old soul | matthew gray gubler

30. you are my family

"Oh. My. God. I could literally puke right now. I'm so excited!"

"If you puke, I'll puke, so, please, don't!"

"No, no, no, I'll puke if I see you puking, don't!"

"You're so disgusting. Every single one of you. I cannot do handle it this early in the morning."

"Well," Charlotte twisted in her seat, planting her elbow on the arm rest and cradling her chin, "sorry for being so excited to see you."

"Lottie," Aisha responded with a deep frown, "I am not a middle-of-the-night person, I am sorry. Love you, thanks for having us, but I will be passing out on the couch as soon as we get there."

CeCe was grinning widely, eyes floating back and forth between the banters. "I love this time of day. No ones awake."

"But, it's spooky," Kirstin was squashed between the two girls, shoulders heaved upwards in order to maintain some sense of privacy. It didn't work well. "No ones awake, so it feels like an apocalypse just happened."

"No, because sometimes when I have to pee in the middle of the night, I get scared that there's a zombie or a murderer outside my door," Charlotte giggled into her palm, eyes widened at her confession.

"No! That's literally so true!" CeCe exclaimed.

The other girls nodded and a low chuckle came from the drivers seat. Matthew said, "If there was a zombie outside my door, I would be taking photos."

"Of course you would," Charlotte rolled her eyes. "You're weird."

Matthew tilted his head towards her, briefly pulling his gaze off the road. He pouted and she looked at him expectantly. She simply dropped her left eye into a wink and looked back to her friends.

"If there were a zombie outside my door, I would get a fucking bat and bash that bitches head in," Aisha murmured.

CeCe leaned forward in her seat to speak directly at the girl, "That's hot."

Kirstin giggled, "Yeah, kinda."

Music filled the air as the conversation died down. Charlotte turned back around in her seat, palm flat in the air and fingers spread. She nudged Matthew and he glanced at her hand. He adjusted his hands on the wheel and removed one to intertwine with hers. She pulled them into her lap.

Charlotte leaned her forehead against the cool window, watching the darkened landscape roll out before her. The corn made it look really creepy, what with the corn stalks, slowly dissipating because of farming. There were still enough, though, that it looked like someone would pop out of them. Charlotte crinkled her nose at the thought and looked away.

She fumbled with the radio, changed the station, turned it up 3 notches. The song ended and, "This is 98.7, you're local hotspot for the classics! Up next, 'Stand By Me' from Ben. E King, a 1961 hit that topped the charts-"

Charlotte gasped slightly, whipping her head to Matthew with an ear splitting grin. His eyes crinkled as he matched her expression and he squeezed her hand gently. Charlotte reached forward and turned the song up louder. She moved in her seat and rested her head on his shoulder.