Let me take care of you

Final🥲

Charlie quickly put on his shoes, snatching back the lace that his tiny little golden retriever, Max (picks most basic dog name I can think of).

"Charlie! Oh my god we're going to be late!" Nick said, coming into the living room through the front door, hand in his hair. Charlie rolled his eyes,
"No one will mind Nick! Plus, I'm about 80% sure that Tao and Elle are going to be later than us."

Charlie stood up and picked up Max, giving him a kiss on the forehead,
"Come on Maxie, let's go see everyone!" He practically skipped to the car and had a bright smile on his face as Nick started the car. Nick smiled at him, he was so cute.

They started driving, it wasn't a long drive luckily, but since everyone was always working or generally busy, it was hard to find time to hang out (Except for Tao and Charlie who worked together giving talks about how to deal with bad mental health.), so days like this were always exciting, especially since today, it wasn't just a friendly trip to Nick's house where Charlie got to see his parents and Charlie's, today, all of his friends were coming aswell.

It's been a little while since everyone met up, maybe a year or two, which was insane, because no one even lived that far from eachother, but they mainly just facetimed or texted eachother. So its not like they were completely out of touch, they were all still really close, just with different lives and responsibilities now.

Charlie fiddled with his thumbs while they drive, not because he was nervous, well, not really, it was a mixture of excitement and nervousness, he just hadn't seen everyone in quite a while, it would be very fun though.

"Can't wait to see Elle's reaction when she meets Max, she's been wanting to meet him for a while." Nick said, keeping his eyes on the road.
"Yeah, it'll be really funny, she's like the only one who hasn't met him. Well, Aled hasn't either." Charlie chuckled, scratching the back of Max's ear.

They stayed silent the entire ride, but it wasn't an awkward silence, it was a pleasant one, the air was full of excitement. Charlie checked his phone, seeing the unread messages from both Tori, and the group chat,
1 unread message Tori
Tori: Charlie? Are you going to get here soon?
Unread messages The Paris Crew
Elle: Sorry, tell everyone Tao and I will be a few minutes late lol
Isaac: Don't worry, Charlie and Nick aren't here yet either
Elle: Ooh! Me and Tao my beat you Charlie!

Charlie chuckled at the messages
"Speed up Nick, Elle and Tao are trying to beat us there!" Charlie said, replying to the message with a simple, as if😈
"Oh no we can't let that happen! We're almost there anyway so there no way they will get there first." Nick said confidently, slightly speeding up anyway.

They pulled into the driveway, but to their shock, so was another dark grey car, Tao and Elles. Nick gasped,
"Quick! Get out of the car!" Nick said, quickly opening the door. Charlie reacted late and stumbled out, holding Max. Nick raced to the door, Tao getting out of the car and chasing after him, followed by Elle, who was not trying as hard to get to the door, instead immediately looking for Charlie.

Nick and Tao both slammed into the front door, Nick opening it and stepping in, shouting in triumph
"Yes! I AM STILL THE GREATEST." Nick said, putting his hands in the air. Tao scoffed,
"The greatest cheater." Tao said, crossing his arms, Nick rolled his eyes and laughed,
"Don't worry Tao, your still the greatest sore loser." Nick said, sticking his tongue out at Tao.

Elle and Charlie walked in, Elle holding Max against her, her face lit up. Charlie rolled his eyes at the two,
"You two are grown men, and you're both behaving like idiots." Charlie said, walking past the two to get into the living room to then get into the backyard, where everyone was hanging out in the sun. Elle raised an eyebrow,
"Wow, Charlie's the responsible one now, wow." She said, grinning and following Charlie. Charlie looked back at them,
"I was always responsible, I just need to keep those two in check now." Elle giggled.

The four burst into the garden and everyone looked over, all surrounding them. Charlie's mum hugged him and Tori ran to him, she was a lot shorter now than he remembered. Nick's mum hugged him and then Charlie, also still as short as ever. Michael and Nick shook hands and Charlie and Michael just smiled Aled and Elle we're both mesmerised by Max, and bearly said hello to the others. And Isaac just smiled at everyone.

After all of the greeting was over, Charles dad and Michael went straight to the grill to start making the burgers and hotdogs. While everyone was scattered around the garden, doing both different things and yet being included in everything.

"Hows the design stuff going?" Charlie asked Elle, sitting at the large lunch table, sipping on drinks.
"For the hundredth time, it's called interior design, and it's going great, I'm getting a lot more clients and it's pretty fun, I don't know what more I can ask for in a job!" Elle says happily, still watching Aled play with Max on the grass. Charlie nods, smiling,
" Well, as you've heard from Tao I'm guessing, everything's been going great aswell, our crowds are getting bigger and we just transferred to a new manager who's helping us book a lot more places, and Nick's career is going great aswell!" Elle gasps,
"I know! I saw the video of his team making it to the English rugby finals and I immediately sent it to everyone!" She said, and Charlie grinned,
"He's really doing very well, we all are. I'm so glad things never fell apart between any of us. Elle gave him a look,
"After everything that's happened you think we would all fall out? No." Charlie nodded, Elle was right, they've grown up together, they've all been at their lowest together, they aren't going to be leaving eachother anytime soon.

Everyone sat down at the table one by one as the smell of cooked meat floated through the air, it smelled amazing, and knowing Michaels skills, it would be delicious.

And it certainly looked it, Micheal and Charlie's dad served lunch and then sat down, Michael kissing Tori as he sat beside her. But before they could eat, ofcourse, Nick had to do his famous toasts.
"Hey! Everyone! I know everyone wants to eat, but come on. Let's acknowledge the fact that we have all been together for nine fucking years! Now come on that must mean something. So much has happened, but we're all still here right? Sitting around the table, around the people that we have been through everything with. Isn't that amazing? Things like this don't happen often, long friendships, or relationships in general like this. My life would be nothing with out all of you, especially, ofcourse, my husband, who helped me get to where I am today. So cheers to nine years."

Everyone agreed and cheersed to that, before digging into the incredible meal, which lived up to the hype Tori always says about Michaels cooking.

After that, everyone played games, like Jenga and Domino's, monopoly and card games until it got dark and they had to move inside, they made more meals throughout the night, drinking a little more than they should, and overall just having a great time catching up and making new memories with eachother.

It wasn't much, it wasn't that special, but it felt special, it felt like the happiest moment of his life, but that's how you should feel when your with the people you love, you're just supposed to be happy, no matter what you do with them. Friends and family are meant to help you through you're toughest times, and lift you up as you build a life for yourself.

And that was just that, no happily ever after, just genuine happyness, a great stable life, which everyone should have, everyone should be happy, it's just tougher for some others, and everyone can be happy, you just need to find the right people, power through the tough times, and no matter what, just keep going. If you can't, than that's fine, it's fine, life is difficult, there isn't anything you can do about it, it's not your fault if you're unhappy. You are incredible either way, even if you can't see it. It took him a while to figure this out. And it's something hard to see when your blinded by life, but he was able to find it. And now he would keep living everyday knowing that people were always going to be there for him. People would always take care of him.

                      -End

(Hi, thanks for reading my story, you're an incredible person. I feel like I could've done better on this chapter, but this is the best I can do. Thank you all for reading, you have no idea how much this means to me. You have all helped me get through this year, and I hope you have happiness and love everyday<3 love you all. Have a good day❤️)