old soul | matthew gray gubler

33. little alien

lol watch y'all get excited 😃

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It didn't take long for Charlotte to unpack her suitcase. Matthew had brought her extra clothes when he came out to Illinois back in June, but she had had to manage to live a small amount of outfits. She divided it into two loads of laundry and managed to clean it all within the first couple hours she was home.

She checked in on her plants. When CeCe came out for the week, she had another friend come out to check in on everything. Most of them were good and she was happy that no one had killed them. A few dead leaves? Sure. But, nothing she couldn't fix.

A thick pile of mail was sitting on Charlotte's counter and her yard needed mowed, the pool cleaned, the house wiped down and swept and mopped. Those were things she could do later. Right now, as the sun started setting, she grabbed a book off of the shelf in her office and curled up on the couch with Prune. He was much bigger than he had been when she went to Illinois earlier that summer. But, he was still his cuddly, lovable self.

Sheila was in Charlotte's guest room, which would be her bedroom starting, well, now. The flip of the time zones exhausted the young traveler and she'd been napping since they got home. Tomorrow, her things would be arriving and Charlotte planned on taking her to IKEA on Sunday for whatever else she wanted.

Monday morning, Charlotte would need to go figure out how to send money to Daniel. Tuesday, she had a meeting with her agent, Wednesday a meeting for The Bold Type. She'd been able to pay all of bills over the course of the summer online, but she needed to go to the bank to ensure everything was still good.

She'd have to take her car to get checked on considering it'd been sitting for the past three months, needed to get the tank filled with gas. The pile of laundry in two separate baskets down the hall needed put away and she-

Charlotte realized, after reading a paragraph three times in a row, that she wasn't going to be able to focus on a book. She dog-eared the page and lay on her side. Prune dug his paws into her stomach and Charlotte hissed. She stood up, shuffling to the downstairs bathroom.

How had she forgotten the curse lingering in her uterus?

She had to go to the store. Not tomorrow, or Saturday, or next Wednesday. Today.

Charlotte climbed the stairs, hand pressing into her side as if she'd been stabbed. She rounded the hallway and knocked gently on Sheila's door.

The girl mumbled a lazy, "Come in."

Charlotte did so, leaning against the doorway with a stressed cinch to her forehead. "Wanna go to CVS with me? I gotta get a- something and we should probably eat dinner."

Sheila sat up, "Yeah...sure. Let me get changed."

"Okay, I'll be downstairs," Charlotte pressed her lips together, turned and left.

Sheila met her downstairs shortly after and they loaded into Charlotte's car. The young girl was beyond excited to be in Los Angeles, but she was so weary from the plane ride that she could nothing but lazily look out the car window. Charlotte's eyes felt droop, but she managed to stay awake.

When she parked the car, her phone dinged with a message from Matthew. She held her phone up in front of her face and read in her head, 'Is it bad that I miss you so much?'