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Flickering lights and unusual surroundings were never Charlie Spring’s favourite but having one of his boyfriend's strong arms splayed over his stomach and the other loosely clinging to his hip were the very opposite of that.
Charlie pondered that thought over as he snuffled lightly against one of Nick’s pillows and cautiously opened his eyes, conscious of the bright stream of sunlight he could sense even through his scrunched eyelids. He hadn’t needed to worry though, after all like the perfect boyfriend Nick was (even in his sleep) he rolled closer into Charlie, effectively blocking the small amount of sunlight flooding through his open blinds. Sadly, Charlie was wide awake now; his palms itched, and his feet felt stone cold now that he was becoming more aware of his surroundings. He really needed a wee.
Feather lightly, Charlie readjusted Nick’s sated figure so he could slip out of the bed and tiptoe to the bathroom. The cool tile in the hallway was a shock to Charlie’s sleep muddled brain, enough for him to take a sharp intake of breath that had Sarah Nelson giggling. She was standing by the stair landing with a fond look that reminded Charlie so much of Nick that he itched to squirm under her gaze.
‘Morning Charlie' Sarah whispered, careful of her volume so as to not wake Nick who was peacefully unaware of anything other than his dreams of a curly haired and dimple blessed boy.
‘You too Sarah’ Charlie replied, although saying her first name still felt weird to him but her chastising –even without any bite- scared Charlie just a tad.
‘How was the floor, not too uncomfy I hope?’ Sarah asked, and even though Charlie missed it, she clearly had no belief left that the perfectly untouched makeshift bed (that was still in sight might I add) had been used. Still, she nodded at the rehearsed speech that consisted of mainly no problems Charlie told her; after all she had once been a teen in love too.
Budding, evergreen love didn’t take much to be startled and Sarah Nelson vowed she wouldn’t be the heavy step or crackle of leaves that spooked the two sweet boys. They didn’t deserve that... so if she had to pretend that they had fooled her so be it, her front row seat of blossoming love was worth making a fool of herself once in a while.
The pair chatted quietly for a few more minutes until Sarah made her way downstairs with the promise of a fresh cup of tea for both Charlie and Nick- if he could get him up.
So, after finishing his business, Charlie wandered back into his boyfriends' room where he glanced at the time and took note of how quickly he needed to get Nick up if they wanted to make it to school on time. Deciding his best tactic was to be gentle, Charlie lent on the bed with his knees on either side of Nick’s body, which worked quite well seeming as he had turned in the time Charlie was away and was now laying on his back still very much dead to the rest of the world.
Smoothing his hand over the light stubble Nick was starting to sport, Charlie leant down to kiss him on the nose. Nick instinctively tugged Charlie closer as a soft smile played on his lips, becoming more radiant as his eyes opened and he could see Charlie more clearly.
‘This is a nice way to wake up Char’ Nick hummed gently.
‘I think your mum wanted me to do it this time, something about you being grumpy in the mornings’ Charlie teased, shrieking when Nick attacked his sides in playful tickles.
Nick wasn’t done there though as he pouted whilst he spoke, ‘Serves you right, you monster. I thought you loved every single part of me.’
‘And I do you big lump, but your mum’s made us tea and we don’t want to be late do we?’
Nick weighed up his options quickly; a domestic morning with Charlie where they could eat breakfast together and share a pair of headphones on the bus or his mum’s disapproving looks and Charlie’s annoyed parents. It wasn’t too much of a hard decision for a few more minutes in bed so regretfully Nick signalled for Charlie to ease off of his knees and swung his legs off the beds edge.
Nick then murmured quietly to Charlie who was sort of awkwardly hovering by the bed. ‘I’ll just brush my teeth so you can put your uniform on then we’ll swap’ Nick offered, and Charlie agreed as he watched his boyfriend pad away in all his shirtless glory.
Both boys quickly pulled on their uniforms, blushing and knocking hips before bundling downstairs where Sarah was already waiting with 3 steaming cups of brew.
She greeted the two boys quickly, ‘Hello Charlie, are you sure you have everything you need for school this morning?’ she wondered- Nick thought she was pestering but Charlie was more than happy to answer. Afterall it wasn’t the norm for the young lovebirds to have sleepovers on school nights, but Charlie's parents had taken his youngest brother along to his grandparents and Tori was at a friends, so they relented. Charlie distinctly remembers seeing dazzling fireworks in his mind when his parents had told him and hadn’t wasted any time bouncing to his bedroom to call Nick and share the good news.
That had been last week and today was Friday so after slowly eating their breakfast and thanking Nick’s mum for her tea they headed off into the brisk Winter weather to wait for the bus. As Charlie was constantly cold by nature, they huddled close on the short walk and luckily the bus was right on time. The two boys nicked the back seats but didn’t make any move to spread out in the abundance of space, instead choosing to be nearly on top of each other because of course young love desires as much.
Like a well-oiled machine Charlie also pulled out his headphone adapter just as Nick produced his own headphones from his coat pocket. But not everything was smooth sailing considering both Nick and Charlie had a competitive glint in their eye.
‘I think we should listen to mine today’ Charlie murmured, trying not to fold at Nick’s offended look as he opened his mouth to protest. Charlie, of course, being used to this particular genre of his boyfriend and his inability to admit he liked Charlie’s taste in music, placed his hand over Nick’s mouth to shut him up. Knowing he had won when Nick made no move to stop him from loading up his Spotify Charlie started one of his favourite playlists and snuggled back into Nick’s arm round his shoulder (yes, they were a true cliché).
The familiar beat of Taylor Swift’s ‘the way I loved you’ filled their connected headphones and Charlie tapped his foot to the reason, ready to mime the words with his boyfriend as they so often did in impromptu karaoke sessions.
He is sensible and so incredible
And all my single friends are jealous
Charlie looked back at Nick then, he felt no hum on the back of his neck or sweet voice over the top of the music and honestly it was a rare occurrence. Even though Charlie had thoroughly worked out that maybe music wasn’t Nick’s secret ability he knew that his boyfriend always sang along to songs he knew... so this was strange. Charlie continued to sneak looks towards Nick but was sonly met with a slightly confused expression; this went onto the chorus and both Charlie and Nick seemed to be getting progressively more confused at two completely different circumstances.
But I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain
And it's 2:00 a.m. and I'm cursing your name
So in love that you act insane
And that's the way I loved you
Then it all clicked and to say Charlie was appalled was an understatement, how could his boyfriend not know Taylor swift for god's sake?
‘Nick what’s this song called I forgot?’ Charlie feigned confusion and Nick’s panicked grimace was an answer in itself- he didn’t know either.
And okay...maybe Charlie was being a little dramatic, but he quickly retched his hand from his boyfriends and spun around in his seat. To an onlooker Charlie would have looked like a real sight, he had ended up with an accusatory finger in Nick’s face and a priceless expression of pure and utter disbelief.
‘Nicholas Nelson, are you telling me your music taste is that bad. It’s Taylor Swift Nick! Of course, it is, I cannot believe you’ Charlie almost screamed, then gasped at the auburn-haired boy in front of him who’s complexion was tomato red in embarrassment.
Nick’s response was delayed after he had shaken off the shock of his boyfriend's appalled confidence, ‘Don’t blame me baby, after all I did hang out with those dicks for so long, I'd never heard of any of the stuff you play me now’.
Still shaking his head Charlie wordlessly asked for Nick’s phone as he opened the amber and chocolatey eyed boy’s Spotify.
‘Your first playlist is Drake?’ Charlie squawked, whilst Nick’s face lit up. Charlie’s expression was hilarious...until it was scary.
Fumbling to explain himself and justify his (questionable) choice in music, Nick blurted out the first thing that came to his head. ‘Harry showed me it’. Real head palm move from Nick there.
‘Exactly’ Charlie whispered exasperated, but his smile became more of a smirk as his voice took a teasing turn. ‘Just as I thought my boyfriend had finally beat the straight allegations, he shows me he’s just a stereotypical rugby lad after all’.
It was Nick’s turn to squawk then. ‘Charlie Spring, like you can talk all you listen to is Adele and Taylor Swift. I personally think I have a lot to teach you’.
With a straight face Charlie gave him a disbelieving look. ‘What epic gay tunes are you hiding then Nick?’
At that point Nick took it upon himself to steal back his phone and navigate to his followed artists.
‘Let’s see then shall we... Drake, Eminem, Calvin Harris’ Nick listed quickly scanning his phone but looked up to see Charlies smug expression; he would have to do better.
Nick gasped, ‘Here I've got that Troye Sivan song Heaven that you showed me’.
Chuckling Charlie chastised, ‘Doesn’t count though does it, I literally added that to your playlist last week’.
‘Fine’.
Continuing to scroll Nick was clawing onto his last string of hope as Charlie snuck his chin over Nick’s shoulder to peek at the dimly lit screen. It felt like eternity before Nick heard his boyfriend gasp and growing grin.
‘Nick...wait Nick stop there. Go up’ Charlie urged, seemingly excited even though Nick was confused as to why. But like the whipped boyfriend he was Nick complied until Charlie stopped his thumb from bringing the screen up any further.
‘Does my boyfriend and rugby King Nick Nelson have a secret boner for Queen’ Charlie basically squealed (he definitely did).
Looking down onto his screen Nick saw the masses of Queen songs he had absentmindedly downloaded before forgetting all about them. Blushing at the memory, Nick realised that he’d done it on the night of his big gay crisis...after all once he’d got his head around the whole, I might be queer thing he’d felt compelled to immerse himself in the bright gay culture he had previously only observed from afar.
‘I forgot they were there’ Nick whispered ‘I have them because of you though’ he added.
Charlie’s face tipped at that, and his eyebrows scrunched in confusion.
‘It was after my big gay crisis that you kind of brought out of me, after all how could I resist such a kind and sweet and nerdy boy’ Nick mused fondly. He was glad that Charlie was too caught up in being called the reasons for his gay realisation and sweet since he’d gone positively bright pink over the sheer amount of love he had for his boy.
‘Oi, you sap’ Charlie teased but his eyes had a certain sparkly sheen that hadn't been there before. Still, he continued wetly, ‘I remember when I was a baby gay, I'd put Elton John on... danced about to rocket man when my parents weren’t home’.
‘Was that just a universal experience then, googling queer singers and songs to put on in secret’, Nick wondered aloud.
‘Either that or we had two very similar gay awakenings- even if mine happened way before yours’ Charlie smirked but grabbed Nick had all the same. He would always be proud of how well Nick had adapted to being out and proud, unlike most tv shows or films the gay characters don’t always die off at the end of the first movie nor is it all plain sailing either. They still have to deal with ignorant comments as well as the malicious ones too, but with their hands clasped they hit the world like a sucker punch.
‘It all worked out all right though, didn’t it?’ Nick murmured and Charlie’s only response was three quick squeezes to their clasped hands I like you.
I like you too. Four quick squeezes met Charlie’s and as the bus slowed down to a halt and they could spy the rest of the Paris squad mingling around the gates Charlie tucked the earphones back into his ear as the song began and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody drowned out everything except the birds tweeting and their beating hearts.
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landside,
No escape from reality.