Nick & Charlie (TV WORLD)

Chapter Fourteen

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

[FIRST DAY BACK AT SCHOOL]

Charlie:
My alarm goes off and I grab my phone. I've been dreading this day for the past two weeks. I've been anxious about going back to school and what people might say about Nick and I being together. I know Nick is ready to come out but I don't think he fully understands what that could possibly mean. Harry and some of the other rugby boys weren't exactly welcoming to the gay kid on the team last year; even with Nick defending me. I would hope that some, if not all of them will come around once they find out about Nick. I mean, they've been friends with him for years and this shouldn't change anything, but for homophobic or close-minded people like Harry, it changes everything. I'm also really worried about seeing Ben again. These past two months have forced me to relive my relationship, if you can even call it that, with him. It wasn't only that I was being used; when I was with him, he'd talk down to me and make me feel worthless. Not to mention he assaulted me and that was something I really blocked out of my mind for awhile and had to relive again over the summer. 

"Ready to go?" Tori says as she magically appears in my doorway without making a sound.
"God, Tori!" 

She smirks.

"So you ready then?"
"I mean, as ready as I'll ever be I guess," I say.

She walks into my room and puts her hand on my shoulder.

"I know you'll probably tell Nick first if you're feeling overwhelmed or if anything happens; but, if you need me, you text me or call me and we'll get out of there straight away, okay?"

I look up at her and smile.

"Thanks Tori."
"Right, now lets go," she says as she drags me out of my room.

We get on the bus and start heading to school. You know how people usually say "take things one day at a time"? Well, I'm trying to take things one minute at a time today. Right now I feel okay. We get off the bus and I see Nick waiting for me. Tori rolls her eyes but with a smile. 

"Remember, just call me or text me if you need me," she says to me as she waves to Nick and walks away.

I walk over to Nick and smile.

"Hi."
"Hi," he says as he kisses my cheek and grabs my hand.
"How are you feeling?" He asks as we walk towards the school.
"I'm just a little nervous, but I'm in a better place than I was last year so I think I'll be okay."
"We don't have to hold hands or anything if you're not comfortable or if you're worried people might say something."
"No," I say. "I'm happy. You make me happy; I don't want to hide this. I'm more worried for you."
"Char, don't worry about me. I can handle it, I promise."
"God I love that nickname," I say with a smile.

Tao walks over to us and gives me a hug as he waves to Nick.

"Alright?" He asks, looking at both of us. 

I smile. Is Tao worried about Nick? Hell must be freezing over.

"Yeah, we're okay," I say with a soft smile.
"Where's Issac?" Nick asks.
"Probably in class already reading his newest book," Tao says with a slight chuckle,

We walk towards the door and walk past the table that all the Rugby boys, plus Ben, are sitting. I wonder if Ben already told them all when he saw us at the bowling alley; judging by the looks on their faces, I don't think so. Nick doesn't pay mind to them and we walk inside.

"You don't want to say hi to your friends?" I ask.
"Later, when they're not with Harry. Probably wouldn't be a good idea for me to get into a fight on our first day," he says.

Nick:
The bell rings and I kiss Charlie quickly before we go our separate ways.  I walk into class and see that Sai, Otis and Christian are all in the same class with me. I take a deep breath and walk over to them.

"Hey guys."

They all wave.

"What's up Nick? How was your summer?" Otis asks.
"Alright. How was yours?"
"Pretty good," Otis says.
"Look guys, I need to tell you something."
"First, we kind of wanted to apologize," Christian says.
"We should have told Harry to fuck off at the cinema," Sai adds.
"We were shitty friends and we're sorry," Otis says.

I look at them and smile. 

"Thank you for saying that. I accept your apology."
"So what did you want to tell us?"
"Charlie; he's, he's my boyfriend," I say.

They all look at each other and then back at me.

"As long as you're happy, then we're happy," Christian says as he puts his hand on my shoulder.
"We should have said that to you earlier, but he's right," Otis chimes in.
"And Charlie is a great guy," Sai says.

I sigh in relief and we all sit down and fall into conversation. After telling them, I'm not really worried about anyone else's reaction. Harry and I stopped being friends months ago and I really don't care about his opinion. I'm not really close to anyone else in this school. I go to my next couple of classes and finally, the lunch bell rings. I walk over to Charlie's locker.

"Hi," I say. "How's your day going?"

He closes his locker and smiles.

"Not too bad. You?"
"Pretty good. I told Otis, Christian and Sai about us."
"Really?! How did it go? Please tell me that it went okay because I really --"
"Charlie slow down," I say laughing. "It went fine. Before I even went to tell them they apologized to me for everything that happened at the cinema last time."
"That's amazing!" He says.
"What's amazing?" Issac asks as he walks up with Tao.
"Nick told some of his friends and they were great."
"Should we pat them on the back for being decent human beings?" Tao asks sarcastically.
"Tao, do you always have to be so negative?" Charlie asks.
"If not me, then who else?"

We all laugh as we grab our lunch and sit down outside. It's nice sitting with Charlie's friends instead of sitting with the Rugby team or hiding in the art room with Charlie. After lunch the rest of the day goes kind of quickly and nothing really important happened. Luckily, Harry isn't in any of my classes, so I don't need to deal with that anytime soon. At the end of the day, I'm putting things into my locker and see Charlie make his way up to me.

"Want to come to Tao's?"
"Tao's? He invited me?"
"I think you officially are in his good graces after this summer," he says with a smile. "We're all going over there to hang out. Elle, Tara and Darcy are going to meet us there too."
"Sounds like fun, I'm in!"

We walk out of the school hand in hand and I can't help but think that this last year is going to be my favorite year here.