Nick and Charlie One-Shots

unexpected

I'm absently doodling on the corner of my notebook, listening to the random chatter of the other students around me. It's nearly time for class to start and I'm still waiting for Charlie to arrive. He's not usually this late, but maybe he's got caught up talking to someone. A clatter at the table next to me makes me look up, noticing the boys there had built some kind of pencil tower, the remnants of it currently falling to the floor as someone had knocked it over. I roll my eyes and glance towards the door again, smiling when I see Charlie just coming in. He smiles back but suddenly he goes very pale and his smile disappears, as does he, clamping a hand over his mouth and running down the corridor.

I jump up and rush after him, ignoring Mr Lange calling me to come back. Charlie isn't in the hallway when I get there but from the looks of it, I guess he would have rushed to the bathroom, the closest of which is just around the corner.

In the bathroom, I do a quick check to see if there's anyone else in there besides us before I lock the door.

"Charlie?" There's the sound of him gagging behind the only locked cubicle.

"'M fine." He mumbles, moments before I hear him throwing up into the toilet. My own stomach churns a little but I push the feeling away.

"Char, what's wrong?" It takes a moment but there's some shuffling and the toilet flushes before the door unlocks and swings open. He's kneeling on the dirty floor, still looking very pale and a little green. There are tears in his eyes as he uses some tissue to wipe at his face.

"Sorry." He whispers. I crouch down in front of him, reaching to touch his shoulder.

"Hey, no 's' word. Talk to me, are you okay? I don't think you should be at school if you're not well."

"I'm okay. Really. Just, um, I need to tell you something."

I frown at him, confused at his words, "What?"

"..." He mumbles something so soft that I can't make it out, especially with the way he's looking down at the floor. He's curling in on himself, arms wrapped tight around his stomach.

"I didn't get that, sweetheart." I say gently, moving my hand from his shoulder to his cheek, thumbing away some of the tears that have started to fall. 

"I'm pregnant." 

The silence between us is so thick, you could cut it with a blunt knife. He looks up at me finally, fear evident in his eyes. 

When we first started having sex, he told me that he was part of a small percentage of men who could conceive and carry a baby so we'd have to take extra precautions to prevent the possibility of a baby when we were still so young. I'd done a whole lot of research into it afterwards and made sure that the preventative measures weren't just falling on Charlie; it takes two to make a baby. Although it was a bit scary and confusing, it made me happy to know that, one day, if we felt ready, Charlie and I could have a baby of our own. I just never thought it would happen when I was eighteen and he was just seventeen.

"Nick?" I realised I'd been silent for probably way too long.

"I-are you sure?" He bites his lip and nods silently. "What do we do?"

"I don't know." His eyes fill with tears again and he collapses into my arms with a sob. I have to balance myself against the cubicle wall to stop from falling over.

My heart and mind are racing. Ultimately, whatever happens, it's up to Charlie whether he wants to have this baby, but I honestly can't say I feel ready to be a dad right now, and I don't think he feels ready either. I'm off to Uni in a couple of months and he still has another year of school to complete, something that would be near impossible while having a newborn baby.

"It's okay, Char. We'll figure this out. Together." I say softly, pressing a kiss to the top of his head.

"You're not mad?"

"No. Of course not. We both did a stupid thing. This isn't only on you." He looks up at me again, his lips quirking as if he's trying to smile.

"You're the best."

"You said you're sure, does that mean you've been to the doctor?" 

"No. Not yet. But I took a home pregnancy test, well, a few of them actually. They all say positive." I nod, my brain working hard to try and figure out the next move.

"We should see a doctor. Together." He blinks at me but before he can say anything, I continue, "I'm not saying I don't believe you. It's just that we need to know, you know, how far along you are, if there's anything we should be doing, our options. All of that."

"Oh." He rests his forehead against my shoulder, "I don't know what I want to do, Nick."

"That's okay. We'll talk to a doctor and go from there." I hug him tightly and realise my hand is resting over his stomach. It suddenly hits me that there's an actual tiny human in there, the culmination of mine and Charlies love for each other. 

We fall silent again, just holding each other as we let this huge, life-changing news sink in. No matter what happens, our lives are forever changed now.