Chapter Text
Another day passed, and once again Charlie woke up and fell asleep to thoughts of Nick Nelson. In his defense, Nick was the type of friend that texted Charlie until midnight, and sent a good morning text nearly every day. It was kind of ridiculous, or at least Tao thought so. But Tao wasn't the one who had to watch Nick's little frown when he was stuck on a math problem, or to see Nick glowing from exertion after a successful try. Basically, everything about Nick Nelson provoked a response from Charlie, even when he was just sat there doing nothing, and Especially when they were close enough that their arms or their legs brushed. Which was daily because they sat next to each other in form, and somehow they always ended up just a little closer every time. Soon he would end up in Nick's lap at this rate – not that Charlie wanted – could have – anyway, it was just so hard to handle sometimes without making his stupid crush painfully obvious. He constantly wanted to hold Nick's hand, wanted to hold on to hugs for too long, and wanted to stare almost constantly. The only time he DIDN'T stare was in the locker room, for obvious reasons. Not that he didn't catch glimpses of fit arms and chest and silently want to scream. All this to say, his obsession with Nick Nelson was a PROBLEM. And Charlie had no good solutions.
He tried to do what he normally did when he had a problem that there seemed to be no solution to – hide in Mr. Ajayi’s classroom, and complain. Except usually he would be able to complain to Tao – and that was off the table seeing as Tao had NO sympathy, and usually he’d hide out all lunch, but Nick always asked to eat together, and it was a rare day that Charlie was able to resist that hopeful smile. Today, however, was one of those days.
Nick had tried to hide it, but Charlie knew he was disappointed. He would be disappointed too if he had to eat lunch with Harry instead. Yeah, that was probably why he had that look on his face… Today he REALLY did not need any more dizzying smiles and flirty jokes. Today he was going to ask Mr. Ajayi HOW in the WORLD one was supposed to get over a crush. And not just any crush, but a world-stopping, heart-pounding, whopper of a crush, that just got worse and worse. Nick just got more and more unbelievably perfect over time. So in a hail mary bid to stop things before they descended into madness, Charlie asked the only teacher who understood.
Unfortunately, Mr. Ajayi didn’t understand at all. Charlie couldn’t just ‘put distance’ between him and Nick. It just wasn’t possible. Nick never gave a single reason to dislike him, or feel anything but intense delight when Nick invited him ‘round. It was getting to be a sort of addiction. Charlie ran off the serotonin he got from interacting with Nick, and he was sure he’d have a nasty hangover if he ever stopped cold turkey. He looked back at his life before Nick Nelson, and shivered at the thought it could go back to the way it was then. Yeah, no distancing. There had to be another way.
Charlie spent the rest of his lunch with Tao and Isaac, after Mr. Ajayi’s supremely unhelpful suggestion. He spent the lunch period lost in thought, nodding along when his response was needed. He had an idea. It was a long shot, but it was all he had. He would just have to MAKE Nick Nelson undesirable. This would be no easy task, but nobody was truly perfect. There had to be red flags lurking somewhere and Charlie was going to find them.
The next day, Charlie put his plan into action. First, he asked if Nick liked things that he vehemently disliked, to get a foot in the door of incompatibility. Unfortunately, Nick sheepishly admitted to disliking those things too, even when Charlie pretended HE liked them. Violence in movies and tv, when teachers call on you, even strawberry ice cream! He was beginning to run out of things he hated. Then he realized his mistake. He was doing this all wrong! If ANYONE could find Nick Nelson’s flaws it was Tao Xu.
The only problem was, that if Tao understood that he was Trying to Let Nick Go, he would do something disastrous and extra, like embarrass Charlie in front of Nick in a way he couldn't come back from, or be super mean and make Nick never want to be with them again. As much as Charlie wanted to dislike Nick, he didn't want Nick to dislike him. He didn't want anything bad to happen to him at all. So he had to use Tao’s distrust and dislike without letting Tao know what Charlie was planning.
When he went home from school that day, he got into his room and closed the door. He dove into his stack of notebooks and opened to a blank page. Alright, now how hard could this be? ‘Things Tao Dislikes About Nick’, he scrawled at the top of the page, and at the top of the next he wrote, ‘Things I Dislike About Nick’. He started with Tao’s side, having to write in tiny print to fit in all Tao’s complaints. When he finally reached the bottom of the page, he turned to look at his own side, and gulped, daunted by the blank space. He tentatively wrote, ‘is better than me at rugby’, then crossed it out. He didn't really mind, in fact the skill was stupidly attractive. Trying again, he wrote, ‘is a sore loser’ remembering how much Nick had complained about losing at Mario Kart. He nodded, relieved. He couldn't say that it was a big deal to him if Nick complained a little, it even made him feel kind of good to have something to gloat over. And it did make Nick start listing the things he was good at, which made his stomach flip. But still! A flaw! How about ‘likes bubblegum flavor’? Charlie considered. He wrote that too. Oh! ‘Has awful friends’, that one is obvious! He searched his brain for anything else… and came up empty. ‘Too attractive’? He banged his head on the desk.
The next day, after Nick’s good morning text, Charlie asked if Nick would want to get lunch with his friends. He was enthusiastically down for it. Damn, another thing that wouldn't be going on the list. He messaged the group chat next,
CHARLIE sooo, could Nick come and eat with us at lunch?
Tao started typing almost immediately.
TAO Not if I have anything to say about it! Why, Charlie???
Charlie couldn't explain without spoiling the plan, so he just responded,
CHARLIE Pleeeease?? What do I have to do to make this happen?
Tao left him on read. Elle started typing out,
ELLE Wow, you trust Tao with him?
TAO Hey!!
ELLE Maybe you can make it up to Tao by not complaining about his movie choices for a whole month
CHARLIE Yes!
TAO No!!
They argued about it all the way to school.
When Charlie got to form that day, Nick smiled brightly at him, but with a hint of nerves. They exchanged their usual hi’s, and as the teacher began to call out roll, they began their whispered conversation. “Are we going to lunch with your friends today?” Charlie thought back to the ongoing argument and made a decision. “Yes. I REALLY can’t promise Tao will be nice, though.” Nick winced slightly. “Yeah, that's okay. Tao’s nowhere near as bad as the rugby lads, I'm sure. Plus, I want to meet them. I’m excited to get to know your friends!” Nick smiled tenderly, and bumped shoulders with Charlie. “Just so you know, Tao miiiight not actually want to eat lunch with you. There's nothing wrong with you of course! Tao just gets picked on by Harry and his mates, and thinks you're the same. But! If he just meets you, I'm sure he'll see what a GOOD person you are.” Nick’s smile crinkled his eyes. “Thank you. That means a lot.” They gazed at each other with smiles on their faces until the teacher called out, “Nick!”