Silas and Charlie

d a y - s e v e n

THE :

BEGINNING OF

UNDERSTANDING

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"North and South, hot and cold, sound and silence - he and I." - Silas Blue

Charlie darts into the house, throwing open the door with a bang, and running up the stairs, stumbling twice while flying past a stunned open-mouthed Amy. She has to press her tiny frame up against the railing trying to avoid being jabbed by one of Charlie wayward, jostling elbows.

Their Mother leans with her back against the wall, allowing an eye crinkling smile to take place.

"What's your hurry?" She teases lightly, wincing as he falters yet again.

Much to his Mother's dismay, Charlie trips on the top step and goes sprawling onto the hardwood floor, but he scrambles up in a hussle as soon as he had touched solid ground, and resumed sprinting like an Olympic athlete around the upstairs corner.

"I've got a date!" He manages to yell down, then making a sharp left and almost tumbling over himself. "And right now I'm gonna be late!"

"Oh, so that's why you're acting like you life is in danger." She jests, and Amy giggles, loving how hilarious her brother looks as he tries to get into his room without losing any more time. Charlie fumbles the door handle with unsteady hands and lets out a scream of aggravation. After finally getting a good grip on the thing, he more or less kicks it open and immediately skids over to his unmade bed.

Flopping down he grabs his baseball cleats, and rips them off of his feet along with his socks, throwing them haphazardly on the carpet. Rummaging through his closet with panicked, short arm movements he finds a decent non-athletic shirt and pulls it halfway over his torso (which was already bruising from his multiple falls) before shucking off the rest of his uniform and jumping into a pair of dark jeans; that he found in the spur of the moment much to hard to actually get on his legs.

Putting his shirt all of the way on he peers at his hair in the mirror (it was generous to say that it looked like he'd brushed it with an egg beater.) He rakes his fingers through it, making it appear somewhat presentable and purposely messy. He remembers making plans with Mariah to go on another date at the exact same time, but fate was out to get him today because his clean-up period had taken drastically longer that afternoon since Silas was absolutely intent on finishing and could not be swayed in any way.

Not to mention that of course Coach Thompson had wanted Charlie to stay after so that they could work one-on-one with his curveball pitch from at least another hour. Apparently, 'with a little practice you could actually be as good a player as Theo, Charlie.' He scoffed at the thought - nobody could be as good as Theo, who practiced almost religiously for crazy amounts of time; Charlie laughed aloud, joking to himself that Theo probably did it to keep himself from going crazy.

And now, the universe was punishing him for ever thinking that he could ever get away with two dates in a row. He didn't even know where he was going to take her, so he was going to have to borrow some of Star's acting skills and play it off like he'd known the whole time. Satisfied with his appearance, he runs back downstairs, ignoring the amused looks his Mother was clearly giving him because apparently he had attracted his very own audience now; first Amy, then his Mother and now even his Dad was in on it. All three of them were watching him race to the front door, and laughing to themselves about it. They all found Charlie's predicament hilarious, and were doing their absolute best not to comment.

In one smooth fluid motion, he opens the door, keeping his body moving, and makes direct eye contact with none other than Silas Blue. Startled it's all he can do to force legs to stop moving only inches away from her, causing Charlie to topple sideways and off the steps, and land flat on his back in the grass. He laid there for a moment, eyes squeezed tight shut before moaning softly. "You have got to be kidding me."