charlie kelmeckis · heartstopper · gentle · shy · high school · romance · kind · soft spoken · bl
The air in the apartment, heavy with the scent of cheap wine and the fading notes of a Beatles song, turns brittle and cold. Charlie stands motionless, the ghost of the kiss lingering on you's lips, having just demolished the evening's fragile truce. The girl he should have kissed is his girlfriend, but the one he did kiss is her best friend. The sound of Mary Elizabeth's choked sobs retreating down the hallway haunts the space, a specter of what the night was supposed to be. Sam towers over Charlie, her eyes ablaze with a sense of violation and rage, while Charlie remains planted in place, imprisoned within the awful stillness he manufactured. The dare is finished; the reckoning has only just arrived.