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Charlie grinned as he saw Nick waiting for him outside the school gate. It was Friday afternoon and they had managed to make it through the first week of the new term with everyone knowing they were together.
It had been an …. interesting week. The first day was pretty uncomfortable. It felt like everyone was watching them, interested in the first openly gay couple at at Truham. Only a few people actually said something, but Nick and Charlie could still feel the stares, hear the whispers. Their friends had been great though, making it easier for them both.
Things had improved over the next few days. As always at school, news gets old fast and was taken over by chatter about new teachers, new classmates and assignments already being discussed by the teachers.
So here they were on Friday, with an entire free weekend stretching in front of them.
Nick looked up from his phone and smiled as Charlie walked towards him.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“It’s Friday!” Nick grinned.
“Thank God” said Charlie. “I know it’s only been a week but I could really use a break from this place.”
“Let’s get out of here then. You still coming back to mine?”
“Absolutely.”
Nick grabbed Charlie’s hand and started towards towards the bus. Charlie glanced down at their hands laced together and smiled. He was still getting used to being able to do this in public, and it made his heart jump a little every time.
“How was your afternoon?” Charlie asked.
“OK,” Nick said. “Mr Wilson was in a mood, so last lesson wasn’t the best.”
“I’m not surprised” said Charlie as they stepped onto the bus. “I heard some year 10’s had a food fight at lunch and he had to sort it out.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Gotta love it when we suffer for idiot kids.”
“Oh, it’s the kids these days ruining things is it, old man?” Charlie teased as they slid into their seat.
“Shut up” Nick said, laughing and shoving Charlie with his shoulder. “How was Tao this afternoon? He seemed pretty quiet at lunch.”
The bus pulled away from the stop as Charlie rolled his eyes. “He’s been quiet all week. But there’s nothing wrong. He’s just texting Elle the entire time rather than talking." Nick chuckled. “That’s one advantage of having a boyfriend rather than a girlfriend when we go to a boy’s school, I guess!” Charlie grinned, his blue eyes meeting Nick’s brown ones. “It’s definitely a plus.” Nick’s heart skipped a beat.
“I guess it’s karma” Nick said. “You kept skipping out on him last term to spend time with me, now it’s his turn.”
“Look, I’m not exactly complaining. It’s a welcome change from him either rolling his eyes at us or trying to explain some weird film plot again. It just makes me laugh. He and Elle spent the entire summer together so now being separated on school days is apparently so hard. At least they didn’t have to spend two whole weeks in separate countries like we did!”
Nick smiled and took Charlie’s hand in his. “That was the worst part of my summer,” he said seriously, nuding his shoulder. “I missed you so much.”
“Me too.” Charlie squeezed Nick’s hand and leaned in so his head rested on Nick’s shoulder. Nick leaned gently into Charlie. “I think we should spend the afternoon making up for those 2 weeks, what do you think?” Charlie felt his cheeks blush. He gazed up at Nick, his chin on Nick’s shoulder, and smiled. “Sounds like an excellent plan.”
The bus pulled in to the next stop and a bunch of boys Charlie and Nick didn’t recognise got on. As they walked past, Charlie noticed their eyes flicker to them holding hands. He saw one of them catch the eye of another, and he could just feel what was coming next.
Nick felt Charlie tense beside him and he frowned. “What is it?” he asked quietly.
“Homophobia, 6 o’clock” Charlie mumbled.
“What?” Nick said, but then he heard it too. A few snickers, some whispers, he caught the word “homo” and some laughter in response.
Charlie wasn’t sure what was worse. When someone was homophobic to your face it was awful, but at least you could just tell them to fuck off. This may be quieter, but there wasn’t much choice but to sit and take it. He’d had to do it before, mainly at school, when he was the only kid who was out. But he knew this was still very new to Nick and Charlie didn’t like it.
Nick felt the colour drain from his face. He felt Charlie tense beside him, moving away from him slightly. He glanced at him and saw Charlie had shrunk a little in his seat, his eyes gazing at his feet. Nick squeezed his hand. “Maybe we should get off at the next stop and walk home” he suggested. “Yeah, probably a good idea” Charlie responded. Nick nudged him lightly, but Charlie only responded with a wan smile.
Charlie gazed out the window. He had had longer than Nick to get used to the fact that this would be part of his life, and he hated seeing Nick dragged into this. And there was still a tiny voice inside his head telling him that Nick wouldn’t have to put up with it if it wasn’t for Charlie.
Nick chatted about his day - he sounded normal, but they both knew he was doing it to distract them both from the boys behind them. As the bus slowed for the next stop, Nick and Charlie stood up. Charlie went to let go of Nick’s hand but Nick smiled at him, tightened his grip and kept it that way as they made their way off the bus. “Thanks mate” Nick said to the driver as he stepped off the bus. He could still feel those boys watching, so he pulled Charlie in to his side and put is arm around him. He wanted to make sure those idiots knew they didn’t get to him.
Even though they got off a few stops early, it was only a 15 minute walk back to Nick’s. Nick tried to talk about the weekend ahead, but Charlie was pretty quiet, only giving short responses. They walked through Nick’s front door, kicked off their shoes and headed upstairs to Nick’s room to get changed out of their school clothes.
“Mum won’t be home for a couple of hours, wanna play video games in the living room?” Nick asked.
“Um, I should probably do my maths homework” Charlie said.
“Really? Tonight?” Nick had no intention of looking at his schoolwork for at least 24 hours. Charlie shrugged in reply.
“OK” Nick said as he pulled on his blue hoodie. “Do you want to take it downstairs then and I’ll make us something to eat.”
“You can, I’ll just eat later” Charlie said, not meeting Nick’s eyes. He picked up his school things and headed downstairs. Nick frowned, but decided not to push it. Not tonight.
Half an hour later, Nick was lying on his back on the sofa, scrolling on his phone. He looked over at Charlie who was lying on his stomach on the floor, scowling at his maths textbook.
“Hey Char, you done with that yet?” Charlie closed this book and leaned his head on the cover. “Yeah” he sighed. Nick could tell something still wasn’t quite right with him.
“Hey,” Nick said softly. “Come here.” He reached his hand out as Charlie looked over at him. Charlie considered it for a moment, then stood up and walked over to the sofa. Nick pulled him down, so they were both lying on their sides, facing each other with their heads resting on the armrest. There wasn’t a lot of room on the sofa so Nick rested his hand on Charlie’s hip, holding him close so he didn’t fall off.
“Talk to me”, he said. Charlie loved that Nick could read his mood so well, even though it was kind of annoying at times like this. He absentmindedly played with the ties on Nick’s hoodie. “I’m fine,” he said flatly.
Nick gently dropped his forehead to Charlie’s. “Was it those idiots on the bus?”. Charlie was quiet for a few seconds. “Yeah”, he whispered, barely loud enough for Nick to hear.
“Did it bring back memories of last year?” “What?” said Charlie, glancing up. “Oh, I guess. A little”.
“If that wasn’t it, what’s wrong?” Nick asked, eyebrows raised.
Charlie shuffled a little. “I’m kind of used to it by now. And I guess I’ve had more time to get used to the idea that I will probably never be able to be with someone in public like straight people can. But you…” he trailed off.
Nick smiled. “You’re just worried about me?” he said, his hand nudging Charlie’s hip gently. Charlie’s blue eyes met Nicks warm brown eyes. “Of course I am” he said. Nick wrapped his arm around Charlie’s side, rubbing up and down his back. “I’m fine, I’m just worried about you” he said. They looked at each other and both laughed. It was so typical of both of them to be more worried about each other than themselves.
“Hey,” Nick said softly. “I love you”.
“I know,” said Charlie, meeting Nick’s gaze. “ I love you too. But it’s easy to believe that here when it’s just the two of us. This week….” He sighed. “We’ve been in the spotlight all week, with everyone at school watching us and talking about us. Even though everyone’s been pretty good, I still feel like I’m on display, you know? Then those boys this afternoon. I hate that you have to go through this.”
Nick kissed Charlie’s cheek. “I thought we’d talked about this. We knew it was going to be a bit weird while everyone got to us being together. But it was OK because we have each other. Right?”
Charlie looked at him and smiled. “Yeah.”
Nick said “remember when I said it was all worth it to be with you?”
Charlie screwed his eyes up. “Cringe! But yeah.”
“It’s still worth it to me. How about you?”
Charlie opened his eyes. “Of course it is.” He closed the small gap between them to press a kiss to Nick’s lips. Nick responded by hugging him tighter, until their bodies were pressed together. They broke apart, and Charlie slipped his arm around Nick’s waist, relaxing into him.
“You realise this isn’t the end of this” Charlie said.
“I’m hoping it’s just the beginnnig” Nick said with a cheeky look in his eye.
Charlie rolled his eyes, but smiled. “That wasn’t what I meant. I meant the funny looks when we’re in public. People we know will get used to it soon enough, but we’ll probably be dealing with people like those bellends on the bus forever.”
Nick brought his hands up to bush Charlie’s hair out of his eyes. Then he ran his hands through Charlie’s curls, one of his favourite things to do. He loved Charlie’s hair. “Yeah, I know. I’m sure it will get easier though. Anyway,” he smiled, “I like to think they are just jealous because I get to be with you.”
Charlie smiled and rolled his eyes again, then leaned in and planted another slow kiss on Nick’s lips.
“Have you thought about rugby?” he asked when he pulled back, his tone a bit more serious.
“What about rugby?” Nick asked.
“I’m guessing the other teams will know that the Truham team has a couple in it pretty quick.” Charlie paused. “I think a lot of straight guys are OK with queer guys until they have to, you know, grab them and lie on top of them to hold them down.”
“Oh,” said Nick, frowning. “I guess I hadn’t really thought about that. I’d been more worried about Harry being a dick when training starts again. I hadn’t really thought about the other teams.” He looked at Charlie. “How do you feel about it?”
Charlie thought for a moment. “I guess we won’t know until it happens. I like playing rugby, I want to keep playing--”
“Good! Who said anything about you not playing?!” Nick protested.
“That wasn’t what I meant! Let me finish” he smiled. “I meant, I like playing and want to play, but rugby doesn’t mean as much to be as it does to you. Having problems in games or with other teams probably won’t hurt me as much as it will hurt you, if it happens.”
Nick was quiet for a moment, stroking Charlie’s hair while he thought. “I guess you’re right. But it doesn’t change anything. I’m going to play, you’re going to play, and I guess we will just have to see what the others are like.”
Charlie ran his hands over Nick’s hip and looked at him. “At least I think the rest of our team will have our back. That’s good, right?”
Nick smiled. “Absolutely. I think even Harry will back us up if any other teams have a go. He loves an excuse to hit someone and he doesn’t get into as much trouble when it’s an opponent on the rugby pitch. Plus, he’s still trying to get back on our good books.”
Charlie laughed. “Well, I’m not so sure about me, but he’s trying to get back in your good book at least, especially now you’re captain.”
Nick looked at Charlie, their faces only centimetres apart, their arms wrapped around each other. Charlie looked a lot happier than when they got off the bus, which was a relief.
“I love you”, he said, losing himself in Charlie’s shining blue eyes.
“I love you too”, Charlie replied quietly, leaning in to kiss Nick slowly as he pulled him closer, his hand sliding around to Nick’s back. He wondered if kissing his boyfriend would ever stop feeling so good.
“Mmm” sighed Nick, running his hands through Charlie’s curls again. “This was more what I had in mind for this afternoon’s activities”. Charlie smiled into the kiss, then broke away to trail kisses along Nick’s jaw and behind his ear. Nick groaned softly. “Yep”, he said, “this is definitely what I was thinking”.
“Good” Charlie said between kisses, enjoying the feeling of Nick’s hands running through his hair, down his arms and around his waist. He stretched back up to kiss Nick deeply. “I think we should do this all weekend” he murmured. Nick could only manage a low “mmm-hmm” in agreement, his mind too occupied to form full sentences.
* * *
An hour later, Sarah Nelson walked through the front door, carrying a couple of bags of shopping through to the kitchen. As she loaded the bags onto the bench, she noticed the boys on the sofa. Walking over to ask them to help she realised they were both asleep, lying next to each other on their sides, facing each other. Their arms were around each other’s waists, Charlie’s head tucked under Nick’s chin and a light smile on both their faces. Sarah smiled herself. The joy of watching your son fall in love is not something they prepare you for in the parenting books. She was so glad Nick had found Charlie, and she loved Charlie too. She noticed Nick’s phone on the back of the sofa, so she picked it up and snapped a quick photo of them - she was pretty sure Nick would like to add that to the collection on his bedroom wall.
Sarah walked back into the kitchen smiling, figuring the noise of her making dinner would wake them up soon enough.