Tour Bus Troublemaker// c.p.

•28•

"No, dude. Just stop, okay? She's fine, let it go," Charlie's low voice remarked in the darkness of the room.
"Yes, I promise. Okay...okay bye."

I open my eyes and blink a few times as Charlie opens the hotel room window to find a view of Atlanta. He glances back at me as I sit up in bed, rubbing my eyes.

"Morning, princess," he smiles and walks over to the edge of the bed, leaning over and supporting himself with his muscular arms.

I smile down at him sleepily.
"Morning," I reply and he smiles a little.
"Who was on the phone?"

He shakes his head and stands up.
"It was just Peggy making sure you were okay from the whole paparazzi thing. I guess Lili just told her," he responded, which I didn't believe one bit.

"Since when do you call Peggy 'dude?'" I ask. His cheeks turn a light pink and he shrugs.

"It must've just slipped out," he replies and I nod, unbelievingly, which he notices.

"Everything's okay, I promise," he assures me and I smile a little, reaching for my phone. 10:12 A.M.

I groan and flop back down on the bed, the sheets rustling underneath me.

"I was thinking, you know, if you're hungry, we could go for brunch or something," Charlie suggests. I nod eagerly.

"Brunch is my favorite meal," I state and he laughs softly. I smile innocently and sit up, realizing I have a small headache from the alcohol.

And then I remember: last night, the alcohol, what we did...what I did.

"Hey, Charlie," I say his name, causing him to turn around and stare down lovingly at me.

"Hm?" He wonders.

"Last night, um," I begin, not knowing to continue the sentence.

"Don't worry," he interrupts.
"I won't tell anyone."

I smile gratefully and stand up, noticing I'm in one of his t-shirts. I shake my head to myself and bite my lip to suppress a wide smile.

I take a quick shower, washing my hair and body and step out into a towel. I blow dry my hair quickly and poke my head out the door.

"You can come shower while I'm putting on my makeup, I mean, if you want," I tell Charlie, who turns around to face me.

He gives me a look as he grabs his clothes.
"You're okay with that?" He teases with a smile as he walks in the bathroom with me.

"I'm pretty sure I've seen everything you have to offer, buddy," I joke with him and he laughs softly, nodding in agreement.

"I'm pretty sure you have, too," he concurs and rips off his t-shirt, followed by his basketball shorts. I begin to apply my makeup as he takes off his boxers and climbs into the shower. The water begins to run and when I think he's not looking, I sneak a quick glance at him, smiling to myself as I apply my eye liner.

"I saw that," he says over the sound of running water. I laugh loudly and shake my head.

"You didn't see anything," I respond and hear him chuckle. I curl my hair and make it a little messy. I leave the bathroom to change into my "oh hell yeah" t shirt and some denim, ripped mini shorts and some tan sandals. I put on my aviator style sunglasses and accent my entire outfit with my golden watch as Charlie strolls out of the bathroom in a flannel shirt with sleeves rolled up, ripped denim jeans and sneakers, paired with some classic black sunglasses.

I grab my wallet and phone as we head out. I glance at the time on my phone: 11:28 A.M.

Before we leave, we find a cute little coffee shop down the street, seemingly in the heart of Atlanta. Charlie gets an Uber and soon, we're headed to eat.

In about 6 minutes, we arrive at the cafe. Charlie walks ahead of me, grasping my hand behind him and leads me to a table for two, where we order iced coffee from our waitress.

"This is so cute," I look around at the outside setting of the cafe. It's great because you can see everything that's going on and it's not too windy today.

"It's really cool," Charlie agrees, looking at the buildings around us. Our coffee arrives and we order our food.

Soon, our food arrives and we eat rather quickly to avoid being seen. I order an iced coffee to go when we finish and we walk out.

When we're back in our Uber, I look at Instagram. Charlie posted something:

@charlieputh:

Brunch is my favorite too. @kristenlahey

I smile over at him and show him the picture.
"When did you even take this?" I laugh.

He shrugs.
"Just when we were walking out," he replies with a smile.

I decide to comment something.

@kristenlahey: oh hell yeah :)

A few minutes later, Charlie sees the comment and smiles at me from the front seat. We shortly arrive at the hotel and step out of the Uber car, only to be greeted by a pack of paparazzi.

The pushy photographers with blinding camera lights swarm Charlie and I as soon as we step out of the car. He helps me out of the car as well as he can and grabs my hand, dragging me through the crowd. I clutch his palm and stay as close as I can to him, all the while attempting to ignore the questions from the paps.

"Charlie, why did you forgive Kristen after she left you for Shawn?"

"Kristen, what made you leave Charlie in the first place and why did you come back to him?"

"Kristen, you are quickly developing a reputation as a slut and a cheater. Any thoughts on that?" One man asked. My heart dropped in my chest as Charlie whipped around to face the man.

"Excuse me?" Charlie's voice was confrontational as he took long, rapid strides to the guy, until he was eventually eye-to-eye with the cameraman.

"Charlie," I tugged his hand, trying to get him to go inside before he did anything he regretted.

"Shh," he shushed me, almost pushing me behind him as the cameras kept clicking all around us. Great.

"This isn't Kristen's fault," Charlie's voice projected to everyone around, the crowd of paparazzi becoming dead silent.
"Don't blame her. She's the innocent one here, can't you see that? It's my fault. Blame me!"

I felt myself cowering down as the lights kept on flashing.

"Kristen has been through hell this past week, and it's all because the media doesn't know shit. The press posts these awful claims and false assumptions but you know what? None of it is true," Charlie's voice trailed off. I gripped his hand tighter, looking down at my sandals.

"Or maybe it's because Kristen is a whore and doesn't know what the hell she wants," the cameraman from earlier spoke up amongst the silence. Charlie's body tensed up in front of me.

And before I knew it, that paparazzi was on the ground with a bloody nose.

And I was watching helplessly in fear. Not in fear of Charlie, or the paparazzi.

The fear of what was coming.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1K :)