youngblood

“none of us are, babe.” she reached over with her clean hand to tap his nose. charlie simply nodded in agreement as she ate. it was just a party, after all. she might not be a social person, but as long as she knew she could leave early – and steal drinks while she was at it, she was all set. she tilted her head in thought for a moment, looking into the distance before letting her eyes set on him again. “an hour still feels so long…” she trailed off. “okay, we’ll say an hour for now, but when we’re there and you feel like you want to leave, just say so. i’ll do the same, alright?” she suggested, feeling like they could come to terms with how unsocial they usually were with some sort of mutual agreement. at least nico could deal with talking to people; charlie couldn’t. she was the definition of awkward with a resting bitch face, making her look too intimidating to talk to. it really came as a positive thing sometimes, she didn’t have to deal with strangers most of the time. “god, we’re lame. we can’t even deal with a stupid ass party. too edgy for this teenage shit.” charlie rolled her eyes, chuckling afterwards. 

nico laughed, “oh, definitely. an hour is just the maximum amount of time i’m willing to stay. and i don’t want to bail on cam too soon. but if it’s 30 minutes it’s also fine.” he bumped his foot against hers under the table, still with a bright grin on his face. “we’re so emo.” he said, his voice containing more excitement than it probably should.

“exactly. now one of us just has to bring a backpack, and we’re set. we can go somewhere and get shit faced.” she planned, tapping on the table with her free hand excitedly. charlie might not like parties, but she looked forward to this one just for this reason. charlie tried not to choke on a mozzarella stick as she laughed; that would’ve been embarrassing. “she knows how much of a nerd you are.” she chuckled. “wanna stay over at mine instead?” charlie wondered, tilting her head slightly. she rolled her eyes and nodded, swallowing the rest of the food in her mouth. “yeah, no one is surprised, dumbass.” she said as if she was talking to their friend. 

“nooo…?” she trailed off, but a smile broke out. charlie was so obvious sometimes about how she felt about people, and she usually wasn’t afraid to hide it. she wiggled her eyebrows right back, joking along. “well, this is not much of a romantic date kind of thing, but… there’s a very high chance there’s alcohol at this party. i kinda feel like helping myself to some free drinks to take home.” she shrugged, smiling mischievously. “uhh, i have no idea, actually. ask cam?” charlie suggested, her attention being taken away when their food arrived. she immediately went for a mozzarella stick with her fork. “oh, yeah. definitely.” she laughed quietly. “i bet she won’t believe you’re actually doing ‘crazy teenage things’.” she waved her free hand around, speaking in a high voice when she said the last three words. 

charlie chuckled, scrunching her nose at the typical behavior nico had at the mention of the party from their friend. “i think he just wants us to be included in things he does, which i don’t really mind much. we both know he won’t care if we leave early.”

“probably some airhead joke… i mean jock.” she corrected herself, having actually said what she thought instead of what she meant, making herself laugh a little. “yeah, we can stay for a bit… there’s no harm.” she nodded, leaning forward and folding her arms on the table. “we could go somewhere else afterwards… or i could stay over at yours. whatever works.” 

nico nodded, flashing a quick smile and rolling his eyes. “are you sure you didn’t mean joke?” he teased, “not that they’re, you know, that different.” his expression softened when charlie laughed after correcting herself. he almost missed what she said next because his mind wanted to wander off, however he replied with “somewhere else?” he wiggled his eyebrows, “you’ve got any great plans you want to share with me?” they usually weren’t the type for elaborate dates, the comfort of simply being around eachother was often enough. “but we can stay over at mine as well, no problem. what time was this party again?” he questioned, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “i’ll need to let my mom know we’ll be gone,” he laughed, charlie surely was aware of his mother always teasing him about never leaving the house to take part in ‘normal teenager shenanigans’. “or else she might think i drove into a ditch or got kidnapped or something.”

“i would like to see you actually do that someday. would be amusing.” she joked back, grinning at him playfully. charlie didn’t waste anymore time. like they did every time they left the school together for food, she ignored everyone and anyone who could possibly want to talk to them. they may be two of the least popular people at school, but there were still people from their classes who wanted to ask about the test they just had, or a homework they missed. charlie hated those people. 

“yep. the smallest version.” she answered with a nod as she took her jacket off and left it by her bag beside her. “i’m not that hungry… oh! and mozzarella sticks.” charlie added with a small, excited smile. once their order was in, she sighed and leaned back in her seat, using the black scrunchy on her wrist to tie her purple hair back. “by the way, some girl near my desk in class asked if i was going to her boyfriend’s party. debby, or some shit. i don’t know. i don’t really feel like going, but i know cam might drag our asses.”

nico leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and twirling a stray curl around with his right hand. “i think cam told me about that actually. kinda zoned out when he did so...” he scrunched his nose up and pulled up his shoulders as if he had just tasted something disgusting. “in all these years cam still hasn’t gotten the memo that we’re not really party people, has he?” nico joked, although of course camden knew that. he just didn’t give up on trying to convince his two closest friends that parties could be fun. so far, no succes.

charlie was grinning at him. he probably knew she didn’t do her homework either. she was at his house all weekend anyway. she nodded in agreement, not feeling like adding anything onto that ramble of his. it was still early. she followed him, and by the time they were out, she already felt like leaving the school and not coming back. mr. harris’ face somehow managed to make her want to puke every morning. 

“babe, you must be really hungry. you keep rambling.” she chuckled, catching up to him and linking their arms together. “i don’t think it was that bad. i don’t know. i guess i do pay a tiny bit of attention in class.” charlie joked, looking up at him for a moment before shifting her eyes straight ahead. “hmm…  nothing big. but you sound like a starved kid, so… let’s go to the pizza place nearby?” 

nico grinned sheepishly when charlie called him out, pulling the hood of his sweater over his curls and shrugging. “i guess? i don’t know, i’m just in a good mood...” he mumbled as a response. he knew she didn’t mean it in a malicious way at all, she just knew him well and for a usually pretty quiet kid, rambling wasn’t really something that happened often. still, he made a mental note to.. take a breath every once in a while. his head had just been spinning ever since the events at the start of this weekend.

charlie’s suggestion pulled him out of his thoughts and a big smile appeared on his face. “yes please, oh my fucking god.” he rolled his eyes and as if on cue, his stomach started rumbling. “i could eat like... ten pizza’s right now.” it was a silly joke, he probably couldn’t even eat more than one, but that didn’t stop him from hurrying towards his car.

“go on, then. i’m not gonna stop you.” she answered with a little shrug, scrunching her nose for a moment. charlie knew him very well, she knew that they both were students with average grades, being more into the arts of different mediums than other school subjects. “uh-huh. i believe you.” she joked along with a nod and a little smile. charlie thought for a moment, trying to remember if she had anything important. “well… i take that english class with you, and then i have geometry before lunch… i’d skip that, honestly. you know i hate it.” charlie grinned and couldn’t help but reach up to rest her hands on his cheeks to gently squish them. “okay, rebel boy, it’s settled. we’re skipping lunch and the class before it. i’d rather eat out anyway.” 

a gentle smile appeared on nico’s face when charlie mentioned their shared class. english was by far not his worst subject but having one of his friends there did make the lessons more fun. “geometry is the worst. fucking reminds me i still have to do homework for that.” Nico winced while talking, but that faded quickly and turned into a blush when charlie squished his cheeks. “we can just grab some mcdonalds i guess? or pizza. or whatever we feel like by then.” he thought out loud, but shook his head at his own rambles. “whatever, we’ll see i guess.” the bell for first period rang, and he started walking towards their class, pulling charlie along by their intertwined hands. “gotta get through the torture that is mr. Harris’ exams first. i mean... we didn’t do much studying this weekend so that’ll be fun.”

“i’d be creeped out if it was some other dude i didn’t know.” she nodded in agreement with a chuckle. charlie’s smile widened a bit, eyebrows raised at how endearingly adorable he was at trying to be unpredictable.·“uh huh, okay. i’m sure it’ll be a big surprised.” she teased, squeezing his hands a bit.·“like i said: cheesy.” charlie stated yet again, nose scrunched. she let go of one of his hands and kept holding the other that he started to play with, leaning back against the lockers behind her as she simply watched the soft gesture.·“oh, no. you’re already planning your terrible report card?” she joked.·“although… yeah, i get it. i really don’t want to be here right now. i kinda want to drive somewhere with you, i don’t know.”·

charlie stayed quiet as he rambled on nervously, trying to save himself. it was amusing to watch, she wasn’t going to lie. “nico… calm down.” she chuckled as she zipped up her bag after getting everything she needed. once the locker was closed, she turned to face him, smiling a little. she reached to tug his crossed arms out of his defensive pose, which she happened to know so well, and held his hands. “you don’t have to defend yourself, i get it. i’m actually not so surprised that it’s been you. who else in this school is capable of such sweet yet cheesy compliments?” she laughed. 

“it makes me happy… now that i know that they’re from you.” she admitted, swinging their hands for a moment before stopping again. “you can keep doing it if you want, or do both… or just say it face to face. i don’t care. i just know you’re the sweetest person in any shape or form.” 

as charlie reassured him everything was fine, nico’s shoulder slumped and his bit his lip to hide another embarrassed smile, but this time it was because he freaked out so easily. however, his confidence grew back quite quickly as charlie kept talking. “well, not to boast but.. yeah probably.” he grinned, squeezing charlie’s hand softly. “i mean i guess i am a better option than some weird guy you’ve never even talked to before. i was just trying to.. i don’t know, cheer you up?” he shrugged. he hoped he wasn’t blushing too much at charlie’s compliments, but the one thing he knew was that he was now wearing a smile so bright it could probably blind someone. “maybe i’ll keep doing it. or not. who knows. it has to be a surprise.” that, of course, pretty much gave it away. but he didn’t really care. right now. “i don’t think i’m the sweetest person though. i think that spot is already taken, by you.”

charlie couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows at him when he said the notes looked familiar, watching him as he carded through them. “… what?” she asked in a quieter, confused tone, looking between him and the notes. she took them from his hand and looked through them again. ‘i love the way your hair looks x’, ‘your smile is cute x’, and something like ‘you look badass in that jacket x’. 

it always weirded charlie out a little bit, but she also was so curious to know who would pay so much attention to her when barely anyone but her friends knew she existed in this school. so when nico said it was him, she knew she shouldn’t be so surprised. it seemed like such a nico thing to do. “i knew that handwriting looked familiar…” she trailed off, staring down at the notes. she then put them back in her locker to keep them safe, trying her best not to seem flustered. 

charlie seemed so confused, nico didn’t know how to interpret that reaction. was she mad? he never wanted to be creepy, but looking at how many notes she’d collected over the past couple of months.. it was a lot. 

“it just kind of started as a joke?” he offered when she took the stack of notes back. “not that i didn’t mean what i wrote but it wasn’t a big deal or anything.” he continues, the words rushing out of his mouth which was a weird contrast to his usual relaxed way of speaking. he crossed his arms in front of his chest, taking a defensive stance subconsciously. this whole weekend had been a dream, but now they were back in the real world and he was afraid it had all been too good to be true.

charlie smiled a little to herself, endeared by how nico was swinging their hands. “that’s exactly it.” she nodded, letting him take her towards where their lockers were. thankfully, hers was a few lockers away from nico’s. she really didn’t need much from it other than the chemistry book that she left in there just because it was too heavy to take home. little did she know, there was another note that was slipped in from an anonymous admirer who has been sending notes to her since the start of the school year. charlie opened it, skimmed over the lines, then glanced at nico who was too busy doing whatever by his own locker. “hey, nico…” she called on him quietly, feeling like she should show him this note, along with the stack of love letters that she seemed to have collected over the months out of pure interest over the identity of whoever this was more than returned feelings. she never said anything about them, but now that they were dating, it felt like she was hiding something. “someone’s watched too many romcoms and started sending me these.” she said, showing him the short stack of letters in her hand. “some secret admirer or some shit.” 

they finally let go of their hands when they had to to get to their lockers. he just needed to change some books, mindlessly humming a tune while doing so, not really aware of what charlie was doing. he’d completely forgotten about the love note he’d left her on friday afternoon, when anything happening between them romance-wise had still seemed very unlikely to him.

he’d started leaving the notes when they’d gotten closer to valentines, kind of as a joke, but also kind of just because it was the only way he could tell her about how he felt. they were never very long, just short comments, mostly compliments, like “i love the way your hair looks today” or something of that nature. always signed with an x, which could be interpreted as a kiss, but was also a way to stay anonymous.