The heartstopper

Chapter 6

Day three was spent climbing up the Eiffel tower, and it turns out Mr Ajayi decided against booking tickets for the elevator, much to everyone's dismay.

"Tara, carry me, my legs no longer work!" Darcy yelled as she was not even a quarter of the way up. Instead of carrying her, Tara stuck to dragging her girlfriend up the flight of stairs.

"Nick, I'm dying," Charlie complained as he gasped for air.
"We're halfway there," Nick reassured, grabbing his boyfriend's hand.

They were getting more and more comfortable showing physical affection while in public as long as all eyes weren't on them but maybe too comfortable as once they reached the second level of the Eiffel tower, a group of boys that Nick recognized from his year called out to them, "Careful Nick, you don't want to catch the gays... unless you already have!" A boy called out and of course, in the middle of the group stood Harry Green and Ben Hope.

The two boys immediately dropped hands. "There's nothing wrong with being gay," Nick said back.

"My uncle's gay, he's in jail, a complete wack job if you ask me," Another guy joined in.

"That has nothing to do with sexuality," Tao interrupted from behind Nick and Charlie, he noticed his friend silently looking at the ground as the boys laughed and rushed right over to his friend's rescue, ignoring Nick.

It might have looked like Charlie was hurt by the words of the year eleven boys but he was used to it, he had dealt with people like them before. He was more worried about Nick. Nick hadn't come out yet but people were extremely close to figuring it out.

Nick had said he wasn't ready to come out when they first started going out and Charlie had to respect that but he couldn't help but now feel helpless. If Nick gets outed... he didn't want to think about that. It took all of his strength to not distance himself for Nick's sake, he couldn't help but think that it would be for the best.

"Oh look, his other boyfriend has come to the rescue," Ben Hope sneered.

"Don't you have better things to do?" Asked Sai, who was standing to the right of them with Christian and Otis.

"Sai, my man, you can't possibly be siding with the gay boys," Harry waltzed over to him, putting his arm around Sai's shoulder. "Come on man, they're not like us,"

"No two people are the same," Sai shrugged, he didn't see a problem with two men, two women or any gender in a relationship together.

"I have two moms, they're the two most amazing people I know," Christian chimed in.

"Your mom makes the best food," Otis said to Christian.

"It's true, it's the only reason I'm friends with him," Sai said in a joking manner.

"Fair enough,"

Sai, Otis and Christian started to get off topic, completely distracting everyone from the previous homophobia that was happening.

"Are you still friends with Sai, Otis and Christian?" Charlie asked Nick as they turned to look off the Eiffel tower.

"I haven't really spoken to them since the cinema," Nick was in deep thoughts, he didn't remember seeing the three of them hanging out with Harry since the cinema, each time he saw them they were a trio.

Maybe Sai, Otis and Christian were different from Harry, they always seemed offly quiet when Harry would say some sort of homophobic shit.

"Maybe you could talk to them, you don't have to drop all your friends, they've always been relatively nice," Charlie gave a soft smile, he felt horrible when Nick said he wasn't going to hang out with his friends anymore, he felt like it was his fault.

"Maybe I will,"

"My favorite gays," Darcy said, walking up behind the two boys.

"Darcy, where's Tara, you didn't push her off the tower, did you?" Asked Nick with a fake worried look.

"You have no evidence against me," was all Darcy said in response before Tara joined them,
"What did you do now, Darcy?"

"Murdered you," uttered Darcy.

Tara gasped, "Dammit Darcy, again?"

"Sorry, I let my intrusive thoughts get the best of me," Darcy shrugged.

Just then, Nick got a phone call and walked off to a spot that was a bit quieter.

---

Mr. Farouq and Mr. Ajayi were leaning against a rail in complete silence enjoying the other's company and taking in the view.

"We should round up the students so we can he'd back to the bus," Mr. Ajayi spoke, breaking the silence.

"Just a few more minutes, otherwise I think I'm going to tumble down the stairs and now stop rolling until I reach the bottom," Mr. Farouq was leaning most of his weight on the railing, he was still exhausted from the hike up the stairs.

"It wasn't that bad," Mr. Ajayi quipped .

"I am going to be so sore tomorrow," Mr. Farouq complained further.

"You're just getting old Youssef," He chuckled.

"I am not," He denied.

---

Tao and Elle starred off the tower at the view of the Paris streets.

"Paris has got to be one of the most beautiful places in the world," Elle gasped at the view.

"This the city of love,"

"Is it? Tara and Darcy only haven't stopped reminding me every two seconds," Elle replied.

"Is their 'lovey-dovey' attitude too much for you?" Tao joked.

"Firstly, please don't ever say 'lovey-dovey' again, second, no, they're cute, they just seem to think that because they're together, they need to find me someone too," She explained.

"Just don't go replacing me, Tara and Darcy said that you should be good friends with the people you're in a relationship with,"

"How could I replace you, it would be too quiet without you," Elle reassured the other.

He gasped, "Are you trying to insinuate that I'm loud!?" Tao exclaimed.

"Yes, you're also annoying!"

"Rude!" He shouted, rolling the 'r' and making them both burst into laughter.

As Tao and Elle laughed together, Tao peered back to where Charlie stood now with Isaac, they were smiling and they were in the middle of a conversation. He just wanted to check on Charlie to make sure no one was picking on him, he couldn't help but worry for his friend and after finding out he caused him so much pain in year nine, he was going to make it up to him.