Char&Nicky

Nothing's new

Tao's POV:

I waited for Charlie to end his practice so we can go to the mall together. I wanted to suprise him since we haven't been hanging out lately and I miss him. I don't even know why I was so suprised when I saw him go with Nick to that damn smoothie place instead of me. As I watch them walk trough the school yard from the distance, anger is bursting my chest. I turn around rashly and stomp down the street back to my place. I open the door, say hi to my mom (hopefully not with too much wrath in my voice) and rush upstairs to my room. After closing my door shut I throw my bag on the ground and myself on my bed. The best indie movie ever couldn't help me feel better right now. Atleast blues of my walls understand how I'm feeling. I text Elle hoping atleast my bestie would help, but she doesn't reply. I forgot she has an art class at this time. Surely she'll text back when she makes the time. If not, I will be officially offended. This is me joking with myself in an attempt to make myself feel better. It doesn't work that much, I'm still mindlessly scrolling trough my phone. In my state of hypnosis over my phone, I hear my door creak open.
My mum's face reflects a soft yellow light that comes from fairy lights hanged above my window, opposite of my door. She probably noticed something is wrong, I glance at the tea on the huge plate she brought for both of us.
"Hey, can I come in?", she asks carefully. I would never ban my mum from entering my room, I nod and she enters. She then places the plate on the dresser next to my bed and sits next to me. Leaning against the bed frame she glances at me wondering what's going on in my head.
"Love problems?", she raises her eyebrows.

"Not those you would expect", I sigh.

"Oh?"

"Nevermind, I won't bother you with that."

"You know you can talk to me."

I take a deep breath before starting:

"I think Charlie is cheating on me, he has a new best friend. He's always with that Nick lad. And he's not even his friend! I mean, they just met this year. I thought he was MY friend and now I don't know what to think. Everytime I try to make plans he cancels because he's either hanging out with Nick or he's too bussy."

My mum listens to me carefully, I know she's trying her best to understand me:

"Maybe they're in love?"

"No, definetly not. Nick is straight as a ruler. I just know."

After a moment of silence I start again:

"The main thing is, none of us got to hang out as a friend group since the beggining of the school year."

I sigh again:

"What if it's the end of it?"

Mum then places her palm on my cheek, her wise eyes comforting me:

"Dear, it's only been two months of school, you all have a lot to study and not to mention other responsibilities. You will 'hang out' again, just be patient."

I start to play with my thumbs while a bunch of thoughts run trough my head. Then, they run out of my mouth:

"I'm still worried about Charlie. Even though he's been a bad friend lately, I'm afraid of him getting hurt. I mean, Nick is one of the lads, the same ones that were bullying him troughout the whole last year. What if he's only playing with Charlie's emotions to have his fun? I don't want to send another angry email to someone. Or something worse."

Mum then tilts her head. After thinking for a minute she adds:

"Look, if Charlie notices that Nick really is straight, he will acknowlege that and stop pursuing him. Either way, with time, you will see everything going back to normal. Charlie is a good young man, I'm sure if you talk to him about how you feel, he will take it well."

I know my mum is right, she always is. But right now I don't want to blame myself for not talking to Charlie about all this earlier.

"I'm still keeping an eye on that Nick lad."

Mum laughs at my childlike protectivness:

"Tao, life is full of suprises! You never know, maybe Nick is a good guy. And maybe, you even become friends."

"We'll see about that."

I stare into the distance in front of me with my arms crossed on my chest. I know I am being childish, but sometimes I get so scared of loosing all of my friends that I don't know how to act. How am I supposed to act when there is a threat of loosing everything I care for? It has happened to me before, when my dad died. I was really young and since then, it was just me and mum. I love her with all my heart, but that day changed me forever. I felt like he left us, even if it wasn't his fault. It was like that until I met my friends, that's the first time I felt like I had a family again. And it was a plus that my mum adored them. I finally felt like I was at home while surrounded with people. And I haven't felt that since the last time we all saw eachother. But I'll trust my mum since there hasn't been an instance where she told me something that wasn't true. I just have to try and wait.

...

We were drinking tea on my bed and waching some old movie. I don't know the name of it but I do know that my mum really likes one of the actors and that's the whole reason we are waching it. Classic. As the music starts to get more intense, I hear the bell from downstairs.
"I'll get it", I say as my mum is glued to the screen. I know she's too bussy to look away from the handsome actor.
I walk down the stairs and turn the knob. No one could ever imagine the suprise on my face when I saw Charlie outside of my front door. I raise my eyebrows in suprise, but I notice something is wrong. Not with his clothing or anything, even though it was a bit disorderly. His eyes were puffy and soaked with tears. It was as if he was crying for a year. This makes the blood in my veins boil.

"Charlie, are you okay?"

It's as if he doesn't know where or who he is. After a minute of stuttering half words, he finally finds what to say:
"I, can you... Can we go somewhere?"

"Tell me what happened", I place my hands on the sides of his shoulders.

"I don't... I...", he says sobbing, choking in his own tears,
"I don't want to see him ever again!".