this love • gracie abrams

023 for yourself

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
for yourself
•

"AFTERNOON, charlotte," nodded martin, the young checkout guy at the liquor store who charlotte has become particularly close with.

charlotte gave him a wave, "hey mart,' how's things," she said, heading to her usual shelves.

"good since i finally got my playstation fixed," he replied. "what're we stocking up for this time?"

"going on a little trip with my girlfriend."

"ahh, saw on your insta you two are back together, good for you guys," martin smiled, watching charlotte fill up her basket. "my sister is really into her new album."

"so am i," charlotte chuckled. "she's been pretty booked with interviews for it and stuff but we're heading out to the mountains today."

"nice, but before you go anywhere, mind telling your parents to stop coming here to buy 'what's in the back' for me? like i get that they're rich and famous but usually i like to steal drinks from back there to make myself look rich and famous, and can't do that when they're taking all the good shit, you feel?" martin laughed.

charlotte took a second to respond, a little stunned to say the least and hearing the mentioning of her parents again, "uh, yeah yeah. i'll let 'em know mart'." she said and grabbed a random bottle to put in her cart that wasn't even on her list for some reason.

when she got back to her car and started driving back to her place to pick up the cats, she started to wonder how exactly her parents were doing right now. she doesn't bother to look at recent articles or post about them online at all, doesn't answer calls from other family members or even look at the controversy surrounding them and herself. it was weird. the weirdest feeling she's felt. but it also made her paranoid. it was like any second she'd run into them or somehow get into another conflict with them again, even though she knows they're done with each other. she raced to her place, knuckles tense to the wheel.

-

"are the kids sleeping?" gracie asked.

charlotte peered back to the back seats to see rue, timber, and weenie all asleep, "yeah," charlotte replied, snapping a quick picture of them all curled up together. "how much longer?"

gracie laughed, "how many times are you gonna ask that?"

"last one, promise."

"bout forty, fifty minutes maybe," gracie said. "should get there by nine."

"ok, and what time do you wanna hit the slopes in the morning?" she grinned, intertwining their fingers together as gracie gave her her spare hand.

"aw i thought you were joking about making me ski," the singer frowned. "besides, i don't have any like gear or whatever, so i can't."

"exactly, which is why i brought my old ski's and boots," charlotte says, but gracie remains glaring at her. "you'll be fine, promise. worse thing is you fall down into a soft pile of snow. besides, i'm sure all the other six year olds on the bunny hill will make you feel very welcome," she grinned.

gracie rolled her eyes and shoved charlotte's hand away, making her laugh.

even though she was completely terrified of going skiing with charlotte, gracie was actually feeling a bit more excited for this little get away more and more. a change of scenery and alone time with charlotte felt like the perfect distraction for her to forget about everything in her head recently; her body, alex, feeling hallowed out, her hatred for just going through a day.