In every one of us. || Nick + Charlie

9- For the hell of it

This one again then? Okay. I can handle this, maybe things are better this time around.

Look at you, you're starting to look how you feel, you're passing your shit onto mullet Nick, get yourself together man!

He splashed his face with water, letting it drip down his chin and neck, before wiping his face dry with his shirt.

"Uhm, Nick, th-there's someone at the door, could you make them leave please?"

He opened the door to the bathroom.

"Charlie"
"What..?" Charlie stood in his pajamas, he had one of those stick on eyepatches over his eye, it had unicorns on it.
"Er..I'll get the door"

Charlie pushed past him, locking himself in the bathroom.

"O..kay.."

Someone began pounding on the door, drawing his attention away from Charlie.

"Nick, open the door, we know you're in there!"
"We're not letting you become a recluse!"

He knew he could let them in, but he didn't think Charlie would want that, best to just tell them off.

Nick opened the door just enough to see the two of them.

"What"
"Why are you hiding behind the door? Has something bad happened?"
"Have you murdered someone? I'll help you dispose of the body," Darcy rolled up her sleeves.
"Darcy, this could be serious. Nick, whatever it is, we'll help you, if you'd just let us in, we can-"
"No. Everything's fine, go home"

He tried closing the door, but Tara had stopped it with her foot, the two then proceeded to push past him, having a look around his flat.

"Two mugs? Someone else is here, are they..are they endangering you?"
"What- no! Just leave, please"
"Are you sure? Because-"

A thud came from the bathroom.

"Who's in your bathroom Nick?"
"Why are they hiding? What's going on?"
"Alright, I've asked nicely, I need you to leave, now. I don't want to hear anymore questions or protests, you've let yourselves in when I clearly didn't want you to, so if you care about me, you'll leave. I'll speak with you two later, but right now this isn't about me, it's about the safety and comfortability of the person in there, you got that?" He folded his arms.
"Just..call us if you need anything, we're worried about you, it's been a couple weeks, you don't look all that well"
"I'm fine, really, just a bit stressed..I'll call you later"

As soon as they were gone, Charlie unlocked the bathroom door, but he didn't leave, it was like he wanted Nick to go in with him.

He slowly opened the door, popping his head in.

"Am I allowed in?" Charlie was sat in the bathtub, knees to his chest, he gave a very subtle nod.

Nick sat just outside the bath, trying to read Charlie.

"Uh, how are you holding up?"
"Fine."
"Right, because people that are fine hide in the bathtub"
"Fuck off," Charlie sniffled.
"You were crying"
"Yeah, might've been, what about it?"
"Do you..want to talk about it?" He pressed his side against the bathtub.
"Not really, no. It was a stupid reason"
"Well you may think so, but I bet you it wasn't"
"I just- I thought it was him, that's all."
"Him?"
"Yeah. It's stupid, I know, and I would've quickly found out that it wasn't if I had just looked through the spyhole, but I was too scared to go near it, so I hid..just in case." Nick put his hand on the edge of the bathtub, wanting to comfort him without making Charlie uncomfortable.
"Charlie, that's not stupid, you can't just not feel things after all the shit you went through, stuff like this is going to happen, it just means you're starting to heal, even if it doesn't feel like it, it's a start"
"God, just get in here you loser"