, when Nick is always friendly and smiling and gentle. He snaps back at him.
‘What’s it got to do with you?’
‘Charlie? Boys? What’s this about?’ Charlie jumps guiltily, and sees his dad just a few steps away in the dim light, with Olly sitting on his shoulders. His dad is turning a concerned look between Charlie and Nick, while Olly drums his feet.
‘Charlie! Nick! We’re getting McDonalds!’
‘Were you two having a fight?’ his dad asks.
‘No,’ they both mutter, glancing at each other and away.
‘Well,’ says his dad, after a pause, ‘Olly and I have an order to place at McDonalds. He and Tori decided it was only fair they have McDonalds for dinner as well, since I was picking you up from here. So you have until we come back to finish up not fighting.’
‘Nick needs a lift home,’ Charlie says, ‘He missed his lift to wait with me.’
‘Oh, no, that’s okay, Mr Spring, I can call my mum to come get me …’
‘It’s fine, Nick,’ his dad says.
‘Come on, Daddy, why are we still out here!’ Olly cries, and then he laughs as they jog towards the lights of the restaurant.
There’s a crackling silence as they disappear. Charlie feels like his friendship with Nick has slipped into new territory: they’ve never been upset at each other before. He sort of wants to apologise but he’s sort of still angry about it, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. It doesn’t help that Nick looks so annoyingly perfect in the low light: taller than Charlie even as he slides down against the railing again, pushing golden hair away from his face as he bites on his lip. He folds his arms across his unfairly broad chest.
‘Look,’ he says.
‘Okay, sorry about this, a bit awkward,’ a cheery voice cuts Nick off. It’s the boy who works here, Jay, sailing back past them and running up the steps. ‘Forgot my keys and I have to close tomorrow!’ He has his phone pressed against his ear, talking to someone inside to tell them he needs to be let in. It is indeed awkward, and Charlie doesn’t know where to look as he disappears inside again. Nick is looking at him. He opens his mouth as though he’s going to say something, but he doesn’t. Charlie flinches a bit as he hears the door open again, but turns around, determined that if Jay says anything else to him he will find some way to reply and have it sound normal.
Jay comes back down the steps at a slightly slower pace, finding Charlie and smiling again. ‘You’re still here,’ he says, sounding pleased. He comes closer and offers Charlie a piece of paper, and Charlie automatically raises his hand to accept it.
‘Old school,’ Jay says, his smile not diminishing. ‘Found a pen and a piece of paper. So you can choose if you want to … put my number in your phone or not.’ He flicks his eyes away from Charlie’s, and Charlie he realises Nick has moved up behind him, right up to his shoulder.
Jay’s smile doesn’t drop but her raises an eyebrow. ‘Or …’ he says, staring behind Charlie at Nick, ‘are you two already a thing?’ Charlie goes hot, and his heart hammers.
‘No! Oh, no, he’s, we’re … not,’ he stammers out. Way to say something super normal, Charlie. Jay has an odd expression on his face, raising both eyebrows now at Nick.
‘Seems, ‘no’,’ he says, to Nick. He finally looks back at Charlie, bending a little closer. Oh. Jay is tall, too. Charlie feels the paper flutter in his hand and realises he really needs to say something else. He looks down at the missive – it’s been ripped off some kind of printed notepad – and is about to try and say a simple and non-embarrassing ‘thank-you, I’ll think about it,’ when Nick’s breath on the side of his neck scrambles his thoughts again. The knuckles of Nick’s hand keep knocking against Charlie’s hip. Charlie is warm all down one side where Nick is almost pressed up next to him. He’s cold on the other. He realises that he is in the quite absurd position of being basically sandwiched between two tall bodies, one his fast-becoming-best-friend and secret-straight-boy-crush, the other an interesting but unsettling total stranger, and it has been a night and he is over all of it. Also his dad is due back at any second with fast food and his shouty little brother. Why is this happening now?
‘Okay, I can see this was not my moment,’ Jay says, stepping back a little, to Charlie’s relief. ‘But … you know you do deserve … someone to take you out with him. Charlie.’
That hits a little too close for comfort. Charlie lifts his gaze, feeling sure he looks like a deer caught in headlights. Jay’s smile is a little more gentle and sincere now, and it’s an even better look on him. ‘There’s a restaurant by the river that I really like, they have live music there on Sundays? Sometimes my friends are playing? It might be a nice place … for a date … if you felt like it.’
‘I—’
Nick’s hand bumps into his side again and Charlie forgets what he was going to say. Jay’s expression clouds over with frustration and his eyes light up with a little bit of malice. He straightens up and addresses Nick. ‘That’s how you ask a guy out, by the way,’ he says in a stage-whisper. Nick makes a sound like a tea-kettle.
‘Do you even want Charlie to go out with you, or are you just being mean for no reason?’ Jay is unfazed by this, his smile widening.
‘A little bit of both. You are really cute,’ he looks back towards Charlie, and his smile turns nice again, eyes crinkling at the corners, ‘and you seem quite lovely, as well.’ He lifts a hand and chucks Charlie under the chin, ‘Even if you’re maybe not having the best night?’ Charlie feels a surge of movement behind him and looks around to see Nick taking a step away from both of them. He’s folded his arms tightly across his chest and his jaw is tight. Charlie feels a hot spike of anger again. What is Nick’s problem.
‘And, well, I couldn’t really go on any dates as a gay teenager if I didn’t ask out guys who were hung up on their straight best friends,’ Jay mutters. Charlie snaps his head back to stare at the other boy, shocked. Jay’s expression is now annoyed, and he looks over across the car park, probably towards his lift. Okay, this guy has been nothing but confusing, but maybe is actually a bit of an arse after all. ‘Mmn lovely as you seem, I think I’m probably good, thanks,’ Charlie snips back. The other boy meets his eye, looks a bit contrite, and then starts to say something else and stops. He breathes out and shakes his head, then turns and walks across the car park again without saying anything else.
Charlie’s head is spinning. What was that. Did that guy want to ask him out, or insult him? Had he been trying to get rid of Charlie’s Nick, or was he just taunting him for fun? Why was it always guys like that? Why did no-one straightforward ever like him?
‘Don’t go on a date with him.’ Charlie jumps at Nick’s words. Nick still has his arms folded and he’s not looking at Charlie, staring at the ground. Charlie has to swallow a lump in his throat, his stupid crush-confused brain wanting those words to mean more than they do. He tries to reassure his protective friend.
‘I wasn’t going to, he didn’t seem all that nice to be honest …’
‘You’re still holding his number, though.’ Nick is looking at Charlie’s hand, which is still gripped around the torn-off piece of notepaper.
‘Oh … am I?’ Startled, Charlie opens his hand and the paper slips to the ground. Charlie feels a squeeze of guilt, but it’s about the littering, not the loss of the phone number. ‘I might have considered it if he hadn’t gotten … kinda mean the second he was frustrated, and if he hadn’t, like, grabbed me without asking? Both probably red flags.’ Charlie wishes he wasn’t quite so well acquainted with both those signs. Nick is scowling, and he glares over towards the end of the car park that Jay had left towards. His voice is rough.
‘Yeah what was that? Touching you like that. Was he going to kiss you, right in front of me?’
There’s a rushing sound in Charlie’s ears. ‘… in front of … you?’
‘Nick! Charlie! I got a book!’ Olly races up to him and headbuts him in the leg. He’s flapping a tiny square book like it’s a flag. ‘McDonalds gave me a book!’ Nick is giving Olly a weak smile. Charlie swallows and doesn’t quite look at his dad, who is balancing two full paper bags and gesturing with his chin for them to come along back to the car.
‘Time to go, boys,’ he calls.