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Summary
Meet and Crush (End of February to March)
Meet: January
“Meet” opens with a picture of two birds flying against a fall sky. Ben Hope, an upper-class student at Truham Grammar School for Boys, is texting with Charlie Spring, a Year 10, asking to meet up. Ben and Charlie kiss in the library, but Charlie pulls away at the sound of the first bell. Charlie then pulls out a notice he has received of a new policy that places students in vertical classes, meaning that each class contains a cross-section of students from each grade. Charlie’s teacher Mr. Lange seats him next to Nick Nelson, a Year 11. The next page serves as the title page, depicting the two boys separated by the word “Heartstopper.” Each morning, Nick says hi, and Charlie obsesses over why, fearing that Nick is waiting to bully him. One day in class, Nick’s pen explodes, and Mr. Lange instructs Charlie to accompany Nick to the washroom. There, they joke about their teachers while Nick tries, in vain, to wash the ink from his hands. As they talk, Charlie gets a text from Ben teasing him for no longer wanting to make out. Charlie decides not to respond and to spend time with Nick instead. On the playground, Charlie’s friend Tao Xu expresses disbelief that Charlie is friends with Nick, a rugby player who calls everyone “mate” and probably throws food on the bus. Charlie later sees Ben with a girl from another school, so Charlie tells Ben he doesn’t want to hook up anymore.
February
While playing rugby, Nick sees Charlie running on the track and gets so distracted he can’t pass the ball. Afterwards, in the locker room, Ben confronts Charlie by his locker, demanding to know why Charlie isn’t answering his texts. Charlie, wide-eyed and sweating, tries to get away, but Ben grabs him by the throat. Nick walks up, interrupting, and as Ben stalks off, Charlie tells Nick that he and Ben are not friends. Nick then asks if Charlie wants to join the rugby team. The bell rings and Charlie leaves for his drum lesson, saying he’ll think about it.
A week later, Nick and his teammates are in the locker room. Nick’s teammates, assuming Charlie doesn’t like sports because he’s gay, question Nick’s choice to invite Charlie to the team. During PE, their teacher Miss Singh tells Nick to teach Charlie the basics of the sport. Over the course of the following week, Charlie practices with the rugby team and picks the game up quickly, winning over his teammates. Still, Charlie worries because the team members seem like the kind of boys who used to bully him, but Nick reassures Charlie, saying he likes him. Charlie then feels courageous enough to confront Ben and leaves the locker room with that intention. He tells Ben that their relationship is just a convenient way for Ben to make out with somebody while he’s at school, and that he is done with him. Ben pushes him against the wall and begins to sexually assault him when Nick arrives. Nick pulls Ben off of Charlie and pushes him away.
Crush: February (continued)
Crush opens with an image of two hands against a snowy sky. Nick sits in his bedroom in front of his laptop, checking out Charlie’s Facebook page. He remembers when everyone found out that Charlie was gay the previous year and that Charlie got bullied quite a bit. After staring out at the night sky, Nick sends Charlie a message asking Charlie if he’s okay after Ben’s assault. Charlie is playing drums when he gets the message. He assures Nick that he is fine, but they both linger over their phones. After some prodding from Nick, Charlie tells him how he and Ben got involved. One day, after Charlie had come out as gay, he was playing drums in the music room when Ben simply walked in on him. Ben told Charlie he thought he was brave for coming out and then started kissing him. After that, they kept meeting up, and Charlie was pleased to think he had a boyfriend. But eventually, Charlie realized Ben was using him, and when he learned that Ben had a girlfriend at another school, he decided to end it, and that’s when Ben assaulted him. After hearing the story, Nick tells Charlie not to talk to Ben and reassures Charlie that he won’t let Ben hurt him. Nick and Charlie both sign off with heart emojis.
Charlie’s friend Tao asks Charlie why he spends so much time with Nick. Tao says Charlie obviously has a crush on Nick but claims that, because Nick is straight, Charlie is wasting his time and setting himself up for heartbreak.
Analysis
In the novel, January represents a time in which Charlie, a Year 10 student at an all-boys’ school, is both struggling with old patterns and facing the promise of a new start. January is the start of a new year and a new term, which presents Charlie with the possibility of new beginnings. The school flyer expresses this possibility with its announcement of new vertical classes. This change marks the beginning of Charlie’s adventure with Nick, a Year 11 student. However, January is also the middle of the academic year, so Charlie continues to struggle with challenges carried over from earlier in the school year. For example, Ben continues to send Charlie nagging and insulting texts, ignoring Charlie's wishes and making demands on his time. Ben’s behavior suggests that he doesn't care what Charlie wants or what's best for him. Ben is a bad habit that Charlie needs to break in the new year, and Charlie's friendship with Nick makes him feel confident enough to set boundaries with Ben. January's new beginnings help Charlie let go of old patterns that cause him pain.
When Charlie joins the rugby team, it proves a pivotal experience for both him and Nick, fraught with risk and ripe with potential. By bringing Charlie into his rugby world, Nick runs the risk of exposing himself to teasing or ostracization from his teammates, as shown by the team’s initial skepticism of Charlie’s inclusion. Charlie fears the rugby players, who remind him of the older boys who bullied him the previous school year. Neither of the boys has yet figured out the nature of their relationship, and Charlie’s presence on the team introduces additional pressure and public scrutiny. But they also both have much to gain from playing the sport together. First, practice allows them to spend more time not only together but in close physical contact. Rugby, then, becomes a kind of socially sanctioned flirting for them, allowing them to explore the possibility of a romantic relationship in a relatively safe environment. Charlie also turns out to be a decent player, so the team gains a new asset and Nick gains accolades from his teammates. Charlie gets the chance to broaden his horizons, learn a new skill, and gain self-confidence. This joint decision proves beneficial in the long term. It thus sets an example for how the two might make future risky decisions, including the decision to become romantically involved.
Charlie initially lacks the self-confidence to stand up to Ben and demand that their relationship be made public, but the time he spends with Nick helps him understand his own self-worth. At the start of the novel, Charlie already shows disinterest or perhaps even discomfort at Ben’s nagging, aggressive text messages. He demonstrates his feelings through curt responses and by pulling away from Ben at the sound of the first bell. His distance turns into rejection when he glimpses Ben holding hands with a girl from another school. The sight makes it clear to Charlie that the public relationship he craves is not possible with Ben. Ben and Charlie’s relationship began in what he thought was privacy but now recognizes as secrecy. Ben’s refusal to accept no for an answer, his abusive language, and his unwanted physical attention reinforce Charlie’s gut feeling that he deserves better. Ben’s attitude contrasts particularly with Nick’s open gestures of friendship: greeting Charlie outside the classroom or inviting Charlie to his home to meet his dog and play video games together. His interactions with Nick show Charlie what a healthy relationship could look like.
Nick’s friendship with Charlie calls his peers’ assumptions about his identity into question. Charlie’s friend Tao assesses Nick as a masculine athlete who calls people “mate,” who has poor manners and is likely to pick on his weaker classmates. Tao assumes that these outward characteristics and appearances mean that Nick is straight. But Charlie experiences Nick as friendly, even kind. When the two are paired in a cross-sectional course, Nick goes out of his way to greet Charlie, even outside of the classroom. Nick invites Charlie to participate in the extracurricular sport rugby, taking the time to teach him the basics although Charlie knows nothing about the sport. He demonstrates concern when Charlie disappears early from practice, and he follows Charlie to make sure he is okay, intervening when he sees Charlie in distress as Ben attacks him. Nick also follows up with Charlie later, in a quiet moment when they can both reflect on what happened, and he shows a sincere willingness to listen. These actions and the impressions they leave on Charlie differ from the person that Tao describes, suggesting that he may be wrong to judge Nick’s sexuality so rashly as well. Nick’s kindness also sets the stage for the two to grow emotionally closer and to express deepening affection.
