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Elle can definitely understand why Charlie’s crush has had such staying power. Nick isn’t her type, but she can see the appeal- if you’re into the whole buff, tall, rugby lad with a heart of gold type of thing (she’s not).
Nick is genuinely kind to Charlie- to all of them. He laughs at their jokes and nods empathetically whenever anyone is talking, even if he doesn’t actually say much to anyone but Charlie. He still asks Issac about his books whenever he sees a new one and keeps Elle up-to-date on the goings-on in their year. He’s just… nice.
So Elle doesn’t mind that Nick has become an almost constant presence in her orbit of friends in the few weeks since Charlie’s birthday. And she doesn’t mind that he’s joined them at the café, squeezed around the tiny table between her and Charlie, listening to Tao and Issac argue about a movie she and Charlie had mostly slept through.
She takes a sip of her drink and her eye catches the sun glinting off Nick’s phone screen, drawing her gaze down.
She doesn’t actually mean to snoop- it’s not her fault Nick is holding his phone on the table so far away from his body. It’s not her fault that her eye is drawn to what appears, at first, to be some repeating pattern on the screen. At second glance, Elle can see his Photos are open and most of the pictures seem to be the same thing. A lot of the same thing.
The thumbnail is small, but Elle knows that smile. The floppy hair. That hat.
The person whose face is repeated over and over on the screen of Nick Nelson’s phone is Charlie Spring.
The snooping is intentional now, Elle fidgets with the button at her collar nonchalantly and leans her head slightly to the side to match the tilt of the phone screen. There’s no mistaking it’s Charlie’s smiling face right next to Nick’s equally wide smile. They don’t appear to be actually touching though, just sitting side by side, smiling. Nick’s thumb is resting on his phone screen, just enough that the photos occasionally scroll a bit down the screen. The next two rows are pictures of him and Charlie too.
Charlie clears his throat and Elle jumps, snapping back to her original position, hoping she doesn’t look as guilty as she feels. She glances down just slightly and watches Nick register his phone is unlocked. He locks the screen and puts it face down on the table. She’s not sure if she’s imagining that he’s not quite meeting Charlie’s look as he asks if anyone wants another round of hot chocolate.
Elle files it under Things To Think About Later but has mostly forgotten about it by the time they walk out the door.