this love • gracie abrams

012 realizations

CHAPTER TWELVE
realizations
•

"PLEASE, just take me home, i don't wanna go," charlotte pleaded childishly. "gracie, please."

"no."

"i'll give you twenty dollars."

"no."

"fifty?"

"charlotte, im not taking you home. we're going to the hospital."

"i can give you ten reasons why we shouldn't. one, i don't wanna. two, i'm in the same clothes from last night and look disgusting. three, i haven't had my meds this morning. four—"

"i promise, it probably won't take more than an hour."

"hey, didn't i say you should've be trying to control me anymore," charlotte muttered, although she immediately regretted it.

"charlotte. this is for your health— actually to make sure i didn't cause you any brain damage last night, so no. you're going." gracie said rather harshly, her nails digging into the wheel.

charlotte chewed into her bottom lip to stop it from trembling as her fingers tapped against her knee at lighting speed. gracie glanced over and frowned.

"i'll be with you the entire time."

the actress looked into her eyes, a whirlwind in her chest, "promise you won't leave?" she asked, praying gracie was being fair to her for once.

"i promise," she assured.

charlotte sighed and curled up in her seat, watching gracie's as attentively as ever. she closed her eyes trying to subside the nervous nausea and also the thought of where she's about to go. what she didn't want was to panic in front of gracie for the second time today, she's still focused on proving that she's not a mess. but it was hard considering she's sitting with the person who's making her a mess.

"charlotte um i've been meaning to ask you..." gracie started, getting the others eyes to flutter open. "do you think maitreyi will say something about the fight to the public?"

"um... i'm not sure. i mean i should probably call her soon and see what she's thinking but if she has any sort of media training what so ever she won't."

"okay," gracie said letting out a long breath. "also um... uh do you— are you and her like... are you still gonna be seeing her?"

charlotte wanted to crawl out of her skin. the words gracie said made her feel even more dirty with herself. 'seeing her'. it was more than seeing her, it was selflessly trying to heal herself in the worst way possible. it was letting a girl take advantage of her simply because she was too fucked up to deal with her emotions and face her feelings.

"no," she replied with a angered tone. "she hit you, you think i wanna see her face again?"

gracie looked at her with sorrow. she didn't know how to respond so she just nodded. charlotte sighed and leaned her head back against the window, contemplating jumping out the moving vehicle.

-

after thirty minutes of trying to get charlotte out the car and into the hospital, the actress finally spoke a sentence that wasn't a string of cusses and death threats.

"this is kidnapping."

"i am literally just trying to help you right now."

"still kidnapping," charlotte muttered back as gracie kept a tight grip on her hand and dragged her up to the front counter at the ER. charlotte wished the reason she was holding her hand wasn't because gracie wanted to make sure she didn't run away.