Electric Touch ϟ 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙣 𝙂𝙧𝙖𝙮

f o u r - 𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙

𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙞 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙞𝙨, 𝙞 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙚𝙚𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪

- Enchanted (Taylor's Version) By Taylor Swift

【☆】★【☆】

Standing right out front the door of Republic Records, Charlie felt as if he was about to either scream or die. He hadn't decided which was the better option yet. Quickly checking his phone, he saw that it was only 8:30 which made him yet again want to scream since he wasn't sure whether or not he was too early and if it was a bad idea to go inside yet.

Stealing his nerves and taking a deep breath, he stepped inside and was instantly shocked by the temperature difference between the boiling hot outside and the blasting air conditioning inside. Nervously, he shuffled up to the receptionist desk, confused about where he should go or if he should just stay here waiting until 9:00.

"Uh...hi? I'm Charlie Hawthorn. Or uh...Charles Hawthorn?" said Charlie to the woman at the receptionist desk, visibly cringing at the use of his full name.

"Nice to meet you, Charlie," smiled the woman, whose name placard informed Charlie was named Denise, "I believe you're gonna be meeting with Dan and one of the singers he works with in a half hour! Dan is already here, so if you'd just wanna head on up to the 12th floor his office is the first door on the left!"

"Um...thank you." Charlie replied, having only processed about half the words Denise had said. He was just shocked by how matter-of-fact she was about everything.

Quickly rushing over to the elevator, Charlie frantically pushed the up button tapping his foot as he waited for the elevator. Taking what felt like an eternity, finally the elevator arrived. Stepping inside, he felt himself attempt to take a deep breath as he hit the button for floor 12.

The second the elevator dinged, Charlie jumped in surprise. In the short ride up to level 12, he had already zoned out completely. The second the elevator stopped, he rushed out. Something Charlie was honestly quite embarrassed about was his deep hatred and fear of elevators. Going up and down in a tiny metal box scared him and had always felt unnatural to him so whenever he could, he would try and take the stairs instead.

Upon seeing the first door on the left, Charlie once again attempted to breathe. He was terrified and slightly confused. Should he knock? Or should he simply go in? Surely it was better to knock, he decided. He didn't want his first impression with this Dan guy to be a negative one!

Slowly, Charlie raised his hand to knock when the door slammed open with considerable force, causing Charlie to feel himself begin to fall backward onto the floor. He braced himself for impact, but the feeling of the white polished floor against his head never came. Instead, Charlie felt someone grab him and prevent his fall.

"What the fuck, dude?" snapped Charlie, still not daring to open his eyes. He was still shaken from his near fall and was sure the person whose arms were now around him was the person responsible for this.

"Oh my god I'm literally so sorry, I wasn't paying any attention and I was just trying to go get some coffee before this meeting I have with my producer and some guy and I also really have to piss so I was trying to get to the bathroom and...I don't know why I'm telling you all of this." replied the mystery man in in a voice clearly higher than normal due to embarrassment. Before Charlie could even process anything that had just been said to him, he quickly found himself being shoving in a less than gentle manor.

Slowly opening his eyes, Charlie immediately felt them widening. Standing before him was an extremely embarrassed and flushed looking Conan Gray, with messy shoulder length curly hair, baggy dark jeans, and a bright red hoodie that seemed to be at least a decade old and not well cared for in the slightest.

Before Charlie could even decide what to say, Conan ran down the hallway and into the elevator, not even looking back at him. For a minute, Charlie simply stood in the middle of the hallway in shock, attempting to process what had just happened. He completely forgot about what he had been doing or where he had been trying to go until a middle aged man exited the same door Conan had with a dramatic sigh and a smile.

"You must be Charlie! I'm assuming you just met Conan?"

"I uh... yeah. I'm Charlie. I just met Conan Gray. Are you Dan? My roommate is named Dan. I don't know why I said that. Hi." replied Charlie, still in a daze. He just nearly got his skull cracked open by Conan Gray and he wasn't quite sure how he should even be acting after that.

The man let out a friendly laugh at Charlie. "Ah well, Conan can be....a lot at times but I'm sure you'll eventually love him as much as we all do. I mean if you choose to accept then you'll be spending some time with him on tour!"

"Spending time with...I'm sorry, I'm confused. I think I missed a chapter or like 5?"

"How about we discuss this in my office?" asked Dan, gently guiding the very lost Charlie into a chair across from what Charlie assumed was Dan's desk. It was very cluttered but Charlie could see there were a lot of pictures on it, one with what Charlie assumed was his family and another with Conan and who he was pretty sure was Olivia Rodrigo. It made him smile a little bit seeing how much Dan obviously cared about Conan.

"So Charlie, I'm really sorry for how vague the initial email was. But I'll get straight to the point since I don't wanna keep you here all day and I'm pretty sure Conan isn't coming back! The label would like to invite you to be the opener for the 2022 Conan Gray World Tour! So what do you think?"

"Yes." replied Charlie without a single thought, "Yes. I accept. I completely accept."

"Thats fantastic!" answered Dan with a smile, clearly pleased with Charlie's obvious enthusiasm.

"Okay yeah, I have a few things to figure out...I need to call my roommate and my best friend, I need to pack, oh my god thank you. This is the most incredible thing to ever happen to me!" whispered Charlie, already deep in thought, completely overwhelmed with joy and fear.

"We'll make sure to send you an email with all the information later today, but I'm really glad me and sort of Conan got to meet you!" said Dan as he led Charlie to the elevator.

The second Charlie exited the building, he stumbled over to an old wooden bench outside the building, immediately making a group chat of Danny and Emile. He was too excited to waste time calling them both separately. The text he sent to them simply didn't feel real to Charlie as he typed it out, barely able to let himself believe it.

"Guys. I'm going on tour with Conan Gray."

【☆】★【☆】

Word Count

1185

Date Published

July 16th, 2023

Republished

April 6th, 2024