Falling (a Heartstopper fanfiction)

Hug

Saturday came round at last. Everyone else arrived early to the bowling alley, but not Nick. Charlie's heart sank. He'd been afraid of this all along. Nick didn't want them to be seen together; he'd never wanted to come in the first place but had been too nice to say so.

"He's probably not coming," Tao said, echoing Charlie's dark thoughts. "We'll have more fun without him, anyway."

Elle glared at him. "Tao!"

"What? It's true." He started to say something else, but she shook her head at him.

Charlie left them in the lane and went to wait anxiously by the entrance, knowing he wouldn't be able to think of anything else until Nick got there. Nick wouldn't not show, he told himself. Would he? Charlie supposed he wouldn't blame him. This wasn't exactly his kind of thing, was it, hanging out with Charlie and his weird friends. If he didn't come, Charlie would be okay with it, he told himself fiercely.

And then, there Nick was, rounding the corner. Relief flooded Charlie, and he hurried forward. "You came!"

"Yeah, of course I did!" Nick said, as if there had never been any doubt. He held out a gift bag. "Happy birthday."

"I said you didn't have to get me anything."

"And I ignored you." Their eyes met, and Charlie smiled. Even with Nick standing right in front of him, he couldn't quite believe this was happening.

He reached for Nick's hand. "Come on." Remembering where they were, he let go again immediately.

"Am I the first one here?"

"No, you're actually the last. We're over there—lane 17." He pointed.

Tao and Elle were having a heated discussion. Nick frowned thoughtfully. "I feel like I know her from somewhere."

"That's Elle. She used to go to our school. She would have been in your year, but she moved to Higgs. That's Isaac. He doesn't say a lot, but he's really nice. And you know Tao. Sorry in advance if he says anything rude to you. That's just the way he is."

"Okay."

Tao turned to see them standing there together, and he looked like he had just sucked on a lemon.

"Ready to meet them?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah."

They joined the others. "Everyone, this is Nick," Charlie said, as if they all weren't completely aware of who Nick Nelson was.

"Hey."

Isaac smiled. "Hey."

"Oh, good," Elle said. "We're just choosing fun names for the board."

"Fun names?" Nick joined Isaac and Elle at the machine.

Charlie sat down next to Tao. "Can you at least try to get to know him?"

"I'll ... try." It was hard for him, and Charlie appreciated that he was willing to make the effort.

To no one's surprise, they all started off bowling really terribly—except for Nick, whose ball struck the pins solidly and knocked down nearly all of them. He flung his arms out in victory, turning toward Charlie, who was standing behind him, and they nearly hugged before remembering where they were.

"Sorry," Charlie murmured.

Nick shook his head. "It's fine."

They ordered food, and Nick and Elle demolished most of the chips between them, exclaiming about how good they were. Charlie thought they were nothing special, but he wasn't much of a chip person anyway.