35 ᴍᴍ ꜰɪʟᴍ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀ ʙʟᴀᴄᴋ ᴄᴏꜰꜰᴇᴇ I 🎀 𝒢𝓇𝒶𝒸𝒾𝑒 𝒜𝒷𝓇𝒶𝓂𝓈 [𝑔𝓍𝑔] 🎀

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟓: 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 15

The soft glow of the afternoon sun filtered through the large windows of Charlie-Wren's LA home, casting a warm light across the spacious living room. The room was a blend of eclectic decor, a mixture of Gracie's taste for cosy minimalism and Charlie's love for vintage records and eclectic art. On the coffee table, a half-finished cup of coffee sat beside a stack of notebooks—some filled with song lyrics, others with ideas for scripts and stories she'd been working on.

Charlie was curled up on the couch, her phone in her hand, as she absentmindedly scrolled through Instagram. It was one of those rare, quiet days when she didn't have to be anywhere or meet a deadline. The past few months had been a blur—between wrapping up Euphoria, navigating press tours, and finding time to spend with Gracie, her life had been moving at full speed. But now, in the stillness of the afternoon, she had a moment to breathe and reflect.

As she scrolled through her feed, Charlie came across a picture she'd posted a few months back, right after the Euphoria premiere—the night they had gone viral with their spontaneous McDonald's run. She smiled to herself as she looked at the photo. It was a candid shot of her and Gracie standing in the bright lights of McDonald's, wearing her oversized t-shirt and jeans, with a tray of fries in her hand. 

The memory brought warmth to her chest, and Charlie couldn't help but scroll back further through her posts. The past two years had been a whirlwind, but seeing it all laid out in front of her made it feel even more surreal. Every photo was a snapshot of the life she and Gracie had built together, one filled with laughter, adventure, and moments of quiet intimacy.

She paused on a photo from earlier in the year—an image of them at the beach, Gracie sitting beside her on the sand, both of them laughing as Weenie, Gracie's little dachshund, ran circles around them. They looked carefree, happy, like nothing in the world could touch them.

"God, time flies," Charlie murmured to herself, her fingers swiping to the next post—a candid shot Gracie had taken of her sitting at a piano, completely lost in the music. She remembered that day so clearly. It had been one of those lazy Sunday afternoons when everything felt light, like they had all the time in the world.

Charlie smiled, her thumb brushing against the screen as she continued scrolling. She came across photos from their first trip together—a road trip up the California coast. There was a picture of them at a small, roadside diner, sitting across from each other with matching milkshakes and goofy grins on their faces. Another one was from a cliffside hike, Gracie's hair blowing in the wind as she looked out over the Pacific Ocean, the sunset casting a golden glow across the sky.

"You and your sunsets," Charlie had teased her that day, pulling Gracie close as they watched the sun dip below the horizon.

The more Charlie scrolled, the more memories came flooding back—concerts, late-night jam sessions in the living room, quiet mornings spent sipping coffee in bed, and the moments that weren't captured on camera but still lived vividly in her mind.

Charlie kept scrolling through recent and old pictures she posted: