now or never - charlie gillespie

chapter nine

One week passed since Charlie, Owen and Jeremy had left. It had also been one entire week since I heard from Charlie. One whole week of me moping around and checking my phone every two seconds. I really didn't want to bother him. If he wanted to talk to me he would, right?

I honestly felt bad for Ava and Sawyer. This past week I have been a complete mess. My concentration at work has been completely off. Mrs. Roberts is always pulling me to the side, complaining about something wrong I did. Usually I would put in 110% of my effort, especially if I was the reason something went wrong, but my mind can't seem to stop overthinking about every second of my time spent with Charlie. I replayed the moments over and over again in my mind. When I wasn't messing things up at work, I was moping around Sawyers house, watching Julie and the Phantoms on repeat, silently crying on the couch.

It's not that I had anything to be sad about, I was just really sad because things don't usually happen to me. And I honestly think I lucked out. I couldn't imagine another situation where Charlie would spontaneously fly across the country just to see me. Just thinking about it made me sob.

"Cheer up Lake," Sawyer said pausing her studying to come comfort me. She probably couldn't concentrate with my constant sniffling and silent cries. "You shouldn't be sad about what happened. You should be happy. I mean how many people get to spend time with their celebrity crush?" she started rubbing my arms. When I looked up at her I could see the disgust in her eyes while her eyes scattered around my favorite spot on the couch. Crumbs were scattered everywhere in between all the used tissues and chocolate wrappers. I rolled my eyes at her and pulled the blanket closer to me. Now was not the time for one of Sawyers lectures. "Even if it was a short time," she said cautiously grabbing a tissue from next to her and throwing it away from her "Thats something to be happy about, right?"

"Its not use Sawyer, just let her be. She'll get over it eventually," Ava said, sitting on the other side of me, propping her feet on the coffee table. Just as Sawyer was about to open her mouth Ava took a long sip of her soda and put her hand up. "Bite me Sawyer. Go back to studying, you're only making her even more upset."

Sawyer stuck her tongue out at her. I smiled slightly. Their banter made me feel a little better. "Fine. I'll finish studying and then we can binge Julie and the Phantoms again. How about that?" Sawyer said now standing up, placing her hand on her hip, raising an eyebrow at Ava. Ava just smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

"Can we actually?" I asked looking back and forth between them, hopeful.

Just as I said that, my phone, sitting face down, vibrated. Ava sat up straight and Sawyer sat back down next to me and grabbed my hand. I took a deep breath as my friends gave me encouraging looks. I yanked my hand away from Sawyers grasp so I could pick my phone up. "Sorry," I heard her mumbled but ignored. I checked my phone, but it was just an instagram notification.

[lakebaker]: charles_gillespie started a live video. Watch it before it ends!

"Nothing," I said tossing my phone back to its place on the couch, picking up a piece of chocolate and unwrapping it.

"Hold up," Sawyer said grabbing my phone again. "I thought I saw Charlies name," She said checking the phone.

"It was just an instagram notification, he's doing a live or something," I said popping the piece of chocolate in my mouth.

"You idiot! Why don't we just watch it?" Sawyer asked.

"She's right. It'll make you feel better." Ava said reaching over me to try and grab the phone from Sawyer. They began swatting each other, fighting for my phone.

"Quit it!" I said grabbing the phone once they calmed down. I honestly thought that watching him the live would really hurt me. It would only make my mind go crazy about what he had been up to. Why he hadn't tried to contact me... I shook my head, physically trying to get rid of the voice in my head.

"Can you hurry up before you miss your chance and it ends!" Sawyer yelled. Ava and I both looked at her confused. "Sorry. I'm usually busy whenever the fun stuff happens. I only ever hear about it. Im just excited," she said, lowering her voice giving us an apologetic smile.

"Well I don't want to be the first one on there," I said hesitating.

"Its an instagram live not a wedding," Ava said snatching the phone from out of my hands and sighing heavily. "Do I have to do everything around here.." she muttered under her breath. She tapped on the screen a couple of times before placing it up against the front of a tissue box so that all three of us could see.

We all sat back and waited for the black screen to change. Suddenly his face came up on the screen and he was laughing. I couldn't help but smile. I swear I could physically feel my heart ache. I only spent a day with him. Why did I miss him so much? As he continued to laugh and tell a funny story, Ava went to the kitchen for some popcorn, coming back and tucking it tightly between us. I grabbed a handful and Sawyer dug into my chocolate stash. This was actually making me feel better.

"I've got a surprise for you guys," Charlie said to the phone. Suddenly Owen and Jeremy popped into view. "Look who it is!"

"Hey guys," Owen and Jeremy said in unison.

"He's hot," Ava said pointing at Owen and shoving some popcorn into her mouth. "I met him and that other guy-"

"Jeremy," I corrected her.

"Whatever. I met them the other day when I was talking to Charlie for you."

"I'm not that deep into my studies yet. Maybe if I drop out I won't keep missing out on stuff," Sawyer said sarcastically.

"Sure, Sawyer. You do that," Ava said munching on some more popcorn.

"Lets answer some questions," Jeremy said from the background. We watched as they all gathered around each other and tried to steady the phone on something so we could see them all.

"How was your trip to Hawaii?" Owen read out loud.

"I'm telling you right now every one right now Hawaii is the place to be!" Jeremy said.

"Did you surf? No we didn't have enough time," Charlie said frowning.

"Don't lie for him," Owen said to Charlie, pointing at Jeremy. "We can tell them its okay. Its a safe place. Jeremy was too cold to go guys," and they all bursted out laughing.

"Not true. What did you guys do while you were there?" Jeremy read out another question.

"We met a girl right?" Owen asked Charlie and they both looked at the screen smiling.

"Yeah, guys funny story. We met this girl at the hotel and we wanted her to show us around but apparently she didn't like us enough to text us back," Charlie said frowning.

Ava, Sawyer and grabbed each other and froze. "Oh my gosh. Is he talking about her?" Sawyer asked Ava. I sat up, trying to get closer to the screen, thinking it would help me hear better. Were they really talking about me on their live?

"Yeah guys we got ghosted big time," Owen added, frowning as well.

"Why doesn't she like you?" Charlie read to himself laughing out loud. "I don't know you guys, we sent her a text," he said point to Owen and Jeremy as they nodded, confirming what he was saying.

"Total silence. Not a single word," Owen said.

"Baker if you're out there listening, why'd you do us like that?" Charlie said giggling, before grabbing his guitar and changing the subject.

Me? Ghosting them?

I started panicking, picking up pillows and my blanket, throwing them everywhere, frantically searching for my phone. "WHERE IS IT?" I yelled while holding my used tissues.

"Uh.. Not that you're not doing a great job or anything, Sherlock. But I hate to break it to you," Ava said rubbing my back and pointing at the coffee table. I stuck my tongue out at her. I forgot we were using my phone to watch the live. I quickly grabbed it, closing out of the Instagram app and going straight for my messages.

They were right. I had two messages from a weird number, sent a week ago.

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I hope you're liking the story so far! I had way too much fun writing this chapter so let me know what you think!