Chasing Charlie

Chapter Thirty | Guardians and Thunderstorms

Chase

“Chase! Wait up!” I heard a voice behind me call. It was Monday morning and I was tired from the lack of sleep.

I turned around, surprised to see Mrs Harper.

“God, you’re fast,” she breathed out heavily. “Anyway, I have good news for you. Remember how two months ago the museum revealed four students artworks from our school? Well, last night there was an auction for those artworks. Your artwork, raked in the most profit, about $3,000.”

My eyes widened at the sum of money.

“Now, the museum keeps about 10% of it and the school get another 10%, which leaves you with the rest of the money. Since you’re underage, the money goes to your parents-, crap! I mean it goes to your guardian.”

“Wow,” I mumbled, stunned.

She laughed. “Welcome to the real world of art, Chase. You’ll go far, I can feel it. Cool gloves by the way.”

I smiled. “Thanks.”

____

“Who is our guardian?” Charlie asked as we walked home that day.

I shrugged. “Probably Miss Lancy. Why?”

“Aren’t you wondering who’s getting the money for your work?”

“Not really.”

“You should keep it for uni.”

“Not going.”

She stopped walking and turned to look at me. “What?!”

I stopped as well, looking at her seriously.

“Why not?” She questioned.

“I won’t have any money to pay for the course. $3,000 is barely anything and I can’t get a job while I’m there since no one would hire me. Just don’t bring it up. Don’t want to think about the future.”

____

“Miss Lancy, who is my guardian?” I asked her as she made dinner in the kitchen.

She suddenly stopped moving around and turned to look at me, a worried expression on her face. “Why do you ask?”

“Remember that painting that I painted for the museum reveal. Well, the other day it was sold for $3,000 and I get about 80% of that.”

Her eyes widened as she kept staring at me.

“Miss Harper said that the money I earned goes to my guardian and I never asked who my guardian is so I’m curious.”

She turned to look away and sighed. She placed her apron on the hook, near the oven and walked into the living room. I followed after her.  “Charlie, could you look after dinner. I have an urgent errand to attend to.”

Charlie looked at Miss Lancy, then averted her gaze to me and nodded her head, heading into the kitchen.

“Follow me,” Miss Lancy said and walked off, towards the stairs.

She started to go up the stairs and I called out to her, “where are we going?”

She turned around, “into my office.”

I sighed, slipping off of my chair and onto the steps. I carefully pulled myself and my chair up, one step at a time. It took time, like it usually did, and after I was a few metres away from the top of the stairs, I climbed into my chair again.

I followed her down the hall, and into the last room. I had only been in her office about twice before. It hadn’t changed much since the last time I was there, cluttered bookshelves, plain curtains, green painted walls and blue carpet. She sat behind her desk as I sat in front of her. She looked like an office worker, apart from the messy bun and tired expression that stained her face.

She looked at me for a second, before looking back down at her hands. She looked to be thinking hard, as if deciding whether to tell me something or not. She sighed and looked at me, slightly more confident.

“Don’t be mad at me Chase. I was planning to tell you, but I didn’t want to upset you.” She paused for a bit whilst I nodded my head. “Around your 14th birthday, I realised that you gave up on wanting to be adopted. I knew you didn’t care and I knew you thought nobody would want you. This made me sad that nobody realised what a good kid you are so I adopted you.”

My eyes widened and I leaned forward. “So you’re my mum?”

She smiled, “if you feel comfortable saying that. Ever since the day you came, you’ve felt like a son to me than a child I look after until they find a home.”

“I’m not mad Miss Lancy. I couldn’t be happier. You’re a good parent.”

She stood up and walked over to me, leaning down and kissing my forehead in a motherly way.

____

October passed by in a hurry that soon enough November started.

It was a warm Saturday as we were at the park shooting baskets. Charlie wasn’t happy about it, but was easy to convince. The sky started to darken at around midday and the temperature started to drop.

“Let’s go home. Don’t feel like being sick again,” I said, as I picked up the ball. 

She chuckled but nodded.

We were about halfway home when it started to pour down heavily. We both swore and started to speed up to get home quicker. The gloves made it easy to grab onto the slippery wheels and I was thankful that I wore them.

We were soaked through as we reached the orphanage but we started to laugh. Miss Lancy probably heard us laughing as she opened the door and sighed, mumbling an inaudible, “Always when it rains.”

My hair was sticking to my forehead and Charlie’s baby hair stuck to her face as well. She looked cute.

Lightning struck a second later and Charlie jumped, the happiness draining from her facial expression. She looked frightened and ran into the orphanage. I went in after, even though Miss Lancy protested since my chair was wet.

I saw her running into my room and I followed her in there. I wheeled in on her taking her shirt off, since it was wet, only leaving her in a bra and the shorts she wore. She dived into my bed a second later and hid underneath the blankets as another bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, the loud thunder sounding a few seconds afterwards.

I took my wet clothes off, dumping them by her pile of clothes and slipped on my blue shorts.

I uncovered Charlie, and she looked up at me, her eyes filled with fear. I climbed into bed, another lightning bolt flashing across the sky. I covered the blankets over both of our heads and cuddled into her.

“It’ll be okay,” I whispered into her ear, the thunder sounding once again.

She shivered at the sound of the thunder. I wrapped my arms around her waist, her body still staying tense.

“Warm me up baby, sleep with me.” I whispered, kissing her neck gently.

She turned around to look at me, her eyes still showing fear. Thunder sounded and she shivered once more. I pulled her in closer and wrapped my arms around her again.

I saw her eyelids start to drop, soon after closing completely. Not long after she fell asleep, a small smile appeared on my face as she fell asleep in my arms.

A/N

Thirtieth Chapter!!! OMG!! I never thought I'd reach thirty chapters.

Two chapters left! I don't want it to end :(

Thank you to everyone who reads, votes and comments on this story!! It makes my day to see people enjoying my writing.

Thank you!!