this love • gracie abrams

025 brace for impact

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
brace for impact
•

GRACIE was laying on the floor waiting for charlotte to pick up the goddamn phone.

around 10:30 last night she still hadn't come home, so gracie called maddie and jenna to see if they were all held up in traffic or something, but they said charlotte had left discretely and unannounced. that's when gracie started to freak out. she called charlotte nineteen times and texted her about thirty times but the scariest part was that after the tenth call she had gracie on do not disturb. she never does that. she ended up calling jude at two in the morning, waking him up and asking him if he would somehow know and thankfully, he and charlotte share each others locations (gracie was now planning on asking charlotte for hers when she gets back).

she was expecting jude to say she crashed at a friends house who was also at the event, or maybe something happened with her car or the cats — literally anything, except for what he ended up saying. she's at her parents house. and now, she's been there for hours and unresponsive still. she could be dead. no, she's obviously not. oh my god i'm gonna end up in a celebrity murder documentary on my own girlfriend.

she assumed charlotte's parents had her phone or something since obviously there'd be no other reason she wouldn't be replying. but that didn't answer the main question of why the hell she was there and not here. gracie glanced to her keys, chewing her lip beyond repair and picking at her nails.

-

charlotte stretched and stood at the door of her room, hyping herself up for a solid five minutes before creaking the door open. neither her purse or her phone were left in her room, so she'd have to find and grab them before escaping. she tip-toed down the hall, knowing her parents were up and probably waiting on her to bitch her out about last night, despite all that happened with her mom what she said. boston then decided to follow her out her room, his collar jangling obnoxiously loud making her clench her teeth and press a finger to her lips at him. and then of course, the other doberman wanted to acknowledge her existence as saint came barreling up the stairs, jumping up on her to her shoulders.

"oh my god, hi i missed you and love you but please please shut the fuck up!" she rambled in a hushed tone, pushing saint down.

"charlotte? are you awake?" she then heard her mom call from downstairs.

charlotte glared at the dogs. she sighed and rubbed her temples, muttering a million different profanities before trudging down the stairs and flipping off the dogs on her way down.

she paused at the foot of the stairs, peering her head around the corner just enough to catch a sneak peak of what she was about to walk in on. she let a breath of relief when she noticed it was just her mom. she cleared her throat and slowly walked into the kitchen, her mom staring at her with a stern look and a frown.

"hi," charlotte mumbled, awkwardly playing with her fingers and staring at the floor.

"sleep well?" mrs. parker asked. she nodded for charlotte to sit down.

"yeah. where's dad?"

"he'll be here in a couple minutes, he had to run to set."

that was her cue, "okay, well i should get out of here, i don't even know what time it is. hey where's my phone? and my purse, i really gotta go," she said, scouring around the kitchen.