𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗹 | 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗰

Chapter 27

Movie night was great, great as it could be when all that any of us heard throughout the whole of the films was Lauren talking to Charles in quite a firm tone and him telling her to shush every five minutes. It got to the point where most of the group got fed up and decided to head to bed early, ruining the further plans of the night. I was one of those that went upstairs as I just didn't want to hear her in general, never mind when I wanted to watch a movie with my friends in peace.

When I went upstairs, Max was in the hallway about to head back downstairs for some reason. He caught a glimpse of me as he looked up from his phone and I could see the irritated look on his face as he got closer. We walked past each other but before I got to the door of the room I was in, I heard him call out my name.

"Yes?"

"I don't know what it is about that girl" he started and I assumed he was on about Lauren "but she is aggrevating. Do you get on with her?"

"Not really, no"

"How does Charles put up with her, I sound rude now sorry. I just can't understand it, she's weird. Daniel didn't invite her and she turns up, how does she even know where we are" he continued to complain about the girl that was still very audible, even from upstairs, showing how loud she was being. "Anyway, I left my charger down there. I will see you in the morning"

I said goodnight to him and entered my room, flopping on the bed once I shut the door behind myself. It was something when Max, who I hadn't spoken to that much, felt the need to rant to me about how irritating she was. There was going to be tension in the house now that she had come; I mean there already was but it would soon rise. Usually, I would feel bad thinking so negatively of someone but I really didn't like her and I couldn't help it, her energy was off when she was around and I obviously knew why.

Not long after I had been in the room, I heard more footsteps coming up the stairs and I could hear her voice even louder again. Clearly, she was the one walking up the stairs and Charles would be with her or else she wouldn't be up here yet. When the door opened I saw her looking gobsmacked as she realised who he was sharing a room with and I tried not to laugh myself at her expression. Charles made his way in and told her good night, closing the door behind himself.

I was expecting him to go straight to sleep as I could imagine he was confused with what was going off but instead he decided to suggest something rather random to me, taking me a little by surprise. "Do you want to push the beds together?"

I gave him a questioning look as I wanted to know why that was the first thing he thought to say after he had just sent his fake girlfriend to her room. It hadn't been a thought when we first arrived so had he been thinking about asking and just not asked earlier or was it a random in the moment question.

"It's a little cold here compared to outside, we can keep each other warm" he wiggled his eyebrows, adding a jokey tone to his sentence so he didn't sound too serious. "More space too."

Not long after I nodded agreeing to the idea and in a matter of minutes, his bed was against the wall and he'd pushed mine against his. He left the room and soon returned with a double duvet and I wasn't even going to ask where he had pulled that from as he laid it over the two beds that now looked like a double bed. We'd slept in the same bed at the hotel together on the weekend just gone so we both knew there was no harm in it, however, I did think to myself about how I'd said it was a one time thing and it was now happening again less than a week later.

Before getting into bed I headed to the bathroom, which was quite difficult to find, so that I could brush my teeth and wash my face so that I was refreshed for sleeping. Me being clumsy, I knocked the soap into the sink and just because I had no luck, some of the soap squirted up at me. I looked at my pj shorts, which I had changed into before coming in here and stood thinking about how to get it off in the best way for a moment. I didn't wash it off with water as I didn't feel like activating the bubbles of the soap so I wiped it off with a towel, also wiping my leg at the same time as some of the soap had got on the top of my thigh.

When I entered the room Charles was just stood, completely shirtless but facing away from me and once again the way his muscles were sculpted caught my eye but I diverted my eyes away before he turned around and noticed I was there. He pointed down at me, well at my shorts, and I couldn't fathom how he had realised the mark so quickly. I was wearing white so it was pretty obvious as the soap had been a blue colour, thankfully, as it meant it was clear it wasn't an accident of some sort.

"What'd you do?"

"Soap."

"Ahh, I see"

I could hear a faint noise and I then spotted Charles' phone, which was placed on the drawers in the room, playing some music at a low volume. The music had no lyrics and I recognised the instrument in the song to be a piano as I could hear the different harmonies coming out of the speaker. Piano's were probably one of my favourite instruments as they had a rich, sweet sound to them and the notes brought a calming sensation to any room they were present in. Charles swayed his head a little to the music and I could see his fingers moving along with notes, which was quite cute.

I got into the bed as Charles continued to get ready, he too went to the bathroom to do his own night routine before he then joined me. It was like some sort of magnet pulled us together within five minutes of being in that bed together. It clearly wasn't anything that either of us felt uncomfortable with, in fact it felt almost right as it had done in Saudi but I didn't know whether it should've been something we were so comfortable with. One of his arms wrapped around me, whilst his hand on the opposite arm rested just above my left legs knee. I'd managed to end up laying on his chest again and I could already feel myself unwinding as I felt even more sleepy.

"Are you comfortable, ma cheri" he mumbled, moving my hair out of my face with the hand that had been rested above my knee.

I just hummed in response and nodded my head a little and when I looked up at him I could just see his small smile through the darkness. The electric feeling that that smile sent through me when I saw it should be illegal as it felt so wrong being so excited about something that you don't understand. I didn't understand why his smile suddenly had something over me as it hadn't a couple of weeks ago, so why now?

"Pavelli"

"Leclerc"

"I enjoy this moment right now, I feel at ease with you"

Him telling me he felt at ease with me made me want to burst out with that little squeal that all girls do when they hear something that excites them. Warmth filled my cheeks and I actually felt quite embarrassed about how this was making me feel right now. He said something, which probably had less meaning to him that it did to me hearing it but this rush of excitement, nerves and fluster all in one made me realise something that I didn't want to address, even to myself.

I was starting to grow something for Charles, whether that was more happiness from being around him or something else I didn't know, but Lily was right it was something and I was definitely acknowledging it now.

***
Writers note
20k!!!! Tysm <3

~Mel