Kaleidoscope (a Heartstopper fanfiction)

Chat

The next day, Nick was waiting when Charlie came into form. He looked up and smiled. "All right?"

Charlie nodded, returning the smile. "All right."

Nick wanted to say something, but he didn't know what. They had left the conversation last night in such an odd place, it was hard to pick it up again. What could he say that wouldn't sound weird or too personal or flippant?

It was a bit of a relief when the bell rang and they could get up and go to classes. They passed in the hall and said the usual "hi"s, and they scrimmaged with the others at rugby, and Nick still didn't know what to say.

That night, as he was trying to concentrate on homework, he kept thinking about Charlie and wishing he had said something. Anything. So before he could think too much about it he grabbed his phone and typed out,

Quickly the answer came back: "I thought I was the one who said sorry a lot"

Nick grinned. "Must be catching." "I couldn't have gotten your spectacular maths ability instead?"

"I told you I'd help you"

"So you did"

"What are you working on now?"

So Nick told him, and Charlie walked him through a tricky problem, and then he asked about Charlie's homework, and they talked about a teacher Nick had had in year 10.

Charlie texted "why are we still talking about this?" "we can stop if you want to"

Nick frowned and typed back "I messaged you first!!!" "I like talking to you" "also I'm so booored" "I have this geography project to do."

"ew why did you pick geography gcse"

"Because I'm an idiot" "What did you pick?"

"Music, Latin, Spanish, classics"

Nick shook his head. It was official—Charlie was a brain. "You picked four???" "Omg you are smart" "Also you can't criticise me for having geography when you do LATIN."

"okay okay true," Charlie answered. "you can figure how to solve global warming" "while I learn a dead language"

"Seriously why Latin" Nick couldn't think of anything more boring. Except maybe geography, which was why he was still putting off his project.

"because it's cool"

Nick had never been friends with anyone who thought Latin was cool before. It was a new perspective. But he wasn't about to let Charlie know that. "Wow," he typed instead. "I'm judging you so hard right now."

"ffs I promise I'm cool actually"

"Nope you have been exposed as a NERD." Nick shook his head, smiling, as if Charlie was right here in the room to be teased.

"rude!!!!"

"A cool nerd?"

"that's better"

"lmao"

They carried on like that, and before he knew it, his mother was knocking at the door.

"You going to bed soon, Nicky?"

"What?" He looked at the clock. Nearly midnight. "Yeah. Right away, actually."

"Good. 'Night."

"'Night, Mum."

He and Charlie were in the middle of challenging each other to a MarioKart tournament. Charlie had just texted "it's ON"

Nick typed out, "Anywayyyy I have to sleep now" "it's so late haha"

Charlie replied, "omg it is I didn't even notice"

They kept the chat going a bit longer—Nick really didn't want to stop to sleep—but it was awfully late, and while Nick's mum was easygoing, she did prefer he go to bed at a reasonable time on a school night.

Putting his phone down, Nick threw on his pyjamas and brushed his teeth and climbed back into bed. Nellie curled up at his feet, and he lay back on the pillows, thinking about playing MarioKart with Charlie.

Nick overslept the next morning and was very late to form, sliding in at the last minute.

"Stayed up too late last night?" Charlie asked.

"Someone kept me up texting."

"Maybe someone else should have been doing his geography project."

"Next time, maybe I will." He grinned at Charlie, who grinned back. Nick quite liked the way his face lit up when he smiled. When he wasn't smiling, he looked sad sometimes, and Nick didn't want him to feel sad. The bell rang, and Nick collected his bags. "See you later."

"Yep."

That night, Nick really did have to finish his geography project, so there were only a few texts back and forth, mostly Nick complaining about his work.

He was early the next morning, not wanting to miss a chance to chat in person for a change. "So what did you get up to last night?"

"Just ... homework. The usual. Did you finish your project?"

"Sort of." It was terrible, but that didn't matter.

"What did you do after?"

"Oh, talked to my mum, walked my dog. Hey, do you want to see a picture of her?"

"Okay."

So Nick dug out his phone and scrolled through until he found a cute picture of Nellie. It wasn't hard—he took pictures of her all the time. "This is Nellie."

Charlie peered over his shoulder. "Oh, my God, she's so cute! I wish I had a dog," he added wistfully. "My parents don't like animals."

"You should come round my house and meet her," Nick suggested. "Are you free on Saturday?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Great. We can have that MarioKart tournament. I hope you won't mind when I kick your ass."

Charlie laughed. "You'd be the first."

"Oh, so that's a real challenge, then. All right, we'll see what you've got. Here, let me send you my address." Nick texted it to him quickly. "Round noon?"

"That's not far from me," Charlie said, looking at the address. "I can walk. I'll, um, I'll see you then."

Nick smiled. He was surprised how much he was looking forward to it. It had been a while since he had someone over—the rugby lads occasionally, but they came in a group, and it was always so much work. Having only Charlie sounded like just ... fun. "See you then."