Work Text:
“Welcome Truham Students to our Year 10, 11 and 12 Camp!” Ms Singh announced to all of the students. “Year 12s will all be paired up with their friends, guaranteed! Although some year 10s and 11s will have to bunk with people they may not know due to some cabin issues! But we hope you will remain civil, and possibly meet a new friend!”
Some people groaned, a lot of people cheered, but most of all, Charlie Spring was worried. The year 10 had been bullied for the previous year after being outed as gay. He had a few friends, like Tao Xu and Aled Last, but with the cabins being only rooms of two and them being a trio, Charlie had his doubts about being put with one of them.
Disappointment came in the form of a slip, telling him the room number and the person he was to be rooming with. Neither of which were Tao or Aled.
“Charlie Spring. What can I do for you today?” Mr Ajayi said to him as the brunette approached the art teacher.
“Can you see if I can bunk by myself?”
“Why?”
“Cause I didn’t get put with Tao or Aled, and after last year I don’t really think I can be put with someone that isn’t them.”
“I don’t think there’s anything I can do, Charlie,” Mr Ajayi frowned, disappointed that he couldn’t help the student that he cared about so dearly. “Every room has a pair and there aren’t any empty rooms. I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Charlie sighed, even though he knew he would probably cry himself to sleep that night. Or sleep in the toilets, just to get away from this stranger that could possibly not get along with him, or worse, be homophobic.
Carrying his travel bag over his shoulder, he slowly walked to his cabin room, hoping that he could just get this done quickly, and with little memory of it later.
Room 297, Room 298, Room 299…Room 300!
He pushed down on the wooden handle of the mahogany door, it was lined with old age and hand-shaped sweat stains from previous students, previous sweaty teenagers. His fingers wrapped gently against the polish, and his body weight was pushed against the door, tacky, sticky jammed it slightly but with a shove of his own body, he opened the door.
Inside, on the bed - bed, not plural, one bed - sat a blonde boy, who Charlie knew at first glance would be taller than him. He wore a navy blue hoodie, with worn-out drawstrings and some acid wash loose jeans. His brown eyes lit up against his blush pink cheeks and he smiled.
“Hi,” Charlie stared at the blonde, the words came out hushed and he wasn’t expecting immediate politeness.
“Hi,” Charlie whispers back. “Nicholas Nelson?”
Nicholas nods. “Please call me, Nick. That’s what all of my friends call me.”
Charlie’s cheeks heat up, and his vision goes pink around the corners, little hearts spring out of the back of Nick’s head and Charlie can’t help but feel like he had just met the dream.
“Charles Spring?” Nick asks.
“Yeah, everyone calls me Charlie.”
“Okay, Charlie,” Nick smiles. “In case you didn’t notice, I think we’ll be sharing a bed.”
“I thought everyone got their own bed?”
“Yeah, me too. But I guess they had to make a compromise somewhere,” The blonde shrugs. “I can sleep on the floor if that makes you more comfortable?”
“Um, no it’s fine, we can share,” Charlie’s brain short circuits and his head is screaming abort mission at him. “We can just put like a rolled-up blanket in the middle.”
Nick just smiles, a golden retriever smile, Charlie thinks to himself. It’s such a genuine smile, full of kindness and wanting to learn. It makes Charlie swoon.
—
The first night at the camp wasn’t too bad, but Charlie didn’t sleep a wink. Unfortunately, his mind plagued him with thoughts of his privacy being breached and the bullying starting again. He was tense, laying down as straight as possible in the bed, almost about to fall off the side. Charlie was so concerned about how he looked, how he would sound or what he would do when he was asleep. He didn’t want to curl up to Nick and have the teasing and mocking start again. He didn’t want to snore or look weird while he slept in case Nick awoke and took a photo, spreading it around the school.
Most of all, Charlie didn’t want to have a repeat of last year, and he knew that if people found out that he was sharing a bed , with a random boy in the year above him, he would have another target placed on his back by people like Harry Greene.
Under Charlie’s eyes were dark, and he woke up stiff, and miserable. Only five nights left of this crap.
When Nick finally woke up, Charlie was already dressed. It was 7:30 and they didn’t need to come out of their rooms until 8, so Charlie just stayed. He doesn’t know why he did. He could have easily gone into Tao and Aled’s room and hanged out with them, or even just snuck onto their floor and slept there but he felt like it was worth giving Nick a chance.
“Morning,” Nick yawned, the pyjama shirt he wore was loose around his torso and neck, giving Charlie a glimpse of the strong collarbones that blessed the blonde boy’s neck. But the green shirt clung to his arms, the muscle from whatever sport he indulged in greeting Charlie’s eyes.
“Morning,” Charlie shyly whispered back.
“Do you know what time it is?” His voice was laced with sleep.
“Yeah, it’s 7:30-ish. You have half an hour until we need to be at breakfast.”
“Okay,” Almost jumping from the bed, Nick got up, stretching his arms over his head, his limbs being shaken out. “How’d you sleep?”
“Alright,” Charlie lied, knowing full well that he didn’t sleep a wink. “And you?”
“Like a baby,” Nick chuckled. “Which is really surprising because I sleep the worst at night.”
Charlie remained silent, facing away as Nick began to get changed out of his pyjamas. He could hear the zips of the blonde’s jeans being zipped up.
“Can I turn around now?”
“Yep,” Nick replied.
Nick’s legs were covered in light blue jeans, a green hoodie and a tan jacket. He placed his phone in the pocket of his hoodie.
“Ready to go?”
“Yeah,” Charlie rubbed at his neck, wondering why Nick, this random stranger, was being so nice to him.
Charlie walked slightly in front of him, not wanting to bring attention to himself as he began to notice that many people were staring in his direction, although they were staring behind him. Charlie’s feet carried him into the dining room, and he sat next to Tao and Aled.
“Who’re you rooming with?” Tao asked, his orange beanie sitting lightly a top his head.
“Nicholas Nelson,” Charlie replies, looking down at his food with a frown.
“You’re rooming with rugby extraordinaire Nick Nelson?”
“I think so,” Charlie sighed. “Blonde hair, tall, kind of muscley?”
“Yeah, that’s him,” Aled confirmed.
“So how did you sleep then?”
“Not at all. I knew he was in year 11, and he doesn’t look like an absolute outcast.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like there isn’t a floor between you two? Like you aren’t sleeping in the same bed?”
Charlie just stared at him.
“We are, that’s the problem.”
“What?” Tao shouted. Resulting in them being stared at by the rest of the students in the dining room.
“Yeah. They didn’t have two singles in that room, just a queen. But they didn’t tell us until we got there.”
“Jesus Christ, Charlie. That’s so bad,” Aled sighed.
“Yeah, well. I’ll just have to get through it.”
—
The days went by slowly, very slowly, especially since Charlie wasn’t sleeping, and if he was, it was with one eye open. As much as Nick had proven to be nice to him in the times when their space was shared, he couldn’t be so sure.
Every morning when Nick would wake up, he would always greet him with a smile, and ask him how he slept. It made Charlie excited in a strange way. For the past year, he had questioned whether he deserved love, whether he deserved kindness. The bullying got to his self-esteem, tearing apart everything that made Charlie ‘ Charlie’. He lost his love for anything, the drums, playing Mario Kart with Olly, watching movies with Tao, Aled and Elle. Charlie ended up avoiding everything and anything.
Which made his depression worst. Long story short, Charlie finally came out of it, came out of the mental health issues on top, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t always going to have those nagging thoughts in the back of his mind, telling him that everyone would be better off and happier without him in their lives.
Nick, in the most platonic way possible, made Charlie feel loved by someone he wouldn’t expect to love him. Charlie knew that his family and his friends loved him, although sometimes he couldn’t understand why, but with Nick, a stranger, he just felt liked, in the strangest way possible.
It was one night, nearing the end of the camp and Charlie was getting ready to sleep, aka, not sleep a wink and pretend that he had. He had been awake for over 72 hours now and the exhaustion was getting to him, he was yawning and the circles that plagued a darkness around his eyes got larger, more noticeable, and more people could see that he wasn’t sleeping.
The door was opened slowly by Nick, who snuck into the room. His nose was held by a tissue, pink radiated around his left eye and Nick held a limp in his leg.
“What happened to you?”
“Don’t worry,” Nick mutters looking down.
“Do you want some help?”
“If you don’t mind, it kind of hurts to bend down or squat, could you just get my pyjamas off of the floor?”
“Yeah sure,” Charlie frowned. “Are you sure you’re okay? I’m happy to listen.”
Nick sighed. “I’m sure you know of Harry Greene?” Charlie nodded, knowing exactly who Harry Greene was. “Let’s just say he found out that we were rooming together and said some really bad stuff about you.”
“Oh,” Charlie gasped quietly. “It’s fine, I’m used to it. Harry’s said a lot about me in the past.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It’s cause I’m gay.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, I hope that’s okay with you.”
“No, it’s more than okay,” Nick sadly smiled. “I already knew if I’m being honest. I know what people did to you last year, said about you.”
Charlie stayed quiet, turning around so that Nick could get changed into his pyjamas.
“I’m so sorry that happened to you, Charlie. You didn’t deserve that at all.”
“Yes, I did,” Charlie muttered against his breath.
“No, you didn’t. You deserve to be out with your sexuality and for people to accept you. Because in reality, it isn’t hurting them and it’s none of their business. They all just need to piss off.”
Charlie nervously giggled. “That’s one way of putting it.”
“You’re amazing, Charlie. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise,” Nick put his hands on Charlie’s shoulders.
Charlie blushed, butterflies floated inside his stomach and around his head.
“Now you should probably get some sleep, you look exhausted.”
“Haha. Just all of the kayaking we did today,” Charlie used an excuse, but to be completely honest he was glad he was able to shut his eyes around Nick, finally get some sleep as his worries washed away.
For the first time in three days, Charlie slept easy.
—
He woke up later than Nick the next day, the blonde wasn't in the room, his pyjamas lay messily on the ground, and where his shoes sat by the door, were now missing.
Anxiety flooded his system, and he quickly jumped out of bed. His arms shaking as he held himself tight, afraid of the implications of Nick’s disappearance.
But then the door opened, and the pink outline around his eye was now purple, painful petals littering around his pupil and there was a band-aid that rested upon his nose.
“Jesus Christ, you scared the shit out of me,” Charlie gasped.
“Sorry, sorry. I just had to wash my face.”
“That's okay! Are you feeling any better?” Charlie asked, his fingers tapped the side of Nick’s cheek before quickly moving away, realising the closeness. “Sorry.”
“It's okay. It's not too bad. My leg just hurts a bit when I put weight on it, but I can't go ‘round hopping on one foot all day now, can I?”
“No, surely not.”
—
The days went by quickly. He somehow noticed Nick’s presence a lot during the day, and at night they spoke about things that made them curious.
They talked about stars, the meaning of life, what they wanted to do outside of Truham. And then the topic of sexuality came up.
“Charlie,” Nick mumbled, with Charlie humming in response. “How did you know you were gay?”
“I don't know. It's just always been guys for me I guess. I've never looked at a girl and wanted to kiss her.”
“Oh.”
“I'm guessing you never had that.”
“I don't know. I do like girls but I don't know if I like boys too.”
“Well, would you date a boy?” Charlie asked, sitting up on the bed.
“I don't know.”
“And would you kiss a boy?”
Nick was silent, he looked down towards Charlie's lips anxiously, hoping the other boy would get the hint.
“Would you kiss me?” Charlie whispered.
They grew closer and closer to each other, faces glowing hotter and hotter as Nick replied. “Yes.”
Nick surged forward, his lips gently connecting with Charlie’s. Charlie brings his hands up to Nick’s cheeks, similar to how he did a few days prior, their lips slot perfectly against one another and it's calm in their small universe.
Charlie wouldn't have known, but Nick knew he hadn't slept, and when he finally did, Nick reached his hands to Charlie’s own, slowly, gently. Sparks crackled in his fingers as he reached to place his palm in Charlie’s.
Maybe it was love at first genuine conversation for Nick.
They continued kissing, Charlie almost afraid to let go. Fear took hold and he knew inside his brain that Nick was going to regret this later on, call him weird, bully him for not controlling his “gay urges”. But when they pulled away, all Nick could do was smile.
That genuine smile.
Nick held Charlie’s hand in his own, sparks once again crackling against their fingers.
“So what does this mean?” Charlie asked nervously, his eyes were turned down, away from Nick.
Nick touches his cheek, pulling Charlie’s focus back towards him.
“It means I like you, Charlie Spring.”
“I like you too, Nick Nelson.”
They smiled. Maybe it wasn't so bad having to share a bed with a stranger after all.