The parent project - Chenry

Chapter seventeen: Typical Tuesday Night

Charlotte's POV -

"You can forget about talking to your friends, parties, television, your phone, it's all gone. You'll go to school and come straight home."

My mom was pissed, no, she was livid. At one point on the ride home, she had even threatened to send me to my dad's house in Virginia. I sat on the sofa in the living room staring at the grape juice stain on the carpet that never went away. I can remember when that spill happened. My mom had told me not to take the juice into the living room but being four years old I surely thought I wouldn't spill it. My mom tried everything she could get her hands on to clean it up but nothing worked. We didn't have grape juice in the house ever again after that. I've always hated grape juice ever since that happened. It was so long ago when it did, but it also reminded me a lot of now. This very moment. How I had been so scared to get in trouble with my mom.

Now that it was happening all I wanted to do was curl up and die. But of course, death never comes to the impatient. I just sat there, instilling an emotionless expression on my face, clearing my thoughts of Henry one by one. Like a process of deleting files because I knew deep down if I kept thinking about him the full effect of how much I was missing him would finally hit me.

"Now go to your room and I don't want to see your face until dinner. Don't even think about getting on that computer. You're on total lockdown. I can't believe you would do this Charlotte, you have embarrassed yourself and you have embarrassed me."

My mom turned and walked out of the living room after her hour-long lecture. I then stood up and dragged myself up the stairs to my room. I didn't feel as physically tired as I did emotionally. I took all my clothes off, down to my bare naked self and laid on the floor. After a long time, I cried. I cried until the carpeting under my head was soaked with tears and I could feel my eyes swelling up to the abnormal size of golf balls. To be fair to myself, none of this was my fault. Maybe an inch of it was but that was all the blame I was willing to take. I didn't want to say it was Henry's fault either, things had been wonderful between us ... For a day and a half. Which is almost always how it is. What can I say? We were teenagers. We didn't know what we wanted. We were confused about how we felt about each other almost the entire time.

If there was a chance I could do it all over again I'll tell my past self not to get involved. To let Henry wonder off with Bianca and just keep quiet in suffering. Jayden and Jordan were good babies, they weren't that bad. I turned over on my stomach to let the air conditioning pan over my ass cheeks. I could have handled it by myself for longer than I let on to Henry.

"Get a fucking grip..."

I sat up, muttering to myself. All of that was over and done with now. I was back to my normal life, my normal house, and school. Things were just going to go back to the way they were before any of this shit ever happened. Eventually, I forced myself onto my feet and dipped into the bathroom for a cool shower.

...

Henry's POV -

My punishment had been far less severe than I had expected and that piled the guilt heavier on my shoulders when my parents found out Charlotte had been the one involved in the fight. They let me off with a warning and said that I couldn't hang out with her for a week. If only they knew how much she hated my ass right now. I've been in my room since I got home, staring at my window, hoping to see glimpses and reflections of Charlotte. At one point, I think she had gotten naked but I made myself turn away. I missed her like hell. I was pissed at her for turning things around on me when we first got kicked out but now it seemed like none of that mattered. I wanted to hold her and tell her I wasn't angry and I loved and my heart was aching.

Maybe she was feeling the same way. Like no matter what happened back there I don't care how much she hated me, I still loved her and I still wanted to be with her because I'm fucking crazy about her and it sucks. After suppressing my urges for the longest that I could I gave in. I had to see if she was okay. Walking over to my window, I lifted it up and propped a book inside the seal so it wouldn't shut. I crawled down the tree outside of my room and ran across the street to her house. Outside, I climbed the stree expertly outside her window and knocked on it. Within an instant, she was there at the window, opening it up.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry-"

I looked over my shoulder at my house and back at her.

"I wanted to see if you were alright."

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

Charlotte stared at me for a long time before shaking her head.

"No."

"Can I come inside?"

"That would be the most terrible idea right now."

She said, squinting her eyes against the glare of the sun. I reached inside and grabbed her hand, drawing it to my lips and kissing it gently.

"I'm so sorry Charlotte, about all of this. It's all my fault and if I could turn myself in to Ms. Shapen I would. I never meant for any of this to happen to you."

I told her. Charlotte's eyes softened and she opened the window wider. I took my time climbing inside and dragged in a deep breath. Charlotte wrapped her arms around me in a tight embrace and I pressed my lips to the side of her warm temple.

"All this time I was thinking I can't- I don't want to think about you because it hurt. And I just couldn't do it. I needed you."

She whispered into my chest. I held her tightly and buried a desperate kiss into her damp curls.

"I needed you too. These past 24 hours have been hell."

"My mom is never gonna let me see you again."

Charlotte looked up at me. I wiped the tears from her lashes and kissed her lips.

"Your mom is the least of my worries, she can keep you away from me but she can't keep me away from you."

"Henry..."

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

Staring down at Charlotte, I moved several of her curls away from her face and stroked the side of her face with my thumb.

"Everything."

"Everything?"

I narrowed my eyes at her playfully and she cracked the smile I'd been so desperate to see.

"I hit you and I yelled at you... I just lost my mind."

"It's okay, what hurt more was watching you be dragged out of that airport by your mom."

Charlotte rolled her eyes and wrapped her arms around my neck. She stood on her tiptoes and swayed slightly with me hugging her waist. I wish we could stand here forever.

"Speaking of my mom, you better go."

She whispered reluctantly against my neck. I pulled back to kiss her lips gently, once more and walked over to the window.

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Hopefully."

"Definitely."

Charlotte and I lingered on each other for another 3 minutes and then I climbed down the tree outside of her window as quickly as I possibly could. When I was back in my own room, I continued staring out my window at her. Several minutes later she held up a white poster board with the words I LOVE U written in big letters across it. I smiled, and held up one finger, scrambling around my room in search of something big enough to write on. Once I found an old history project, I flipped it over and wrote LOVE YOU 2 on the back of it. Rushing to my window, I held it up for her to see. She smiled, tilting her had and propping it up in the heel of her hand as we shot heart eyes at each other and I silently wished I was over there with her again. Just one more minute.

Charlotte's POV -

After Henry left it felt like it would be an eternity before we saw each other again. For now, all we had was our windows for communication. He'll be back. Or I'll be over there I told myself. Love was a funny. It had the power to make you do anything that was impossible for someone. Someone you couldn't stop thinking about, couldn't stop loving even when you thought you could. I don't think I'll ever fully understand it. But right now, I think I did. Love was Henry. Love was me. Love was us, loving each other. And we didn't need to be together for that, which was the most surprising thing of all.

Thanks for reading! Xoxo If you guys would like a bonus chapter feel free to go ahead and leave a comment and I will get right on it!!!