BREAK POINT - chris sturniolo

CHAPTER 9

APRIL 15, JUNIOR YEAR

"Fun night with Chris, huh?" Charlotte says from the couch. A disheveled Sarah Grace slipped in the front door to our apartment. Her hair was matted in the back and her cheeks were flushed pink. 

"Yeah." She smiles politely. "I'm gonna go take a shower." 

She disappears down the hallway almost as quickly as she came in. Charlotte doesn't seem to notice anything, but she seemed off. Most likely, she was going to come back out here and start another fight with me, like she's been doing on and off for the past few weeks. 

Before the next episode of Grey's Anatomy started, Charlotte scurried over to the kitchen to get a snack. A buzzing sound emanated from her side of the couch. "Someone's calling you." 

"Pick up." She calls.

"What if it's your grandma or something?" I look and see it's a FaceTime from Chris. 

"You don't want to talk to meemaw?" She laughs and I pick up. 

"I hate old people." 

"Woah! What did old people ever do to you." Chris said, catching the tail end of our conversation. He was in bed with the hood of his sweatshirt pooling around his neck and his hair fluffed up and in his face. He absentmindedly tugged a strand in between his fingers. It was always my favorite, when he looked like this, but I pushed the thought out of my mind. 

"Is that Nick?" Charlotte came running over with a bowl of popcorn, spilling it while trying to catch a glimpse of the screen. 

"Yeah it's Nick. Idiot." He cracks a smile. "Anyway, I was just wondering if you guys wanted to get ice cream. Sarah Grace isn't picking up the phone. I figured you could wake her up and we could all go to Sprinkles or something." 

"Wake her up?" I laugh. "You think you wore her out that bad?" Charlotte slaps me on the arm as punishment for the inappropriate comment. 

"Huh?" He asks, seeming genuinely clueless. 

"You know, from all that crazy sex you just had." I say, messing up the back of my hair the way her's was. I probably shouldn't be openly mocking his girlfriend but I had a few glasses of wine at this point. 

"When? Today?" He asks. I can hear the shower shut off behind me. I turn to look down the hallway, and then look at Charlotte, who's looking at me with alarmingly wide eyes just off camera. 

"No," I say, tonguing the inside of my cheek, finally catching on to something, although I'm not sure exactly what. "Sorry, bad joke. I think she just got out of the shower if you want to call her back." 

"Oh okay, I will. I figured she was napping like always." He says, flipping over from his back to his stomach, clearly getting comfy on his bed. Music on his end softly fills the silence. 

"Yeah, no. Not this time." I say distantly after a beat. 

"Okay, well I'll go call her but I wanna see you guys tonight, too." He smiled an innocent, wide grin. 

"We'll text you." Charlotte said. The tone of the ending call hung in the air as we stared at each other, weighing the implications of Sarah Grace not just having been with Chris.