invisible string • Gracie Abrams

009 cope and smoke

CHAPTER NINE
cope and smoke
•

WHAT was she doing on charlotte's block? the brown eyed girl was resisting the urge to run to the windows and look down at the street to see if she could spot gracie, but her friends would obviously notice. instead she stared at the text wide eyed, her thumbs hovering over the keyboard and her teeth sunken into her bottom lip.

would it be bad to go see her, it'd just be for a minute right? and besides maybe this would take gracie off of her mind and it wasn't like there was many people out at the moment or any called paparazzi by the sound of it. charlotte didn't know why she gives into the urge of seeing gracie, or why it even exists in the first place, but she wasn't going to deal with figuring that out now.

"shit um, i left my glasses in my car," charlotte said abruptly, getting marcus and caleb to stop bickering.

"oh yeah, hah far-sighted," sadie teased. "want me to come with?" she asked when she saw charlotte stand up and walk over to the front door to put her shoes on.

"no no, that's okay," charlotte smiled.

sadie noticed her best friends pause to take a look at herself in the mirror before exiting, her hand fixing any hair imperfections, and fixing the collar of her coat. it made her a little curious, but she decided to put the thought away given she was more invested on helping caleb with chess.

charlotte swiftly shut the door behind her and pulled out her phone.

gracie

6:36pm

gracie
not to sound like a stalker,
but i'm near your apartment
building, wanna do something
fun? 🍃🍃

charlotte
i'll meet u at the left
corner  from
my building

gracie
okay

charlotte went as fast as she could possibly walk and made sure no one was noticing her as she stepped outside and kept her head down, making her way to the corner where she could already see a taller girl in a long leather jacket strolling up to the spot.

"what're you doing here?" charlotte asked when she finally reached gracie, sounding a bit out of breath which made gracie grin.

"i was just picking up something..." gracie motioned to her pocket where she showed charlotte a peak of a joint sticking out of her pocket.

"shit, you smoke?" charlotte chuckled.

"no not normally. actually only once but, i've kinda been going through..." the girl got a little embarrassed and went quiet, staring down at her dirty converse and waiting for a response.

"hey i get it," charlotte warmly replied. "don't worry, i've done it a lot. i'm not like an addict, but just on occasions for funsies."

gracie nodded, "so wanna...? i don't really have anyone else to."

charlotte paused, glancing up at her apartment window. all she had to do was not appear high in front of her friends and all should be good right? she did it flawlessly in front if her parents throughout high school so it shouldn't be too hard.

"only 'cause you're unstable," charlotte smirked, amused with her little joke while gracie playfully rolled her eyes. "c'mon, down this alley nobodywill see.