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“When are we stopping for food?” Elle asked, leaning against Tao’s chair. “I’m getting hungry.”
“I mean, I’m hungry too,” Nick said, looking at the others.
“Um, I’m still fine,” Charlie said with a smile. “But if you want, we can put in the pizza order now so they’ll be here in a bit.”
“That’s a good plan.” Tao stretched out his legs and nudged Aled, who smacked his foot away.
Charlie got up to find the pizza menus, leaving everyone else still around the Monopoly board. It had been Nick’s idea to have a day of board games as opposed to online ones for a change, and Charlie had been happy to organise it at his house. The Spring family had an impressive range of offline games of every variety – cards, trivia, board games, and even a poker set.
The friends had started the day with a league table of Top Trumps, going from dogs to dinosaurs to Disney characters and a dozen other sets, knocking people out each round until there was only one undisputed winner. Charlie, of course, had won because he knew the cards so well, and his win hadn’t gone uncontested. There had been a short wrestling match on the living room rug between him and Tao, but it had ended pretty quickly and Charlie had been crowned Ultimate Top Trump Player Of The Millenia (Nick’s words).
Monopoly was going as well and taking as long as you would expect – Elle had amassed most of the properties, including the coveted train stations, and was steadily rinsing the boys of their money. Tao was taking this poorly, and Aled was attempting to barter his three properties for better paying ones every round to no avail. Nick and Charlie had decided to team up, but were therefore only playing with one piece, and it had prompted more arguments between them than they had expected. Granted, they were perfectly amicable arguments of no real substance, but given how well they got on at literally any other time, it was strange to be at odds with each other all of a sudden. Charlie’s playing strategy was careful spending and taking the time to build up money before buying big. Nick’s attitude was to buy everything at every opportunity and worry only when their money ran out.
But now they were taking a short break for food. Nick pushed the board to the side of the room and stuffed his and Charlie’s money into his pocket. He trusted his and Charlie’s friends with his life – but not with Monopoly money.
“You really think we’d steal it?” Aled asked, raising a blond eyebrow and grinning.
“I absolutely would,” Tao chipped in. Nick laughed.
“Yep, that’s why I’m taking care of the earnings.”
“Can I pick what we watch over lunch?” Elle asked, already spread out across the sofa with her legs hanging over the arm. “Do you know what Charlie’s Netflix password is?”
“Hang on, I can put it in. Budge up.” Nick lifted up Elle’s legs so he could sit on the sofa and took the remote from her. He opened Netflix and handed it back to her. “Go crazy. I’ll go check on Charlie.”
Nick left the living room, pausing in the doorway to glance back at his three friends sprawled across the floor and sofa. He still didn’t know them nearly as well as Charlie did, but Nick was so grateful to now have friends that felt like true friends. The people sat in his boyfriend’s living room were all honest, and funny, and kind, and now that he was getting to know them better, Nick couldn’t believe the people he’d settled for before.
He went into the kitchen, and was immediately overwhelmed with the sight of Charlie crying at the kitchen table. The pizza menu was open in front of him, and Charlie was clutching his face, sobbing inaudibly.
“Hey, no, Char? What’s wrong?” Nick went over and put an arm around Charlie as he sat down. “Are you okay?”
“It-It’s the food,” Charlie spluttered, wiping his mouth and swallowing before trying again. “I can’t do it.”
“Oh Charlie.” Nick pulled his boyfriend into a proper hug, and Charlie buried his face against his sweater. “We’ve got ages until lunch, you don’t need to think about it yet.”
“B-But I am thinking about it,” Charlie mumbled against Nick’s shoulder. “I can’t do it today Nick, I’m really sorry, I just can’t do it.”
His sobs started anew as Nick sighed and rubbed his back. “You don’t have to be sorry, really. It’s absolutely okay that this is difficult, and I’m here. You don’t have to if you really can’t. Of course I’d prefer that you ate, but I know this isn’t easy for you.”
Nick glanced back at the menu. There were good options available – he knew that the others back in the living room would enjoy picking out their pizzas. Then he saw the banner advert at the bottom of the leaflet – “ORDER FOUR PIZZAS AND WE’LL THROW IN A FREE HALF-BAGUETTE GARLIC BREAD”.
“Tell you what,” Nick said, pulling away from Charlie so that he could wipe away the tears under his eyes and place a kiss on his forehead. “Look at this – they do a deal if you order four pizzas. We can order one to share and say it’s so we can have free garlic bread. That way, if you want to try eating a little bit, you can, but otherwise I can just eat all of it and you won’t have to worry about what the others think. How does that sound?”
Charlie looked up at Nick with a weak smile as his lip trembled and he started crying again. Nick was about to hug him again when Charlie managed to say,
“T-That sounds really good, thank you Nick. I’m sorry, thank you so much for t-taking care of me.”
“Hey, it’s no problem.”
Nick cupped Charlie’s face, and looked into his eyes. They were so blue, and so bright when they were swimming with tears. Nick hated seeing Charlie cry, but he was so handsome and his eyes were so beautiful. Charlie reached up and rested his hand on Nick’s, and they sat like that for a moment.
“Are you okay to go back through and see the others?” Nick asked. Charlie took a deep breath and blew it out again.
“Yeah, I think I’ll be okay. I’m so sorry Nick, I—”
“No more apologising,” Nick grinned.
“Okay fine.” Charlie smiled back. “Give me a minute to go to the bathroom and sort my face out.”
“Why would you need to do that? It’s so perfect already.”
Charlie blushed and rolled his eyes at him with a laugh.
“I’ll get the others’ pizza orders, and I can make the phone call if you don’t want to have to talk about the food,” Nick offered.
“You’re the best,” Charlie replied, leaning forwards and giving him a soft kiss. It was damp from his tears, but Nick still raised his hand to touch Charlie’s cheek and made sure he wasn’t the first to pull away.
“See you in a minute,” Charlie said, heading upstairs.
Nick collected the menu and went into the living room. Tao had now moved to perch awkwardly beside Elle. She was still taking up the majority of the sofa, and Tao had seemingly crushed himself into the smallest corner of it so as not to touch her. Aled, on the other hand, was led on the floor and frequently reaching up to poke Elle’s knees every time she moved them down, making her squeal when he tickled the backs of her legs.
“Why are you harassing Elle?” Nick asked as he came in. Aled burst out laughing at the same time Elle did.
“I said I wasn’t ticklish just now,” Elle explained, “and Aled’s decided to test it.”
“I think I’ve proved her wrong about eight times now,” Aled grinned.
“I got the pizza menu from Charlie, and he’s gone to the bathroom quickly,” Nick said. “There’s a deal where if we order four pizzas we get free garlic bread, so he and I are going to share a pizza so that you guys can pick one each. That okay?”
“Free garlic bread?” Tao piped up. “Hell yeah, I’m in.”
“Brilliant,” Nick grinned.
He grabbed a notepad and a pen so that he could write down their demands, and agreed to ask Charlie if they could order dips as well. They were just onto the second round of an argument over pineapple on pizza – Aled and Elle for, Tao and Nick strongly against – when Charlie re-emerged. Nick was relieved to see that he looked completely normal, and offered them all a smile as he came back in.
“Have you made your minds up?” he asked, sitting down next to Nick on the rug and taking a look at the paper.
“Yeah. What did you want to share with me?” Nick asked, opening the leaflet for a final time. It had become significantly more dog-eared in the past few minutes, and he had to uncrease the massive fold placed over the Hawaiian pizza by Tao.
“Um, how do you feel about a spicy meat pizza?” Charlie asked, looking at Nick with a degree of anxiety. Nick gave him a warm smile and laid his hand over his.
“I really like spicy pizza. And meat pizza. Let’s go for that.”
Charlie went with Nick back into the kitchen to place the order, and helped to find Jane Spring’s credit card so that they could pay. Everything went smoothly, and they rejoined the others in the living room once more. Elle was leading the charge on choosing a film or series to watch during the meal – Tao was arguing against a rewatch of The Office while Aled and Elle pleaded with him – and together they managed to come to an agreement.
The pizzas arrived not long later, and Aled helped Nick to carry them all into the living room.
“Mum says we can eat in here so long as we don’t make a mess,” Charlie said, “so no ranch dressing on the rug.”
“Damn, I was so looking forward to flavouring the rug,” Aled replied with a grin.
Nick made sure that he and Charlie were sat on the floor, leaning against Elle and Aled’s legs – and receiving occasional friendly kicks – where nobody could see them eating while the focus was on the TV. The box of spicy meat pizza sat between them, and Nick took an extra cheesy slice eagerly. Charlie was still sitting with his hands nervously in his lap, fiddling with the drawstrings on his hoodie. Nick moved the pizza box over slightly so that he could sit right next to Charlie, and took his hand.
“Do you just want a bite of my slice?” he murmured in his ear, quite enough that the others wouldn’t hear.
Charlie shook his head and bit his lip.
“Thanks though,” he replied, smiling and squeezing Nick’s hand back.
They continued watching The Office, with Aled and Elle’s frequent quoting of the characters and Tao’s remarks about how they must have it memorised after seeing it so many times drowning out the show on occasion. There was so much going on that nobody had noticed that Charlie wasn’t eating. So he reached forwards and took the last bit of a slice from Nick’s hands.
“This okay?” he mouthed. Nick nodded and took a fresh slice from the box with a smile. He made sure that he kept his eyes on the screen as Charlie ate those final bites of the slice, but kept smiling to himself. Charlie had done it – he’d found a way to manage something.
Charlie reached out again as Nick reached the end of his slice, and Nick passed it over. He assumed it must be less pressure for Charlie to have a smaller portion to start with, and soon enough Charlie had eaten the equivalent of two slices through taking Nick’s half-eaten slices.
When all the pizza had gone, Charlie went to the kitchen and brought out ice-cream with bowls and spoons for everyone to choose from. Nick made a joke about the lack of whipped cream and sprinkles, to which Charlie responded by coming out with a box full of cake decorating supplies.
“Is this enough for you, Mr Nelson?” he said, grinning as he shook the box of sprinkles and icing and sauces in front of him. Nick laughed and took a container of hundreds and thousands to go over his ice-cream.
“You have fed us well, Charlie,” Tao groaned from the sofa. “Thank you so much for getting us that free garlic bread.”
“I think you ate most of it,” Elle laughed.
“I’m not going to pass up free garlic bread,” Tao protested, “and you were struggling to eat your whole pizza anyway.”
“Are there any leftovers?” Nick asked. “We should put them in the fridge if there are.”
There was nothing that remained after their lunch – just some stray crumbs and empty dip containers that had been collected in the boxes.
While Elle, Tao and Aled kept watching The Office, Nick helped Charlie collect up the rubbish and take it into the kitchen. As soon as they were out of sight Nick pulled Charlie into a huge hug, kissing him on the top of his head over and over.
“I’m so proud of you!” he exclaimed quietly, bouncing up and down. “You did so well!”
“Stop it!” Charlie laughed.
“You did! You managed to eat really well even though you thought you couldn’t! You’re amazing. You’re incredible.”
“No!” Charlie protested, covering his face with his hands as Nick held him at arm’s length.
“Yes!” Nick replied, kissing him on the forehead. “I’m so proud of you, Char.”
He looked at his boyfriend, all pink and flustered from the praise, and leaned forwards to kiss him again. Charlie held onto the back of Nick’s sweater and kissed him back eagerly, standing on tiptoe slightly so that he could push back against him and cup one hand on Nick’s cheek. Nick could still taste the chilli from the pizza on Charlie’s tongue, and smiled appreciatively as Charlie gave a happy sigh.
“Are you guys ready to—Oh!”
Charlie pulled away quickly, and Nick turned around to see Tao rolling his eyes at them.
“That’s what you mean when you say you’ll clear up,” Tao said with a raised eyebrow.
“We really did clean up,” Charlie said, but Tao just tutted and shook his head.
“Come back in, we need to finish the Monopoly game!”
“Alright fine,” Charlie said with a grin, waiting until Tao had gone to peck Nick on the lips again. “Thank you so much Nick.”
“It’s all okay,” Nick smiled. “Now let’s go kick their asses with some fake capitalism.”
“Fake capitalism for the win!”