this love • gracie abrams

013 admit it

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
admit it
•

AFTER a nearly four hour long nap, charlotte stirred awake and looked around her dark room, her head begging to throb when she saw the glimpse of light peeking through the curtains. when she looked to the other side of the bed, she was surprised to see weenie sleeping curled up next to her since she literally forgot all about gracie being here.

"hi bubba," she whispered, leaning back down and dropping her arm to scratch his ears. his snout was so close to her nose which he began to lick. "haven't been here in a while, huh?"

weenie crawled into her lap and as she looked around her room again, she noticed something odd. all the cans that littered her room from the past weeks were gone. her piles of clothes and un-done laundry had disappeared from the carpet. the plates and empty takeout bags were gone. a lit candle was set on her bedside table that was also decluttered. all the dusty surfaces she hadn't bothered to clean were cleaned. the thing that stood out the most was that she realized her heating was on when she hadn't turned it on in weeks. her nails dug into her palms while she smiled bittersweetly.

she slowly dragged herself to her feet, swaying a bit as she rubbed her eyes. the bright light seeping into the room caught her eye again and made her feel sick, so she reached over to her emotional support water bottle, only to realize it was freshly refilled with ice and cold water. when she made her way downstairs, she could hear the sound of humming and a pen scratching around on paper.

gracie looked up to the stairs when she saw charlotte's small figure standing at the bottom, "hey."

"hi," charlotte replied.

"uh did you sleep okay?"

"yeah, what time is it?"

"nearly seven," gracie said, glancing at her phone.

charlotte nodded and rocked back and forth on her heels with her head down, filling the silence with awkward tension. gracie was doing the same, pretending to be interested in whatever was outside the window even though from her spot on the couch she'd only be able to see the sky and a wall of the building next door. thankfully, weenie came barreling down the stairs and bolted through charlotte's legs and then around the couch before hopping up onto it, making them both laugh.

"he wouldn't leave your room when you fell asleep, i tried to get him out, so sorry if he woke you up," gracie chuckled.

"he didn't, but even if he did how could i be mad at him," charlotte cooed, walking over to the couch and crouching down to pet him. she then built up the courage to look up at gracie for what she had to, "hey um... thanks for cleaning my room up.... you didn't have to do that."

gracie looked away, "i— it's not problem, i mean dr. rivers said no physical activities, so."

charlotte nodded, "sorry, it was like a mess."

gracie gave her a soft smile, "don't worry about it."

before gracie could say anything about all the alcohol in her room because charlotte could tell she was about to, the actress sat down and glanced at the pen and papers in front of gracie, "what're you writing?"

gracie shook her head, "um nothing just fixing up a song i wrote a couple weeks ago."

suddenly, a round of knocks came from the front door. they both shot their eyes over to it and furrowed their brows.

"who's that?" gracie asked.

"don't know," charlotte mumbled before heading for the door. she opened it and was instantly met with a face that looked excruciatingly nervous and worried. "hey sades."