Music sounds better with you

Now he's looking forward to the weekend.

Most of this chapter is smut just warning you guys

Nick Nelson is having a really fucking bad week.

He's had worse weeks in his time, for sure, but for some reason it just feels like he can't catch a break and hasn't been able to for the last few days.
He's been in a perpetual bad mood since Monday, and now it's Friday and he should be looking forward to the weekend, but he just isn't.
Okay, that's not strictly true.
He hasn't seen Charlie since last Sunday for a vast array of reasons. On Monday, both of them had gone out with different groups and their paths hadn't crossed, then Tuesday was rugby practice and Nick had been winded quite badly with a ball to the belly, which meant he had to sit out for the rest of the session.

Charlie had offered to get the bus to his house afterwards, but Nick's phone had died and by the time he got home to charge it, the last ones from campus had stopped running. That night, he'd fallen asleep aching, both from the hit to his stomach and pining for Charlie like a sappy fool.
Wednesday had seen him have a surprise exam that really threw him for a loop. He's never great with surprises at the best of times, but when it's something he's going to be graded on, he's even worse, and he manages to just scrape a pass.

On top of that, he had two essays due on Friday, one in English and one in French, so he couldn't even go out with the rest of his housemates that night. He manages to finish one, but his poor exam result from earlier has knocked his confidence in his French a little bit.

As he does every time, he thinks about sending it to his dad to read over, but then he pushes that idea from his mind as quickly as it pops in. His dad doesn't care enough to send him birthday cards, so why would he ever want to read one of Nick's uni essays, for crying out loud?

He goes to bed feeling even shitter that night, desperate for his shitty streak to be over.

It isn't.

His alarm doesn't go off the following morning for whatever reason, so he misses his one opportunity of the week to see Charlie for breakfast and he ends up being late for his seminar because he has to get a later, busier bus. As he gets to campus, he realises he's forgotten his laptop charger and one of his textbooks for his afternoon seminar, so he has to attend it with just a notebook and pen, for which his tutor rips him a new one.

On the way home, the strap on his bag rips and he stumbles over it before he can catch it properly. He scrapes his knee on the pavement and limps home with his tail between his legs. He tries to ring Charlie but Charlie attends his drumming club on a Thursday evening so he doesn't pick up the phone. To drown his lonely sorrows, he decides to order a takeaway from his favourite Mexican restaurant, desperate for a silly little treat to perk him up.

But two hours later, the takeaway still isn't here, and then Just Eat sends him a notification saying it's been refunded. Glumly, he eats a sad bowl of cornflakes and goes to bed with an empty stomach and empty arms.

Fridays are the least busy day of his university schedule – he only has one lecture in the morning – so he decides to skip it in favour of wallowing in bed. Most of his house seem to be skipping today too – Manrika and Harry are heading back to Harry's hometown for a family wedding, Holly's going home for her Mum's birthday weekend, Ben is visiting friends in Sheffield, and Claire is spending the weekend at her boyfriend's – so he makes the cheeky decision to text Charlie and ask him to skip his day too so they can spend the whole weekend in an empty house.

Somehow, it feels like everything will be made right again once he's had a hug from Charlie.
But Charlie replies with a very apologetic voice note that makes Nick's chest feel all tight, saying he's stuck in a Music workshop until two o'clock so he won't be able to come round until after that.