The Magic of Hollywood // Charlie Gillespie

Chapter 18

I'm not sure whether or not I'm thankful for the arrival of our pizza. "Hold that thought" Charlie walks over to the pizza guy and pays for both of us. Once he returns with our pizza I just roll my eyes. He sits down next to me. "Lunch is served. I poured my heart into making it." He's such an idiot. "Oh yeah. I think I poured my heart into ordering it." He hits my arm softly. "You're ruining the moment Vic" He smiles at me. My heart stops for a second. Did he just call me Vic? When did we move to nicknames? I love it. Kinda makes me feel like our connection is getting closer and closer. Also, there has only been one person before him to call me that, grandpa.

We eat our pizza in silence, but it's a nice, comfortable silence. Once he finishes his last slice of pizza Charlie turns over to me. "So, where were we?" The darkness returns to his eyes. No, we can't go there. It's not as if I don't want to, oh I really want to, but I promised myself to be careful. "You wanted to pay for the pizza and you did." He turns away. Well, I really ruined that. "I'm sorry, it's just..." I stop talking. I feel embarrassed. I was the one who started this. He takes my hand. I feel a slight tingling feeling in my fingers. "Hey, you said you wanted to take things slow. I'm sorry, I just got caught up in the moment." He squeezes my hand slightly. I smile at him, thankful that he understand. "Let's go for a walk to the beach, shall we?" He jumps up energetically and pulls me with him. I wasn't prepared for that so I loose my balance. He catches me in his arms and for a second we just stare at each other. Then he puts me back on my feet. "You know Vic, you're really making this whole taking it slow thing kinda hard for me." I roll my eyes at him. "Come on, let's go for that walk you promised."

Before we leave he pulls out a hat from his backpack and puts that on, together with his sunglasses. I grab my own sunglasses too. Then we head out onto the street. He keeps holding onto my hand as he pulls me down Sunset Boulevard. Once we make it to the beach we sit down close to the water. "So, Victoria Porter..." he starts, playing with my hand while he talks, which is really making it hard for me to focus on what he's saying. "Tell me more about you" I shake my head. "No, you tell me something about you first. You kinda owe me after talking in puzzles when we first met." He nods. "Alright, shoot it." I think about what I really wanna know about him. "Honestly, I don't know, just tell me anything. Hobbies? Where are you from?" He looks confused. "Did you not... you know... read all that on google already?" I start laughing. He looks even more confused now. "Sorry, my friend literally asked me the same thing this morning. No, I did not google you, I wanna get to know you through spending time with you, not reading what someone has to say about who they think you are online."

For a while he doesn't say anything. We just stare at the waves and he keeps drawing circle on the back of my hand with his thumb. "You're different Vic" He smiles at me. "Good different" I smile back at him. "And you're..." I think about it for a moment. "a mystery, Charlie" We both laugh. Out of nowhere he jumps up. "Omg, you have to stop doing that! You're gonna give me a heart attack one day." He puts on a devilish grin. "Oh just wait, you'll get a heart attack soon enough." Just like that he grabs me and picks me up as if I'm light as a feather. He walks towards the water. Once I realize what he's doing I try to get out of his grip but due to my feet not being on the ground I have no chance. "Stop it!" I yell, laughing, hitting his back with my hands. I can already feel the water on my toes. "I swear, if you don't put me down immediately I..." He doesn't let me finish my sentence. "As you wish" he says and jumps into the water, dragging me along with him.

Once we both hit the water he lets go of me. I poke my head out of the water. We aren't in very deep, the water is just a little bit above my hips but from his jump we are both drenched in water. I put on an angry face but can't keep it for long before I start laughing. I take my hands and splash a big gulp of water over at Charlie. He's caught by surprise and gets all the water in his face. I smile triumphantly. Just one second later I'm hit by an immense water wave. "Oh you'll regret that" I wade over to him and jump onto him. I expect him to loose his balance but somehow he doesn't. He puts both his arms around me. "Well, I kinda feel like you didn't think that one through too well." The devilish grin returns. How am I so drawn to him? Whenever he's not around I know exactly that I'm making the right choice by taking things slow but the second he's with me I feel like I'm loosing all senses of reasoning. I take one of my arms off of his neck, knowing I won't fall down because his arms are around my waist and tug a strand of his hair behind his ear. He closes his eyes for a second. "Vic, we're taking things slow, forgotten?" He lets himself fall backwards into the water and pulls me along.