Love Never Lasts

Chapter # 22 Watched

     The person looked miserable and covered in bruises. Light passed the person's face and I realized it was Charlie. I ran over to him and knees down beside him. "Charlie, are you ok?" I placed my hand on his cheek, his skin feeling cold as ice. When his eyes finally met mine I saw the dead coldness inside them. After a second his eye quickly flickered back to the bright eyed Charlie I missed. 

      "Evelyn, what are you doing here?" Ouch. I haven't seen him in over a 2 weeks. The first thing he asks me is "what are you doing here?" I try to control myself from lashing out at him so he can explain himself. "I could be asking you the same thing, but even more so why you're sitting here against this fence covered with bruises." My hands tracing over the bruises across his face. "It's a long story." His hand connected with my wrist to pull my hand away from his face. 

     "Charlie." I pressed. "Evelyn, it's something I would prefer not to talk about right now." His voice was calm but sharp as he spoke. I decided I wouldn't press the matter any further. It must be something serious. I just wish he'd open up and tell me what's going on. Did he get into a fight or something? These bruises look like they couldn't have been made by someone's fists, they must have been by something harder. Like metal.

     "Alright then, I have a different question." I saw Charlie's eyes were full of curiosity of what I was gonna say. Which I thought was weird because I thought he would know what I was gonna ask. "Why haven't you answered any of my calls or texts?" That's when it hit him. "Oh my god Eve I'm so sorry I forgot to tell you." His hands gripping my wrist to pull my face closer to his so he knew he had my full attention. "My father smashed my phone and I haven't been able to get a new one or get in contact with anyone. I'm so sorry, it's been a week hasn't it?" His eyes were filled with concern and worry. "Actually it's been two." My voice was almost like a whisper. "I'll find some way to make it up to you." His grip is tightened. "It's ok, I understand." I gave him a reassuring smile to tell him everything was ok. His arms pulled me closer so now my back was also leaning against the fence and my head on his shoulder and our hands now laced together. 

     We sat there in silence for a while just soaking in each other's company. Until a voice pulled us out of the trace we were in. "Looks like you guys made up." Sarah's voice was higher than usual. "We were never fighting to begin with." I explain well getting back on my feet. Charlie was now on his feet as well. I think he finally took in the outfit I was wearing. My cheeks immediately turned to fire as his eyes raked up and down my body. Sarah smacked Charlie's arm getting his attention.

     "Don't look at her like that!" She scolded him. Now his cheeks were flushed. "Sorry." He rubbed the back of his neck and kept his eyes glued to the ground now. "It's ok, you're the one who wanted me to dress this way to get Charlie's attention anyway, why can't he look?" It took me a second to realize I was the one who said that. I couldn't even believe the words that came out of my own damn mouth.

     I quickly covered my mouth in an attempt to take back to words I just spoke a few moments ago. The three of them looked at me in pure shock. Until I brought my hands to my face to cover my mouth, they all bursted into laughter. 

    "Wow Eve I didn't think you had it in you." Sarah said between laughter. "Oh shut up!" I snapped at her while crossing my arms over my chest. "And all of you stop laughing! It isn't that funny." I tried to scold them but that only seemed to fuel their laughter which fueled my frustration.

     "Aw baby you're so cute when you're angry." Charlie's soft low voice was closer than I realized. My heart fluttered when he called me baby. His arm was now snaked around my waist. He kissed the top of my hair. Making my heart flutter again. 

      "We're being watched." I jokingly whispered to Charlie. Our watchers got a kick out of the comment. Sarah and Zack left us shortly after that.  "Come on, let's just walk around and talk a little." Charlie said while leading me back into the crowd of people which I wasn't exactly excited to go back into. It was nicer over here. There's less people and fewer lights making it harder to see aka making it harder for people to spot you. That must have been Charlie's intention for sitting over there. I tried shaking the thought out of my mind that Charlie didn't want me to find him but it was hard to shake out. Charlie's voice interrupted my thoughts. 

     "So how have you been?" "I've been good." I lied. It was horrible sitting around waiting for him to text me or call me back or even show up at my house uninvited again. Feeling bold I decided to question him about this past two weeks. "Actually I have another question for you, I know you said your phone was smashed, but why didn't you just come over? Like you know, what you did last time." I looked at him waiting for his answer. "My father also took away my keys and I have no idea when I'll get them back. He actually told me he threw my keys into a river, I just hope he was joking." He tried to laugh about it but the laugh came out sounding very fake. It wasn't a pleasant sound like his real laugh.

     "I get it, my parents can be pretty strict sometimes too." He looked a little relieved. "Do you think we could forget about the whole thing and have a good time now that we're together?" "Yeah that sounds nice." I tried to control the smile that was now tugging at the corner of my lips. Charlie noticed making him smile as well. He tightened his grip on my hand and continued to lead me through the crowd of people.