Tomorrows

P A R T T W O N I C K

i'm laying on charlie's bed in a pair of shorts i left over here. "char what's wrong?" i ask. he's staring at his phone and i can't quite make out the face he's making.

"n-nothing," he says. i decide not to push the subject because that's the thing with charlie. if you push things he'll never tell you. so i sit up,  grab him, and kiss him on the cheek.

"what's that for?" he asks.

"because i love you," i say. i hold him close to me. he  backs away from me  after a moment. his eyes wanting to tell me something. "what is it char?"

"tao and elle are back together," he tells me, but that's not what he wanted to say.

"good," i say. "they needed to."

"mhm,"charlie mumbles. i pull him back to me. "dinner was nice."

i tilt my head. he never brings up dinner or lunch or food in general. "yeah it was."

we spend the rest of the night talking about how it's going to be when i go to university. between us. "i promise all the hotties i meet-" charlie pushes me and i start laughing. he fakes a pout. "im joking im joking. no one will come close to you my love"

"better not" the boy says his icy blue eyes glaring at me. i lean up and kiss him.

"it's not like you won't be there every other weekend to keep an eye on me," i wink.

there's a knock on the door. "come in," charlie says. i look over at the clock. 00:30. tori is standing in the doorway of charlie's room.

"i just wanted to come say goodnight," she says. and for the first time in a long time charlie walks over to her and wraps his arms around her. i smile. seeing them together makes my heart full. they love each other so fully. charlie walks back to the bed and sits down beside me.

"goodnight," i say.

and as quickly as she showed up she left.

🍂🍂🍂

the next morning we wake up early. well early enough to smell breakfast wafting through the air.

i change into my pants and tshirt from yesterday. and charlie changes into a blue and green jumper and black jeans.

"are you ready for breakfast?" i ask him. he shakes his head. i kiss him on the forehead. "do you want to sit here for a minute?"

"yeah," he tells me. i sit down on his bed and pat the space beside me.

he leans his head on my shoulder and i lean my head on his. "we're going to eat breakfast but we can sit here for a minute more," i say.

he takes a deep breath. his hand finds mine and i give it a small squeeze. "okay," he says after a while. we stand up still hand in hand and walk down to the kitchen.

Oliver, charlie's mum, charlie's dad, and tori all sit around the breakfast table. we join them and i give them a warm smile. "all right ollie?" i ask to the younger boy who's sitting right beside me.

"all right" he replies.

mrs.spring loads charlie's plate up with two pieces of toast and some eggs.

she does the same with me, but i can't help but realize that there's more on charlie's plate than mine. i look from charlie to his mum to tori.

"what the fuck?" tori says looking at charlie's plate.

"language!" mrs.spring says.

"why did you fill his plate up so much?" tori asks. "you never do that!" she slams her hands on the table.

"i'm fine," charlie murmurs. his hand and mine find each other's again. his leg is bouncing up and down.

"he can eat as much as he wants and that can be that," mrs.spring says with no emotion.

"that's not that!" says tori.

"i can't," charlie gets up and walks to the front door. i get up and walk after him. he's tying up his shoelaces. so i do the same. i grab my keys.

and we're gone.