Heartstopper Future

Chapter 33 - Boat Trip

Date: Tuesday 6th August 2024

Charlie’s POV

I get woken up by Nick playing with my hair, as by some miracle I slept longer than him. 

Once he notices I’m awake, he whispers “Hi,” to me and I whisper “Hi,” back.

“What time is it?” I ask.

“It’s 7:20 so we need to leave in 25 minutes.”

“You shouldn’t have left it this late, you should have woken me up sooner.”

“But you looked so peaceful sleeping there. Do you want some ginger biscuits?”

“Yes please.” I respond, so he gets them out of the draw and passes me a few. 

“We’re running low, so we might have to get some more soon,” He says while putting them away.

“Ok, when we get a chance we’ll get some.”

Once I’ve eaten my ginger biscuits and woken up properly, I get up and get dressed. I would have liked to have stayed a little longer in bed, and maybe had a shower, but due to time limitations, I didn’t. I can always make up lost time in bed and have a shower later.

Once I was dressed Nick asked “Are you sure you’re going to be all right today? With the boat and everything.”

“I’ll be fine,”

“Ok, but do you want me to take the ginger biscuits just in case?”

“If it will make you stop worrying.” I replied, secretly grateful. I think everything will be alright on the boat, but I can’t shake the feeling that something will go wrong. But it won’t. 

When it’s time to leave, everyone gets herded out of the villa, and into the cars due to the tight time frame. Today we’re going on a boat – if you hadn’t already guessed – round the south of Menorca. However, it leaves at 8am, and if we’re not there on time it will leave without us, and this morning everyone seems very disorganised, to the point where we get on the boat with 2 minutes to spare.

We start off below deck, where we spend an hour in Mahon harbour, looking out of the glass windows put in so we could see the wildlife, clearly, in the water. Apparently, it’s one of the deepest natural harbours in the world, and it really was a sight to see.

We then got a tour of Mahon with an official tour guide. Some of the places we had already visited on other days, but the places where we hadn’t (which was most of them) where amazing. And even the places where we had previously been, I still learned something new.

We then got back on the boat and driven to the Punta Prima beach, where we had some free time for eating our packed lunch and sunbathing. As a group, we decided to not go in the sea due to lack of time and not wanting to be wet on the journey back.

We then moved on to the fisherman’s village of Binibeca. It’s like a small maze of narrow cobbled streets, but it’s really good for cooling off, as you get a nice breeze going down the streets, which makes a nice change from the 30˚C+, that it usually is.

Nick’s POV

On the boat journey back, when Charlie goes to the toilet, David approaches me, so I say “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to apologise. What I’ve been saying and doing to you and Charlie for all these years was wrong, especially to Charlie. I guess I just had all these years of built up anger and emotion, from the divorce and a load of other things, but it’s no excuse. It’s just I was older than you, when mum and dad split, and it was horrible to see how upset it made mum, and I just didn’t want it to happen to you, as Charlie seems to make you really happy.”

“If it was so bad seeing mum upset, then how come you’re closer with dad than you are her?” I ask, confused.

“I think I found it so hard to see mum that upset, that I couldn’t deal with it anymore, so whenever I went to dad’s it was like an escape from everyone’s troubles, and I guess it made it a safe place for me to go.”

“Oh, well your not fully forgiven. If I am going to forgive you, then you need to earn it. Prove it. Prove to me that you aren’t going to be such a dick anymore – no offence.”

“None taken, and I know what you mean and I understand what you’re saying. I know I’ve been untrustworthy in the past, and I get that I’m going to have to prove it. Provided you know I will, and I won’t let you down.”

Charlie then gets back before I have a chance to reply, so David, knowing his place for a change, went away and left us be.

“What was all that about?” Charlie asked.

“David just… apologised.”

“What? Really? Never would have seen that coming, especially after all the shit he’s given us over the past few years.”

“I know, it’s a bit weird and kind of freaked me out. But lets not think about him, right now, let’s think about us and our amazing future together.”

When we got back to the villa, everyone went poolside, as previously agreed, and went to their usual spots, whether it be the pool or the sun loungers.

I went in the pool – obviously – while Charlie went and sat on the sun lounger, next to mum. After about 20 minutes, I noticed that Charlie had disappeared but I just assumed he went to the toilet and left it at that. But, after he still hadn’t come back after 15 minutes I decided to go and investigate.

I started by asking mum, to know if she knew where he went and I was just worrying for nothing, but as she didn’t and he was no-where to be seen, I went into the villa and started looking for him.

To begin with, I checked our bathroom and the ensuite, but no Charlie.

Then I checked the communal bathroom, and the living room, but no Charlie.

By this point I was starting to get a little worried, so I started to call out his name, speed walking – almost jogging – around the house, until I heard sniffles coming from the kitchen.

I cautiously approached the kitchen, unsure of what to expect, and when I opened the door, I saw Charlie curled up, back against a wall, crying. I ran over to comfort him, and after a few minutes he began to calm down.

Once he had composed himself enough to articulate what was wrong he said “There is no more popcorn left. I want popcorn. I need popcorn.”

Shit. I knew this day was coming soon, but I completely forgot about buying some more popcorn. After coming up with a solution I suggest “How about we go to the shops now, and buy you some more popcorn and ginger biscuits?” To which he agrees to and after he makes a quick stop in the bathroom, a, to go to the toilet, b, to make himself look presentable, we start walking to the local shop. 

As we left I messaged mum to let her know where we were going so she wouldn’t worry, and she thumbed up the message, so we were free to go.

When we got to the shop, we picked up lots of popcorn so we wouldn’t run out, and when it came to getting the ginger biscuits, it was a little harder, as there weren’t the ones that we got last time, as we are in a different country, but after 10 long indecisive minutes, Charlie finally made a decision, so we went to the check out and bought everything before finally walking back.

When we got back, everyone was sat round the table as dinner was almost ready, so I told Charlie to go and join them, whilst I put the food in my room, before coming back to the kitchen and joining everyone else.

After dinner, Charlie went to our room as he wanted an early night, so I joined him to make sure he was ok. This resulted us having a shower together and upon getting into bed, falling asleep in each other’s arms.