Music sounds better with you

"You always just know"

He wakes up the following morning in an absolutely foul mood, so much so that he almost forgets to text Charlie and wish him good luck with his final exam, which makes him feel even more of a prick. By the time he's sent the message, Charlie is definitely in his exam, so on top of feeling like an anxious mess, he also feels like a terrible boyfriend.

Fantastic.

Charlie's exam starts at half past 8 and lasts for two hours, so he tries to focus on that, counting down the minutes until half past 10 so he can talk to him.

At exactly 10:36am, a text comes through.

I'm finished!!!!!! A levels are over forever what the FUCK

Nick beams at his phone and sends back a million heart and celebratory emojis before he types out:

BABY

HOLY SHIT

I AM SO PROUD OF YOU

how do you feel? do you feel it went okay?

Charlie replies almost instantly.

i think it went alright actually! nowhere near as hard as Mr Finn made out it would be honestly

i want to say i think it was my best exam of all of them? is that jinxing it?

Nick replies with a voice note instead.

"Honestly, you're so fucking good at maths that I wouldn't be surprised if it was your best one. I'm so pleased you're feeling confident about it and I'm so fucking proud of you, baby. No more A-levels, no more Truham, just you and me and the city of Leeds, baby!"

He watches the ticks go blue on WhatsApp as Charlie listens to the message, then a few moments later he gets a voice note back.

"Nicholas Nelson, do not jinx it! The papers haven't been marked yet." There's a pause in the message, where Nick can hear other people bustling around him, presumably other students leaving the exam hall behind them. "I'm actually kind of proud of myself too, though. All things considered, I think it's turned out alright." Another pause. "Okay, I'm being glared at to hurry up, so I'll talk to you later. I love you so much and I'm thinking of you and this rugby match later, yeah? I'm sure we'll speak before then but I hope you're doing alright and you can message me anything at any time... though maybe not voice notes because I might not be able to respond. Okay, love you."

Nick sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. Of course Charlie is going to be super busy today celebrating his last day of school with his friends and his peers. He's not going to want to coddle his boyfriend over text, as much as he's the kindest soul Nick's ever known.

He should leave him alone for a bit.

He sends back a few more heart emojis, then locks his phone and tosses it to one side. He's almost painfully aware that he's being dramatic; it's a rugby match, for fuck's sake, it's not an exam or a test or even anything he's being graded on.

He's got six fucking hours to kill until the rugby match, so he busies himself with making some lunch and putting on some laundry. He's always been a cleaner and a tidier when he's stressed out so he faffs around cleaning his bathroom to kill some time, then he hoovers his room and tidies his desk, something he's been actively avoiding since he finished his own exams. 

He's just thinking about whether he can be bothered to go for a run (terrible idea, too hot and too energy-exhausting) or if he should text Charlie to see how the celebrations are going (brilliant idea, Charlie will make him feel better in an instant just by being Charlie), when he's interrupted.