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Nick was sick. Extremely sick. He’d been bedridden for weeks, relying on his Mother, and his friend Charlie to help him do things like eating and drinking. It seemed Nick couldn’t catch a break. Alongside this sudden illness, he’d had a bad fall after rugby practice when during some roughhousing banter he’d been tackled by a few of his team’s rugby players and the weight of all of them had shoved Nick’s upper back into a metal bench pole. He’d screamed in pain as Charlie pulled his arms to help him up, it felt like knives were being pressed into his shoulders. Harry elbowed another player and scoffed at Nick’s reaction because c’mon mate, they were just joking around.
The doctor had advised him to move his arms as little as possible until the bruising on his back subsided. Nick agreed with her. Moving them felt pretty impossible, it was as if his body had locked them in place, and pushing against that lock resulted in incredible pain. On the drive back from the doctor’s office, Nick’s Mum asked him how he was feeling. Rain poured against the car loudly, though it wasn’t raining nearly as hard as it had been earlier that morning when Nick had gone running without checking the weather. When he opened his mouth to answer, he’d begun coughing violently. He instinctively tried to move his arm to shield his coughs, but his body reminded him that that wasn’t an option.
As the days dragged on he got slightly better. He could talk again and his arms hurt less, though the bandages wrapped around his upper back and shoulders still meant he couldn’t move them. Still, he was far from well. Lately, he had been hallucinating from time to time. He thought he saw his Mum head spin backward when she left his room. When Charlie came over he thought he saw him pause to look at his lips for like thirty seconds while feeding him soup. And in the middle of the night, when he felt like he couldn’t move or talk or do anything, he thought he saw David standing over him, looking at him, laughing at him. He swore he couldn’t breathe.
Now instead of Charlie Spring arriving at his normal time of 4 pm while his Mum was at work, he was seeing Tao Xu, standing at his bedside, holding a very cold bowl of soup.
----
“No.” Tao walked next to Charlie and Isaac as they passed the bleachers earlier that morning.
“Well, he can’t not eat! And he probably hasn’t had water since seven when his Mum left for work!” Charlie protested, “Isaac, are you sure you can’t?”
“Sorry, Charlie, if I could I would, he seems nice,” Isaac shrugged, Charlie turned back to Tao who was rolling his eyes at Isaac’s description of Nick.
“Tao I know you don’t have anything going on today, just-! You only need to be there for like thirty minutes,” Charlie stopped walking for a moment and looked at the picket fence blocking off a grass field where the rugby boys prepared for practice. Nick would usually be there, technically Charlie was supposed to be there as well but he’d practically quit at this point. Tao watched as Charlie stared sadly at the boy who wasn’t there.
“Fine.”
“Really!” Charlie turned his head back to look at Tao, a gleam in his eyes.
“Thank you! Thank you!” He hugged Tao, Isaac joined, and Tao rolled his eyes. He knew this was a bad idea.
Tao felt another pair of arms wrap around him, his cheeks flushed. “What’s this hug about?” Elle asked, she must have just crossed the street.
Charlie and Isaac smiled mischievously.
Nicholas Nelson was everything Tao had sworn to avoid in school, someone constantly and obviously carrying around a facade. He let his friends walk all over people, walk all over Charlie. How could Nick be Charlie’s friend if he just let that kind of thing happen? One scenario could mean he was a bad “friend,” inconsiderate, and willfully ignorant. Charlie had to deal with enough of that pain for years. Second more likely scenario! Nick was being cruel, playing pretend, spending the day with Charlie, and then going back to his “lads” and having a laugh at his expense. Either way, Tao hated Nick. He hated the person he so obviously was. He didn’t exactly blame Charlie for not seeing it, but sometimes he just couldn’t believe how much Charlie put up with to spend time with a very clearly mediocre person. These thoughts wracked Tao’s brain as he walked up to Nick’s front door.
----
He dug the key Charlie had given him out of his pocket, unlocking the door and taking a deep breath before he opened it. He walked around aimlessly, remembering his mission: Check on the corpse of Nicholas Nelson. There was soup on the stove, bowls in the cabinets, next thing he knew he’d found Nick’s room and…
“Charlie..?” Nick turned his head a centimeter at most in the direction Tao was standing. He clicked the mouse in his hand and the laptop at his side stopped playing ‘Iron Man’. Tao scowled at the movie choice. “Did you get… a haircut..?”
Tao rolled his eyes and walked up to the bed, stretching his soup arm out carelessly towards Nick. “I’m Tao. I’m here to make sure you don’t die, so eat.”
“Mr. Xuuuu, Right, yeah,” Nick’s speech was slurred but lately he could speak and move his head and legs without feeling horribly nauseous. His coordination, however, could use work, he lifted his head an icepack fell from his forehead, hitting the spoon in the bowl. It splashed Tao as it flipped and fell onto the floor with a clang. “Auh, God-.” he cringed, then looked up at Tao.
“You’re Charlie’s friend..?”
“Yeah.” Tao didn’t know why he was still standing there, in the same room with a very sickly bully who was trying to make small talk. He wiped soup drops off his nose.
“Hiii, how are… how are you, Tao?”
“Fine.”
“Mmm, how is… school… been?”
Nick really was trying but his mind was foggy, which wasn’t helping his already subpar social skills. Among other things, he could feel Tao getting bored with him. “Uninteresting.” Silence.
“Can,” Nick broke into a fit of coughs, “Can you say sorry to Charlie for me?”
“What?” Tao snapped his head up, “What did you do to him?”
“He just usually comes here every day to help me…”
“Yeah, I know that.”
“I told him to meet me at Harry’s party, and then I got too sick to even… even just text him that I couldn’t go,”
“Oh. Yeah, he told me,”
“H..he okay?”
“Yeah just perfect after being left alone at a rugby boy’s party for hours,” Nick groaned sadly at Tao’s annoyed response. He’d said ‘Rugby Boys’ with extreme disdain. “Didn’t you already apologize to him for that..?” Tao asked.
“Oh, and... sorry I didn’t ask to hug him when I was at his house, I don.. don’t,” Nick sneezed and groaned in pain. “I don’t know what I..was thinking,”
Tao looked around uncomfortable and confused. He checked the timer on his phone he’d set for thirty minutes. Time wasn’t moving fast enough. He rolled his eyes and sighed, “He didn’t mind that,”
“And- Uh I think, did he get a cold when we went in the snow? I think, I think I should have given him a sweater that fit him but I just thought he looked cute in mine,”
“Now you worry about Charlie getting sick? What… the hell are you on about?”
As long as his Mother could remember whenever Nick got sick enough to see stars he would ramble incessantly. But when Charlie visited he was usually too tired to ramble, which had saved him from saying anything embarrassing. Unfortunately for Tao, he was feeling better today.
“Wowww. Does he tell you everything?”
“Yes, Nick that’s how friends work,”
“It is?”
He sounded genuinely confused. Tao didn’t answer his question, he just stood there, still holding Nick’s stupid cold bowl of soup.
Nick wondered if it would be rude to ask Charlie’s friend Tao Charlie-exclusive questions as if he was just some search engine from whom Nick could get information out of. Nick’s head felt like it was spinning, He was sitting up on his bed, leaning against a pillow, feeling very gross and sweaty, a nauseous feeling creeping into fruition. Nick thought it was sort of clear Tao didn’t want to talk to him. Great. He knew he didn’t like him. Nick was just sitting there thinking all those thoughts, not realizing he’d been talking the whole time.
If Nick was mumbling before he was completely incorrect now. Well not completely. Tao could make out some of what he was saying, he just kept talking. Tao wasn’t sure why he was listening, but he tried to piece it together. Something something sorry, something something Charlie, friend, sorry, kind, gross, awful, annoying, sorry, sorry. After that, he stopped listening, put the soup down on his dresser, and clapped his hands together loudly, his arms stretched out near Nick’s face. It dawned on Tao that Charlie had asked him to stay at Nick’s house for thirty minutes. Not Nick’s room. The clap interrupted Nick’s endless flow of words.
“NICK.”
Nick’s head shot up, then immediately groaned uncomfortably. “Whaaat?”
“I’m leaving.” Tao said flatly. Nick didn’t need to know he just meant he was going to text Elle in the living room. She’d enjoyed gossiping about his afternoon activity with Isaac and Charlie, her teasing was the only conversation he felt he could handle right now.
Nick looked like a puppy that had been kicked. “Oh… goodbye,”
Tao began to leave, Nick said one thing quietly before he left, Tao almost didn’t hear him. “Is Charlie ever coming back?”
Briefly, Tao thought it’d be funny if he said no. He wasn’t sure where his head was, seeing the jock of the school sick, lying on his bed talking about one of Tao’s best friends. He stood at Nick’s doorway hoping he’d say something else. After an (at this point expected) awkward amount of time, he did. Before he could respond Nick started talking again.
“He’s nice, he’s so nice, and I wish I could spend time with him instead of... this , but I just… I don’t know why he keeps coming here. I sound gross, I look awful, I can’t play Mario Kart. I couldn’t even talk for a bit. But he just kept coming. Until today.”
“Right,” Tao was barely listening. He resisted the urge to tell Nick his injury wasn't the reason Charlie shouldn't want to spend time with him.
“I just, did I do something or was he just- it’s fine, it’s fine if he um, sorry, just, I know I’ve been a bother for a while, but-”
Tao couldn’t handle hearing Nick’s voice uninterrupted for so many consecutive seconds, the content of his words was also a bit sad. “Well… if you must know he wanted to see you today but he had a meeting with… someone,” Tao responded.
He was surprised at how quickly a smile grew on Nick’s face, his eyes lit up, and Tao felt an increasing feeling in his chest like maybe he was wrong about Nick. Maybe. Unlikely, but… this got him thinking briefly.
“Oh, that’s right! Yesterday he said something about meeting with someone, some- a therapist! Yeah! I completely forgot!”
Tao nodded, confused. Nick’s eyes had a new sparkle to them. Charlie told Nick? Charlie was nervous to tell anyone, he’d worried about people being dicks about it. Tao truly couldn’t understand why Charlie trusted Nick so much.
“I didn’t want to overstep, like upset him, but he kind of seems like he could use one! With the, with the way he speaks about himself,” His voice was still hoarse, but it was like he’d been given a burst of strength.
“Sure,” Tao said absentmindedly as he tried to understand what was going on with the rugby lad in front of him. Was Nick truly just like this? Tao had doubted it before. All of Nick’s friends were on the rugby team, and pretty much all of the rugby team had either bullied Charlie relentlessly last year or hadn’t felt inclined to stop their mates. Was this plague-induced empathy? Tao replayed some of the things Nick had said recently trying to make sense of things and- wait .
“ Cute? ”
“Cute? Nellie?” Nick asked excitedly.
Who was Nellie? What???
“What?” Tao’s face contorted with confusion. He took a breath. “You.. called Charlie cute,” Tao tried the question again, not missing a beat.
“Yeah! Well! He is! He…” Nick looked like he’d seen a ghost, as he trailed off his voice went from excitement and joy to panic. Proper shock. He looked at Tao, eyes wide, mouth gaped open. Frozen in place. “Sorry…”
Tao didn’t know what to say, it was normal to call your friends cute, but was it normal to get so… Tao wasn’t sure how he felt thinking Nicholas Nelson was scared, but he certainly looked it.
“Are… you… what’s going on?” He wasn’t answering, he looked wide-eyed in Tao’s direction, but his gaze traveled beyond him.
“God… he is cute, isn’t he…” Nick spoke, Tao narrowed his eyes, and Nick continued talking, he’d turned his head up to the ceiling and was coughing as he spoke.
“Ughh, and he had to see me all snotty and sad, he should talk about that in therapy hm, it’s upsetting stuff,”
“Well, he didn’t have to come. I begged him not to. It’s a miracle he’s not sick, yet,”
“That's what I said!” Nick’s words were slurring worse each time he opened his mouth, “But he just looked at me and aaughhh, I couldn’t…” he giggled.
Hearing Nick giggle may be one of the strangest things Tao had ever heard. His mind continued to do backflips, trying to understand what was happening. The 'Rugby King' sat in front of him, coughing up a fit, and went on and on about… how cute… Charlie was? What? He was the captain of the rugby team for God's sake, he was the prototype of straight. And he was still talking.
“You two aren’t actually together, are you? I know Harry keeps saying that you are because he’s the worst, but you aren’t, right? Isaac isn't I think, he's always looking at me like he knooooooows something... but youuu... hmm,”
“I’m straight…” Was all Tao could manage to reply.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” Nick somehow managed to go diagonal on his bed, head inches away from falling off the side.
“Aren’t you?” He seems to think long and hard, almost cartoonishly
“Mmmmm, I don’t know…! That question, that’s a hard question! Cause I was, then I met yooooour best mate, and now!” He tilted his head, well, he tilted his entire body really, causing him to slip off the bed painstakingly slowly. Then his head softly hit the ground with a light thud. Tao stared at him wide-eyed.
“Wha- are you being serious?! I swear I’ll throw this bowl of cold soup at you if you’re being a dick-head!” He gestured with the bowl as threateningly as he could, it wasn’t the best weapon of choice. Nick just looked at Tao. Gleefully upside-down grinned at him.
“You should. Maybe some of it will end up in my mouth,”
Everything that was happening was so ridiculous. Tao almost laughed. Then he thought about everything Nick had said for a moment and Tao did laugh. Nick started laughing too. Till the blood rushed to his head and he groaned.
“Can you help me up..? I… I feel really ill,”
Tao did so, avoiding pulling Nick’s arms as he helped him get back onto the bed. Nick groggily thanked him as he let his head sink into a pillow.
Tao took a good look at Nick’s room. It was ridiculously uninteresting, it didn’t show his personality or hobbies at all. Tao’s room had Polaroid pictures lining the walls and movie posters everywhere. Elle’s room had art, a glowing flower arch, more Polaroids, non-glowing plants, and sketchbook pages. Isaac’s had an endless sea of books. Obviously. And Charlie? He literally had a proud glowing sign that said ‘music’. But Nick..? It looked like someone had looked up what a Hollywood teenager’s bedroom should look like, and then just threw it together. Like he didn’t have any sort of grasp on his personality or something. The most interesting thing in the room was a rugby ball on the floor, and upon closer inspection, it looked more like a dog toy than an actual ball.
Tao helped Nick reposition his laptop. He was about to hand him the mouse when he paused and squinted at Tony Stark’s smug, unshaven face. “You want to feel better?” Tao asked, gesturing to the laptop.
“Yeah?” Nick raised his eyebrows.
Tao typed ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’ into the very legal site Nick was using and pressed play. He added a few other movies to the cue. Nick smiled at the screen curiously.
“So… I guess I should,” Tao picked up the spoon from the bowl of soup and gestured towards Nick’s mouth, it warped into an open o shape.
Nick shook his head. “There are metal straws in the dishwasher, you can uh, you can just pour the soup into a cup and give me a straw,” Nick admitted.
Tao’s eyes widened. “Nick. Nelson.”
“Some of them are bendy straws,” Nick coughed out, avoiding eye contact.
“Oh my God,” Tao gasped, turning his head in disbelief. He looked around the room as if searching for someone else subject to Nick’s audacity.
Nick pursed his lips sheepishly.
“You had him spoon-feeding you!”
“Do you think he minded?” Nick asked with genuine curiosity and concern. He was blushing and avoiding Tao’s eyes.
Tao couldn’t believe his ears, did Charlie mind? Charlie probably loved it. Based on Charlie’s incessant rambling he probably looked forward to it. Tao breathed out a laugh, “You’re worse than he is!”
“What?”
“Nothing! Oh my God,” Tao shook his head. “Dorks, I’m bloody surrounded by dorks,” he said under his breath as he left Nick’s room and went into the kitchen.
As he walked up to the dishwasher he was suddenly jumped. Brown and white fur-covered pounced on his legs, Tao caught himself, arms steadying his body against the counter as a fluffy beast cornered him. Her tongue stuck out, she appeared to be smiling as she panted and hopped against Tao.
‘Who are you!’ She asked by jumping on his feet, ‘Do you want to go outside!’ She asked by pawing at his blouse.
“What…? It was- Norbert? No, Nancy-” It clicked. “Nellie! Nellie! That’s- that’s what he said!”
The dog stopped jumping on Tao for a moment. They were both very still. Nellie calmed down, she stepped back and tilted her head to the right.
Tao went back to the dishwasher cautiously. He found the straws, Nick had failed to mention that there was only one straight metal straw and a million bendy ones. Nellie was watching him. “I’m Tao,” he whispered. “I’m a cat person,” Nellie tilted her head the other way. “But we can get along if you don’t pounce on me and push my head into this knife rack,”
Tao sighed, heading back to Nick’s room with a mug of water and a silly straw. Nellie followed him eagerly, picking up the rugby ball squeaky toy sitting on Nick’s floor.
“You made your dog a rugby lad too… you monster,” Tao sighed disapprovingly as he placed the soup that was now placed in a blue cup on Nick’s bedside table. Inside the blue cup was a pink silly straw that gave Nick easy access to his now-freezing soup.
“Here,” Tao said, placing a purple cup next to the soup. “You didn’t have any purple straws, hopefully, the gray straw doesn’t break my educated guess,”
Nick took a break from drinking soup from the pink straw, in the blue cup, sitting next to the purple mug, and the unaffiliated gray straw.
“What?” He cocked his head. Nellie’s squeaking from the corner of the room stopped as she lifted her head, pausing the demolishing of the rugby squeaky toy to mirror Nick’s turned head.
Tao shook his head. “You’ll understand when you’re older,” he joked, his tone flat but not annoyed.
Nick furrowed his eyebrows, inquisitively sipping more soup.
“Charlie will see you tomorrow,” Tao said. He pointed a finger in Nick’s face. “Don’t get him sick,”
“Aye-aye!” Nick smiled, holding the straw with his teeth.
“And… Tao will see you whenever you return to Truham,” Tao said smiling as he left the room. Nick smiled back.