Sweater Hugs

December 1st

It was a cold Saturday morning when Charlie woke up to his 7 year old brother Ollie jumping on his bed.

"CHARLIE! IT'S SNOWING!!" Oliver screamed excitedly while continuing jumping up and down on the bed. Charlie giggled at how excited his little brother was when Tori walked in "Come on Ollie, let Charlie sleep it's only 9am" she said in her stern voice then sipped on her diet lemonade.

Charlie looked at Tori and mouthed "thank you" to her, she nodded and took Ollie out the room and closed his door. Once Tori and Ollie had gone, Charlie rolled over and picked up his phone from the bedside table. He checked to see if he had any notifications and smiled - there was several messages from his boyfriend of 2 years Nick. It was from the night before.

Nick <3

23:21

I love you <3x

23:24

You've fallen asleep haven't you darling? x

23:25

Good night my sweetest Char. I love you so so much - these 2 weeks better hurry up cos I need my Charlie hugs! <3x

Nick was currently studying Education at the University of Leeds so they only saw each other during the holidays as he was still at Truham doing his A Levels so neither could afford to miss any school and it was very expensive for either them to travel the 4 hours by train.

09:11

Good morning babe <3 x

09:12

Ollie woke me up as it's snowing outside!!!

Miss you so so much - call you later? Love you my darling Nicky <3 x

09:14

Morning darling!! <3

It's not snowing here - booooo :((

Off to rugby now! Call me tonight babe.

Love you <3 x

09:15

<3<3<3 xxx

Charlie smiles and puts his phone back onto the bedside table and gets out of bed. He walks to the bathroom and takes a long hot shower and brushes his teeth. After this he walks back to the bedroom and picks up a blue sweater from the floor and lifts it to his face - it's Nick's and it still smelled like him from when he visited last week. He loved wearing Nick's sweaters as they were baggy and warm along with having Nick's musky scent. It made him feel like Nick was with him.

He puts on the sweater and some skinny jeans then heads downstairs to have some breakfast. His eating had got slightly better after the brief spell in hospital the previous year even with the relapse when they broke up for 2 weeks before Nick went to University. He makes himself some toast and then sits down at the table and slowly eats.

While eating breakfast he looks outside and sees Ollie running around the garden laughing and throwing snowballs at a very grumpy looking Tori. Charlie smiles and decides to join them for a bit so he gets up and picks on his battered converse along with a coat and beanie. He looks in the mirror and decides to take a selfie and sends it to Nick.

10:10

[Photo attached]

Time to go and throw some snowballs at Ollie and Tori xxx

He heads outside and the Spring siblings have a big snowball fight. After a while they decide to build a snowman and do some snow angels.

They must have been out there for a few hours when Ollie was getting cold so they all head inside to warm themselves up.

Once they all had removed their shoes, coats, hats and scarfs they decided that they would play Mario Kart - as per Ollie's request. Charlie decided that he wanted a Hot Chocolate so he made one for him and Ollie and got Tori her usual diet lemonade.

They spent a few hours playing Mario Kart with Ollie squealing after every game as he was very competitive. Charlie yawns - today had been exhausting. "I'm going to head up and take a nap before I ring Nick" he says while getting up from the couch. Tori nods.

Charlie heads upstairs and lays on the bed and he is asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow. He's not sure how long he had been asleep but his phone wakes him up with the song "everywhere" - he knows this is the ringtone he has set for Nick. He accepts it but doesn't realise it was face time and not a normal call.

"Oh hello sleepy head" Nick giggles from the other side of the phone.

"Hi" he replies. "Did I sleep through the time I was supposed to call?"

"Yeah but it's okay - you obviously was tired!" Nick says while smiling at him. "You look so cuddly in my sweater you know"

"It's the last one I got that smells of you" he says while rubbing his eyes. "the other ones I've had to wash"

"Aww well I'll be home in a few weeks then you can have as many of my sweaters before I head back to Leeds" Nick says.

Charlies smiles. He loves that Nick looks after him when he's home. He misses him so much when he's at University.

They spent a while talking about school, rugby and what they are going to do when Nick comes home for Christmas. They plan their Christmas Day which is them having lunch with their respective families then Charlie will come over in the evening to watch a movie with Nick, Sarah and the dogs Nellie and Henry.