Chapter Text
Nick was nervous.
He was no stranger to crowds, but this was his first year as rugby captain, and all eyes would be on him at the Start of Term Gala. “Gala” was a laughable name for this gathering. “Gala” implies dresses and cocktails and black ties. The proper term for this get-together would likely be “romp.” School pride isn’t very common on campus at Leeds, or anywhere in the UK, but at the start of term, everyone turns out for the Gala because of the unofficial pub crawl after. All the pubs on High Street sell half-off pints if you show your ticket to the gala, it's how the school’s administration gets people to show out for recruitment photo ops — and boy, does it work.
This year there is a huge turnout — and no thanks to the pints or the rugby team, although the rugby team is coming off a very successful season, leaving Nick with extremely large shoes to fill.
This year the school booked a band to play the Gala, a band called Heartbeat June. Nick didn’t know much about the band, just that they were creating some buzz around campus after one of their songs went viral on TikTok. It seems like all of Leeds showed out to the outdoor plaza for a free concert, with a lackluster opening from the sports team captains and administrators.
And so the university president, a tall, grey-haired man with gel in his hair and a navy blue suit on, kicks things off with a pre-written intro about dedication to students and excitement for the semester and education and enrichment. The crowd fake claps, someone shouts “GIVE US JUNE” and the rest scream.
“I know, I know, you want to see the girls. But first, we have an intro from our lovely sports teams. We’ll start with men's and women's football and move down the line and cap it off with our championship men’s rugby team,” the sleazy administrator says.
The girls? I didn’t know it was a girl band, that’s cool. Nick thinks to himself.
A tall woman in a football warm-up suit takes the mic from the old man and introduces herself as the captain of the football team, and briefs the crowd on their upcoming matches. The crowd reacts with subdued claps. This continues as the other teams speak — lacrosse, tennis, hockey, etc. Then it was Nick’s turn to speak on behalf of the rugby team.
Although he had always been a pretty social guy, making speeches was never his forte. When the long-haired hockey captain hands Nick the mic, he freezes up a bit. The other man smelled like Old Spice and the same hair products Nick uses.
Why are you noticing what his hair smells like? Weirdo. Nick's inner monologue continues.
“Go on, Nelson. Be a big boy!” Nick’s bashful teammate Harry Greene shouts, pushing him toward the front of the stage.
The crowd laughs, and Nick blushes. He looks out to the hundreds, maybe thousands of people crowded on the lawn.
“Well. Guess I should have prepared something more fun than just telling you when our next matches are…” Nick says, blushing again.
He was hoping for some laughs but is only met with blank stares.
“Alright then. I’m Nick, Nick Nelson. Rugby captain. I won’t take up too much of your time now. I know we all want to see some live music and then go get plastered at Hemingway’s,” he says.
And now he wins a few chuckles from the crowd. He runs down the list of games and looks back at his teammates when he’s just about done.
“You guys have anything else?” he asks.
Harry characteristically takes the opportunity to steal the mic.
“Come to our games, ladies. We’re a bunch of strapping, muscular young lads in shorts, you’ll love it,” he shouts, flexing his bicep.
Nick shoos him away and wrestles the mic back. The crowd finds this interaction hilarious.
“Ignore him, he’s had one too many concussions. Alright, that’s enough from us. President Gallagher, please take this from us,” he says, gesturing the mic to the administrator in hopes of finally getting off the stage.
Gallagher takes the mic and the crowd of athletes files into a line to walk down the stage stairs.
“Well, thank you, Nick and Harry and the rest of our athletes. We value your talents so much,” he says, sounding regal and rehearsed.
Nick rolls his eyes at Harry the whole way down the stairs. Because Nick was the last to speak, he has a front-row spot on the side-stage floor. It’ll be a great view of the band — definitely a positive of all the PR-esque things he has to do as a team captain now. He gets perks like this from time to time.
“Alright, thank you for your patience. And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Please welcome Heartbeat June — featuring Leeds students Elle Argent, Tara Jones, Darcy Olsson and Charlie Spring!” he said, exiting the stage as the lights went down and a colorful rainbow spotlight went on.
Three girls come on stage — all in stylish clothes. Nick is impressed by their fashion choices. For a bunch of students, they sure do look like celebrities on stage, especially the lead singer — a tall Black woman with a supermodel figure in platform boots, a sequin dress and cool round glasses. The last person on stage surprises Nick — it’s a guy.
The boy was petite — thin-framed and short in stature. He walked cooly onto the stage, waving at the audience. He’s wearing a cropped grey jumper, something Nick had never seen a man wear before. His eyes immediately dart to the exposed skin around the young man’s waist. His pale skin made him look dainty and soft, and like he might break in half if you poked one of his visible ribs. His black jeans were form-fitting and cut off at the ankles to show off classic white high-top Chuck Taylor sneakers.
Nick's heart rate had finally slowed after his center-stage appearance, but now it had gone from resting to bouncing on a trampoline, like he’d just run sprints for Coach Farouk.
The boy has swoops of dark, thick, curly hair that bounce as he waves to the crowd and slides onto the stool at the drum set. He’s light as a feather with a confident smile.
“Good lord,” Nick breathes, not fully realizing he was saying the words out loud until Harry hears him and chuckles.
“I know right, these girls are proper fit!” Harry says, starting to shout along with the crowd.
Nick freezes again. He almost says something to Harry. He’s had enough of men like Harry constantly assuming he only likes girls. The fact is that Nick was pretty sure he was, according to hours of Google searches, “bisexual.”
Not long after starting his first year at uni, Nick entered what he called his “full-on gay crisis.” All of the boys on the rugby team were having the “university experience” — going to every party and hooking up with every girl they could.
Nick had tried to join them. He went to parties and always ended up leaving early, saying he needed to get the extra sleep for practice the next day. The lads would berate him for this, telling him to just be tired and hungover at practice like the rest of them. He would make a joke about his commitment to his sport and head back to his flat to hang out with his flatmate Anna.
Nick had a girlfriend for about a year in high school, Imogen. He liked her then, and they did all the “firsts” that you’re supposed to do in high school — dates, kisses, fooling around, sex. But when Nick said he wanted to go away to university and not stay in Kent, it was clear it was over. Imogen seemed to understand. For both of them the breakup felt like an inevitable. They knew a high school relationship wasn’t forever. He loved Imogen, but at the same time, he knew their relationship had run its course.
Nick thought that he was just strictly a “relationship guy” when it came to sex. He never had any desire to have hookups, even just a makeout session didn’t feel worth it to him unless he was seriously interested in someone beyond the physicality. That is… until Anna, who is also bisexual, invited him out to a queer club, where a guy asked him to dance and then hours of grinding and making out ensued, surprising Nick and kicking off his full-on gay crisis that, if he were being completely honest with himself, definitely did not begin then and was still going on.
And damn was he in the thick of this crisis now. All he could think about was how this drummer was the most captivatingly beautiful creature he had ever seen. His awe was interrupted when the lead singer shouted into the mic.
“What’s up Leeds, we’re Heartbeat June and we’re here to kick up your heartbeats,” she says and the guitarist, a blonde woman in baggy dress pants and a button-up, started playing an irresistibly fun indie-rock riff.
When the drums kicked in, Nick was even more mesmerized. Thirty seconds ago, he had thought the drummer walking on stage with his tiny waist on display was the single hottest thing he’d ever seen. But now, the sight of said boy playing the drums was a thousand times hotter than that. He was banging his head to the beat and smashing on cymbals. Nick knew nothing about music, but he knew this boy was by far the best drummer he’d ever seen. And he finds his focus to be very sexy.
The first song ended and the crowd got even louder. Nick clapped along with the fans but didn’t start screaming and shouting, he was too stunned to speak.
“Nick, say something, mate,” Harry said, laughing.
“Uhh,” he blushed. “They’re really good, I had no idea.”
Harry chuckled, “How could you have no idea? This song has been all over the pubs all summer!”
The second song was even catchier than the first, and Nick wanted actually to listen and enjoy the music but he couldn’t take in a single word the singer was belting. His eyes are glued to the drummer, and he has a feeling even after the show ends he won’t be able to focus on anything.
The band plays two more songs that Nick assumes are good when the singer addresses the crowd.
“Thank you guys, we’re having so much fun! For those of you who don’t know, I’m Elle!” the crowd screams. Elle is definitely a crowd favorite.
Elle gestures to the guitarist, “This is Darcy Olsson, our guitar goddess!” Darcy plays a slick chord, making the audience scream.
Elle turns to the other side of the stage, “And here we have the lovely Tara Jones on bass.”
A shorter Black woman in a tie-dye tank top gave a shy smile and waved at the crowd. The audience, and notably the rugby boys whooped.
Elle laughed on stage, “Sorry, lads she’s taken. And you’re not her type anyway.”
“— taken by me!” the guitarist interjects.
Tara blushes.
Nick, who had been anxiously waiting for the drummer’s introduction did pipe his attention toward Tara and Darcy.
Oh my god, are they queer? He thinks to himself.
“Very, very taken and very, very gay,” Tara says into her backup mic.
The rugby boys boo in a playful way.
Elle laughs.
“The boys don’t like that news, but that’s okay because we have a very eligible bachelor who only plays for the boys’ team back here on drums, please give it up for Mr. Charlie Spring,” Elle shouts, laughing.
Charlie laughs and plays a quick little roll on the drums, waving to the audience and giving a wink.
A WINK.
Nick practically faints. The drummer “only plays for the boys’ team”.... He’s gay … and he’s “very eligible” … he’s single.
Nick is so dumbfounded he almost doesn’t hear Harry make a slightly homophobic comment.
“All these fit girls and two-thirds of them are gay, what a shame, what a shame,” he says, making the other boys laugh.
Nick is still annoyed but pleasantly surprised Harry didn’t make any comments about the drummer. If he pulled out an F-slur or something Nick would simply have to give him yet another concussion.
“Alright we have a few more for you guys, hope you enjoy,” Elle says, and a slightly slower song starts.
If Nick couldn't focus on the music before, he definitely can’t focus now. His mind is moving at a thousand miles a minute.
He’s gay and single but he probably has hundreds of guys begging for him. I need to find a way to talk to him but what do I even say? Also, how has Anna not told me about this lovely semi-famous gay band that goes to our school? Should I follow him on Instagram? Nooo, he probably has a million followers and even more DMs. How did I not see him in the two weeks I tried Grindr? Well, you probably don’t need Grindr when you look like that…
His thoughts are cut off when Harry shoves him “Oi mate, look alive. You gotta put some pep in your step again before we hit the bars! Plus, how can you be bored right now, you’re front row at a Heartbeat June concert.”
The bars. Maybe he’ll go out to the bars tonight.