HEARTBEAT

2. Help

"Yeah.... her name is Nellie!  Here I have a photo of her." He pulled out his phone showing then cutest thing ever.

"Oh my god, she's so cute!" Charlie said in awe. He looked at Nellie, like he wanted to kidnap her for himself.

"We have to meet her!" Tao demanded. Everyone else agreed

"Well... I'm free after school if y'all wanna come over." Nick offered. Their faces lit up.

"Yes obviously!" Isaac exclaimed. Everyone else approved.

xx

"You're friends are nice. Way nicer than mine." He says as him and Charlie were walking down the hallway side by side.

"Thanks, but sorry Tao can be a little harsh." Charlie apologized. Nick sighed.

"Yeah.. at first I thought he was gonna bite me." Nick joked making them burst out laughing, something Charlie never did with Ben and he enjoyed that.

xx

Charlie kept getting text after text all day from Ben, it's honestly like he's obsessed or something. All he gets is; "you're so USELESS at replying" or "Please Charlie wtf did I do!?" then he starts getting really angry, making it harder for Charlie to ignore, "WHY TF ARE YOU IGNORING ME!!!" and "ffs Charlie!! ANSWER ME!!!"

His phone dings again and he's getting a text saying; "Can we just... please meet up? I need to talk. Please?"

Charlie decides he was just gonna go, so he could leave him the fuck alone, so he texts back saying, "Fine." and turns his phone off.

xx

As he's walking done the music hall, he gets a really bad feeling about this. He feels like something is not right, like a puzzle piece that doesn't fit.

"Charlie" Ben calls out, his voice being firm. Charlie walks in there not in a good mood, setting his bags down.

"Why the fuck are you ignoring me Charlie! What did I do!" Ben yelled at him. He got so close that Charliews uncomfortably against the wall. Charlie stepped towards him gathering all his confidence.

"We need to break up" Charlie said avoiding eye contact. Hidding the fact that he's terrified.

"What are you talking about!" Ben yelled directly in his face, making Charlie flinch. Char returned his tone back.

"I saw you cheat on me!" He raised his voice now getting in Bens face.

"Don't be angry at me for not wanting to come out yet!" Ben excused. This made Charlie furious. He can't take this anymore all his anger that's been building inside him finally bursts.

"I'm not angry about that! If you're figuring stuff out fine I've already been there for you! But I'm not gonna date someone who makes out with some girl, because he only uses me when he needs someone to make-out with!" Charlie yells arguing back, Ben looks shocked. Maybe it's true, but Ben doesn't care.

"Well it not like anyone else is gonna go out with you!" Charlie's heart shattered. He knows Ben's right. Who would want to go out with Charlie? No one.

And before he processes it he's being shoved up against a wall and Ben forces his lips onto Charlie's. He doesn't like this feeling. It doesn't feel good. He knows what he's doing. He's obviously assaulting him. But Charlie feels completely helpless as tears are silently pouring down his eyes. So he just lets him.

"Stop... stop it!" Charlie yelps. He feels weak, like he's so small, but somehow to his savor, someone jerks Ben off of Charlie revealing Nick Nelson out of all people.

"He told you to stop!" Nick roared, his arms being crossed. "Go on, piss off!" Nick enunciated furiously as Charlie was just standing behind Nick the only place where he felt safe. Ben finally ran off scared. Nick turned to Charlie with a worried expression stuck on his face like glue.

"You okay?" Nick asked him in a gentle, caring voice.

Charlie was so speechless with his tear-stained cheeks. He rubbed his eyes still unsure about everything that just happened. Confused, so confused.

"Yeah..." I said with a faint voice head held down embarrassed. He finally met Nick's concerned gaze.
"How'd you find me?" Charlie tilted his head.

"Oh... I uh- I kind of followed you. Y- you seemed stressed today and I just wanted to check if everything's okay." Nick explained. Charlie's cheeks flushed but he's grateful Nick showed up before he got raped.

"Sorry" Charlie says, his voice cracked as a tear streamed down his eye. Nick noticed which made his face soften.

"You have nothing... to be sorry about." Nick said softly. He was getting so close to Charlie, he cupped Charlie's face and wiped the tear away with the pad of his thumb, and honestly Charlie was literally going to melt at his touch.

"Umm... sorry" Charlie muttered awkwardly totally not freaking out at the fact that his face was in Nick's hands.

Nick let go of Charlie's face before saying, "You say sorry a lot. Don't say it." he gave Charlie a reassuring smile.

"Okay," Charlie said so softly, giving Nick a very slight smile that Nick melted at.

xx

They made it outside and Nick turned to Charlie, "Since you're coming over after school, my mom can give you a ride to my house." Nick offered. Charlie's face lit up.

"Sure, yeah!" Charlie nodded excitedly. Nick smiled, and he knew that everything was going to be okay.

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Authors Note:
I'm working on editing every chapter, finally done with this one!!
Posted: Nov. 8th, 2023, 12:22 P.M
Edited: Dec. 2nd, 2023, 1:10 A.M