The heartstopper

Chapter 2

It was Thursday and luckily for Mr Ajayi and Mr Farooq, the rest of the students finally turned in their forms, although they did wait until the very last minute to do so. They'd leave on Monday for their Paris trip which would be from the 28th of June to the 4th of July. It was also the year eleven's last school day of the year so they were all full of energy and chaos.

It was another day, another homophobic encounter, this time being from Ben himself, the possibility bi possibly straight but 100% an asshole.

This time Charlie was all alone, Nick was in a meeting with Mrs. Singh about the Rugby team and Tao had left as soon as the bell had rung to meet up with Elle, they were going to Tao's house for a movie night and Isaac was meeting them there in an hour. Charlie was invited to join them but he had denied the offer because of his already made plans with Nick.

Ben had snuck up on Charlie right as he was turning the corner away from his locker, "Charlie," He said, getting the others' attention.

"Ben," Charlie acknowledged.

"You haven't been replying to my messages," He pointed out as he stepped closer to the younger boy.

"I muted your messages," He replied.

"I tried to apologize, if you would just hear me out," Ben went to brush his arm against Charlie but he moved out of the way.

"Don't touch me," Charlie tried to leave, he was uncomfortable but Ben put his arm out to stop him.

"Oh come on, what is your problem? I didn't want to come out!" Ben whispered in a harsh tone.

"And I wouldn't have made you but you still had a girlfriend and you still treated me like shit, now let me go,"

Ben moved his arm, letting Charlie pass but as he started to walk towards the nearest exit, Ben shouted after him, "You're nothing but a -Insert homophobic slur here- anyway!"

Charlie cringed at the slur being used against him, it wasn't the first time he's been called it yet it didn't get any easier.

Charlie walked right out of the school, passing other students on his way. His bus would be arriving soon so he hurried to the bus stop.

Nick was coming over after he stopped at his house first, that was something to look forward to, they were going to pack, but suddenly Charlie wasn't in the mood for packing, he'd much rather lay in silence with his head on his boyfriend's shoulder for the rest of the night, but he was sure that his mom would walk in the second they were to get comfortable.

Tori didn't take the bus on the way home, she had decided to take the long way and walk, which she did quite often, the bus wasn't that enjoyable, it was loud and often had an odd smell.

When he arrived home, his mom was already there, she must have gotten off work early.

"Charlie, is that you?" His mom called from the kitchen.

"Yeah," He replied.

"Is Victoria with you?" She asked.

"No, Tori walked," He called back.

"Alright,"

Charlie took the silence as a chance to head up to his room, dumping his bag on top of his bed.

He took out his phone to check for any notifications but there were none, not even a message from Nick, which disappointed him even though he'd be seeing him in just half an hour.

The doorbell rang after what felt like hours, Charlie immediately sprinted down the stairs, nearly falling flat on his face. His mom, who had already gotten up to answer the door, was standing behind him with a disapproving look on her face.

"Charles, that was quite unnecessary," she scolded.

"Sorry, it's just... Nick," He gestured towards the door.

The doorbell rang a second time and Charlie swung open the door with a huge grin on his face, "Nick!"

---

"The packing list says to bring four shirts, two pairs of pants, three pairs of shorts, two jumpers..." Nick listed off.

"We're going for several days, shouldn't we pack enough clothes for seven days?" Asked Charlie.

"Well the idea is that you can re-wear your clothes, unless you're planning on rolling around in mud in each outfit," Nick explained.

"Yes but if you wear an outfit it's automatically dirty, jumpers I understand re-wearing once or twice but shirts? Pants? It's hot and I am not walking around smelling like sweat," Charlie refused.

"I'm sure you could ask to do laundry," Nick offered.

"And risk my clothes being stolen? No thanks,"

Charlie ended up having to sit on his suitcase to close it, he probably packed too much but he would be prepared.

The two boyfriend's flopped down onto Charlied bed after an hour of cramming items into his small suitcase and Nick having to convince him that no, he will not be needing to pack up his entire bedding. Charlie didn't trust the hotels job at cleaning the sheets and not only did he not have any room to bring his comforter and pillow, but he still needed his bed sheets for four more sleeps until they would leave on their trip.

"I ran into Ben," Charlie looked to see the others expression.

"Oh?" Nick looked at Charlie, worriedly.

"Yeah," Charlie sat up, "but it's fine now," Charlie gave Nick a forced smile.

"Char... are you sure you're okay?" Nick asked, sitting up.

"Yeah, he didn't say anything I haven't heard before," This made Nick look sad, almost regretful. Maybe he was regretting not stopping through bullying in the past but they didn't even know eachother back then, that was back before there even was 'Nick and Charlie'.

"Char, you know you don't deserve all that, what ever Ben said to you, he was wrong, he's a complete asshole," Nick pulled Charlie into a comforting hug.

"He called me a slur," Charlie whispered into Nick's shoulder.

"Char..."

"What if someone finds out about us, what if they call you slurs too," Charlie had to choke back a sob, he feared so much the thought of Nick going through the same thing he had, it had completely ruined him.