Chapter Text
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Charlie looks in the mirror and sighs; his curls are not behaving today, but he’s just going to throw a beanie on top of them, so he’s not sure why he cares so much. Besides, it’s not like he has anyone to impress. His love life has been abysmal over the last six months. Once he was finally ready to put himself out there after getting over his baggage from Ben Hope, he went on a series of terrible first dates – including the blind date that turned out to be with Harry Greene, which ended before it even started. And let’s not forget his lukewarm month and a half spent with James. Back at Truham, James McEwan had been one of the only other students who was openly gay. He’s attractive enough, but there was just no chemistry between them. Once they finally admitted that, they became good friends, with James easily fitting into his friend group.
In fact, James is part of the crew that is meeting up to go to Truham’s Holiday Festival. Elle is already there, with her friends Naomi and Felix, putting the finishing touches on her snow sculpture she’s excited to reveal tonight. Elle’s husband, Tao, who is one of Charlie’s oldest friends, will also be there, in addition to Isaac. Isaac got adopted into their small friend group back in Year 9, shortly before Charlie got outed, and he’s been one of Charlie’s biggest support systems since. His love life might be pathetic, but at least he has great friends!
Charlie’s family isn’t so bad either. His parents have come a long way since his adolescence; he and his older sister, Tori, are pretty sure that it’s because their younger brother, Olly, is sunshine personified. Once Charlie and Tori, the perpetually depressed Spring children, were out of the house, it’s like Charlie’s parents heaved a large sigh of relief and became so much more chill . They’ve even taken a step back recently on criticising his career path. When he went to university, Charlie’s parents - well, his mum - pushed for him to go into something that would lead to financial stability. Instead, he got a degree in Classic Literature.
To his relief, she’s never told him “I told you so,” even the few embarrassing times he’s had to ask for help. In his defence, one of those times was when his car broke down and fixing it was quite costly. He’s pretty sure the fact that he actually has a book deal is what’s gotten her off his back though. Charlie is mostly able to pay his day-to-day expenses from what he earns at ‘Sarah’s’. He often has the night shift, since he’s a night owl anyways, but to his relief, the owner has taken over for all of them tonight so that they can all attend the festival.
Charlie’s life became so much more full the day he met Sarah Nelson. Isaac had started working at her shop first, since they were advertising for someone who knew a lot about books, and then when Isaac had overheard Sarah saying that she needed to hire a replacement barista, he’d pulled Charlie into the mix. In time, they both helped Darcy get a job there, and while she’s not with them tonight, they’ve all become good friends with one of the other baristas, Margot. Margot had graciously offered to stay at the cafe with Sarah so that Darcy and Charlie could both attend the festival with Isaac and their other friends.
“You can’t miss Elle’s unveiling!” Sarah had insisted earlier, when she’d forced him out the door to head home and change. By the time everyone is at the festival, the cafe will probably be empty anyway, and Sarah will likely take the opportunity to catch up on some of her baking. Seriously, her biscuits and brownies are so scrumptious that even Charlie can’t say no, and he’s not much of a snacker.
Charlie sees that he only has a few more minutes, so he grabs his oversized blue jumper to put on over his shirt, and then runs to the door to pull on his green toggle-button coat and his beanie. After lacing up his Converse, he grabs a pair of gloves and heads out to the door. James is just pulling up in his car, with Isaac sitting next to him and Tao in the back. Darcy and their girlfriend, Tara, will be meeting them there.
Getting into the backseat with Tao, he asks, “Do we have time to stop for coffee?”
“No can do, Charizard,” Isaac quips before James starts driving towards the festival, “but there will be places where you can get coffee. You should’ve asked me to grab you something before James picked me up at work.”
Charlie grumbles under his breath, knowing full well that the coffee at the festival will not be up to his standards. He’ll have to settle for hot chocolate instead. The rest of the ride, Tao talks their ears off about how excited he is for Elle. All these years later, and he’s still such a simp for her; Charlie wants to find it nauseating but it’s incredibly endearing. Tao can be prickly around the edges, but when it comes to Elle, he’s a fluffy bunny. Isaac interrupts Tao popping off for the umpteenth time about how amazing Elle is by saying, “Tao, we are all very excited for Elle, but can you please give it a rest? James and I are trying to talk about ‘Look Up, Handsome’.”
“Is that like a book or something?” Tao asks, a frown on his face.
James whips around so he can glare at Tao. “Yes! It’s a queer holiday rom-com about a gay guy trying to save his bookshop in a small town!” James looks at Charlie. “Please tell me you’ve heard of it.”
Charlie giggles. “Yes, James, of course I have. I live with Isaac, remember?”
“Look at the road!” Tao barks, prompting James to laugh and go back to paying attention to what he’s doing at the wheel. Gosh, it’s a good thing their town has so few people, or that could’ve been more dangerous than it was.
“Anyways, so I put together a display of queer holiday rom-coms this morning, and tomorrow Sarah is going to debut sugar cookies that are decorated to look like wreaths, but the baubles that are on them are all different Pride flag colours.”
“She’s such a good ally,” James quips.
“Mmmmm, I’m not so sure she’s just an ally,” Isaac says coyly, prompting everyone to gasp in the car.
“Isaac, spill the tea!” Charlie squeals.
“Look, all I’m saying is Sarah and her friend Nora were looking awfully cosy the last time I saw them together,” Isaac teases before looking out the window and falling silent, signalling that no further observations would be disclosed. Isaac is one of Charlie’s most insightful friends; he could even tell that something was up with Charlie before Charlie had admitted to anyone about his eating disorder back in secondary school. At the time, Isaac had felt terribly betrayed, because he’d asked Charlie if anything was wrong, and Charlie had lied. But since then, Charlie’s always been honest with Isaac. He’s pretty sure Isaac is the platonic love of his life, and he’ll always be grateful for the day that he accepted his and Tao’s offer of friendship, making them a trio of borderline outcasts before Elle came along.
When they arrive at the carpark near the Holiday Festival, James finds a spot, and once the car is turned off the group of friends all get out and head towards the entrance. Darcy and Tara are walking up just as they are, and after a round of hugs are shared, they set off to find Elle. On their way, they pass a dozen or so stands all selling different types of crafts and trinkets. Charlie hopes to find some of his Christmas presents here; he’s been pretty lax about buying anything this year. Between a spot of writer’s block and feeling glum about his love life, he hasn’t had much energy to go out and look for anything yet.
Charlie easily spots Elle; it’s hard to miss his tall, graceful friend. She’s standing with Naomi, both of them fussing with a drape over what he can only assume is her statue. “Aw, don’t we get to see it?” Tao whines as they get close enough to talk to her.
“Hi, guys!” Elle exclaims before putting her hands on her hips and saying to Tao, “You know full well we aren’t revealing it until later.”
“Yeah, we have a little bit more to do here, why don’t you lot go look around the stands and see if you can’t contribute to the local economy?” Felix quips as they roll their wheelchair up beside the group.
After a round of hugs, they all set off towards the stands to do a bout of window shopping. Early on, Charlie finds quite a few things to purchase. A few of them are a bit more costly than he would’ve liked, but they are all made by local artists, after all. The items that he buys in front of his friends are a set of ornaments for his sister and her partner, Michael, a stained glass can of lemonade and then a stained glass pair of ice skates. At that artist, he also finds a gorgeous ornament that has rainbow ballet shoes that he goes back for later once he breaks away from his friends to do some covert shopping – they’re perfect for Tara!
A few stands down from the ornament booth is one where a sweet old lady has a bunch of items that she has embroidered all kinds of things on. He sees a round plaque that has ‘Chaos Gremlin’ stitched onto it; he goes back to buy that for Darcy later. In the meantime, he buys a set of tea towels for his mum, one with a simple ‘J’ on them, and one with an ‘S’; they’re relatively boring compared to the Chaos Gremlin item, actually, and he’s surprised they’re at the same booth.
About a half hour into their browsing, they find a seller that has nothing but candles in a wide variety of scents, but before they can smell them all, Isaac spots a stand that looks like it has upcycled card catalogues and takes off screeching like a pterodactyl. James rolls his eyes fondly before chasing after the guy, leaving everyone else behind. Charlie keeps sniffing the candles, and he happens to find one that smells just like old books. He’s not sure how, but it does. Isaac still hasn’t come back - chances are, he’s going to be investigating the card catalogues for a while - so Charlie purchases the candle, making Darcy whine that they wish they had spotted it first.
A little while after that, they all take a break for hot chocolate and get some pasties to snack on. “Sarah’s are better,” Tara complains, making them all mumble in agreement.
“These aren’t bad,” Darcy adds, “it’s just…”
“Sarah’s are amazing?” Charlie suggests.
Darcy beams at him. “Exactly!”
Once they are all warmed up from their warm beverages and a full belly, they break off into smaller groups. Before James goes off with Isaac, Charlie whispers to him that if he can, keep Isaac away from the candles. The man eyes Charlie suspiciously before smirking and winking, and with a small shrug, saunters off to catch up with Isaac. Charlie takes this opportunity to go back and make the purchases for his friends without them there to witness it. He wishes he’d found something for Tao, Olly or his dad, and he’s not sure if he’s on gift-giving terms with James yet.
At least Charlie’s had his gift for Elle taken care of for ages. A book came out a few years ago called ‘Manhunt’. Given that it’s a horror book, Charlie had no idea that it was on Elle’s radar until it was announced that Lilly Wachowski was adapting it into a movie. Long story short, it’s a post-apocalyptic book about trans people hunting feral men for survival. Anyway, Elle gushed about it at the time, and when Charlie did some digging, he was able to find an autographed copy of the book. He’s also planning on giving Elle an IOU inside of a card for opening weekend tickets and her choice of box-office treats for whenever the movie comes out – for her and Tao. He figures that way, he has Tao covered as well, since he’s had his eyes on the Criterion Collection version of ‘Blue Velvet’, yet another movie that Tao didn’t own that surprised Charlie. Last year he couldn’t believe when Elle shared with him that Tao didn’t have ‘In the Mood for Love’ when he’d had a movie poster of it on his bedroom wall for most of his adolescence.
Presents acquired, and his bank account getting emptier by the minute, Charlie decides to stop looking, and finds his friends all reconvening around Elle, who is getting ready for the grand reveal of her statue. Everyone keeps looking at him when she talks about it, and all of their glances are feeling incredibly cheeky and suspicious, though Charlie has no idea why that’d be the case. Shaking it off, he looks around to take in how pretty all of the festive lights look over in this area.
“When do we get to see it?” Darcy whines.
“Soon,” Elle huffs in an exasperated tone, making Charlie wonder if everyone had been bothering her before he’d gotten there.
Eventually, soon is now. They’ve all stood through the other sculptures being revealed, one by one; Charlie didn’t realise that so many had been created for this year. He’d only been focused on Elle, so he hadn’t noticed that all around the festival grounds were other sculptures covered up. A group of singing children lead everyone from statue to statue for their unveilings, and finally, it’s Elle’s turn. Charlie stands to the side with the rest of their friends, trying to figure out why hers is so far away from the middle of the festival - her work is too amazing to be put on the sidelines! - as Elle is introduced by Naomi before she hands the microphone over.
“Thank you, Naomi,” Elle says warmly before smiling out to the crowd. Looking out at everyone, Elle continues with, “I had a lot of ideas for this year, but I kept coming back to the theme we were given: dream presents. I thought of what my dream present would be, and then I thought about what dream presents my friends would want.” Elle’s eyes find Charlie, making his stomach turn to knots. “One of my friends in particular would probably never admit this, but I think that this is exactly what he would ask Santa for if he had the chance.” Elle winks at him before ripping off the sheet.
Charlie’s jaw drops as gasps and laughter surround him on all sides, because no one is expecting this to be Elle’s sculpture. Elle made… a man. A very buff man. If he were real, he’d be the hottest man Charlie has ever seen, and there he was, carved out of a block of snow. He even has a little Santa hat propped on top, but he’s not wearing much else. At the very least, it looks like Elle didn’t give him a shirt, because even from here, Charlie can see the abs, and the pecs, and when he gets close enough, the nipples. Dear lord. What was Elle thinking?!
Everyone starts to scatter, which allows Charlie to hiss at his friend, “Please tell me this isn’t for me!”
Elle laughs at him. “I mean, why not? Look at him, Charlie. He’s like, the embodiment of your type.”
“She’s got you there,” Isaac teases her.
James looks the sculpture up and down and jokes dryly, “No wonder we didn’t work out.”
Charlie rolls his eyes at James – this is not the time for jokes – and turns back to Elle. “Seriously, though? You didn’t think this would be embarrassing for me? What, Charlie can’t find a guy so let's make him one?”
Elle’s face softens as she steps forward and puts her hand on Charlie’s arm. “Hey, no. That’s not what I meant at all. Well, I guess in a way, yes. But I thought it’d be fun! I wanted the challenge of carving the human form, and this was a silly and cute way to make that happen. I thought you would find it funny. I’m sorry, Charlie.”
Charlie can see that Elle means every word of what she’s saying to him. Letting out a deep sigh, he says, “Fine. I mean, he is attractive.”
Darcy comes up beside him and throws their arm around his waist. “I mean, he even has a name!”
“He does?” Charlie asks sceptically.
“Yeah! Nicholas! You know, like St. Nicholas?” Darcy stands still, grinning at Charlie.
He’s unable to resist their ridiculous dad joke, and he ends up giggling. “Yeah, yeah. If only. If he was St. Nicholas, I’d love to be his Mrs. Claus.”
Later that night, just before midnight when James drops him and Isaac off at their house, Charlie notices an extremely bright star shining right above him. He’s slightly tipsy from the boozy hot chocolate they ended up getting after the sculpture unveiling, so he thinks nothing of wishing on a star for the first time in probably two decades. He thinks back on the statue, and how attractive it was. Memories of how lonely he’s been feeling lately swirl with those thoughts, and he finds himself wishing that the statue really could be his. He then shakes his head and chuckles to himself; that’s a ridiculous thought, even for someone halfway to Drunksville.
Lying in bed, his mind goes over and over the last six months, and how he really would like to find someone. He tries to tell himself that he’s okay being alone, and that he only needs his friends. But he really would like a partner; someone who makes him feel loved, someone who he could have a laugh with. But he’d probably just settle for someone tall.
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