A Collection of Heartstopper Oneshots

So Ahead of the Curve (That the Curve Became a Sphere) - annasbookshelf

Summary:

Charlie's always been some sort of an academic weapon, but recently his grades have been slipping...

A one shot about love, being in love, and being loved for who you are.
Notes:

slight mention of self harm :)

twitter: @annaxlocke
Work Text:
Charlie knew that his grades were slipping.
He couldn't help it, really. His mental health was constantly declining, but he continued to push himself regardless. He's always been this sort of "over achiever". He was in so many clubs and activities in primary school, not including sports, and it never seemed to burn him out at the time. Charlie was always such a happy kid. He was the fastest on his basketball team, the smartest in the maths club, and he was reading at a year 11 level when he was in year 3. He also always beat his older sister in Mario Kart, which was what he was the most proud of. Charlie bragged about all of these things when he was younger, because it was all he had. If he wasn't making people happy, then who was he? When his parents had Oliver when Charlie was 8, Tori became the person who took care of Charlie. Their parents were far too busy with the little baby to realize how badly their own children were struggling, and that's something that has stayed with Charlie for the rest of his life. He and Tori had learned how to fend for themselves, which caters to why Charlie is the way that he is now.
When he hit year 5, he began to question his sexuality. His class had been given the sex education talk that you always get when you're around the age of 10 or 11, and that's where Charlie had heard the word "gay" for the first time. He was ashamed of questioning his sexuality at first, overhearing his classmates talking about how disgusting it was to be gay. He'd been told that if you were gay, then you were going to hell, and that scared him to death. Charlie couldn't help but wonder; was he actually going to go to hell because he likes boys?
At 13 years old, he came out to his parents. Their reception was not great, to say the least. They told him that it was just a phase, and that he was far too young to decide on his sexuality quite yet.
That was around the time that he cut himself for the first time. He felt so worthless because his own parents didn't even listen to him, so he resorted to hurting himself instead of being angry. At 13 was the first time that Charlie thought "maybe this is what I deserve" when it came to all of the bad things happening in his life.
When his parents found his razor blades was when they began to take him seriously. They sat him down at the table and asked him questions about how he realized that he was gay.
To say Charlie was pissed was an understatement. He was upset that he'd been found out, but he was even more upset that it took hurting himself for his parents to realize how badly he needed help.
All this to say, Charlie wasn't that surprised when his grades began to slip. On top of getting into a relationship with rugby player Nick Nelson, Charlie had his own mental health issues to deal with in private. He didn't want to burden Nick with any of it, so he allowed himself to suffer in silence. It must be what he deserves, right?
And now his parents were keeping him away from Nick because he needed to keep up with his studies. He was going to take exams next year, and it was going to be some of the hardest studying that he'd ever done in his life. Charlie hated it, the idea of having to stay away from Nick for the time being. But he sort of understood where his parents were coming from. It wasn't like he was never going to see Nick, they still went to school together. But Nick had study halls and exams instead of their form group, and Charlie was still all alone.
Charlie was frustrated, laying on his bed by himself instead of next to Nick like he should be.
His phone dinged with a text from Nick.

Nick: hey... you okay?

Charlie blinked back tears. Nick was always the most concerned about him. Charlie had never had that type of security in a relationship before. Ben was always worried about himself, not bothering to check in on Charlie to make sure he was doing alright. But Nick always texted him to ask how he was.