I don't really know what this is lol
Before he even knew where he was, Nick was standing at Harry's front door. Not because he needed someone to console him, but because he needed to get drunk. Harry could always get beers. He just took them from his dad's stash which was so big, he'd never notice a few missing.
Before he rang the doorbell he looked around at the private estate. The well kept lawns, mowed in stripes, the delicate flower beds and expensive cars parked on the driveways.
"Nick?" Harry's mum looked startled and confused. Nick couldn't blame her, she hadn't seen him for at least two years and now he was stood at her front door, red in the face and panting like he'd run a marathon at full speed.
"I-Is Harry here?"
"Yes, he's-"
Nick pushed past her, forcing himself into the house. The layout was all too familiar to him; he knew where each doorway led. The well kept staircase hadn't changed since he'd last been here. All the same pictures were hung on the wall.
"Harry?!" He called out, "Harry!" He repeated, more desperately now.
Harry emerged from his bedroom door, Nick watched as he came to the balcony of the staircase. He looked down at the entrance hall and looked just as shocked as his mum.
"Nick?"
Harry came running down the stairs.
"Come on, let's go upstairs" He said, ushering Nick up to his room without so much as looking at his mum.
Only once they were in his room did Harry speak again.
"This is it, isn't it?" He asked, standing over Nick who was sat on the sofa in Harry's room.
As much as Nick wanted to say something, he couldn't so he just nodded slowly. Looking down at his feet to avoid Harry's eyes.
When they were much younger, Harry and Nick had made a vow to always be there for each other. No one else knew about it, it was something between just the two of them.
"It's got to be an absolute emergency though" Harry had said with a worried look on his face, "I'm not having you coming round crying on me every day"
As he sat here now, Nick didn't quite know why he had come. He felt as if his body had just taken him here. The route was imprinted on his mind from all the years of walking it back in Primary school.
Him and Harry used to be the best of friends until they went to High School. Harry got so caught up in impressing people and being the 'rich kid' that he forgot his real mates. Until now that is.
Now, Harry wore the same worried look he had all those years ago when Nick had told him something was wrong. It was as if the last four years hadn't happened.
"Let me get some beer" Harry walked out of the room, leaving Nick on his own.
He tried to show an interest in how much Harry's room had changed since he'd last been here. The Marvel posters had been replaced for a whole stretch of just blank wall.
None of his old toys were displayed on any of his shelves. Instead there were books. This room didn't match the personality Nick knew.
"Mum said the posters made the room look messy" Harry said, gesturing to the wall Nick was looking at.
Harry had two bottles of beer in each hand and silently gave Nick one which he eagerly took. Once it was in his hand though, he looked down at it apprehensively. Did he really want to do this?
Charlie hates me. If I died tonight, the love of my life wouldn't care. If anything he'd be happy.
With that thought playing in his mind, Nick chugged three quarters of the bottl.
"Fucking hell mate!" Harry exclaimed, "What's happened?"
Nick just shook his head. Thoughts had started to whizz round his head again. He didn't want to talk about them.
He quickly finished the bottle and reached for a second.
"Slow down mate, fucking hell!" Harry said in awe at what was happening.
Nick had never drunk in his life, but his fucked up brain had told him that now was good a time as ever. He'd heard alcohol slowed your mind down and made it go numb. That's what he needed right now.
"It's just-" Nick slurred. He was already feeling the effects of the beer. He was drinking on an empty stomach and he had only ever drunk one beer a year which was at Christmas. Now, it was a Tuesday evening during term time and he'd almost doubled his yearly allowance.
"Jus, don't- don't fall in love, okay?" He stammered out, "'Is not worth it"
Harry just nodded, cautiously agreeing. Nick was scaring him. He'd never seen him like this, something serious must have happened.
Charlie had changed and proved the one thing the little voice in his head always told him.
'No one will care if you just left'. Charlie had started distancing himself from Nick. He'd noticed it for the last couple of weeks or so and he tried to push it aside. Tonight though was when it all came to a head, it was supposed to be their date night but Charlie had insisted he was going out with Tao instead.
"If you don't want to go out anymore we don't have to" Nick had snapped
"It's not that" Charlie had tried to plead with him, but Nick had got to breaking point. He started raising his voice and telling Charlie that he actually thought it was a good idea to take a break. Things weren't the same anymore and he didn't want to keep pretending that they were.
The beer had muffled the horrible feeling Nick had when he got here, but it was about as much use as a thin pillow to your ears when someone's yelling at you. You can still hear them, no matter how hard you press that pillow to your ears. Nick still felt like shit. It felt like he'd lost Charlie and he could hardly bear it.
Beer wasn't helping though so after finishing his second bottle, he just stared blankly ahead. The strange calmness only lasted a second though as he began to feel sick.
"I'm gonna-" He couldn't even finish his sentence. He rushed to Harry's en-suite and threw all the beer up. He definitely drank it too quickly.
"Nick" Harry breathed. He was standing at the bathroom door now, his form almost filling the whole frame. To anyone else this would have been threatening but to Nick, in that moment, it made his heart sink.
Right then, all he could see was the younger Harry. The one who felt everything too much and was always worried about everyone else. Harry was worried about him which, when Harry was the school bully, was a strange feeling. It made Nick feel awful.
"S-sorry" Nick stammered, stumbling to the sink to wash his hands and wash his mouth out.
He felt odd, like he wasn't in control of his body, it was just doing things on it's own. His feet fell in front of each other, making him walk and he hit his arm on the side of Harry's sink because he'd misjudged where it was.
"I better go" Nick said and it was the most coherent thing he'd said since his first sip of beer.
A sober thought had crept into his mind. He was making a fool of himself and Harry was definitely going to tell everyone at school tomorrow.
Nick barged past Harry through the bathroom doorway and Harry grabbed his shoulder.
"Hey" Harry's voice was sincere and caring which made Nick freeze on the spot. He looked Harry in the eyes and saw how full of sincerity and sadness they were.
"Are you sure you're okay, I can- you can stay here if you want" Harry corrected himself, a little nervous. Nick felt guilty then. Was Harry scared of him?
Nick had just downed two of Harry's dad's beers, thrown up in his bathroom and made no coherent sense since he got here, yet here he was offering him to stay. Anyone would have pushed him out ages ago. Yet here was the most unlikely person on earth offering him a bed for the night. He just nodded and Harry relaxed a little bit, slumping down on his bed and opening one of the beers on the bedside table.
"You and Charlie, you're like together aren't you?" Harry started, taking a mouthful of beer.
"Erm" Nick hesitated
"It's fine mate, look I'm sorry for giving you such a hard time with it, it's just weird" Harry took another mouthful of beer, "Not like that" He shook his head as if to dismiss Nick's concern, "It's just- I didn't think you'd be-"
"I'm bi" Nick stated matter of factly, sitting back down on the sofa and kicking off his shoes
"Whatever, I just didn't think you'd be-"
"It's fine" Nick shook his head, not wanting to talk about this or his relationship - that's if he still had one.
"How have you been?" Nick asked, changing the subject. He was asking properly as Harry's old friend. Not Nick Nelson, rugby captain and he hoped he got through to the old Harry and wasn't going to hit a brick wall with Truham Harry.
Harry shrugged, looking down at his hands holding the beer bottle and Nick knew instantly that he was talking to the old Harry.
"I wish we stayed friends" Harry finally said after a couple of seconds of silence. He was still looking at his beer bottle.
"We are"
"Nah I mean like we were and I know it's my fault" Harry added quickly, looking up, "I've been a dick, but I'm glad you came here tonight"
Nick didn't say anything because he didn't really know what to say. He realised that Harry was saying all of this because he thought Nick was drunk and probably wouldn't remember any of this. Nick wasn't that drunk anymore though; he'd thrown most of it up.
Harry continued, "Being a dick is sort of addictive when people let you get away with it"
Nick stifled a laugh, "Is that why you do it"
"Nah" Harry said quickly, finishing his beer and opening the other, "It's because I don't know how to stop and now I've started, it'd be weird if I started being nice" Harry grimaced at the idea, "Hey, do you remember all these?" Harry quickly changed the subject, jumping up from the bed and pulling out a big clear box from under it which was full of all the toys Nick had noticed missing from Harry's room.
"Mum wanted me to chuck them all out, but I said no" He explained, heaving the huge box onto the bed.
Nick's face had lit up, "I wondered where all this had gone!"
And that was that. They spent the next couple of hours going through the entire box and reminiscing about all the times they'd spent playing with all of this stuff.
Harry's mum came in at one point to offer them some food and she commented on how nice it was to see Nick.
"I thought you two had fallen out" She said which just made the two boys laugh. Not because of how wrong Harry's mum was, but because they thought they had too but now they realised that wasn't the case at all.
By the time Nick got into Harry's bed he couldn't believe the evening he'd had. What had started as a complete cry for help had turned into a reunion with someone he didn't ever think he'd be friends with again.
Nick and Charlie had a fight and I'm still ill :( 😅 Sorry for the lack of updates, I just haven't been writing and my chest hurtssss. Sorry, I'll stop complaining haha hope you're all good x
Imagine if Nick and Harry were childhood friends though or were they? I need to read Alice's books with the Heartstopper characters.
Remember to vote if you liked it I guess. See you soonnnn!! I'm gonna do all your requests dw, just not yet x