Heartstopper Nick and Charlie

Family Reunions and Rugby Tournaments

When I get out of the car, I'm bombarded with text messages from Daniel telling me to tell Charlie. For some reason I feel like I can't, I feel as if I am asking him for too much.

"You coming?" Charlie says from the backseat of the car, where he is getting Noah out. I don't say anything but we head inside. I know he can tell something is off with me, but I know he thinks it's because of what we are doing tonight.

My brother, David, is staying with my mum for a few days to visit. Sadly, she insisted we both come round at the same time to see each other for dinner. I love my mum and know how hard she tries, so I try to suck it up.

"It's gonna be fine!" he says, clinging to my side as a comfort. It makes it all worse though, because i begin to feel bad for not telling Charlie about the next world cup.

The door flings open and the chaos is instant as Davids children, Harley and Ky are running about with toys. Harley is 10, so a lot older but still at the age where she likes to run about and have fun, and Ky is 5, so a lot younger.

Charlie puts Noah on the floor and he runs through to the living room, where he knows he has space to play with his toys. Charlie follows Mum through to the kitchen, the bag with beers (Charlie said he'd drive tonight, which was a big win for me) and deserts inside.

"Hello Uncle Nick!" Ky says running past me, and I call back a 'hi', but I can't make my mind up if he heard or not because he's gone as soon as he came.

I go through to the living room and see something I definitely didn't want to see. Harley has picked up Noah from where he was playing. Crying, Noah was trying to get free of her grasp. I rush over quickly.

"Harley can you put him down please!" sounding quite frantic, I grab Noah's waist and kneel opposite her. She lets him go and I place him onto my lap.

"Sorry," she says, looking actually quite sympathetic.

"Go play Harley!" David says from the sofa, taking a sip of beer. I hadn't even noticed he was there. The little girl picks up her unicorn toy and runs through to the kitchen.

"Why didn't you stop her?" I say, feeling the anger rise in my body. Getting back onto my feet, Noah still perched on my hip and wait for his pathetic response.

"She was trying to play with him?" he doesn't have an ounce of care in his voice, which makes me even more angry.

"He was crying!" I say, raising my voice, making Noah hide in my shirt, "oh baby, I'm sorry! Go find daddy!" I say placing him onto the ground where he runs of slowly to find Charlie.

"What's your problem?" he asks, rolling his eyes.

"The fact my son was just crying!" I say, scoffing.

"What's wrong?" Charlie says from behind me, giving me a weak smile, "he said you were sad?"

"No, everything's fine." I say very bluntly. Without thinking, I push past Charlie and go to set the table.

The food is laid out in front of us and I stay quiet, not wanting to spoil the cheery mood everyone was in. Everyone but Charlie, who knew something was wrong with me. My floor pushed about the potatoes on the plate as my brother went on about some random thing nobody actually cared about. Until something he says catches my attention and all I can do is freeze.

"You're going to the World Cup this year, Nick? Yeah?" All that can be heard is the clinking of cutlery as they hit the table.

"I've been asked, yeah," my voice is low, barely above a whisper as my head hangs, staring at my fingers under the table.

"That's amazing Nicky!" My mum says, gleaming.

"Why didn't you tell me!" To most people, Charlie would've seemed so excited for me, but I could see the pain in his eyes that he didn't already know.

Thankfully, the conversation moved on quite quickly and the meal was finished. I stood in the kitchen with my mum, loading the cutlery into the dishwasher. We were having a very relaxed conversation, until a sudden silence hits us and she says something very unexpected.

"So, why didn't Charlie know you got into the World Cup again?" I stop in my tracks, barely moving an inch. When I finally snap out of it, I place the plate down onto the countertop.

"Just haven't gotten around to it," I lie, and she gives me the mum look.

"Nick." I sigh.

"It's in New York, and I don't want to move the family! Life's good!" I whine out quietly, knowing Charlie definitely wouldn't hear because I could hear him laughing very loudly in the other room.

"So what you don't want to go?" She asks, now stopping what she's doing and looking at me sympathetically.

"I didn't say that...I just, don't think it's a good time!" She drops it, leaving me to go back to the party. The rest of the night there is uneventful, we play some games with the kids (like monopoly) but that's about it. We catch up and laugh and joke, my brother ends up actually being ok to talk to. He's a nice guy now he knows I'm a famous rugby player. Typical, am I right. I still need to make it up to Charlie, though, and I need to find out how...