The heartstopper

Chapter 8

It was the morning after the passing of Ben Hope and all plans for that day were canceled. They were supposed to be exploring the Lou Louvre but instead, their teachers had decided to give everyone a day to relax, as they put it, although it was actually a day to grieve for those who knew Ben and a day to cope with witnessing one's death.

At breakfast, Imogen sat next to Nick with Charlie on the opposite side of him. After getting no sleep and only eating a few bites of food the day before, Charlie felt sick. As his friends chatted away around him, having no real reason to mourn Ben, as he sat there in complete silence, trying to keep track of the conversation happening around him.

Charlie wasn't the only one who looked exhausted, Nick wasn't his usual self and Imogen was even worse. Imogen would still hang around the same group as Ben, unlike Nick who had completely shut Ben out of his life.

"Are you okay?" Nick whispered to Charlie.

"I feel a bit ill today, I didn't get an ounce of sleep last night," Charlie explained, looking down at his full plate.

"Would you like me to get Mr. Farouq?" He asked.

"No, I think I just need to get some rest," Charlie replied, as he started to get up from the booth. As he started to stand, Nick nudged Imogen and asked him to get up to let Charlie out, before following her lead and getting out of the way as well.

As Charlie walked away, he could faintly hear Tao asking the group where he was going, Nick replying with, "Heading back to the room to get some rest," before Charlie was out of earshot.

Back at the shared hotel room, Charlie didn't sleep and he knew he couldn't if he tried, the bed wasn't right. The mattress didn’t have the same indent from him sleeping in the same spot for four years and for all he knew, the sheets could not have been washed in months.

Instead of sleeping, he sat on the lumpy mattress for a few minutes, enjoying the most alone time he's had since arriving in Paris.

He decided to hop into the shower, hoping a long, cold shower would take away the drowsy feeling that he couldn't shake. When he stood up from the bed, his head felt light and dizzy, he felt like his legs could give out any seconds but he pushed back the feeling and took his toiletry bag and towel into the washroom, shutting the door and turned on the shower.

Charlie stood in the shower for what felt like hours, his ears had absorbed the sound of the running water, it was loud. It was all he could hear but his friends had bound to have finished breakfast by now and were probably sitting on the beds waiting for the washroom to be free so they could carry on with their days.

Charlie hadn't even washed his hair yet when the sound of knocking on the door filled his ears.

"Charlie, are you almost done?" Charlie recognized it as Tao's voice.

"Just a minute," He called back before snapping out of his daze and grabbing his body wash.

Because he spent so long with his mind somewhere else, he rushed to finish his shower within two minutes and quickly got out. He hadn't even noticed the ice cold water beating on his back the entire fifty minutes that he was in there for.

Opening the door to the washroom, Charlie was greeted by his three friends laying on their designated beds in silence. Isaac was reading, Nick was on his phone and Tao was staring at the ceiling.

"Finally," Tao mumbled as he rolled right off the bed, using his hands to stop himself from falling on his face.

"I told you you could have gone to the girls room and asked to use their washroom," Nick said, closing his phone.

Tao hummed in acknowledgment before entering and closing the door of the washroom.

"Are you feeling any better?" Nick asked, sitting up from where he was laying on his stomach.

"Yeah, shower helped," Charlie lied, drying his hair off with a towel before letting his mess of hair fall in front of his face.

"So, what are we going to do today?" Asked Nick. "We have the day to ourselves,"

"Not true, don't get any nasty ideas!" Tao shouted from the washroom where he was in the process of brushing his teeth.

"I wasn't suggesting that Tao!" Nick yelled back, face a bit red.

"Tao!" Charlie spluttered, face red.

"No hanky panky in our room!" Tao lectured, stepping out of the washroom.

"Please don't say 'hanky panky' ever again, the only people I know who use those words are my parents," Charlie complained, face still just as red, maybe even more.

"What would you rather me to say, no fucking in our shared room?" Tao questioned.

"Okay, okay, no sexual acts in our room, we get it," Charlie said, drowning in embarrassment.

"Hm, I need to hear the same from him," Tao said, pointing towards Nick.

"That goes without saying, no sex in our room," Nick nodded his head as he said it.

"I should make you sign a document," Tao muttered under his breath.

"Ah, shall we get this document officialized too?" Asked Nick.

"Yes, it shall be called the no sex in Paris hotel room agreement,"

"I have no clue how to get a document notarized so I'll leave that up to you," Nick joked, although he really didn't know how notarizing worked.

"Me neither, Isaac, do you?" He asked.

"Sorry? I wasn't listening," Isaac said, looking up from his book.

"Notarizing, do you know how that works?" Nick questioned.

"Uh yeah,  you must present the document to a notary and all parties involved must sign the document in their presence," He explained.

"That sounds like a lot of effort, for one document, maybe just a verbal agreement will be enough," Tao said, changing his mind.

"Tao, you don't have to worry about Nick and I," Charlie reassured.