Heartstopper stories

Real love (part 3)

Content warnings: Same as some of the last two chapters + fainting

Charlie's POV

A few days after I woke up in the hospital, I got released. I stayed at home for a while, cause I still had a huge headache and my parents were a bit worried about that. But the headaches faded away soon and I was allowed to go back to uni. It was so weird to think that I was already at university. In my head, I was still at Truham preparing for my final exams.

My parents got a restraining order against the boy who attacked me. They won't tell me who it was. They think it might trigger some bad memories and they can't handle me going into a coma again. My friends visited me a lot while I was still at home and Nick brought all my books to my house so that I can study the stuff we had in our first term. He's been calling and texting non-stop, it's actually really sweet. I tried to ask him if we were a thing, but every time I tried to ask the question someone, or something, cut me off. I guess I'll never know until he says it himself. 

I have no idea what happened with Ben. I apparently blocked him everywhere. When I unblocked him on social media I saw that he had blocked me as well. I guess we finally called it quits after I graduated. Maybe that's for the better. I didn't really feel like going out with him anymore. And since I might, or might not, have been dating Nick, I guess I finally got him out of my head. 

I asked Nick how he found me when I got attacked. He said that he saw my phone on the ground at the bus stop, but he couldn't find me anywhere. He knew that I wouldn't go on the bus without my phone, or anywhere for that matter. That's when he started to get worried and he looked around to see if he could find me. It didn't take long for him to hear the boy who was attacking me screaming at me. That's how he found me. I wish I could remember what happened. But somewhere I was also relieved that I didn't because I don't know what that would do to my mental health.  

-A few weeks after Charlie woke up-

After a few weeks, I finally went back to campus. Nick had cleaned and vacuumed our room before I got back, which was really nice. He was really excited for me to come back. I told him I was going to take it easy, cause I still had bad headaches sometimes, and Nick said that he would be very careful and would try not to freak me out or say something that might trigger some bad memories. He's been really sweet and helpful with my recovery. 

Classes started and I swear I think some memories are coming back, cause I can recall some things that happened during class in our first term. I'm not trying to find anything that will make them all come back, but I'm glad that I'm making some progress. Classes are very easy as well. I liked all the subjects, but I apparently already did when they first started. It also helped that Nick brought my books when I was at home. 

-In the evening-

Nick and I were sitting in our room in silence. I was watching something on my laptop with my headphones on and Nick was doing some homework. After a while, Nick asked me: "Charlie can you help me with something?" "Sure." I said and walked over to his desk. "I can't figure out this problem." Nick was doing his maths homework. I helped him for a while until he said that he understood it. I took my phone out of my pocket, which now had a cracked screen, and scrolled through Instagram. I hadn't realized that Nick was staring at me this whole time. When I finally looked at him he looked away like he was busted for doing a crime. "Are you okay?" I asked. Nick didn't answer. I frowned. "What's going on?" 

Nick stood up from his chair and started pacing around the room. It worried me. Did I do something? I didn't dare to move. Nick saw that I was scared and stopped pacing. He sat back down next to me and looked deep into my eyes. "Do you really not remember anything that happened between us?" He asked. I looked back at him. He had such a sad and scared look in his eyes. Were we actually dating? Was he scared of losing me? "I'm sorry. I really don't remember anything." I said. I saw a tear welling up in Nick's eye. Nick looked down and chuckled. "That's sucks." He said. It took a while for me to say something, but I gathered all my courage to finally ask him what I'd been wanting to ask for weeks. "Nick... Were we dating?" I asked.