Trigger warnings: Ben Hope, swearing, homophobia, mention of ED and SA.
2686 words.
Charlie:
Ollie has got a girlfriend! It feels so weird saying that, I swear he was only six yesterday. He's now fourteen, I can't believe that - I'll be back, I'm going to go cry. Anyway, he has gathered Nick, Sarah, Mum, Dad, Tori, Michael and myself into our kitchen and is telling us all about her. I find it so cute that he has always thought on Nick and Sarah as family, we thought that he would probably grow out of it but he never has. Ever since he met Nick when I was fourteen: that was...nine years ago. Wow, that's felt like no time at all. I'm twenty-three now, Nick is twenty-four and so is Tori. Tori has moved in with Michael (who is twenty-five) and they have moved into a flat on the other side of town, whereas Nick and I are still saving up to buy a flat together but we still spend everyday and night together, so we are practically living together just not in our own house yet. Anyway, going back to Ollie and his new girlfriend. He looks like he is regretting telling us about her because he is now getting bombarded with questions.
"What is her name again?" Dad asks.
"Where did you meet?" Sarah asks.
"Does she go to Higgs?" Mum asks.
"What year is she in?" Michael asks.
"Do you know what her family is like?" Tori asks emotionless but what is new about that?
"Does she know about your crazy family?" Nick asks looking directly at me.
"I am choosing to ignore that Nicholas," I say, "How long have you been dating?"
"WOAH!!! Guys, calm down! One question at a time please, I am also choosing to ignore your comment Nicholas." Ollie quips back at all of us. He starts going round the circle in the same order the questions were asked.
"Her name is Jemima, Dad. Next question please, Sarah." Sarah then asks him the question.
"We met when we were at the local park's duck pond, we were both trying to clear our heads. Mum, your question." Mum then proceeds to ask him her question.
"Yes she goes to Higgs, she is in year nine, Michael, but she is two months younger than me. Tori?" Tori, again emotionless, repeats her question.
"I know she has an older brother who is nothing like her, a Dad like her brother and a Mum like her. Nick, she knows that I have a Mum, Dad, older brother, older sister, she knows that my big brother has a very annoying boyfriend and that boyfriend has an amazing Mother and a crap older brother and Dad. Charlie what was your question again?"
"How long have you two lovebirds been dating?"
"Um, we've been dating for about two weeks officially. Is that everyone's questions answered?" We all nod out heads yes.
Ollie:
Jesus, I knew that everyone would be interested that I have a girlfriend but I didn't think they would start shooting questions at me like there was only two seconds left before the Earth exploded.
"We should invite her an her family to a dinner party." Sarah suggests.
"Yeah, that would be a good idea, I'll ask her about it. Um, will David and Stephané be there?" I query.
"No, no they won't."
"Okay. I'll text her."
Me: Heyy, so my family was wondering if your family wanted to come over for a dinner party sort of thing?
Jemima: Yeah sure! I'll have to ask my parents first tho, I forgot lol. Also, heyy.
Me: Only you would forget to haha.
Jemima: Offended, anyway they said yes but what day and where and is it at yours.
I ask Sarah and she says that we can meet at hers tomorrow night at six thirty.
Me: Okay, so we are meeting at Charlie's boyfriends house tomorrow at six thirty, is that okay?
Jemima: Yeah, sounds great! Address?
Me: 34 River Crescent, is that enough description?
Jemima: Yep, thanks.
Me: See you there <3
Jemima: See you there <3
Oh I can't wait! It's Friday today so I won't see her until then. I see can Charlie and Nick are the most excited to meet her. I don't know what it is about them but if one of them in feeling something, like excitement for example, the other one will instantly pick up on it and soon enough they just vibe of each others energy. I hope Jemima and I have that one day, if we stay together forever that is.
Nick:
Charlie and Ollie have come over to help Mum and I set up for the dinner party tonight. Ollie looks like he's been electrocuted with excitement, I don't think I've ever seen him so happy about one of these dinners. Ollie calls Mum and I his family and when we normally have one of these dinners, it means Dad and David are home, he's not the fondest of them and doesn't consider them family. Charlie looks excited too, but also a bit nervous: knowing him it's probably because he will have to meet new people.
Six o'clock comes around and Tori, Michael, Jane and Julio are arriving. We agreed it they should probably come earlier so it's just Jemima's family arriving at six thirty. It's just how things work around here, don't ask me why; it's just protocol.
__________
The door bell goes, looking at the way Ollie is speeding to the door: it's probably Jemima. We stand behind him as he opens the door and Charlie looks even more nervous then he did before.
"Hey, are you okay Char?" I whisper turning to him before the door opens.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine Nicks." He whispers back but I'm not sure I believe him.
The door opens and I lock eyes with the last person in que to come in: Ben fucking Hope. Now I know why Charlie is so nervous, he would have askes Ollie Jemima's last name and it would be 'Hope'. All the colour drains out of Ben's face when he sees us, or me because Charlie is staring at the ground. No one else seems to notice the tension in the room as Ollie lets in the Hope family. When everyone is in the dining room, I pull Charlie to the side:
"That's why isn't it? You asked Ollie what her last name was: he said 'Hope' and you put the pieces together."
"Yeah." He says just above a whisper as a tear rolls down his face, I can only imagine what is going on in his mind right now.
"If he does anything out of line, you come to me okay? I'll whisper quickly to Mum what the situation is so she is aware okay?"
"Yeah, I mean I will probably be glued to your hip the whole night anyway."
I chuckle slightly and we head into the dining room, Mum is sitting on my left and Charlie on my right, next to Mum is Ben. I whisper in Mum's ear quickly about the situation between Charlie and Ben, she gives me a reassuring nod which means that she will keep an eye on him. For dinner, we have a Full English. It takes Charlie a bit of staring at his food before he takes the first bite, it's taking him a while to eat today so that means that Jane, Julio, Ollie, Tori and Michael will know that something is off with Charlie.
"So, Ollie you have a big family! Three brothers, a sister, a Mum, a Dad and a Grandma!" Jemima's Mum states as Ben snorts a little laugh, "What is so funny Ben?" She demands.
"Oh, nothing Mum but Ollie only has a brother, sister, Mum and Dad here tonight."
There he is, on the way to try make Charlie and I's life a misery: it's not going to work.
"So who are all the other people then Ben?" She asks, not believing him.
"Well-" He starts but Charlie interrupts him.
"It is true, Oliver has: a brother, myself, a sister, Tori," He nods towards her, "A Mum and a Dad." He nods towards them.
"So, what about, ummmm." Ben's Dad starts to ask.
"This is Nick, he is my boyfriend, Michael is Tori's housemate and Sarah is Nick's mum." Charlie explains.
"Fucking homosexuals." He says under his breath.
Mum, Charlie and I decide to ignore the comment and we will address it later. Charlie takes longer to eat dinner as he's stressed, I think the Hopes pick up on it but decide to ignore it, I hope so anyway. They keep giving him little glances then look away in disgust, how do they know about Charlie's eating disorder? Ben also keeps eyeing Charlie, he does know that he has a long term boyfriend of nine years sitting right next to Charlie, right? Every time I look at him my mind replays the way he treated Charlie, that time I had to grab him off of him because he was sexually assaulting Charlie: when I look at Charlie, I can see the exact same thing happening to him. It's quite an awkward time while eating dinner, that's the vibes I'm getting off of it anyway.
Ollie:
Something is not right here, there is so much tension in the air. Mum can feel it, Dad can feel it, Tori, Charlie, Nick, Sarah, Jemima and I can feel it. I don't know what it is but seeing that Charlie is struggling to eat and Nick looks quite agitated: I'm starting to worry that they had a little argument earlier, I mean they did come in a little later than the rest of us. Then Ben, Jemima's big brother, catches my eye and he keeps stealing glances at Charlie. Was it something between them? Ben and Charlie? If it is, why does nick look so agitated. Is it something between the three? Ben, Charlie and Nick? Either way, I'll have to ask them about it later because right now I need to make a good impression on Jemima's parents.
__________
We are now sitting in Nick's lounge and I've decided to pull Charlie and Nick out of the room.
"Okay, what's going on?" I demand looking at the both at them.
"What?" Charlie and Nick ask at the same time.
"You," I point at Nick, "You," I point at Charlie, "And him." I point into the lounge in Ben's direction.
"Something that happened to Charlie when he was your age. Between Charlie and that, it ended up me having to pull that off of Charlie because he was in danger."
I pull a puzzled face. Are they seriously still holding a grudge against Ben for something that happened nine years ago? I know that not great things have happened to the both of them when Charlie was a little older than me but it's a bit extreme, isn't it?
"No, Oliver. It isn't extreme," Nick says sternly, did he just read my mind? "He used Charlie to have control over something and in the process made Charlie feel like he was worth noting while doing so. When Charlie tried to break up with him: that sexually assaulted him, I had to go in and rip him off of Charlie and if I didn't, Charlie would have been raped. So, we have the perfect reason to be holding a grudge against him and to not want anything to do with him."
"This doesn't mean that we don't want you and Jemima to end things, she seems like a really nice girl but we don't want to be around Ben and we want nothing to do with him." Charlie explains.
"Jesus fucking Christ!" I whisper beneath my breath.
"Oliver Spring," Charlie says, "Mind your language."
I give him an apologetic look and go back into the lounge and make sure to give that a long, deep death stare. Tori seems to pick up on this and joins me. Wait, did she know about this too? Wow, I was left out. I guess there wasn't any reason to tell me though, well not until now. He starts to look a bit uncomfortable and looks away, I hope he feels guilty as fuck for what he did to Charlie. He looks back at us to see us still staring and snaps.
"What?" He says with a raised voice.
"You son of a bitch, I hope you are crippling with guilt for what you did to my brother. He did nothing to you but made you feel like you had something, you manipulated him to do stuff he didn't want to just so you could feel control. Did you ever want to be his fucking boyfriend? He tries to break up with you AND YOU SEXUALLY ASSULT HIM?! YOU WERE ON THE PATH TO RAPE HIM AND WE ALL KNOW IT!!! YOU ARE A DISGUSTING PEICE OF SHIT AND I HOPE THAT YOU CRIPPLE WITH GUILT AND UNPLEASUREABLE FEELINGS EVERYDAY KNOWING WHAT YOU DID TO AN INNOCENT BOY WHO ONLY WANTED TO FEEL AND TO BE LOVED BY SOMEONE OTHER THAN HIS FAMILY!" I scream.
"You didn't even ask," Tori joins in, with anger hinting in her tone which is scary, emotionless and angry, "When you first kissed him, you didn't even ask, IS THAT WHAT YOU WOULD WANT. SOME RANODM-ASS STARNGER COME UP TO YOU AND SNOG YOU WITHOUT ANY PERMISSION WHATEVER?! HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT WAS WHAT HE WANTED?! YOU ARE A FITHLY PEICE OF WORK AND I HOPE THAT YOU RELIVE ALL THE MOMENTS WITH REGRET IN YOUR DREAMS. YOU WILL NEVER FIND LOVE WITH THAT ATTITUDE TOWARDS PEOPLE, I HOPE YOU NEVER DO FIND LOVE. IT'S SAFER THAT WAY. I feel bad for all the people who have been in a relationship with you, but y-you NEVER LEARN FROM IT, DO YOU?"
Ben is now looking around but Tori and I keep our gaze on him. "You did WHAT?" His Dad screams. Mum, Dad, Sarah, Tori, Michael, Jemima and I leave the room so they can sort out their problems and we are met with Charlie and Nick looking like they are trying to swallow each others faces whole. We walk out of the hallway to the kitchen to give them space, I turn around to close the door and see Nick's hand on Charlie's ass. Nothing wrong about that, right? Except for the fact that he is gripping it so much that it looks like he is trying to detach it off of Charlie's body while Charlie is doing the same to Nick's hair. Those two are so fucking intimate it's disgusting and cute at the same time. In the kitchen, we make conversation until Dad brings up what Tori and I were talking - more like screaming - about. I explain what I know and Tori adds in what she knows, which is a lot more than I had been told. I look over at Jemima and she looks how I feel: completely wrecked that a human could do that to another human. While we are in there, we hear Charlie and Nick's lips smacking, a bit of moaning and gasps for air but we also hear the Hope adults screaming at Ben. We hear a lot of excuses like, 'He never told me how he felt', 'I never meant for it to get that bad.' and 'I did genuinely like him.' and from his parents we heard: 'We would always accept you!', 'I can't believe you would do something like that!' and 'We are leaving, you will be explaining yourself later young man.'
With that, they get Jemima out of the kitchen, passing Charlie and Nick who are now sitting on the stairs flirting, thank, apologize and say goodbye to us and leave.
Authors note:
Sooo, it's a bit longer than I expected. Sorry I haven't posted for the that five days, I think it is, this story took a while to brainstorm and my family have had friends over and they have kept me from Wattpad. Anyway, you know the drill: I hope you enjoyed reading this and thank you for doing so, if you have anything you want to read then either comment on the authors note or dm me on Instagram or TikTok (tea.gan05). I hope you have an amazing rest of your day/night. See you next time!