In Charlotte's Eyes

Doomsday

Parker worked overtime today. It wasn't planned, but it happened. He got off four whole hours later than usual. Oh well. At least he was going to get a fat paycheck at the end of the week. But he didn't care now. The day was over with. He planned to check up on Charlotte today.

..That was, after grabbing a bite to eat, since he was completely famished.

After filling his belly, he drove half an hour up to Charlotte's house. He got out of his car. It was dark out. Crickets played an ugly symphony for him. He waltzed up to the front door and knocked.

After a few moments, Charlotte opened the door. She smiled, pleasantly surprised. “Oh, hey, Parker!” She greeted in quick succession.

“Hey, Charlotte! How are you holding up?”

“Oh-, pf- fine.” She chuckled lightly. “Come in.” She allowed him inside, quickly zipping behind her kitchen counter. There was a cutting board, a knife, and a pot on the otherwise clean counter. Calming, but pretty loud, jazz music filled the room.

“How're things with your mold treatment? I noticed that your eye color changed.”

Her normal eye looked in the direction of her bad eye. “Oh, yeah. I can't really see out of my right eye anymore, but,” She shrugged. “It's not a big deal.”

That was.. concerning. It explained her eye changing color, though. Instead of fretting over it, he decided to play it cool. He put his hands on his hips. “Heh, yeah. I was just stopping by to check how you're doing.”

“No worries, I was just making dinner.” She looked down at the cutting board. She pointed at her fridge. It was now that Parker noticed that her right arm was a different color, too. “Go ahead and take something from the fridge if you're hungry.” Well, she was certainly in a good mood.

He closed his eyes, subtly shaking his head. “It's fine; I already ate.” Huh. This was playing pretty similarly to their last meeting. “I was gonna..” His voice trailed off. That loud jazz music was starting to bug him, he was going to ask Charlotte to turn it down. But when his eyes averted to the wall, where the music was coming from, his eyes landed on a giant flat screen TV. A TV that, since he was last here, had not been there previously. His mind flashed to her new motorcycle. Had she bought a new..?

The TV had a static image of an album cover, and the name of a song and band just to the left of it. It was one of those music channels that played certain selections of music 24/7. This one happened to be a jazz channel.

“That’s a.. pretty big TV.” He commented, trying not to sound alarmed.

Charlotte leaned forward on the counter. “You like it?” She exclaimed excitedly. “It's almost three feet across!”

“Sounds.. expensive.” He stated bluntly. “How did you afford this?”

She snickered quietly. “What do you think, dummy? With my own money.”

Okay, now he was getting suspicious. “Your money?”

“Yeah, got a new phone too.” From behind her, she pulled out a phone. As she said, it was new; he'd never seen it before. She pulled it up to her good eye. “The camera’s insane on this one!” She boasted.

This was getting out of hand. A phone, TV, motorcycle? Expensive experiences? “Charlotte..” He paused, an involuntary, withering groan escaping him. “I’m concerned about your spending.”

She moved the phone away from her face, her arms lazily reaching out to her sides. Her elbows rested on the counter. “What?” She smiled lightly. “I can afford it.”