Music sounds better with you

Chapter 3: I'm Coming Back For You, Baby

The gang go clubbing and Nick nurses a hangover.

The LGBTQ+ society night out kicks off around half seven, and Charlie thanks his lucky stars that he ended up with two queer housemates who want to accompany him. He's not convinced it will be, but at least if it does end up being a repeat of Sunday night, he's got friends to go out with regardless.

It takes him a while to choose his outfit, eventually settling on a white shirt with robots printed on it, tucked into a pair of black jeans with rips at the knees. He puts a few rings on his fingers and winds a necklace around his neck, then slips his feet into black Converse.

He doesn't look half bad, if he does say so himself, and the shameless selfie he sends to Nick is greeted with numerous heart emojis and then a very saucy message that makes Charlie squeak and exit their chat at speed.

If he was feeling good before, he feels even better now.

And if he thinks he looks good, his housemates look exceptional. Polly looks drop dead gorgeous in a short brown dress and knee high green boots, her long hair gathered on top of her head in a tall ponytail, while Kate has a low cut corset top tucked into high waisted leather pants, her lips painted a dark red.

Polly cooks a small meal for them all, insisting on their need to line their stomachs, then they get started on pre-drinking while a Pride playlist plays through the TV speakers ("because we're all gay, obviously!" Polly had giggled as she'd set it up).

Charlie nurses a cider as the two girls drink White Claws, preparing to head down to the Union for 8pm. As a flat, they had agreed not to be the first there so they don't look too eager, but they've also got ample time to meet and mingle should the opportunities arise.

As each day passes, Charlie is so pleased with himself that he opted to choose this flat, certain even this soon in that he made the best decision he could. Polly and Kate are so on his wavelength it's almost scary, but in the best of ways.

Their senses of humour are almost identical, their personal interests all align, and their expectations of their uni experiences could not be more perfect for three flatmates put together at random.
A quiet, queer flat of dreams. So far, everyone has been fastidious about keeping the kitchen clean and tidy, and the way nobody has questioned the way Charlie's fridge shelf is meticulously organised makes him feel a lot less stressed about being here.

The only jigsaw pieces left to slot together are these guys meeting Nick, and maybe it's the alcohol talking, but he's not worried about that in the slightest. His new friends are eerily similar to him personality wise and Nick loves his personality, so he has no doubt they'll become fast friends in no time.

In a way, he does wish that he was able to experience his first night with the LGBTQ+ society was with Nick, but he supposes he did already have that when he came up to visit him last term. It just feels special to finally be a fresher here, doing something that he and Nick have talked about for literally years at this point.
He's excited for his first proper night out with these guys, but he's just as excited to see Nick out at the club later.
He's being horribly codependent again, but there's something to be said about the way that they both know that things are always more fun for the pair of them when they're together.

As they're getting ready to leave, collecting their bags and wallets from their respective bedrooms, Reg appears in the hallway with a friendly smile on his face.

"You guys want a photo?" he asks chirpily, once he realises the three of them are on the way out. "You all look so handsome!"
"Thank you!" Kate says gratefully. "That would be so nice!"

Reg snaps a bunch of pictures of them on Kate's phone and then they take some selfies with him in it, giggling as they pull stupider and stupider faces. Charlie giggles and grins as they take what must be nearly a hundred pictures, and he grins even wider when Reg asks them to send them to him so he can print one out and hang it in the kitchen.

They invite Reg out with them but he politely declines, saying he's already got dinner plans with some other Chinese students he's met in the building. He asks if they can have dinner one day at the weekend though, which all three of them enthusiastically agree to, then he disappears just as quickly as he'd arrived.

"I like him, you know," Polly says as they all huddle in the lift, ready to head down. "I know I've known him for all of five minutes but he seems really sweet, to be fair."
"He does," Charlie agrees. "I wonder how much we'll see of him this year. I hope he doesn't feel like he can't hang out with us because we've all bonded super quickly or something."
"Nah, I think it's a fairly common thing for international students to make friends with people from back home," Kate says. "They all cook together in flat 37, you know. I think that's why Reg only has, like, milk in our fridge."

It's raining once they get to the ground floor and they make a quick dash through the winding spine of the campus to get to one of the bars on the other side, where the social is being held.

They only make one wrong turn on the way there and when they finally get there, it's stopped raining and the campus is lined with freshers and more heading to varying bars for whatever social event they've signed up to for tonight.