Thank you for reading!
Nick had intended to meet Charlie at the milkshake café, but the more he thought about it, the less that seemed right. This was a date, their first, and when you took someone on a date you picked them up. At least, that's how Nick thought it should go. He hurried to catch Charlie at his house before he left, and arrived just as Charlie was putting his coat on. "Oh, good, you haven't left yet," he said with relief when Charlie opened the door.
Charlie's eyes went wide, like he was worried something had gone wrong.
"I just thought, um …" Nick cleared his throat. "Since this is a date, I thought maybe I should pick you up instead of meeting you there." He looked up at Charlie. "That's probably silly."
"No! No, not at all." Charlie picked up his bag and met Nick on the doorstep. "I like it." They walked together to the gate and Charlie looked Nick up and down. "Is that what you're wearing?"
Nick panicked. "Why? What's wrong with it? Oh, no. Should I have … dressed up?" Charlie laughed and squeezed his hand, and Nick shook his head, frowning, as he realised Charlie had been messing with him again. "Oi. You're terrible."
"You look great," Charlie said. "You always do."
Nick blushed. "So do you." Charlie was in full school uniform, but Nick thought he looked adorable that way anyway.
Darcy and Tara were waiting for them when they arrived. Immediately, Darcy put an arm round Charlie's shoulders. "How are you, my guy?" She smiled at him. "See, I told you you looked coupley before."
"And you were right, apparently," Charlie said, somewhat awkwardly, glancing at Nick to make sure it was okay. Which it was. Darcy was very different from most of the people Nick knew, but he liked how open she was.
"She always is." Tara shook her head but smiled fondly at her girlfriend. "It's very annoying."
Darcy giggled.
Elle arrived, and it was the five of them for a bit before Tao got there, too. Elle went to meet him, and the rest of them put their heads together.
"So how do we do this?" Nick asked. He was surprised how into this matchmaking thing he was.
"Just play it cool," Tara told him. "Elle's afraid of messing up their friendship."
Charlie nodded. "So is Tao."
Tao and Elle came and joined them. Nick had wondered how it would go, and been afraid it would be awkward, but it was nice. Tao felt he was being dragged to the concert against his will, bribed with milkshakes, and his rapid-fire series of questions about what he was going to be forced to sit through kept everyone laughing.
"Why'd you agree to come if you thought it'd be boring?" Charlie demanded.
"Because I'm a very nice and supportive friend, obviously."
"No," Elle corrected, "he came for the milkshakes and the milkshakes only."
"I said that to you in confidence!"
"So how did you two become friends?" Darcy asked them.
"I was friends with Charlie first and then Tao came along as a package deal," Elle answered.
Tao's jaw dropped in mock outrage. "Rude! You're lucky to have me."
"You make a cute little pair," Darcy said, which effectively stopped the laughter at the table.
Tao drained the last of his milkshake, ignoring the comment. "So, we're ordering a second round, right?"
That got complete agreement. Nick got up, offering up himself and Charlie to go and collect the new milkshakes. They were sitting across from each other, which was fine, but if this was a date, Nick wanted some time alone together, too. They collected the orders and went to wait while they were being made.
Nick's came out first, and Charlie gestured to it shyly. "May I?"
"'Course."
Charlie took a sip, and made a face. "Oh, my God, no, that is a crime!"
"I cannot believe you're disrespecting bubblegum flavour in front of me." Charlie's milkshake, some kind of chocolate concoction, was put down next, and Nick reached for it. "Let me try yours." He took a sip, and it was really quite good. "Wow."
"See? I make good choices," Charlie said archly. God, he was cute.
"We should swap," Nick said, putting the milkshake back on the counter.
"No, you made your choice."
"Okay, well, we can share." He reached for extra straws. "We are on a date."
"Is that the official rule of dating? Sharing drinks?"
Nick looked at him and smiled. "Yeah."
"We should go on a date, just us," Charlie suggested, and then almost immediately walked it back. "I mean, if you want to. It's all right if you don't want to. Actually, no, sorry, that was stupid."
"We should," Nick said firmly, breaking into Charlie's spiral. "I'd like that."
They stood smiling at each other. It was so nice to be together, out in public, with people who knew what they were to one another. Nick wished he'd been ready to do it sooner—but this was pretty perfect, so he wasn't going to second guess himself. Not today.
The other milkshakes were getting finished, and Charlie called Tao over to help carry. It was awkward, because they were back to flirting over their milkshake flavours and then had to stop because Tao didn't know about them. Tao agreed to wait for the last two milkshakes while Nick and Charlie carried the first four to the table.
"Here we are," Nick said, setting down the milkshakes in his hands in front of their respective owners. There was a tension at the table that hadn't been there when they left.
"Is this some sort of 'no boys allowed' conversation?" Charlie asked.
"Did you know this, too?" Elle asked him, her voice flat. "The me and Tao thing."
"Um .. yeah," Charlie admitted.
"So this whole thing was just a setup?" She clearly seemed unhappy about it.
There was silence after she asked, and Nick decided to throw himself into the middle, try to make things right all round, and make Charlie happy at the same time. "We thought it would be fun to go on a triple date." He looked at Elle, who turned to him in surprise.
"A … triple date?"
"Yeah. Um, you and Tao, Tara and Darcy, and …"
"You and Charlie?"
Nick looked at Charlie, seeing in his face the smile he had hoped for. "Yeah."
"You two are together?"
Charlie's smile widened. "Yeah."
She gasped happily and squealed Charlie's name, reaching for his hands across the table. "I'm so happy for you." Looking at Nick, Elle added, "I mean, I'm happy for you, too, but you didn't have to witness all the months of intense pining—"
"Elle!" Charlie protested.
"Oh, really?" Nick smiled teasingly at Charlie across the table. "I'll have to hear more about that later."
"She's lying." But Charlie's blush gave him away. Nick thought it was likely he was blushing, too, and he was okay with that.
"Do Tao and Isaac know?" Elle asked.
"I think Isaac guessed, like, almost immediately after we got together."
It was so lovely to watch Charlie be able to be open about them. Nick was very glad he'd finally felt able to make this happen for him.
"And what about Tao?"
"Not yet," Charlie said. "I'm going to tell him, I just … need to find the right time."
"But he's the only one who doesn't know."
Nick watched Charlie's face. This was one area where he couldn't help. Unless he outed himself completely, to everyone, which he was not ready for, telling Tao would have to be up to Charlie.
Tao arrived at the table with the last two milkshakes. "Um … just so you know, the concert's starting in fifteen minutes."
Everyone immediately attacked their milkshakes, hurrying to finish so they could get to the school on time.
