The Magic of Hollywood // Charlie Gillespie

Chapter 16

"Where do you think you're going Vicky?" Max grabs my arm roughly. "You're hurting me" I wanna scream but my voice comes out as barely a whisper. For the first time in my life I'm scared of him. The anger in his eyes, the rage in his voice... he yelled at me before but he never physically attacked me, right now I'm not so sure. I've never seen him that angry. Tears start to form in my eyes. "Let go of me" He doesn't loosen his grip, I almost feel as if he's holding on to me even harder now. "I said where do you think you're going" He looks wild... insane almost. I've definitely never seen him this way. "I'm leaving you" is all I manage to say. He lets out a psychopathic laugh. "Is that so? Vicky, I swear if you leave that door I'm gonna make your life a living hell."

I think back to our past relationship. If I'm being true to myself, my life has been a living hell ever since we moved in together. I can't believe I didn't see it before. I was so dependent on him that I didn't see how badly he was treating me. He seems to take my silence as giving up and lets go of my arm. I take a deep breath and gather all the courage I have. I look right into his eyes. "Can't get much worse than it was" With that I walk past him and out the door. I leave our apartment building and walk one block. Once I'm sure he isn't following me I sink onto the pavement. I know he meant it when he said he'll make my life hell. I also know I didn't have a choice. I should have gotten out of there much much earlier.

I sit up straight in bed... or well... on the couch. My heart is racing and I can feel tears streaming down my face. Why did I dream about this now? Just when things started to fall in place. I grab my phone to check the time. It's 3am... great. I definitely don't need to think about sleep now. I was just about to put my phone away again but since I can't sleep anyway I might as well check my notifications. Jenny had just sent me a text about 15 minutes ago. Since it's Saturday she might be free right now. I click the FaceTime button and get up to turn on the light while waiting for her to pick up. "Hey V! Omg you look drained. Are you alright?" What a lovely greeting. "Hey J, yeah just had a nightmare." Her face turns worried. "Max?" I just nod slightly. She must be so sick of hearing me go on about this over and over again. Sometimes I'm sick of myself. "What was it?" I tell her exactly what I dreamed about, the memory as vivid as if it happened only yesterday.

"I'm just so glad we got you out of there, V" Without Jenny I would probably still be stuck in this toxic circle of believing he loves me when, in reality, he has not a single clue what love really is. "So am I..." There is a short silence where we both don't really know what to say. We had those moments a lot. After I left Max I moved in with Jenny and sometimes we used to sit on her bed in silence for hours. It was enough that we were together. "So, any other news? How's the planning of your club opening going?" My face brightens immediately at the thought of Charlie being part of said opening. "Well... let's just say it's a real up and down" I catch her up on what happened, how my opening act dropped out yesterday and how Charlie saved the day saying he'll do it. "Hold on! Charlie? As in the guy who ran out on you? Since when is he back in the picture?" I tell her the whole story. How I left for the beach in the morning, saw that poster and how later that day he turned up at my club. Her face shows so many different emotions, surprise, happiness, shock, ... I get it, that's pretty much how I felt yesterday. So much has happened.

"Ok. Let me just see if I got this right, yeah?" I nod. "So your Charlie is in a Netflix show? And he's playing a lead role? And now he's also playing the opening of your club?" I nod again. She thinks about it for a second. "Ok, just two more questions: One, how can you afford that? And two, have you googled him yet?" I can't help but laugh. "Seriously, J? Googled him? Of course I didn't" - "Why not?" Is that a serious question? Why would I? Maybe because that's just a normal response? Didn't I check Max' instagram when I met him because I wanted to know more about him? "I guess I wanna get to know him, not what the media makes him out to be" The second I say it I know it's true. I don't care what picture other people paint of him, I wanna get to know the real Charlie. "Alright, don't ignore question one though." Well, this will be interesting. "Ehm... the price he named was spending a day with me." Jenny's eyes widen with shock. "You're kidding?" I shake my head. "V, that guy must be crazy about you!" Could it actually be possible? I remember the text I sent him before I went to bed. His only reply was ok. I didn't think about it too much because I know I would only overthink it but I don't know... "V, you're overthinking again aren't you?" She knows me too well. I bite my lip and look at my hands "V, just be careful ok? Don't overthink it, just take care of yourself." - "I love you J" - "I love you V"