Charlotte's Scars

Chapter 14 - Charlotte

Chapter Fourteen

Charlotte

After the weekend, I stayed at Karla's house for over a week. I just couldn't handle the thought of going back to my house. Her parents were more than accommodating - they often let me sleepover for prolonged periods of time.

Although, it was different this time - this time it was probably one of the best weeks I ever had. First, we  spent all day Sunday on Silver Sand Island enjoying the sun – well, technically everyone else enjoyed the sun. I stayed in the shade on the yacht wearing pants and a long-sleeved shirt. When I looked in the mirror that morning, the bruises had worsened.

I still had a lot of fun though – Christian stayed with me almost the entire day, much to Karla's dismay. She was so frustrated with her brother's refusal to stay away from me that she started giving him the silent treatment. It was pretty awkward since I stayed with them all week. Christian joined us to watch a movie Sunday night, but even with Karla in a foul mood, it was the best day I had in a very long time.

Christian never tried anything on me, but we spend the entire day talking and laughing, and just getting to know each other better. I couldn't believe in all the years of knowing him, I never realized how smart he was. I've always thought of myself as walking encyclopedia because I knew a lot of facts about a lot of things, but I swear Christian was like the man-made version of Google. I could probably sit and listen to him talk for the rest of my life and still be the happiest person in the world.

During the day, Christian drove me and Karla to school, and then would always be there at the end of the day to pick us up. As the week went on, I noticed Karla warming up to Christian constantly tagging along with us. He gave me my space, but I could tell he was using this time for me to actually get to know him personally rather than judging him based on the things I'd heard of second hand.

I did notice, the more we talked, laughed, and even debated, the more closer Christian seemed to get to me. There was a part of me that honestly was starting to think that his feelings toward me was growing. Even Karla gave us a few thoughtful glances throughout the week. I couldn't help but love spending all this time with him.

I guess that was one of the reasons why I didn't want to go home. I'd never been so happy in my life, and I didn't want my parents to ruin that. Unfortunately, I knew that if I didn't go home and clean up, there would be a bigger mess later on.

Grabbing my chain lock, I wrapped it through the bars of my Bicycle and then locked it around the porch handrail. Turning around, I looked up at my house and tried to listen for any voices. The house seemed quiet, so I figured they were either sleeping or they went to Hank's Tavern. I was betting on the latter.

I opened the door and froze.

For a second I thought maybe I walked into the wrong house, but I knew no one else would have the same god awful olive green carpets as us. I stared down the spotless hallway thinking maybe they kept their partying secluded to one part of the house. But that didn't explain how the glass was cleaned up from the picture frame, or how the whiskey stain was gone.

As I walked past the bathroom, I noticed the porcelain sink was almost sparkling. The floors looked like they'd recently been mopped and the toilet didn't even have any pee stains around it. I could feel a smile spreading across my face when I saw nine year old me hanging on the wall inside a brand new picture frame.

My mom was sober.

"Is that you Charlie?" Her voice came from the kitchen.