Crush

**Crush** is the second episode of the first season of *Heartstopper*, and the second episode of the series overall.

## Synopsis

*Elle struggles to settle into her new school as Charlie and Tao are convinced Nick is straight. Nick starts to question his unfamiliar feelings.*

## Plot

Nick is looking through Charlie’s social media photos. He laughs at his quirkiness until he finds a message of the darkened school hallway, reading “I hate this place”. It’s a sober reality check, one that harkens back to Charlie’s days being bullied. This, as it turns out, happens to stem from him being gay.

Nick and Charlie continue to trade messages to one another, wracked with angst as they await messages from the other. Charlie calls Nick his “straight friend” (clearly trying to provoke a reaction) but it doesn’t quite work. Tao believes Charlie needs to give up on Nick given he’s straight but Charlie is not so sure.

The beacon of all knowledge though is Mr Ajayi, Charlie’s teacher. He asks Ajayi about what to do but he simply tells him he needs to suffer through this.

Over at the girls’ school, Elle finds herself alone again. Her teacher is concerned and encourages Elle to try and make a new friend before the end of term. The thing is, it’s not as easy as just breaking into a friendship circle, as she finds herself struggling to start up a conversation with any of the girls. Thankfully a chance encounter comes her way.

After dropping her pencil case on the floor, Tara picks it up and encourages Elle to join them at lunch. Elle does just that and appears to have made some friends.

Meanwhile, Charlie heads over to Nick’s place that weekend where they find it snowing outside. The pair end up having a snowball fight and then lie on the ground together, talking. Interestingly enough, Nick’s mother points out that Charlie is a good friend and has noticed that he allows Nick to really be himself around him.

At school, Nick thinks twice about messaging Charlie when the other kids tease him about who he’s texting. However, rumors start spreading that Nick is in love with a girl. Apparently he’s super interested in Tara Jones, the girl whom Elle has started to befriend.

That night, Elle agrees to at least try and broach the subject with Tara, to see if Nick likes her back. She cleverly does so through speaking French, learning that Tara does not, in fact, have a boyfriend. It turns out Darcy and Tara are actually dating.

After school, Charlie invites Nick over to his place, where he helps Nick play the drums. They eventually watch some tv shows together but Charlie ends up falling asleep. Nick thinks about holding Charlie’s hand.

With his heart racing, he continues to debate wether or not to hold Charlie's hand. But in the end, chooses not to. Charlie does, however, hug Nick goodbye. In doing so, Charlie’s sister Tori happens to be watching and she nonchalantly tells Charlie that night “I don’t think he’s straight.”

That much seems to be true as Nick heads onto Google that evening, searching for “Am I gay?” and ultimately being confused about what his sexual orientation is.

## Cast

### Starring

* Kit Connor as Nick Nelson
* Joe Locke as Charlie Spring
* William Gao as Tao Xu
* Yasmin Finney as Elle Argent
* Corinna Brown as Tara Jones
* Kizzy Edgell as Darcy Olsson
* Tobie Donovan as Isaac Henderson
* Rhea Norwood as Imogen Heaney
* Sebastian Croft as Ben Hope
* Cormac Hyde-Corrin as Harry Greene
* Jenny Walser as Tori Spring
* Fisayo Akinade as Mr. Ajayi
* Olivia Colman as Sarah Nelson

### Guest-Starring

* Isabel Adomakoh-Young as Miss Greenwood
* Echo as Nellie (Nick's Dog)
* Araloyin Oshunremi as Otis Smith
* Evan Ovenell as Christian McBride
* Ashwin Vishwanath as Sai Verma
* Emilie Largier as Madame Martin