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Saturday came round at last. Everyone else arrived early to the bowling alley, but not Nick. Charlie's heart sank. He'd been afraid of this all along. Nick didn't want them to be seen together; he'd never wanted to come in the first place but had been too nice to say so.

"He's probably not coming," Tao said, echoing Charlie's dark thoughts. "We'll have more fun without him, anyway."

Elle glared at him. "Tao!"

"What? It's true." He started to say something else, but she shook her head at him.

Charlie left them in the lane and went to wait anxiously by the entrance, knowing he wouldn't be able to think of anything else until Nick got there. Nick wouldn't not show, he told himself. Would he? Charlie supposed he wouldn't blame him. This wasn't exactly his kind of thing, was it, hanging out with Charlie and his weird friends. If he didn't come, Charlie would be okay with it, he told himself fiercely.

And then, there Nick was, rounding the corner. Relief flooded Charlie, and he hurried forward. "You came!"

"Yeah, of course I did!" Nick said, as if there had never been any doubt. He held out a gift bag. "Happy birthday."

"I said you didn't have to get me anything."

"And I ignored you." Their eyes met, and Charlie smiled. Even with Nick standing right in front of him, he couldn't quite believe this was happening.

He reached for Nick's hand. "Come on." Remembering where they were, he let go again immediately.

"Am I the first one here?"

"No, you're actually the last. We're over there—lane 17." He pointed.

Tao and Elle were having a heated discussion. Nick frowned thoughtfully. "I feel like I know her from somewhere."

"That's Elle. She used to go to our school. She would have been in your year, but she moved to Higgs. That's Isaac. He doesn't say a lot, but he's really nice. And you know Tao. Sorry in advance if he says anything rude to you. That's just the way he is."

"Okay."

Tao turned to see them standing there together, and he looked like he had just sucked on a lemon.

"Ready to meet them?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah."

They joined the others. "Everyone, this is Nick," Charlie said, as if they all weren't completely aware of who Nick Nelson was.

"Hey."

Isaac smiled. "Hey."

"Oh, good," Elle said. "We're just choosing fun names for the board."

"Fun names?" Nick joined Isaac and Elle at the machine.

Charlie sat down next to Tao. "Can you at least try to get to know him?"

"I'll … try." It was hard for him, and Charlie appreciated that he was willing to make the effort.

To no one's surprise, they all started off bowling really terribly—except for Nick, whose ball struck the pins solidly and knocked down nearly all of them. He flung his arms out in victory, turning toward Charlie, who was standing behind him, and they nearly hugged before remembering where they were.

"Sorry," Charlie murmured.

Nick shook his head. "It's fine."

They ordered food, and Nick and Elle demolished most of the chips between them, exclaiming about how good they were. Charlie thought they were nothing special, but he wasn't much of a chip person anyway.

As they kept on, the rest of them got better. Nick still held a commanding lead, but Isaac and Elle were catching up to him.

Charlie's turn came up again. Nick was standing there looking at him as he reached for the ball, one of those looks that would have preceded a kiss if they were alone. Picking up the ball, Charlie leaned toward him. "You can't expect me to concentrate if you're going to look at me like that."

Nick blushed, but his eyes warmed. "Maybe it's my strategy. If it works, I'll try it on MarioKart."

Grinning, Charlie took the ball and bowled a strike. Coming back to Nick, who was cheering for him, he said, "You know this means your MarioKart game is doomed."

"Someday I'll beat you."

"You just keep thinking that."

Unsurprisingly, Nick won the first game. Elle sighed. "I was so close." She turned away to talk to Tao, leaving Charlie and Nick alone.

Charlie smiled at him. "You definitely cheated."

"Oh, yeah? How?" Nick asked.

"You have strong rugby arms." Charlie reached out, squeezing Nick's arm, forgetting where they were.

"'Strong rugby arms'?"

"You've got an unfair advantage."

Nick looked down at him, his eyes warm and teasing. "I thought you liked my arms."

Warmth flooded Charlie. God, he wanted to kiss him right now. "Shut up," he said instead, and Nick laughed.

"Is everyone ready for round two?" Isaac asked, breaking the moment.

"I'm just going to go find the bathroom," Charlie said. He left them all there, hoping Isaac and Elle would keep Tao from saying anything too terrible.

As he was washing his hands, checking his hair, and smiling to himself in the mirror over how great it was to have all his favourite people here together, Tao joined him in the bathroom.

"Oh. Hi."

"Charlie, look," Tao said. "I'm saying this to you as a friend. You need to stop this thing with Nick Nelson."

"What?"

"He's going on a date with this girl. I heard him agree to it after that rugby match the other week."

Charlie shook his head. "That can't be true." Tao must have misunderstood something. Nick would never do that.

Tao scowled. "Fine. Don't believe me. I'm clearly just lying for fun."

"Maybe you misunderstood."

"I know what I heard! You can't trust him, Charlie. You know he's just an attention-seeker like Harry and the rest of his mates!"

"Nick doesn't even like Harry," Charlie protested. "Nick's basically risking everything by hanging out with me, so—"

Tao sneered at him. "Wow. I feel so sorry for the popular rugby lad who's almost getting picked on because he dares to hang out with someone below his popularity status."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"Now you're going to tell me I'm just being jealous because you made a new friend and I'm scared of being alone."

"Well … aren't you?" As much as this was about Tao not liking Nick, this was also about Elle leaving and Isaac's best friend being his books, and Charlie spending so much time with Nick, and about Tao being obsessed with nothing ever changing within their group.

"No!" Tao protested, but they both knew it was true. "I just don't like seeing him mess with you."

"Do you really think he's messing me around?" It was clear that Tao did, and while Tao could be unreasonable, when he got overprotective, there was usually a reason.

"I mean, that's what it looks like."

"But …" Nick would never do that. Nick who was always happiest when they were alone together, Nick who reached to kiss or hug him or hold his hand at every opportunity … Nick would never do that, Charlie told himself again. But he felt chilled, because Tao wouldn't lie, and some part of him had always believed this was too good to be true. "He's …" He wished desperately that he could tell Tao that he and Nick were together. Maybe that would make a difference. "He's … my—friend." It sounded lame even to him.

"Fine. But—if he is even slightly mean to you …"

"Yeah. You'll murder him. I know."

"I was going to say I'd send him a strongly worded DM, but murder's fine, too."

Charlie smiled, as Tao had intended him to.

When they came out of the bathroom, Nick was standing there at the food counter. He turned, looking at Charlie.

"Ugh!" Tao said. "Just … go." And he left them together.

Charlie barely noticed him leaving. He was looking into Nick's eyes, and nothing else existed for the moment. "Hi."

"Hi."

"Are you getting more food?"

Nick stared at him for a moment, then reached out and hugged him, his arms wrapping tightly around Charlie, holding him close, his face pressed into Charlie's shoulder.

Charlie stood frozen for a second, remembering what Tao had said. But here he was, standing here enveloped in Nick's warmth, smelling Nick's familiar scent, feeling safe and cared for the way only one of Nick's hugs could make him feel. Whatever Tao had heard must have been wrong. Nick was with Charlie. He wouldn't be going on a date with anyone else.

Smiling, he returned the hug, closing his eyes and tucking his face into the crook of Nick's neck and letting himself pretend they were alone for just a moment.