The heartstopper

Chapter 9

The entire rest of the day Charlie kept feeling worse and worse but tried his best to hide it. Just before lunch Mr. Ajayi came knocking on their hotel room door letting them know that all students were being asked to finish lunch and be present in the hotel lobby by one so that they could have a talk about the events of the day prior.

Isaac and Tao had left the room to wait with the girls while Nick had stayed back with Charlie for a few minutes to make sure he was okay.

"Char, are you still feeling unwell?" He asked, having noticed his odd behavior.

"No, I'm feeling much better, just…" Charlie paused. "No, yeah, I'm fine now," He gave a small smile as reassurance.

"I have some paracetamol," Nick offered.

"Nick, I appreciate it but I'm fine, let's just head down," Charlie spoke softly.

The two exited the hotel room where Isaac, Tara and Darcy and Imogen were waiting. Imogen had started getting along with the others more as she got to know them while sharing a dorm with Tara, Darcy and Elle.

"Nick, Charlie! Finally, let's get food, I'm starving!" Darcy exclaimed

"Where's Elle and Tao?" Asked Charlie, noticing the absence of his two friends.

"They went ahead, apparently we were too boring for them," Tara joked.

Instead of taking the elevator, which was full of people, they decided to take the stairs as they didn't feel like waiting, it would probably be quicker anyway.

Their rooms were on the fourth floor but once they were descending the stairs to the second floor, Charlie could feel his legs wobble, like they could give out any moment. Luckily, Charlie managed to make it down the stairs onto the small platform between the levels before his legs completely gave out. His head was spinning and the echoing voices from the stairwell sounded very faint, almost as if he had imagined them.

"Nick," Charlie mumbled as black spots started taking over his vision

"Charlie!" Nick shouted as his boyfriend wobbled.

"I don't feel very well," He muttered. Charlie couldn't hear anything else that had happened after that as his vision went dark and he felt himself falling, but the impact of him hitting the floor never came.

"Someone get Mr. Farouq!" Nick cried out.

Isaac ran down the rest of the stairs, hoping to find their teachers either in the restaurant or lobby already.

As Isaac ran down the stairs, Tara, Darcy and Imogen crouched down next to Nick who had caught Charlie in his arms.

It must have been only thirty seconds before Charlie's eyes blinked open but it felt like much longer.

"Um, what just happened?" Charlie asked as he took notice of his surroundings.

"Charlie, you just passed out, are you - are you okay?" Nick asked with a worried expression.

"What…" Charlie mumbled after a moment of silence.

"You were only out for around thirty seconds," Imogen said before Darcy started retelling a story of how she passed out from wearing a beanie in 30⁰c heat.

"What - happened?" Charlie asked, all he remembered was feeling horrible all day and then they were walking down the stairs.

"We were heading down and once we reached the second floor you said you didn't feel well before you passed out," Nick explained.

"Oh, and Nick caught you," Tara added.

"You're lucky you fell on y- Nick, I fell into a swimming pool!" Darcy laughed, accidentally slipping up, she nearly said 'your boyfriend,' before remembering Imogen was there and she didn't know.

"Are you okay?" Nick asked again.

"Yeah, just really embarrassed,"

Footsteps could be heard rushing up the stairs before Isaac popped into vision with both teachers following.

Both teachers looked panicked, a student had passed away the day before, they had only found out two hours prior the cause of his death which Ben's parents had told them after speaking with the hospital. It was without a doubt they were more on edge then ever, after hearing that Charlie had passed out from Isaac, they thought the worst.

"Charlie, are you feeling alright," Asked Mr. Farouq, crouching down in front of him.

"Yeah, I'm fine I think I just haven't eaten enough today, I didn't really have dinner last night either," Charlie explained.

"You didn't hit your head, did you?" His teacher asked.

Charlie shook his head no, "Nick caught me,"

"Nothing hurts?"

"No," He said while additionally shaking his head.

"Do you feel okay standing up?"

He hummed in response before standing up a bit wobbly. Nick, seeing this, grabbed his arm to support him.

"If you're feeling well enough, let's get out of the stairs we'll, we can take the elevator the rest of the way," Said Mr. Ajayi, opening the door to their left which led out of the stairwell.

The elevator was right across from the stairs and they rode down to the lobby.

Charlie was instructed to sit down on a chair in the lobby as Mr. Ajayi went into the restaurant to get him some food and water.

"We'll go find Tao and Elle so we aren't crowding you," Tara reasoned before dragging Darcy away, "come on Imogen," she invited, leaving Nick and Charlie with Mr. Farouq.

"Here you go Mr. Spring, get some food I to you," Mr. Ajayi placed a sandwich and water bottle on the side table next to the chair.

"As long as Nick's planning to keep you company, we'll leave you to chill out for a bit, I do hope Nick will come and get us if we're needed, okay?" Mr. Farouq asked for confirmation.

"Of course, I'll stay with him," Nick assured.

"Thanks, sir," Charlie spoke quietly, saiding down at his sandwich.

Charlie waited until they were gone before he opened his sandwich from its container.

"Charlie, I've noticed you haven't been eating as much recently, I know you generally don't eat much but it's gotten worse," Nick paused, looking worriedly with his boyfriend. Don't feel like you can't talk to me, I'm worried," 

In Charlie's mind he wanted to shout, not necessarily at Nick but his mind was racing and it wouldn't stop. He wanted to shout that talking won't help, that nothing would because that's how it felt. 

"I'm sorry, he said instead.

"No, you're not allowed to say that, you don't have anything to be sorry for, I just want to understand,"

"Eating is hard. Sometimes food just doesn't sound appealing, I know that I don't eat like most but it's the one thing I feel as if I have control over. I don't want to be a burden to you, I don't want you to feel like… like you have to be nice to me just because I'm broken," Charlie explained.

"Char, I'm not about to treat you differently, I know you're strong, I just want to know if you're having a bad day so I can cheer you up, if it makes you feel better, we could eat in a more quiet location, more secluded," Nick offered. "I really care about you, I want you to be happy,"

"That's gay," Charlie pointed out.