I Could Be Your Best Yet Future Favourite Regret

I. Why Am I Like This?

CHARLIE

Everybody's life has static.

That's the one thing Charlie Spring knows for certain after seventeen years of living. He also knows his best friends, Tao, Elle, and Aled are one of the few reasons he is still actually living. His parents too, of course, and his older sister Tori and his little brother, Ollie.

Charlie knows he's lucky in many ways, but there are still things he wishes could work in his favour. You know, for once.

Like the fact that he's never met his best friends face-to-face.

When Charlie was thirteen, he signed up for a Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram account, and that is how he met Tao, Elle, and Aled. Tao ran, and still actively runs a film-and-TV critique blog on Tumblr, and that's how he and Charlie met each other. He'd followed and religiously kept up to date with Elle's Instagram account dedicated to her art. Still, it actually took the help of Tao, who was already friends with Elle, to introduce Charlie to her in a group chat. From that point onward, they were a trio until, of course, Charlie brought Aled into their little friendship group. Aled's Twitter had blown up when Aled was very young and without a clue how to navigate the platform. When Aled and Charlie met, Charlie became Aled's how-to man about what kind of posts he tweeted and he also helped Aled stick to a regular weekly schedule for his podcast.

And then, of course, there was Nick.

Nick and Charlie met online...differently as opposed to how Charlie had met Tao, Aled, and Elle. For starters, Charlie hadn't known Nick was Nick until approximately three months of communicating with him via Tumblr.

How is that possible, you may ask?

Well, when Charlie was fourteen, just shy of turning fifteen, a Tumblr anonymous user had begun reaching out to him through various asks. It wasn't uncommon for Charlie to receive anonymous asks or messages, especially since he was a young, openly-gay, and quite frankly, very popular Tumblr blogger. The website had become his safe haven, in a way, throughout year nine when the bullying had gotten to the point where the mere thought of going to school brought tears to Charlie's eyes. Blogging about his experiences and meeting other queer kids with similar and shared experiences were one of the only things which got Charlie through that particular time in his life. And then one day, he received an ask from Tumblr Anon saying:

I'm 16 and for most of my life, I've liked girls, but recently I think I might like boys too?? Do you have any advice for me? Like, when did you realize you're gay?

Everything just started slowly progressing from that point onward.

TWO YEARS AGO...

Charlie's thumbs hover over his keyboard. This question from Tumblr Anon has him stumped, which is not unusual, but also not unusual in the way that is commonly unusual for him. The Tumblr website is full of weird, intrusive, and borderline-creepy-ass people with weird-ass questions for a fourteen-year-old gay kid, but rarely does Charlie ever come across somebody who is genuinely seeking advice from him. Most of his anonymous asks are usually telling him how brave and wonderful he is for being so open and authentic with the world via his Tumblr blog, and maybe once or twice Charlie has stumbled across somebody who thinks they might be not straight, but just doesn't know how they can be sure (usually they are, like Charlie, in their early or mid-teens).

He's never been asked for advice before, though.

So, when Charlie has a problem and is unsure what to do, what does he do? He talks to his friend group.