STAMP OF APPROVAL - a selection story

tell me it'll be okay

C H A R L O T T E

written by animationchic/aOK706

round eleven ||

April 9th

2:30 am

"What do you mean you haven't talked since?" Hellie asks me, her tone sharp. I wince at her voice. It's late. We're both tired, I shouldn't have her up this late at night, but she's the one who wouldn't hang up with me an hour ago when I tried. And when I went ahead and did it myself, she just called me right back.

"I mean, we haven't talked. I don't know how else to say it." I shrug my shoulders.

"So he's just avoiding you?" Helena narrows her eyes. "That doesn't seem fair."

I shrug again and hide a yawn behind my hand. "Hel, I don't know what to say. It was awful, he got so drunk and she was just videoing him the whole time. I don't know where those images would have landed if Levi and I hadn't heard them at the bar. I don't know what's going through his head."

"He is a teen still, you have to remember that," Hellie sighs and leans against her headboard. I can see her stomach in the frame and I can't help but smile. "You were a bit of a wild teenager too. I seem to recall a semi-intoxicated night that ended in a tattoo parlor."

"Me? You ran off and got married!" I accuse her and she screws up her face at me. Hellie narrows her eyes at me and I lean my head against my closet wall. "Okay, I get why you did it, I think."

"Trust me little sister, soon, you will understand completely," she says it like a threat and something in me clenches. I know she's right, or well, I hope she is. I want a love that I would throw everything away for. I want a love that will drive me crazy and terrify me at the thought of losing it. If I don't find that, what is all this for?

Helena yawns and I frown. "Hellie, you need to sleep."

"No, I want to sleep, I need to talk to you," Hellie says stubbornly but even I can see her eyes drooping.

"Hellie, my niece or nephew needs lots of rest to grow strong," I tell her, pleading for her unborn child, hoping to get her to see reason.

"You just want to get off the call," she accuses through another yawn and we both chuckle.

"Hey, if it's a girl, you're naming her after me, right?" I ask her and she starts laughing.

"Huh, what's that, Char? I can't hear you, I think it might be the tunnel," she fakes static sounds and now I'm really laughing. Wow, it really is late. She sobers a bit and looks straight at me. "I love you, sister, you know that?"

"How could you not?" I ask her, ever the stubborn little sister. She chuckles but I nod. "Yeah, I know and you know I love you."

"Yeah, I know." She yawns again and I know it's time to say our goodbyes but as soon as I close my computer, I feel alone all over again.

—

"You look tired," Xander says, sitting across from me at breakfast and sneaking a hashbrown off of my plate.

"Hey, that was my last hashbrown!" I complain, reaching forward to grab it back but he pops it into his mouth with a grin.

"It was the last hashbrown period," he tells me as he chews and normally I would be grossed out, but Xander is so boyish, it's almost charming. Once he's swallowed he looks up at me. "Let me make it up to you?"