Heartstopper Future

Chapter 13 - Beach Day

Date: Saturday 6th July 2024

Charlie’s POV

I can’t believe that it’s already July and Nick and I still haven’t gone to the beach yet this year. So we decided to go today because why not?

We decided to get up and leave early so we could make the most out of the day, which means we’re already in the car, driving to our favourite beach, at 8am. It takes us just over an hour to get there, but even at 9 the parking’s a nightmare as it’s such a nice day.

When we eventually find a place to park, we decide to spend the morning exploring the town, have lunch at the chippy, then spend the afternoon on the beach.

The town is already filled with Saturday morning shoppers and tourists looking round all the shops, making it a lively atmosphere, which actually feels quite nice. 

After a few hours looking round all the shops, we decide to go to our regular chippy, and get some lunch. 

When we get there, it’s already filled with other people, making free tables scarce, and the line enormous. This makes us decide to divide and conquer, with me hunting down a table and Nick getting our food.

After about 5 minutes of looking, I find an empty table. The people before left a bit of a mess, but I decide that it was this or no table so I message Nick to get some napkins as well so we can wipe it down.

15 minutes later, Nick materialises from the crowd with 2 boxes in one hand, and some napkins in the other. When he arrives at the table he says “Here,” while offering me the napkins. I quickly take them from him and wipe down the table, while he sits down.

Once I have finished I put the napkins in the bin, and return to the table. Upon my return, I see that Nick has already set out our boxes of food and is waiting for me to return before he starts. I sit down and we start eating in comfortable silence until Nick breaks it by asking “Have you started thinking about baby names?”

This catches me off guard so I just reply “No, not really. Have you?”

“Kind of. Not properly or anything, but whenever I hear a name that I like, I make a mental note of it.”

“Ok. If its ok with you, I don’t want us to settle n a name until after 12 weeks. I don’t want to get my hopes up that everything will be ok.”

“That’s fine, but everything will be ok. I trust you to not do anything stupid, and you’ve been eating consistently. I know you’ve had a few bad days, but you’ve always worked through them, and came back stronger the next. In other words, I truly believe that everything will be ok. But, I also understand why you don’t want to settle on a name, so when you’re ready, you can come to me, and we can start discussing it.”

“Thank you.” He always knows what to say to make me feel better. I stand up and go to hug him, which obviously he reciprocates. He whispers into my ear “I love you.” And I whisper back “I love you too.” 

After what feels like an eternity, but is actually like 30 seconds, we sit back down and finish eating.

Once we’re done, we head over to the beach. We spend about half an hour, lying on our towels listening to music, before going in the sea. When in the sea, we spend plenty of time splashing each other and having a good time, before I declare that it’s too cold, so we go back onto dry land, where Nick wraps my up so tight in a towel, that I swear I was about to burst.

We then just spend some time, sitting there, watching the sunset. Talking about our future, and everything that’s going to come along with it. The kids, the family holidays, Christmases, birthdays, the houses we’re going to buy, pets we’re going to have, day trips we’re going to take. But really all that matters is that we have each other. And that we have family and friends. And that we have love, everywhere we go.