Velvet Light

Face

It's true what they say about love had and love lost. Here you are and now you're gone
- Brockhampton

—

There's not much Charlotte remembers from that night.

The past few days, she has been trying to put the pieces to her puzzled memories together. The thing is, Charlotte doesn't even recall drinking that much either. She has absolutely no clue how things seemed to have gone so out of hand.

For some reason, though, a name stuck in her mind. One that bears little significance to her.

Louis.

Being in New Zealand and not her hometown, she has absolutely no reason to know a Louis that she may happen by or bump into here in Auckland. The only Louis she does recall knowing was someone a second cousin once dated for 3 months back home in Australia.

"Are you sure you didn't see me go off with a guy?" Charlotte asks for the hundredth time.

She couldn't help but feel anxious. Charlotte is the type of person who constantly needs to be on top of everything, she needs to be in control of every situation especially her own body. Yet she can barely recall minor details from going clubbing with Calum.

Calum sighs, shaking his head as he takes another sip of his tea. "Look, Cece, I told you what I know. We went in together, we took a few shots of tequila and then you told me you had to go to the ladies room. That was the last time I saw you before you showed up on my doorstep, puking on my la-"

"Okay, okay," She interjects, screwing up her face in revulsion. "Feel free to leave out that last part the next time you recount the night to me."

Rolling his eyes dramatically, Calum moves from the kitchen to sprawl onto the couch in his living room. He reaches for the remote, turning on the television. The room starts blaring the sounds of a woman's voice reporting the weather with a thick Kiwi accent.

He groans, changing the channel multiple times until he found one he is content with. Calum ends up landing on a cooking channel, replaying an episode of Masterchef.

She could see why he has become so disinterested in the conversation since she's been bugging Calum about what happened since the morning after, and it's been nearly 4 days. It just didn't feel right. It feels as though, for Charlotte, that he is hiding something. She just doesn't see why he would feel the need to.

Deciding to leave it, she instead moved to the couch to sit beside her friend.

"You know the drill," he murmurs, moving his head to rest on Charlotte's lap with his eyes remaining locked on the television.

She chuckles under her breath, resting her left arm on his shoulder while using her right hand to run her fingers through his hair in a massaging manner. This has always been a long lasting tradition of theirs, where they watch television while Charlotte acts as though she is his mother.

To Calum, this comfort brought back fond memories as a child. His mother, Joy, always would caress his head in a similar way, though lately, it has been more so him looking after his mother than the other way around. With Charlotte in town, he has still managed to find time to visit her place and check up on her but has spent more time unwinding, finally feeling as though he's able to act his age as opposed to a full-time caretaker.