this love • gracie abrams

029 horror

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
horror
•

CHARLOTTE shut the door, her arm extended out to still hold the handle while her other hand was pressed against the centre of her chest, her heart hammering against it as fast as her head was spinning. the hallway was dark and insanely quiet, given she wasn't breathing and she was completely convinced she was about to pass out. her jaw was clamped shut and she wasn't letting a single ounce of oxygen in or out, she just stood completely still.

she wasn't even thinking anything real, it was all just a jumble of words and nonsense all mixing together and cutting out like she was having a stroke. am i having a stroke? she wouldn't even be able to google that with how out of focus her body was. her ears were ringing and bile was pooling her mouth which she kept having to swallow back over and over again, filling her still lungs. every single alarm in her body and mind was going off, and she couldn't even fucking move, but even if she could, she wouldn't want to. too scared to move even a muscle.

completely on autopilot after standing there still for a solid five whole minutes, she found herself downstairs and stepping over those asleep on the floor to reach sadie who was sleeping with caleb on the couch. she practically blacked out the entire way down here. her hand reached for her shoulder and shook it.

sadie's eyes fluttered open, seeing charlotte's tensed face illuminated by the lights from the christmas tree, "charlie?" she croaked, rubbing her eyes and sitting herself up a bit. "why're you waking me up you bitch," she groaned.

the redhead took a pause, looking closely at charlotte's face and how her chin was wobbling and her eyes were pooling with tears, still holding her breath, "hey, you okay?"

charlotte shook her head fast.

sadie got up, "okay... come on, let's go talk, yeah?" she soothingly rubbed her hands up and down charlotte's stiff arms and walked her to the bathroom. she quietly shut the door and turned on the light, seeing charlotte's spaced out eyes. "jesus, the hell happened to you?"

charlotte didn't respond, placing her hand on the counter to balance herself.

"charlotte?" sadie reached for hands and held them, "hey, you gotta breathe."

"i can't, it's—" charlotte managed to say, her voice thick with worry and her face turning red. "gracie."

sadie drew her brows in, "did something happen with you two?"

charlotte's breath finally caught a hitch and a second later, she started bawling. complete award winning tears.

she looked at sadie with a flood and a hand over her mouth to silence her aching sobs. sadie pulled her into a tight hug, rubbing her back and shaking her head.

"woah hey... what happened?" she asked despite charlotte being too busy covering her shirt with an abundance of tears. "is she okay?"

"no, no," charlotte whined a bit too loud. "she's not okay, she's not okay," her last word drawing out into cry.

sadie pulled away slowly, holding her shoulders, "charlie, i can't help until you tell me what happened. where's gracie?"

it was then charlotte realized another problem. sadie doesn't know about gracie's eating disorder at all. no one does except for charlotte and olivia, and though olivia would be the only one to hear about it, charlotte can't even imagine telling her about it. that's gracie's best friend. even if gracie asked charlotte to be the one to tell olivia she doesn't think she could based on how she's handling it right now which is not great. her hands were weightless in sadie's and things were starting to get a little too dizzy, with a nauseating feeling in her stomach and an ache in her eyes.