Promises (Jack Gilinsky)

Chapter 24

Jack's POV:

I wake up in the same position I fell asleep in, arms wrapped around Charlotte with her head on my chest. I smile when I see her sleeping. She looks so peaceful and it makes me so happy to see her like this instead of upset.

Her stunning brown eyes flitter open and look up at me. "Good morning." I say, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Morning." Her voice is so raspy, and I find it incredibly attractive for some reason. I guess I'll find anything attractive as long as it's Charlotte.

"How are you feeling?" I ask as I sit up.

"Better. Thanks for staying with me."

"No problem. I think I sleep better knowing you're okay anyways." I say, causing her to smile and blush, looking down at her lap. I slowly begin to stand up and she slowly follows.

"So, how am I going to get out of here?" I ask. "I don't think your parents would like it if they knew I spent the night.

"My mom said she was taking my dad out to breakfast for his birthday. I don't think they'll be home until around noon."

I look at the clock. It's only 9:30. Wow, I don't usually get up nearly this early. I guess I was just excited to wake up next to Charlotte.

We make our way downstairs and into the kitchen. "What do you want?" Charlotte says, opening up the pantry.

"Whatever you're having is fine."

She comes to the counter with a box of Cinamon Toast Crunch. "You read my mind." I say, grabbing the box. She stifles a laugh as she takes two bowls from a cabinet.

I pour us both some cereal while Charlotte gets the milk and some spoons. Afterwards, we go into the living room and sit on the couch to eat.

"You can choose." Charlotte says, handing me the remote. I change it to South Park and set the remote down.

We sit and watch tv, eating our cereal. Sitting on the couch, eating cereal and watching tv with the most beautiful girl ever, this is my kind of morning.

When we finish, we go to the kitchen and put our dishes in the sink. "I should get going. My parents probably noticed that I didn't come home last night." I say walking towards the door.

"Okay." She says. I turn around to look at her and when I do, she immediately wraps her arms around me. Don't get me wrong, I love when Charlotte does stuff like this. But, the urgency in this hug made me feel like something was bugging her.

I wrap my arms around her and we stand there, not a care in the world. She eventually pulls away and when she does, I notice the solemn expression she has on.

"Charlotte, is everything okay?"

"Yeah," she says. The tone in her voice is a little unsure, but I let it go. "I'm just happy that I finally have someone to be there for me."

After hearing this, I'm not exactly sure what to say. The way that Charlotte said this made me realize that I mean much more to her than I thought I did.

Charlotte notices my loss for words and smiles. She opens the door for me and smiles. As I'm walking out the door, Charlotte reaches up and kisses me on the cheek. It's the little gestures like this that reminds me how lucky I am to have Charlotte.

I stop in my tracks and smile at her. "Oh, get out of here, Gilinsky." She says while laughing and shoving me out the door.

You would think that I would be worried about what my mom is going to say when I walk in the door, but I'm not. Sure, I might get in trouble, but it was worth it. I got to wake up next to the girl I love and that's all that matters.

Wait. Do I love Charlotte? I haven't really thought about this before. I know that she means more to me than any other girl, but do I love her? We haven't been dating that long. And besides, I don't know that someone my age really knows what love is. I think it's too soon to tell whether I do or not, but I know that I'll be able to tell soon enough

I walk into my kitchen and see my mom washing dishes."Where were you last night?" She says, looking up at me for a split second.

"I slept over at Sam's last night." I lie. If my mom knew what happened, then she would definitely tell Mr. and Mrs. Williamson and I really don't want them to hate me.

"Okay, well would you mind telling me next time so I know where you are?"

"Sorry, it was just really late and I didn't wanna wake you up."

"Well thank you for your concern. But I would still like to know where you are next time."

"Got it."

"While your down here, would you mind drying these dishes? The dishwasher is broken so I have to wash them by hand."

"No problem." I say walking over to her and grabbing a rag.

"So mom. Charlotte's birthday is coming up and I wanna get her something special. Would you mind helping me pick something out for her?" I remember Charlotte telling me that her birthday was on May 2. It's still a few weeks away, but I want to take my time picking out her present.

"I'll think about it." She says, smiling. "So, you and Charlotte are getting pretty serious."

"Well we just had our first date. But, I guess we're moving pretty fast."

"Well that's nice. I'm happy that you've found a girl like Charlotte."
She says as we finish up the last dishes. "And I would love to help you pick out something for Charlotte."

"Thanks mom!" I say as I kiss her on the cheek and go up stairs.

I really need a woman's help to get the right gift. My mom usually tells me that I need to rely on my own instincts for things like this. But, I'm happy that she's actually going to help me.

I am determined to make this Charlotte's best birthday ever.