In Charlotte's Eyes

Trench

Suzuki dropped Parker off at Charlotte's house. Suzuki left to go pick her up from the police station. Parker didn't know how long that would take. Hopefully it'd be a quick process.

He made his way inside her house. Things were quiet, of course. But being here gave a feeling of discomfort to Parker. He couldn't really explain why. Her living room and kitchen didn't have any boxes lying around. That must mean Charlotte hadn't gotten around to it, yet. He didn't want to do anything crazy without Charlotte's approval, so he turned to his left to walk down the hallway.

He glanced into the bathroom. There was a box inside, closed and labeled with black marker on the side. He hummed. Weird of her to pack things in the bathroom first. Whatever. It wasn't his business. He moved past the barren bathroom to Charlotte's bedroom. There was a box on top of her desk, as well as three other boxes on the floor. The box on her desk was open. The computer that was usually on her desk was not there. Her laptop was, though. The middle drawer of three on her desk was opened.

He peered inside. A few things were still left inside. There was a blue binder, a black binder beneath it, and a pink..

Parker flushed red in second hand embarrassment. He took the pink object and tossed it into the open box on top of Charlotte's desk. He focused his attention on the two binders, instead. Grabbing both, one in each hand, he flipped each of them over to see if they were titled. The blue one was titled "Important Documents." The black binder was not titled.

Curious, Parker set down the blue binder, opening up the black one. To his surprise, he found out that it was a card binder! It was filled with cards; sports cards. "Huh." Parker never knew she was a collector. A lot of these cards were very old. Interesting. He set both binders into the box. Since there was nothing left, he slid the middle drawer closed, and opened up the top drawer. Nothing was inside. Charlotte must've already done this one.

He knelt down and opened the bottom drawer. Parker was surprised to see a, more or less, trash pile of letters. All the envelopes inside were opened, but the letters themselves were all slotted inside the envelopes. He grabbed a handful, looking at who or what sent each letter. Did she even need any of these anymore? He looked at the pile, then back at the few in his hands. Scanning through some of them, he noticed that some of these were sent to her over a year ago.

What was the point in keeping all these letters? He was going to scrap them, but then he thought about it further. Charlotte must keep these for a reason. He shouldn't throw something out, in danger that it might be important to her. He didn't want to upset her when she came back. He should at least see what the contents are first.

But, seriously, some of this stuff was straight up useless. Like offers for stuff that expired a long time ago, or coupons to places she didn't even like. He sighed, ready to be here for a while.

He began going through the letters. Some letters from her bank, letters from real estate companies..

Parker hummed, a particular letter catching his eye. It was a pink letter. On the front, the person who sent it was Audrey. He remembered Audrey as Charlotte's sister; someone whom she resented. The letter was fairly recent, sent a few months ago. He opened up the letter, curiosity getting the better of him. It was a letter wishing Charlotte a happy Easter. Supposedly there had been some cash that was sent with it– the letter mentioned sending her money –but it wasn't there anymore, of course.

Parker hummed, sliding the letter back in its envelope. He sighed. He shouldn't be snooping. Using one of the empty boxes on the floor, he stuffed all of the letters into it. He should just let Charlotte deal with these. It made him wonder, though. Why did Charlotte continue to resent her sister so much? From the little he knew about her, she didn't seem like a bad person. He sighed. "Not my business.." He muttered.

Next, he went to her closet. Surprisingly, there was a lot of stuff in there. More than he thought there'd be. There were a few rain coats, books lined a shelf at the top of the closet, and some plushies and action figures on another shelf, among other things. He took another box and began stacking the books inside of it.

Most of the books, based on the covers, were romance books. Some were thick, some were thin, he even noticed a few multi-book series. Then, a book caught his eyes. Specifically, it was the cover. Charlotte was on the cover; a younger Charlotte. Additionally, there was another object. A male object, a thimble. The two of them were dancing, gazing lovingly at each other. The title of the book was written in big, fancy cursive letters. He stared at the impressive artwork, noticing the author's name.

"Jackson Trent.." He mumbled to himself.

Curiosity got the best of him. This drawing couldn't really be Charlotte, could it? He opened up the book, skipping the dedication page and title page. He opened the first page. He skimmed through it. The book was about a high school kid. No sign of Charlotte’s name. He turned the page. Then there it was. Her name. Not just her name, but her full name. Charlotte Whitney Stern. Parker's brows furrowed. A book.. With her featured as a character. The main character's love interest. This couldn't be a coincidence. He checked the date this book was published. It was published eight whole years ago.

His breath shallowed. He was most definitely prying into something that wasn't his business. He read a little bit, mostly skimming through sentences, gathering the gist of the beginning of the story. He realized that the main character's name was Jackson, the name of the author. He hummed deeply, stopping his reading. He turned back to the dedication page. In it, he found more confirmation.

"Specially dedicated to my gorgeous, courageous girlfriend, Charlotte."

Parker closed the book. An ex boyfriend. At least, that's what he assumed. It'd been, what, three years of friendship with her, and he'd never heard a peep of this Jackson guy. If she was hiding her relationship with him, she was doing a creepily good job at it.

Questions arose in his mind. When did they break up? Why? Why has she never mentioned him before? He grumbled. He was being nosy. He felt slightly guilty about uncovering all this information he shouldn't have. He shoved the book into the box with the others, promising himself that he wouldn't keep snooping without her.

The rest of the time, he spent packing away everything else in her closet. Nothing else.

…

Hey guys, sorry for being very late today. I hope you guys enjoyed what I had to offer regardless. See ya on Wednesday for the next update.