quiver - barry allen

29.

"I want to fix that but I don't know how because you're pushing me away. And it hurts."

Quiver

Chapter 29; Ronnie vs. Stein

Cisco, Charlotte, and Joe headed over to the police department after the female of the group took the blood samples from the wall at the old Allen residence. Cisco took the samples and started running them through Barry's computer in his lab. As he was doing such, Charlotte's phone started ringing. She looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Barry. She hesitated before answering it.

"Hey, Barry," she greeted with a fake smile even though he couldn't see it. "What's up?"

"Can I talk to you?" Charlotte looked over to where Joe and Cisco were sitting - both were staring in her direction - before turning away from the two of them. 

"You are."

"In person, I mean. I need to talk to someone, and you were the first person I could think of." Charlotte let a small smile slip before she grabbed her jacket. She turned back to the two boys and pointed at her phone and then the door. They nodded their heads, and she walked outside the C.C.P.D. "Where are you? I'll meet you there."

Charlotte hesitated once again before telling him her location. He didn't seem to question it, and he appeared by her side in a matter of seconds. She put her phone in her pocket and then turned to look at Barry. 

"What's wrong?" she asked him, looking over his appearance. He looked distressed about something which made her confused as to why he didn't go to Iris or Linda about his problem.

"It's Iris," he started, as the two began to walk. "She said something to Linda about how I'm not ready to be in a relationship because I still like Iris, which I don't, and now Linda wants to break our relationship off." Charlotte frowned as soon as he mentioned his girlfriend. He didn't seem to notice. 

"Did you explain that to Linda?" 

"I don't know how," he admitted. Charlotte let out a puff of air and looked over at Barry. 

"Just talk to her. I think that's the easiest thing to do. Show Linda that you have feelings for her and only her. And if she likes the you as much as you do for her, then she'll listen. Trust me." Barry looked down at the blonde and gave her a smile. Charlotte looked away from Barry and payed attention to the surrounding buildings. She wished that her feelings for him would go away because it made giving advice to him much more difficult than usual.

He gave her a sad and confused look before thanking her and speeding off. She frowned and walked back towards the police station. When she walked back upstairs, Cisco gave her a look. 

"Where'd you run off to?" he asked her as she draped her jacket over one of the chairs in the lab.

"Barry needed my advice about Linda," she groaned.

"Ouch. That's gotta be rough," Cisco commented. He turned back to the computer screen that read '89% complete' as Joe glanced at her.

"Why would that -" Charlotte gave him a look, and Joe realized why. "Oh."

"Yeah," she mumbled as she curled her knees up to her chest. Joe looked at the blonde girl with pity. Barry had talked to him many times about how he started growing feelings for the ex-hero of Starling City. He also knew that Barry still liked Charlotte, but didn't know that she liked him back. A small alert sound came from the computer to show that the analysis was done, snapping everyone out of their thoughts.