old soul | matthew gray gubler

50. girls night

girls night had arrived.

matthew went home for the first night in a long time- something he wouldn't admit pleased him. he was extroverted, but even outgoing people needed to regenerate sometimes.

aisha and cece arrived together, as they so often did, around 6pm, and kirsten came not five minutes after they walked through the front door. charlotte had instructed each of them to make a different dessert to share. and she took care of providing the ingredients for a build your own pizza bar.

they'd never gone all out for girls night before, but it felt good to cater to themselves. they were all hardworking women. and they deserved the night to follow.

cece planted a ginormous bottle of wine into the kitchen counter, swinging her bottom onto a bar stool. "let's get this show on the road!"

kirsten clapped excitedly, "yes, please!"

charlotte brought down three wine glasses from the cupboard. "have some for me, please."

aisha began pouring some wine, and the bottle made a glugging sound as she kept going. "oh, always, lottie."

charlotte nursed a large jug of water, a habit she was beginning to thicken as the pregnancy drug on. it made her pee more, sure, but the baby needed the fluids.

she slipped up onto the bar stool across from cece and kirsten settled in beside her. "i honestly cannot wait to not be pregnant."

"i hate when people say you'll miss it because, ha!" kirsten scoffed. "everyone generalizes their experience to the entire female population. like, shut the fuck up."

charlotte nodded along, "exactly. don't tell me how to deal with my pregnancy, matthew gray gubler fans."

"they are harsh, aren't they?" aisha commented with a swig of her wine glass.

cece added on, "literally every post anymore is just then critiquing you, char. i don't know how you deal with it. id be turning comments off."

"i'm about to," she replied, "but i really like interacting with the sweet ones. they make up for it."

the girls hummed in response. the small talk led to hunger, enraged by the wine cooling through their systems. charlotte was proud to display all of the ingredients she had prepared for the evenings pizza bar. they moved through the process happily, giggling and dancing to music she put on.

eventually, their pizzas were in the oven with a 30 minute timer clicking down.

"we should start a game while we're waiting," cece pointed out. they all agreed quite easily.

kirsten had brought a new game called for the girls. she shuffled the new, plasticky cards out into 5 piles, while charlotte read the instructions.

"oh, this is going to be bad," charlotte laughed through her own words. she picked up a stack of cards and looked through them. "oh, god."

aisha giggled at one she was holding, "i love this so much."

it was cece's turn first and she had to pick up a green card. it read, "give this card to whoever has to most alarms set in their phone."

"keep it!" charlotte exclaimed, nearly pouncing across the table at cece. "it's you, bitch! it's absolutely you."

cece turned red, with laughter and just the slightest bit of annoyance. "noooooooo!"

"yesssssss!" all three of the girls responded.

they burst into laughter before charlotte had to pick up a date card.

she read aloud, "text your most recent contact a boob picture and share their response.'"

her face got progressively more red as she said the dare. as soon as she was done, charlotte tried to stick it back into the bottom of the pile but kirsten grabbed her wrist.

"no, no way! you have to do it!" kirsten insisted.

cece and aisha were agreeing in the background, voices thick and clear. "do it! cmon, char!"

she rubbed at her red cheeks, grinning from ear to ear. "we've never sexted before."

"i'm so glad it's matthew," cece breathed out with a laugh.

"wait, really?" kirsten was stunned.

"nope, never," charlotte admitted. "but, i mean, i guess we could start. i have a pic from like a few months ago."

"can we see?" aisha and kirsten spoke at the same time. they shared an amusing look and laughed with each other.

charlotte blushed all the more, but shared her nude with her friends. they hyped her up, as friends do for other friends nudes. 

then, she sent it to her boyfriend. baby daddy? fiancé? who knew what he was.

he responded within mere seconds.

'Hang on, I'm covered in stuffing.'

they all died at his response, knowing he was probably crafting something at home. his next response was five minutes later, and;

his own picture.

as soon as the text loaded on her phone, charlotte snapped away from her friends, cradling the device against her chest.

kirsten attacked her practically, begging and pleading for her to share. cece and aisha were cheering kirsten on.

"oh, my god, okay!" charlotte gave in quite easily, kinda wanting to just brag about her boyfriends stuff.

they stared at the phone in disbelief, silence wafting through the kitchen.

the side door to the house creaked open after about five minutes, and all four of them jumped in their seats.

sheila walked through the door, bag shoveled over her shoulder and a strange look on her face, "why do you all look like you just collectively got sent a dick pic?"

it was quite the night.