HEART BEATING MADLY

HSHEARTTHROB — independent & selective original character affiliated with julie and the phantoms. NICK THOMPSON ( Nick T ) — human student at Los Feliz High School & member of the LFHS music program. Multi-Everything. Sideblog: follows from PEHTERS. 

If Cal could have it his way, no one would make a big deal out of his birthday. He would keep the celebrations to a minimum. He wouldn’t even mention it to anyone who didn’t need to know. In fact – that was what he tried to do every year, but unfortunately for him, he shared a birthday with the loudest loudmouth in all of LA County, and it was impossible for anyone to not know his birthday was coming up at least a week in advance.

But in this specific circumstance, that particular string of complaints was moot. Because even if Cal had been able to keep his DOB on the DL, there was no way that Nick T would have let the anniversary of the beginning of Cal’s existence go uncelebrated. Which Cal was much more appreciative for than he would ever admit to being, because no matter how annoyed he was at every other human being who reminded him of the inevitable passage of time, almost nothing that Nick did could ever get on Cal’s nerves. The kid was just too damn charming.

“Well – I’m delegating all hugs to Charlie. Cake’s not till later, but I think one of the Candies may have brought in some cupcakes if you can hunt them down? I’m literally begging you to not break into song right now, and presents … may be received at anytime.”

               “AREN’T YA JUST a little excited for your birthday? Like, a little, little, little, teensy, tiny bit? Way, way, deep down? Cuz I’m stoked! I LOVE the Becker Birthdays!” Nick treated Cal and Charlie’s birthday like it was the national holiday that he assumed it to be, and he had been doing just that since they were little. Homemade cards and balloons bought with his allowance always followed the end of May; nowadays, he’d try his best to be a little more elaborate, but the spirit was the same. 

“And I want, like, minimum four hugs tonight, SIR SNUGGLY. It’s your BIRTHDAY and I wanna celebate all things YOU! That’s why I helped the ‘rents pick out the perfect cake for you.” Two cakes were going to be on the Beckers’ table that night, and one of them very noticeably had been decorated to look like Cal’s own drum kit. Step number one to the best night ever, according to Nick Thompson.

@hsheartthrob  ♡’d  for  a  LYRIC  BASED  STARTER.

INVITING  NICK  T  OVER  TO  JOIN  HER  FOR  A  MOVIE  NIGHT  HADN’T  BEEN  A  RARE  OCCURENCE.   the  two  teenagers  being  friends  since  childhood  only  added  to  the  comfort  and  familiarity  that  the  male  brought  to  her  life.  luckily  for  him,  AND  FOR  HER,  it  also  meant  that  he  was  a  selection  of  the  rare  few  that  got  to  see  the  unfiltered,  real  version  of  carrie  wilson.  there  was  no  overwhelming  desire  to  be  perfect  at  every  step;  no  need  for  the  designer  clothing  or  the  perfect  makeup,  no  need  to  force  herself  to  feel  any  certain  kind  of  way.  no  need  for  fake  smiles  or  forced  laughter.  PLUS  —  how  could  she  be  unhappy  in  the  blond  boy’s  presence?  in  the  simplest,  most  pure  definition,  he  was  a  walking  ray  of  sunshine.  A  BRIGHT  LIGHT  IN  SUCH  A  DULL  WORLD.  his  personality  just  being  one  that  automatically  uplifted  the  mood  of  every  single  room  that  he  walked  into.

THOUGH  SOMETIME  BETWEEN  STARTING  THE  MOVIE  AND  NOW,  CARRIE  HAD  FALLEN  ASLEEP.   only  to  be  disturbed  at  the  feeling  of  movement  in  a  close  proximity.  THE  DIGITAL  ALARM  CLOCK  ON  HER  BEDSIDE  TABLE  NOW  READING  12:47  AM.  eyes  opening  slowly,  a  hand  coming  up  to  cover  her  mouth  as  she  yawned,  shifting  the  blanket  that  nick  had  obviously  used  to  cover  her  at  some  point.  her  gaze  shifting  around  the  room  slowly  before  eventually  landing  on  the  male  as  he  put  his  sneakers  back  on,  watching  him  lace  them  up  for  a  moment  before  speaking  softly.   “  you  should’ve  woken  me,  ”   it  came  out  as  more  of  a  soft  whisper  as  she  stretched  out  her  arms.  THE  FAINT  SOUND  OF  THE  MOVIE  CREDITS  ROLLING  IN  THE  BACKGROUND.   “  hey,  NICK  —  ”   suddenly  becoming  very  aware  that  he  was  getting  ready  to  leave  but  she  didn’t  actually  want  him  to  go.

“  WON’T  YOU  STAY  ‘TIL  THE  A.M.?  ”

A.M.  BY  ONE  DIRECTION.

               IT HAD BEEN awhile since he and Carrie had had a movie night. Hey, he got it: they were both stupid busy ! The music program was fun, but demanding. Then Carrie had Dirty Candy, Nick had hockey, and they both had other friends, too; time slipped past them until Carrie had shot a text to him that Wednesday asking for some movie time that Saturday. He had a game Saturday morning, and Charlie had asked him to help set up the cheer squad’s car wash ( he knew he’d end up getting suckered into volunteering, but he didn’t mind ), but that evening? That evening, he was free. Cal was at a band competition, and the B squad for the traveling team was doing an exhibition in San Diego, leaving the A squad with a full free weekend other than their scrimmage which had already come and gone. It had been perfect timing — uncanny, really — which made him wonder once again if Carrie Wilson had some sort of key to the universe to shape it to her will. 

When he’d gotten to the Wilson place, he’d grinned at the setup in the living room. Poufy pillow-chairs by the couch, a bowl of popcorn, a stack of DVDs by the TV... it was like coming home. He’d settled in, letting her pick the movie and stretching out his long legs on the L-shaped couch, but less than halfway through the film, he’d glanced over during a quiet moment of commentary and realized that Carrie’s eyed had slid shut. When she’d actually zonked out, he wasn’t totally sure, but he gave a small smile, grabbing a blanket off the back of the couch and pulling it over her, settling down to watch the film. 

He wouldn’t usually just stay at someone’s house after they fell asleep ( well, except for Cal and Charlie’s place, probably, considering he basically lived over there and was the long-lost Becker triplet ), but Carrie had mentioned off-hand that her dad was gone at some old-time rocker thing for the night, and he didn’t want her waking up on the couch to a big, empty house. But when the credits started rolling and she was still out like a light, it started feeling like he needed to give himself the hook, and he’d scooted to the end of the couch and grabbed his sneakers from where he’d stashed them as he’d settled in, getting them tied back up. 

He looked up at Carrie’s quiet yawn followed by her voice, and gave her a little smile. “Nah you looked like you needed the nap,” he said. “When was the last night that you just, like, chilled out?” 

But at her request, he gave a glance at his watch and at Carrie. 

               HE DIDN’T KNOW how he was supposed to make her laugh anymore, considering Carrie had reached up the distance between them and covered his mouth with her hand, stifling whatever he had planned to say next. His eyes, however, continued to sparkle with amusement over the muzzle, and he raised his eyebrows. 

He stayed quiet for a minute, but then shook his head to rid himself of her hand and laughed loudly — a big, free, belly laugh — and grinned mischievously at Carrie. 

               THERE WAS SOMETHING that he extra loved about Carrie. Maybe it was just the fact that he loved all of the Dirty Candy girls and she was, like, extra Dirty Candy, or something, but Nick just had that little bit of extra delight whenever she’d come in the music room. She was stupid talented, with chops for days, but he figured it was mostly about her drive. He just got excited when someone knew who they were and what they wanted to be. 

He’d gone in early to school that day because Cal was giving him a ride to practice after school and he’d had to come in for a dress rehearsal with the band, so he’d made his way to the music classroom to dick around until class started. — That was, until he opened the door and saw it was already occupied. Trying to make as little noise as possible, he slid into his seat and placed his guitar case on the ground on one side of his chair and his hockey duffle on the other. He’d usually keep his duffle in Cal’s car, but his best friend had said he was on his own to lug it around that day due to some midday car detailing situation or something. Ah, well: it wasn’t the worst thing to ever happen. 

He grinned at Carrie as her song finished up and gave a smattering of applause. 

《 @hsheartthrob 〈 nick t 〉 liked 》

As soon as Mr. Hutchinson left the classroom, Ro turned around in her seat to glare at Nick T. Her knuckles were white as she gripped her chair, a contrast to her cheeks that were blooming red with anger. She wanted to make it painfully obvious how much she resented him for landing them both in detention – on today of all days! Carrie was no doubt gonna chew her out for missing rehearsal. Not to mention the extra hours she was gonna have to put in to catch up with the other girls on Kayla’s choreo.

She shook her head slowly and narrowed her eyes at him, just in case the message still wasn’t clear.

“Hmph!” She huffed as she turned back to face the front of the room, digging through her bag for homework to do or a book to read or anything to take her mind off the impending candy-coated doom that was waiting for her when she got out of this.

               HE HADN’T MEANT to get them in trouble, and now he had a royally pissed off Ro and he was gonna miss the first half of hockey practice. He’d already emailed his coach, and missing any amount of practice was such a rarity for Nick that he hadn’t gotten his ass handed to him too badly, but he still hated it. He hated that he was sitting instead of skating, and he hated that Ro looked so mad at him. 

“I’m sorry,” he said for probably the seventeenth time, but it still didn’t feel enough. “I really am! I didn’t mean to break that tray and I didn’t mean to start that food fight and I tried to tell them that you had nothing to do with it but they wouldn’t believe me!” How they’d pinned Ro to the crime, he still wasn’t sure, but he was certain it was probably his fault, too. 

        she can’t help but laugh along with nick, that crazy infectious laugh of his ringing through the space as she shakes her head with a fondness for both boys. she twists her finger between a tangle as he waxes poetic about their friend’s clumsiness, grin widening as she tugs on it and it unravels. just a bit, but it does. ❛ i bet his ears are just burning right now, ❜ she says, before she glances up at nick with a wink and a sly grin. ❛ i hope they are. ❜

        she rolls her eyes at him once he launches into a whole speech about her, glancing up at him with a tease on her lips — until it dies as he reaches his punchline. almost against her will, her cheeks grow warm. ugh, stupid nick and his stupid charm! she knows he’s just joking around, but that perpetually-earnest look in his eyes is making it really hard to remember that. they’re not even, like, like that, but tanya’s a teenage girl with a dream, okay? and anyway, she stands by the fact that anyone would’ve been flustered by him just pulling that out like that, all casual. ugh. finally snapping back into reality, she tugs the cord a little too hard, jostling his leg playfully as she laughs, hoping he’ll be courteous enough to pretend her brief surprise didn’t happen. ❛ okay, romeo, dial it back a tone. you’re such a dork. ❜

               “I’M PRETTY SURE his ears are just used to me talking about him by now,” Nick insisted. “Cuz, like, Cal’s my best friend, right? And I talk about him all the time! He’s amazing! And clumsy. And if his ears burned every time I talked about him, he wouldn’t be able to lay on a pillow comfy.” He grinned at Tanya, putting his chin on his knee so he could be closer to her and not feel like he was, like, looking down on her or something. 

Ew. He didn’t even like thinking about being that kinda guy. 

He caught the way Tanya’s cheeks flushed up, and figured he was in for either one of her smiles ( sweet! rare! they feel like he just won the lottery! ) or her smacking him ( less rare, but still made him smile ); either way, he just liked spending time with Tanya. He hadn’t actually meant to get tangled in her mic cord ( again ), but he wasn’t, like, mad about it, either. When he was working out, he watched a lot of shows on his phone, and he’d been watching a lot of Bob Ross because he could just zone out, and if the big man had been around for this performance, Nick was pretty sure he’d call this a HAPPY ACCIDENT. 

okay,  it  could  be  worse.  julie  watched  with  increasing  curiosity  as  he  skimmed  through  his  bounty  of  valentines.  he  seemed  so  cheerful  about  it,  and  that  left  an  uncomfortable  tinge  in  her  mouth  at  the  thought  of  admitting  that  it  was  all  a  fluke,  but  she  could  deal  with  that  later. 

that  little  ball  of  hope  unraveled  the  more  he  talked  –  about  the  music  program,  about  nick,  about  the  missing  t.  the  bitterness  coats  her  throat  and  settles  in  her  stomach  as  he  leans  towards  her.  the  guilt  is  inescapable  now,  inches  from  her  face.  in  a  fit  of  insanity,  the  boldest  lie  escapes  her  :  “  NO!  ”  there  were  two  questions.  she  backpedaled.  “  no,  it  wasn’t  for  the  other  nick.  i  mean,  i’m  just  really  slow  at  getting  them  sent  out,  and,  ”  her  steam  was  running  out,  her  smile  now  fallen  from  convincing  to  totally  pathetic. 

                                                                             “  i’m  really  bad  at  this.  i’m  sorry.  ”

               OKAY, NOW HE was really confused. Nick watched as a bunch of emotions he wasn’t sure he could name flitted across Julie’s face. He didn’t know her well enough to be able to read them all, but it was, like, more than one, for sure. With the valentine with her and his name on it in his hand in the space between them, his brow furrowed in bewilderment. 

“Okay, sweet,” he said with a confused smile. “But, uh... if you don’t need it back, why are you here? No offense! But I’m just kinda not following.” Despite admitting confusion, his smile still was warm, still happy ... still him. 

julie  figured  she  had  crossed  the  point  of  no  return  the  moment  nick  said  hello  to  her.  to  back  down  now  was  to  confirm  that  she  had  totally  sent  it  and  commit  to  a  lifetime  of  ‘  she’s  awkward  around  me  because  she  likes  me.  ’  which  would  mean  that  the  real  nick  could  catch  word  of  that  and  turn  into  a  whole  thing.  a  whole  worse  thing.  she  meets  not - real  nick’s  smile  with  a  sound  caught  between  a  laugh,  a  sigh,  and  a  huff  of  exhaustion.

“  hey!  so  –  you  know  those  valentines  everyone’s  sending  out?  literally  everyone,  friends,  classmates,  acquaintences  .  .  .  anyway,  you  didn’t  happen  to  get  mine,  did  you?  ”  okay,  the  wording  wasn’t  great.  one  from  me  would  deny  responsiblity  right  from  the  start,  one  with  my  name  on  it  would  come  off  way  too strong,  but  mine?  mine  was  a  terrible  third  option  that  she  couldn’t  have  prepared  for  until  it  came  out  of  her  stupid  mouth.

               “I DID GET the one you sent!” He grinned, rifling through the cards he’d tucked into his folder before he found the one with Julie’s name on it. “It was a cool surprise. Did you send them to like everyone in the class or something?” It was the only thing he could think of that would make sense, since he was pretty sure he hadn’t actually had the opportunity to talk to Julie before that moment. 

@hsheartthrob   ♡ ‘d  for  a  valentine’s  day  starter!​

·   ﾟ   ・   ♡   JULIE  DIDN’T  KNOW  A  LOT  OF  THINGS.  she  didn’t  know  how  to  hit  a  high  c,  or  how  to  snap  her  fingers,  or  how  to  drive.  (  most  of  these  weren’t  super  important;  mom  was  working  with  her  on  expanding  her  range,  and  dad  was  slowly  warming  up  to  letting  her  take  driver’s  ed.  )

she  also  didn’t  know  who  got  the  valentine  flynn  signed  in  her  name.

                                                       that  was  important.

maybe  someday  they  would  laugh  about  it,  how  someone  else  had  gotten  the  glittery  little  slip  of  paper,  addressed  with  a  flourish:  TO  NICK.  but  what  flynn  hadn’t  accounted  for  was  that  in  the  absence  of  a  last  name,  it  had  ended  up  in  the  hands  of  another  different  nick.  because  of  course  there  were  other  nicks.

with  cheeks  flushed  scarlet  and  touched  by  the  corners  of  a  toothy  smile,  all  she  could  really  hope  was  the  passing  knowledge  of  one  another  as  members  of  the  music  program  could  somehow  make  this  suck  any  less.   “  HEY  –  UH  –  NICK,  RIGHT?  ” 

               THE HANDFUL OF valentines that had been left on his desk had all been expected. Charlie and Cal sent him one, of course: it was kind of a tradition by now that they’d pass one to each other. He’d gotten a collective one from the cheer squad, though he figured Charlie had gone around and had gotten the signatures, probably sending one to her brother as well since he and Cal helped out the squad whenever they needed. He also had one from one of the girls whose private practice was like right before the hockey team’s practice. They weren’t exactly together, but she’d been his first kiss. He’d send a valentine to her as well. 

He hadn’t been expecting the one that said To Nick, from Julie on it. He knew who Julie was: one of the star singers in the music program and definitely one of the cutest girls. What he hadn’t known was that she had any idea who he was. The valentine itself wasn’t that gushy or anything, but it had been a surprise. A nice surprise. — What was he supposed to do with this surprise? 

@hsheartthrob​  |   sc

         “  open  your  mouth  .  “  she  demands  for  the  ,  what  ?  fifth  time  in  the  last  two  minutes  ?  she  does  not  remember  the  last  time  she  walked  the  halls  of  their  high  school  &  didn’t  run  into  him  .  it’s  been  weird  .  &  even  though  she  has  still  been  going  to  the  rink  every  now  &  then  this  week  to  say  hi  to  the  rest  of  the  guys  &  watch  them  practice  ,  it’s  not  the  same  .  she  doesn’t  really  feel  like  ice  skating  without  him  around  .  “  i  need  you  back  at  school  !  which  means  you  have  to  get  better  .  which  means  you  have  to  take  your  dumb  medicine  ,  so  open  up  ,  c’mon  .  “  he  underestimates  her  level  of  patience  .  “  listen  ,  i  can  do  this  all  day  .  i  have  a  little  brother  ,  i’ve  got  training  .  “  

               BEING SICK TOTALLY blew. Nick had never been the kinda kid who liked sick days — though getting a little bit coddled by his mom wasn’t really the worst thing in the world — because it meant he couldn’t be with the people he loved. Cal wasn’t allowed over when he was sick ( at least when they were little and he hadn’t had his own car ) and people like Julie were supposed to be at school. 

He’d been sick for the last three days, and he’d been going a little bit crazy before Julie showed up.