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It was a cold rainy evening and Nick and Charlie were curled up under a blanket watching a film. They weren’t paying much attention to the film and were making out instead when Nick suddenly broke off the embrace, pitched to the side and violently sneezed twice. He apologised for the interruption and they went back to what they had been doing. They thought nothing of it and completely forgot that it had happened and had a wonderful evening together.
The next day Nick woke up and felt really tired, he didn’t want to get out of bed and he usually loved getting up in the mornings because that meant that he would see Charlie soon. He dragged himself out of bed and got ready for school, he got to the usual benches where his friends were and snuck past them, he didn’t much like his friends anymore and his throat hurt so he wasn’t going to waste his voice on them, it was for Charlie and Charlie only. He got into form and sat down to do the homework he had left until the last minute, given how tired he felt he was regretting leaving it to the last minute now. He was only half way through it when Charlie showed up and took his seat next to him. He saw what Nick was doing and gave him all the answers before they had their usual inane conversation that they both loved so much. Before either of them was ready form was over and they had to go their separate ways.
They both went to their first lesson of the day, Nick had chemistry, they were learning about chemical reactions and the teacher gave a demonstration. After the demonstration they had to reenact it in pairs. Nick was paired with some random lad from his year and he had the job of putting the little spoonful of iron into the mixture slowly, bit by bit, but as he went to put it in he sneezed suddenly, it caught him completely unawares and he spilt the powder into the mixture all at once. His partner wasn’t too happy with him but there was nothing that could be done now, the damage was done. The reaction happened tenfold and the teacher had to quickly intervene before the entire lab blew up as it transpired that Nick had in fact managed to knock over the pot of iron powder which meant that lots of the powder had ended up reacting with the acid in his beaker. The teacher got everything under control and then let Nick explain the situation to him. He told Nick to sit down and get some rest as it sounded like he might be getting a cold or something. Nick doubted it, where would he have even gotten it from, for once everyone at school was healthy and there were no colds going around. He couldn’t be the one to break the spell, he was fine anyway, it was just allergies, in February.
His next lesson was maths which went a lot smoother, no one nearly blew up or burnt down, the worst that happened due to his sneezing was that his triangle had ended up just being one large wiggly line that he had to keep erasing and redoing. He was glad when the lesson was over as he really needed to blow his nose as it kept running but he couldn’t just sniff his way through the lesson because then if the spell broke everyone would know it was him. He quickly nipped to the nearest bathroom and blew his nose on the awful, scratchy, thin toilet roll that the school provided. As he finished up and binned the makeshift tissue Charlie came in. His smile faltered the minute he saw Nick’s face, had he heard about the chemistry incident already?
“Nick, are you crying?” Charlie asked softly. Nick didn’t know how to respond, the truth would worry Charlie unnecessarily, the lie he had been provided with also wasn’t an option so he had to think of a feasible explanation and quickly.
“I choked on my own saliva, I swear my body is trying to destroy itself.” Nick said laughing, when he realised how hoarse his voice suddenly sounded he was glad that that was the excuse that he had gone with. Charlie laughed in response. The two boys then went to the art room to hang out for the ten minutes of break time that they had left. They laughed and joked and after Nick had had a drink of water his voice came back but his throat felt a little sand papery.
Then it was time for the third lesson of the day, Nick went to English and was glad all they had to do was read. He didn’t have to pay attention to his teacher or speak, he just had to read a chapter of his book and then answer a few questions on it. For homework they were given an essay question but Nick had a nagging feeling that he wouldn’t have to do it. The lesson didn’t drag on too much and was soon over leaving lunchtime where Nick would yet again have to hide this thing from Charlie. He quickly nipped to the loo to blow his nose again which he was having to do more and more often now which might arouse suspicion from Charlie. He would have to find a way around that, perhaps he could claim to have suddenly developed allergies, which was probably the cause. He just also hoped that it could be the cause of his sudden slight shivering. Nick was walking along the corridors towards the art room coughing and trying to clear his throat. He was trying to ignore the fact that everyone jumped away from him like he had the plague. It was like no one had heard of allergies.
He was in the middle of a particularly productive coughing fit and was sneezing all over the place when he heard someone quietly say his name, a tinge of worry in their voice.
“Nick?” He spun around after he had stopped dying and saw that it was Charlie who had spoken, he had stuck his head out of the door to see what all the commotion was. “Are you okay?” Charlie asked.
“I am perfectly fine,” he said, his voice sounding even more hoarse than it had this morning and Nick knew that he would need tea to solve it this time. “That was all caused by my allergies, I am allergic to Hazel pollen which is particularly rampant this time of year.” Nick was glad that for once his weirdly obsessive interest in plants was coming in handy.
“I didn’t realise you were an allergy sufferer.” Charlie said as Nick followed him into the art room.
“It only happens about 6 days a year so I don’t generally bother mentioning it but it always occurs at this time of year.” As Nick said this Mr. Ajayi walked in carrying a mug of tea for Nick and raised an eyebrow at his explanation but he didn’t say anything. Nick accepted the tea gratefully and let the steam clear his sinuses and congestion before he drank it, the warm liquid helped his throat wonderfully. Nick managed to keep his symptoms under control in front of Charlie throughout the rest of the lunchtime. When it was time to go to the fourth lesson of the day Mr. Ajayi asked Nick to stay behind so he could have a word with him, he gave him throat sweets and took his temperature. It was higher than it should be and warranted the rest of the day in bed to avoid this cold becoming something worse. Mr. Ajayi offered to call his mum and ask her to pick him up but he declined and said that he could get through the last two hours of the day. He neglected to mention that despite the fact that he wanted nothing more than to climb into his bed and stay there for at least 24 hours with Nellie for company he was in fact staying because he didn’t want to miss rugby practice and worry Charlie and his other teammates. He got the feeling that Mr. Ajayi wouldn't approve of Nick playing rugby with a temperature and feeling cold and awful before even stepping out into the cold rain and wind.
He quickly walked off to his next lesson and thanked Mr. Ajayi before he had the chance to remember that Nick wasn’t just Charlie’s boyfriend and was in fact Mr. Rugby King because once that realisation struck him he would never let Nick out of his sight until he was at home with his mum resting. He knew deep down that Mr. Ajayi was right and that that was the logical way to deal with this but he had never taken the rational way out before so why should he start now?
He struggled through the last two hours of his day, art was particularly hard but provided a constant supply of tissues and he was working in a room alone so he didn’t have to try and hide his symptoms. Then he had history, he left at one point to go and blow his nose on some toilet roll which was really starting to hurt it now and he had to try and avoid having a pink nose until after they were out on the pitch. Finally it was time for rugby practice and then he could go home to bed and never leave. He got changed into his PE kit and tried to hide the goosebumps and shivering from his teammates by putting on his blazer whilst they finished getting changed and they waited for Ms Singh. When it came time to get onto the pitch and run around Nick stood up a little too quickly and felt dizzy for a second, he grabbed Charlie’s arm for support and went very pale for a second. Only Charlie saw this but he was rather alarmed by it.
“Nick, are you okay?” Charlie almost shouted, the worry evident in his tone.
“I am fine, just stood up too fast, I didn't factor in the way my allergies affect my balance.” Nick replied a couple of seconds after Charlie’s initial question.
“Are you sure you should be playing rugby? We can just go home if you want.” Nick wanted to go back home and to bed so badly but he was determined to soldier on.
“I am fine Charlie, nothing, an antihistamine and a cup of tea can’t fix after practice.” They left the warm changing rooms and stepped out onto the pitch into the unrelenting rain and cold. If Nick had felt bad before he felt ten times worse now and was regretting his decision to stay but he wasn’t a quitter so he was going to stick this out until the end. It was a long and painful ¾ of an hour and Nick was now covered in mud and shivering so much his teeth were chattering and his entire PE kit was soaked with rain but it was finally over, the torture had finished and now he could go home. He felt truly awful but he was sure that would fix itself once he was inside.
He was wrong, once inside he felt exactly the same, even after a lukewarm shower that didn’t even begin to stop the shivering. He got changed slower than before as he was feeling rather lethargic now. Charlie was ready before him and waited for him to finish, just as they left the school Nick’s phone went off. It was a text from his mum saying that she couldn’t pick him up as she was working late and that he would just have to walk home. Any other day that would’ve been fine but Nick felt truly awful and so today that message made him want to cry. Charlie saw Nick’s frown and enquired on its cause, on hearing the reason, although with Nick saying that he ached too much from practice not, that he felt awful. Charlie said that his mum could drive him home but first he should come over and have some tea and maybe an antihistamine if they had any at this time of year. Nick weighed up his options, walk home and clamber into bed or get driven to Charlie’s and keep up the ‘I am fine’ act. He opted for Charlie’s not being able to stand being in the cold any longer. That is how he found himself snuggled up on Charlie’s couch with a blanket, a warm mug of tea and an antihistamine, which he knew would do him no harm to take even though he didn’t actually need it. Charlie got up to nip to the loo and Tori appeared in the doorway.
“How are your allergies?” She said in a way that made it very clear that she didn’t believe him.
“Annoying.” He said, pretending not to have noticed her tone.
“Here.” She said chucking him a box of paracetamol. “I get that you don’t want to stress my brother out and I am glad that you are here and not alone but you need some proper medicine so take it quickly before Charlie gets back and never mention this to anyone okay.”
“Okay, thanks Tori.” Nick croaked and took two tablets before throwing the box back to Tori, she disappeared almost immediately and Charlie reentered. The two boys snuggled up and watched a film together, Nick fell asleep. He woke up to his phone telling him that he had another text, this one was telling him that his mum was on her way home and would see him soon. Nick hated the idea of going back out into the cold and leaving the comfort of the nice warm sofa where a mix of Charlie’s warmth and paracetamol had stopped his shivering. He was so glad when, on seeing Nick putting his shoes on, Tori offered to drive him home. She claimed that she was already going out and might as well take him but he knew that she was lying. He accepted her offer gratefully and got into the car, once they had left Charlie’s driveway Tori started speaking.
“I mean this nicely Nick but you look awful, don’t even think about going to school tomorrow. I know you guys have had some perfect spell but Imogen was off the whole of last week with a cold so it’s her fault not yours.” Nick just nodded in acknowledgement, his throat was really sore and he had been trying to talk normally around Charlie and now he was suffering the consequences. He decided that Tori was right, that he couldn’t go to school the next day, even if he did Mr. Ajayi would probably send him straight home but that meant telling his mum and he tried to hide these things from her and deal with it himself but he couldn’t deal with it any longer. He stumbled into bed and Nellie got in with him, he just closed his eyes when he heard his mum’s key in the lock. He sighed, here goes nothing, she entered the very dark house and started to walk to the kitchen, assuming that Nick was out, when she heard coughing coming from upstairs, she went to investigate and found her son looking pale and exhausted and like he shouldn’t have gotten out of bed that morning. He had seemed fine the day before but that meant nothing, Nick had a habit of letting things get bad before he noticed himself let alone telling his mother. She walked over to him and started gently stroking his forehead, he felt feverish. She went to get the thermometer and that’s when Nick woke up. She reentered to him sitting up with his eyes open, resting against the wall.
“So, you aren’t feeling well huh?”
“How did you know?” Nick croaked pathetically.
“You look awful and I think you have a fever, have you taken anything for it?”
“I had some paracetamol about 3 and a half hours ago.” Nick said looking at the clock, he doubled over coughing and his mum looked at him sympathetically, he hated that look, he knew that she meant well but it felt patronising.
“I am fine mum, I just need some sleep, that's all.” Nick insisted.
“There is no way that you are going to school tomorrow.” His mum said.
“But mum…”
“No buts Nicholas, now put on a film and choose which takeaway you want for dinner.” Nick’s mum said, her voice becoming softer but not patronising this time as she remembered how Nick liked to be treated when ill.
Nick did as his mum said and put on a film for them to watch, he then decided that he wanted a kebab for dinner since he liked all the vitamins he got from the salad and it comforted him as it wasn’t too healthy, he liked to have it with chips and lots of mayonnaise and burger sauce. He waited the short while it took to arrive, taking the opportunity to put on his pyjamas and get as comfortable as possible. When the guy came to the door with the food his mum collected it, tipped the driver and put it on plates and brought it through for Nick and her to enjoy in front of the telly. Nick didn’t have much of an appetite so made sure to eat as much of the salad as he could before moving on to the best tasting parts. After he finished his meal he continued to watch the film for about 20 minutes before he fell asleep.
Meanwhile Charlie was at his house getting ready to go to bed, it was a little early but he felt really tired. He was brushing his teeth when he stopped and suddenly sneezed twice into his elbow. He continued to brush his teeth and brushed it off, it was probably nothing. He got into bed and had a quick drink of the glass of water he kept on his bedside table that he refreshed every night. He started coughing whilst drinking it and assumed that he had just choked on it, that would explain the growing tickle in the back of his slightly sore throat. On hearing him coughing his sister walked in with a thermometer.
“Here!” she said, thrusting it in his face. He took it and took his temperature, slightly confused the entire time as he didn’t know that Nick was ill, in fact he had forgotten about his boyfriend’s allergies altogether and was instead worrying about a test that they had in 3 days. He looked at the thermometer and his temperature registered as 0.1 degrees higher than usual. He told his sister that and she gave him a small dose of Olly’s calpol just in case, it couldn’t do him any harm at such a low dose. Charlie was worried that his sister’s sudden attentiveness meant that she wasn’t feeling well and was worried about Charlie catching it but some quick questioning resulted in Tori claiming she was fine and walking off. Much to Charlie’s dismay after half an hour of sitting on his phone waiting for Nick to respond to his messages and revising for the upcoming test he started to feel better. Not that he felt that bad in the first place, just that the things that he had chalked up to general ware and tare were alleviating after the small amount of medication that he had received. He messaged Tori to tell her this and thank her.
Tori would never reveal to her brother how much she truly cared but she was always going to show up and be there when it mattered. Her parents were awful at noticing when something was wrong with Charlie unless he told them or burst into tears. Tori stayed up until she could hear her brother’s snoring and knew that he was asleep. She set an alarm for when he would require his next dose of medication so that she could check on him and see if he had awoken due to whatever this virus was. It didn’t seem too bad at the moment but she had seen how quickly Imogen and Nick had started to deteriorate and she was determined to keep an eye on her brother until she was sure he was in the clear from this.
When Tori’s alarm went off she got up and tiptoed into Charlie’s room, he still seemed to be asleep but his breathing was a bit laborious. She decided to let him sleep but managed to shut the door a little too loudly on her way out.
“Hello?” She heard Charlie croak quietly, she had to check on him now.
“Charlie,” Tori said re-entering his room, “I got up to get a glass of water and just thought that I would check if you wanted any more calpol.”
“It couldn’t hurt.” Charlie said, he didn’t feel awake enough to know how he felt, the fogginess in his brain could be the fact that he had just awoken in the middle of the night, or it could be whatever was ailing him. His throat definitely hurt. He knew that.
“Do you have anything for sore throats?” Charlie whispered, Tori had a quick look but she couldn’t find anything,she apologised to Charlie who said that it was fine. She gave him another dose of the calpol and he finished the glass of water on his bedside table before going back to sleep. Tori waited until she was sure he was asleep and took his glass downstairs and refilled it, placed it back onto Charlie’s bedside table and went back to bed herself.
Charlie woke up to a replenished glass of water and a packet of Halls soothers on his bedside table, his sister had obviously gotten up early and nipped to the shops to get them for him that morning. Charlie coughed and popped one into his mouth. Tori heard this and went to see how her brother was, she was ready to keep him off school if need be, although she knew her parents might not be up for that but she didn’t care. She walked in to find Charlie sitting on his bed, fully dressed for school, she took his temperature and this time he was 1.2 degrees above normal. Tori gave him some ibuprofen and offered to let him have the day off school but the thought of seeing Nick and knowing that he had double art that afternoon with Mr. Ajayi gave him the boost of energy that he needed to decline the offer. Tori wrote him a note excusing him from rugby practice and gave him the box of ibuprofen with a note that told him the time at which he could take the next dose, around lunchtime.
Meanwhile in the Nelson household Nick’s mum had disabled Nick’s alarm and emailed the school to say that he wouldn’t be in school that day. What she didn’t account for was Nick’s Fitbit having his backup alarm, which, unlike his phone alarm, never failed to wake him up. He had woken up, taken some medicine and was ready for school,he was just about to open the front door when he remembered his school bag, he quickly pivoted round and almost walked straight into his mum before losing his footing, leaning against the wall and not so gracefully sinking to the floor. His mum slowly sunk to the floor to look at Nick, his face was as pale as paper, he had a red nose and a large bag under each eye. His mum tutted and reprimanded him for trying to sneak off to school. Nick just felt too awful to stand up for himself, realising what a bad decision he had tried to make and giving in to his mum’s request. He got back into his pyjamas, dragged his duvet and pillow downstairs and set up camp on the sofa. He pulled his phone out and texted Charlie, he still didn’t want to worry him so he messaged him to say that his mum had kept him off school due to his allergies being particularly bad that day.
Charlie got onto the bus with his sister who told him to text her if he felt any worse and she would come and get him and take him home. He agreed knowing full well that he wasn’t likely to use that offer. He also wasn't planning on using the note that he had been given to get out of Rugby for fear of worrying Nick and alerting him to the fact that something was wrong. The bus eventually reached the school bus stop and they both got off, they both went to their respective schools and Charlie suddenly remembered how everyone was wary of anyone who seemed even the slightest bit ill because they had had the perfect spell for so long. He got into form ready to hide this cold from everyone, especially Nick, but when he arrived Nick was nowhere to be seen. He sat down in his chair and as he did his phone beeped, he looked down, it was a message from Nick. He read it and he was crestfallen, he had dragged himself to school today despite feeling a little under the weather, sure it wasn’t that bad but still, Nick was 99% of his reason for going into school that day and now he wasn’t even there. He messaged Nick back, warning him that he didn’t feel great that day and that his allergies might not be what he thought they were.
Word soon spread of Nick’s absence and everyone knew that the spell was broken, that there was now some illness circulating within the school. Charlie had struggled through his first lesson of the day which was history, he didn’t really care about Henry VIII when he felt unwell and was preoccupied worrying about Nick. He had then had Chemistry which had been less eventful than Nick’s chemistry lesson the day before. When it was eventually time for break he went to hang out with his friends at the usual benches and saw Tao and Isaac had gotten there before him.
“So Nick broke our perfect spell then? You must be glad that you're just friends so you have a slightly lower chance of catching it.” Tao said, smirking. Isaac and Charlie shared a glance as Charlie sat down.
“Yeah.” Charlie said quietly, the annoying tickle in his throat was coming back ten times worse than before but he didn’t want Tao to know that he had caught Nick’s cold. The conversation carried on with Isaac and Tao discussing movies that they could watch at their next film night, Charlie stayed quiet as his throat was really sore and he needed to cough, he was sure any aggravation would send him into a coughing fit, normally he would just have a Halls soother but Tao was sitting right opposite him and would notice. Charlie tried to concentrate on the conversation rather than how awful he felt but that meant that he wasn’t paying attention to the growing tickle and resulted in him doubled over, coughing into his elbow. Isaac got up from his seat, walked round the table and rubbed circles on Charlie’s back until he recovered whereas Tao’s reaction was to jump back in his seat like Charlie had electrocuted him.
“You could’ve warned me.” Tao said rather aggressively. Meanwhile Isaac put his hand to Charlie’s head.
“You should be at home, in bed, with a temperature that high.” Isaac said. Charlie just groaned.
“How did you get ill so quickly?” Tao questioned, “Nick caught it from Imogen, have you been hanging out with Imogen?” How did Tao already know who gave it to Nick when even Charlie, Nick’s boyfriend, didn’t know?
“I haven’t been hanging out with Imogen.” Charlie sighed. Suddenly Tao’s eyes widened.
“That means that you must’ve kissed Nick, that’s the only other way that he could have passed it onto you that quickly. Charlie blushed.
“We’ve been going out for a couple of months now.” Charlie croaked. “It’s been really great up until now but Nick isn’t out yet so don’t go spreading it around.”
“I won’t, unlike you and your germs, Isaac is right you should be at home, in bed.” Charlie sighed but he didn’t tell them that they were wrong.
After break Charlie had music, he was able to go to a practice room alone and suffer in silence. He even set an alarm on his phone and had a quick nap as he knew that the teacher never checked to see if they were actually working in these rooms. He woke up to his alarm and packed up, it was lunchtime which usually meant Rugby practice on a wednesday but he had Tori’s note. He took it to Ms Singh who let him off and told him to feel better soon. Of course the whole rugby team heard that and glared at him, he just hoped that none of them would figure out that he was dating Nick, like Tao had. Charlie went to Mr. Ajayi’s art classroom instead of hanging out with his friends as he didn’t want to deal with their pitying looks and concern.
He arrived at Mr. Ajayi’s classroom and slumped down in his usual corner, as he did he coughed, spluttered and sneezed all over the place. Mr. Ajayi walked in just as the cacophony of sounds that he was emitting was stopping and handed Charlie a warm cup of tea and honey. Charlie drank it gratefully, taking his time over it and loving how each sip soothed his aching throat. It was then that he remembered that it was time for his next dose of medicine. He took it out of the packet and washed it down with his tea. Mr. Ajayi saw him doing this and grabbed the thermometer. He showed Charlie that he had a fever and told him not to worry about missing his class and that he should go home instead. Charlie accepted this and phoned Tori, who picked up straight away.
Goodness knows how Tori got out of school herself but it wasn’t long until she had come to pick Charlie up, she signed Charlie out and called a taxi to take them home. Once he was home Charlie thanked his sister and went up to his bed and texted Nick before falling asleep. Mr Ajayi thought back over the past two lunchtimes, sighed and muttered under his breath to himself ‘Why are they like this.’
Tori was an excellent caretaker for her brother and set about getting all the supplies she could possibly need. She made Charlie his favourite herbal tea and took it to him and went to see how badly he was feeling. He looked very sad when Tori came in, she was immediately worried about her brother and what was upsetting him and was ready to do whatever it took to console him. When Tori asked her brother what was wrong he informed her that Nick’s mum had had to go to an emergency work thing and that Nick had been left home alone whilst ill as a result. Tori sighed and got into the car and went to pick Nick up as she was also worried about him being home alone, not that she would ever admit it. She didn’t blame Sarah for leaving him alone especially if it actually was an emergency, Nick was technically old enough to look after himself nowadays but Tori knew what a self-sacrificial idiot he was and knew that he wouldn’t take proper care of himself in lieu of insisting that he was in fact fine despite his fever. Yesterday Tori had managed to break through Nick’s resolve and she hoped that she could manage that again today and bring him home to be looked after rather than just to help look after Charlie.