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When Nick arrived at the arcade on Saturday, there was Charlie. Waiting for him. Nick's heart leaped at the sight of him.

Charlie came toward him, a smile spreading across his face. "You came."

"Yeah, of course I did!" Had Charlie imagined he might not show up? Nick hated to think that. He handed over the gift bag he was carrying. "Happy birthday."

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

"And I ignored you."

They smiled at each other as if there was no one else in the crowded arcade, and Charlie reached for his hand, holding on briefly. "Come on."

"Am I the first one here?"

"No, you're actually the last. We're over there. Lane 17."

He pointed. Nick recognized Tao talking to a girl who looked really familiar for some reason, the one from Charlie's Instagram. "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."

Nick remembered her now. He thought he'd had a class with her last year, but a transgender student had been so far removed from his experience that he really hadn't paid a lot of attention.

"That's Isaac," Charlie went on. Nick remembered him from the rugby game. "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."

Given who Nick's friends were, he thought he probably wouldn't blame Tao for being rude to him. As long as that didn't bother Charlie, it wasn't going to bother Nick, either. "Okay." Tao and Elle both turned to look at them, Elle curious, Tao wary.

"Ready to meet them?"

"Yeah." Nick remembered standing at the rugby game wanting so much to be part of their group, for them to know how important Charlie was to him. He felt that still, even though he was nervous about it.

They walked over together. "Everyone, this is Nick."

"Hey."

Isaac returned Nick's "hey" and Elle said, "Oh, good. We're just choosing fun names for the board."

"Fun names?"

"Yeah, and for the record, Elle Smells was Tao's idea," Isaac told him.

They all laughed, clustering round the board, working on the fun names. Tao had separated himself, sitting apart, and Charlie went to talk to him.

Somewhat to Nick's embarrassment, the others started off with a series of gutter balls, and he was actually pretty good. But none of them seemed to care—they were having fun regardless, which was a relief.

He turned from a particularly good throw with his arms out in victory, seeing Charlie there with his arms out as well, and it was the most natural thing in the world to go in for a hug. They stopped just short, both of them realising where they were and what they were doing.

Charlie whispered "Sorry," which Nick thought they had dealt with. He made himself a promise to remind Charlie later that the word 'sorry' was absolutely banned from now on.

As the game went on, everyone settled in to their styles. Elle was pretty good once she got used to it, and her score crept up, Isaac and Charlie got more consistent—and Tao was just terrible. They ordered food, and Nick and Elle between them managed to go through the baskets of chips in record time. They were surprisingly good.

And being near Charlie, watching him with his friends, being part of that, was the best Nick had felt in a long time.

Nick won the game, but Elle had nearly caught up to him by the final frame, and Isaac wasn't far behind her, so he didn't have to feel weird about it. Charlie was waiting for him after he'd thrown his final ball, grinning at him. "You definitely cheated."

"Oh, yeah? How?"

Charlie squeezed his arm. "You have … strong rugby arms."

"'Strong rugby arms'?"

"Yeah. You've got an unfair advantage."

"I thought you liked my arms," Nick said teasingly, forgetting where they were. Flirting with Charlie came so naturally to him, sometimes it was hard to remember not to.

Charlie blushed. "Shut up."

Isaac called to them to ask if they were ready for round two before Nick could respond—which was probably good, because Nick had been very tempted to kiss Charlie right here in the middle of the bowling alley.

Charlie headed off to the bathroom. Nick went to help Isaac set up the next game. Isaac, even in the middle of the party, was holding a book in his hand, which Nick found odd, but everyone else seemed to think it was perfectly normal, so he didn't question it. He did ask Isaac what the book was about, and they talked about that for a couple of minutes.

Tao followed Charlie to the bathroom, so while they were waiting Nick decided he might as well get another round of chips, since he'd eaten most of the first round. Charlie hadn't had any, he didn't think, which seemed unfair on his birthday.

He told Isaac and Elle where he was off to. "Do you guys want anything?"

"Oh, can you get me a Coke?" Elle asked. She went for her purse. "I'll pay."

"No, I'll get it. It's fine."

"Okay."

"Isaac?"

He smiled. "I'll also accept a can of Coke. If you're paying."

"Okay. All right, um, I'll be back in a minute."

Nick went to the counter to order. He wasn't far from the bathroom, and through the doors he thought he could hear Tao shouting.

Then Charlie said, "Nick doesn't even like Harry," and Nick's heart sank as he realised they were talking about him. Charlie went on, "Nick's basically risking everything by hanging out with me, so—"

"Wow," Tao answered. "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."

Nick walked over to the bathroom doors, pushing one slightly open. He shouldn't listen, but he couldn't help it.

"You know that's not what I meant!" Charlie said.

"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?"

"No! I just don't like seeing him mess with you."

"Do you really think he's messing me around?"

Nick frowned. What was he doing that would lead to that idea? And then he remembered. Imogen. Imogen who he still technically had a date with. He hadn't tried to cancel again, afraid to hurt her, and he'd had some vague idea that he would go and tell her over dinner that he couldn't date her, and they should just be friends. Which also sounded like it would hurt her. And he hadn't told Charlie about any of it, afraid to hurt him, and now Charlie had been hurt anyway. Yet again, he had been a coward, and other people were paying for it. And neither of them deserved it.

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

"But … He's … He's … my—"

Part of Nick wanted Charlie to just say it, to have it out there, to push Nick through this invisible barrier that was causing them both so much stress. But he knew Charlie never would.

"Friend," Charlie whispered at last, and Nick's heart twisted.

"Fine," Tao said. "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."

Nick let the bathroom door close and walked away, feeling so terribly guilty. Would he never be done hurting Charlie? He was standing miserably at the counter when they came out of the bathroom, and he turned to look at Charlie, wanting so much to just … make it all better. Somehow.

Tao made a face at both of them and walked away, and Charlie came up to Nick. "Hi."

"Hi."

"Are you … getting more food?"

There were so many things Nick wanted to tell him, to say to him, and the words just kept piling up on top of each other and getting stuck. Instead he stepped forward and hugged Charlie, holding him tight, burying his face in Charlie's shoulder, wanting to tell him through the contact how badly he felt and how much he wanted things to be different. Better.

He felt Charlie's arms come round him, Charlie's head tuck against his shoulder, and for now, everything was better. At least a little.

At last he was able to bring himself to let go.

"You all right?" Charlie asked him.

"Yeah." Not really, but that was a problem for later. For now, they were still at Charlie's birthday party. Nick gestured to the counter. "Do you want something? I'm buying."

"Oh. No. I'm not hungry."

"Coke or something?"

"All right. I'll have a Coke. Thanks."

"'Course."

And they went back to the others together.