this love • gracie abrams

005 worth it

CHAPTER FIVE
worth it
•

THE alarm blared into charlotte's ears.

"aw fuck offff," she whined, throwing her arm over to shut it off.

she couldn't remember getting home from the club last night, but she does remember have a good fucking time. she was happy and wasted, or in other words, had zero thoughts of gracie. she was about to close her eyes and fall back asleep when she heard noise coming from downstairs.

she abruptly sat straight up and creased her eyebrows. she tried to figure out in her mind who would be over, but sadie went home with caleb last night, lily went to sydney's, and jude, matthew, and marcus hung out a bit longer with jackson. she still couldn't remember walking through her front door, given she was absolutely shit faced, so already she was assuming the worst that someone had broke in. maybe her mom was right about getting a new security system.

quietly, she crept out of bed and debated just hiding in her closet or climbing out the window onto the fire escape, but before she knew it she was picking up a heavy metal water bottle and wielding it in her hands. her heart began to beat out of her chest as she heard more noise, and soon enough her hands began to shake and her vision became uneasy. a perfect anxiety and hangover combination.

she slowly walked down the stairs, trying her best not to give herself away with her shrilled breathing. swallowing the lump in her throat as her lungs shook, she spun around the corner and looked into the living room, swinging the water bottle through the air by its handle with a terrified squeak. she opened her squeezed eye when she heard no sound of impact, but a voice instead.

"woah," maitreyi chuckled, both of them staring at each other in shock.

charlotte, still panicked, dropped the bottle and whipped behind to see if anyone else was here, gasping for air and running a hand through her tangled hair, "wha— what're— huh?"

"you scared me," maitreyi laughed and stood up from the couch, walking over to her. "you alright?"

charlotte was even more confused now, which wasn't helping at all with her breathing, "i— what?"

"chill out you sound like a fucking dog," maitreyi smirked, watching charlotte anxiously look around and shake. "your hairs a mess in the morning, cute."

charlotte doubled over, planting her hands on her knees to stabilize herself as she stood and took deep breaths, trying to register that she was not in fact getting robbed, but maitreyi was in her fucking living room.

maitreyi watched her struggle, leaning against the counter from the open kitchen. if it were gracie, she'd probably be circling her cold hand over charlotte's centre of her chest to calm her down. maitreyi just wore a smirk, a bit amused.

once she finally regained her cool, charlotte turned around to look at maitreyi, "w-what're you doing here?"

"someone clearly was hammered last night," maitreyi giggled. "i got us a ride after the lavo last night and you told me i could stay over the night so i wouldn't have to ride the rest of the way alone with that creepy ass driver. your place is sick by the way."

"oh... okay. um thanks," charlotte nodded. she wandered over to the cabinets and pulled out advil, placing a pill on the counter as she filled up a glass of water.

charlotte was drastically on edge. sure, last night she and maitreyi became like best friends, but they were drunk so her whole guard was done and she was kinda just having fun to distract herself from the hell she's going through. and given that she's forgotten the majority of last night and was completely sober now, she was tense and anxious around the practical stranger in her home. she felt maitreyi's eyes wandered all over her body, and wanted nothing more than to throw on a hoodie to cover up her tank top that exposed her.