Once In A Lifetime

Chapter Twenty Three

Tuesday afternoon, Elena and I were studying in the steps on the communications buildings when Doctor Matt comes running out the building and down the stairs to wedge himself in between us. Doctor Matt starts talking and snapping his fingers around the second his butt hits the step,
"LADIES! Hello, hello! How are you today? I'm great! Elena, ask me why I am great."
Elena opens her mouth to start talking but before she could get a word out Doctor Matt starts talking again, "I'm glad you asked, Ellie! I have news! Good, fantastic news! Sam, ask me what my good, fantastic, spectacular, and life changing news is."
I open my mouth to ask but he starts talking again,
"Thank you for asking, Samantha! Your two brilliant minds wrote an exquisite story on pro life and it blew Oxford's bloody minds! LADIES! My dear, sweet, and wonderful ladies you are officially London bound!"
There was about three seconds of processing silence. I look over at El just as she looked at me, "Sammy....." she says with a smile growing on her face.
My face breaks into a huge grin then I scream,
"EL!"
Elena jumps over Matt and tackles me into a hug,
"ARE WE BEING PUNKED?" she says through her tears. Doctor Matt joins our hug,
"No, you silly girl. You are not being punked, you are both brilliant writers and I could not be any prouder. I've already booked a trip to come visit you two in jolly ole England."
I scrunch my nose up and look up at Doctor Matt, "When did you find out we won?"
He looks confused at me, "Just now. Why?"
"You booked your plane tickets before you even told us?"
Doctor Matt softly smiles before tapping his finger on the tip of my nose,
"No, I came right to you two. I booked those tickets after I read the first draft of your article." El and I laugh as we squeeze him tighter, we look silly all piled up together on the steps I'm sure. After a lot more hugging, crying, and screaming, Elena runs off to the side to call her parents. Matt squeezes me tight,
"I'm going to tell Aunt Karen and Steph in two weeks at Thanksgiving." I say more to myself than Matt. Matt nods and plants a kiss on the top of my head,
"I know your Mom and Dad are so so proud." he says.
I close my eyes and smile, I knew they would be too.

But I wasn't ready to tell Mason.

"El, did you see we got an email from the Oxford peeps?"
Elena rolls her eyes, "Samantha. They are sophisticated British humans, not peeps."
I mirror her eye roll, "Did you get the email or nah, Parker?"
Elena gets out her phone to find the email, Oxford had sent us an email with all our flight and lodging information. I watch her scroll through the email then lock her phone and flop back on her bed.
"Have you told Mason yet?" she asks.
I pick at my fingernail,
"Have you told Luke yet?"
Neither of us say a word, a few minutes later I break the silence. "I'm telling him after Thanksgiving." I mumble. Elena shoots up, "Sammy. That's a month before we leave."
I shrug and continue picking at my nail, Elena stares me down for a moment before changing the subject to our Cardiff roadtrip we are going to make when Doctor Matt comes to visit us in. Elena's phone starts to buzz with a call from Charlie,
"What do you want loser?" Elena answers.
"Well hello to you to, sweet heart!"
Elena smirks while shaking her head,
"What do you want Charles?"
"Did you ladies perhaps forget something you had to do today?"
Elena put her hand over the speaker,
"Hey Sam? Was there anything we have to do today?"
I thought for a moment...was there anything we had to today?
"CRAP!" I screamed as I shot off my bed and ran towards my closet.
"Elena! We are late for work!"

Elena's Point Of View
"SAM! C'mon!" I yell as I run through the swinging kitchen door. Just as I went through, someone pulls me back around from my waist. I am spun around quickly to where I am facing him. Charlie smirks down at me,
"Well well well... Elena Rose. You are a bit tardy, princess"
I put my hands on his chest and shove a little, "Woah there Casanova! Keep your hands to yourself, mister!" Before he can make a comeback, Sammy plows through the door knocking into Charlie which sends the pair of us tumbling into the red booth with him on top of me. Charlie looks down at me flashing his signature mischievous smirk,
"Well I do believe this is what they call a compromising position. Any thoughts?" he asks smoothly. I roll my eyes, "Yeah, I think you need to get your cocky self off of me."
Charlie tickles my sides, "With a face like this how could I not be cocky?"
"Shut up, Hazard!"
Charlie puts his face closer to mine and looks down at my lips.
"Make me, Parker."
Dead silence. That's all there was after he spoke. I couldn't even think of a sassy reply. There was just silence. Sammy breaks the lethal silence, "Well...I'm sufficiently creeped out by this little exchange."
Nathan leans through the order window,
"Hey! People eat there! Separate yourselves! Weirdos!"
I'm blushing hard and avoid all eye contact.
"Um I think you should-" I mumble.
Charlie pushes himself off me and lends me a hand up. I take his hand and he yanks me up out of our booth."Get to work, sunshine." he says with a smirk as he walks backwards toward the registrar.

I walk back to the sink to wash my hands and process what the hell just happened between me and one of my best friends. My mind is blown.

During our shift all I can think about is three things: London, telling Luke about London, and Charlie. I'm so excited about going to London, Sam and I have been dreaming about going there for years. I don't think Luke is going to understand, he's never even been over the county line. Then there's Charlie, it's like whatever happened before our shift didn't even happen. I don't even understand what happened, I mean we flirt sometimes but he's my best friend. He's like my brother? Luke loves me and I'm falling in love with Luke. I'm so confused.

After the longest shift I've think I have ever worked, I go up to our loft and flop on our couch. I'm too tired to even attempt making it up to my bed. Just as I close my sleepy eyes, I'm startled by our front door slamming. Sam runs over and practically jumps on top of me,
"Do you like Charlie?"
I shoot up into the sitting position,
"No! I have Luke! Charlie is one of my best friends!" I say quickly.
Sam narrows her eyes at me, "Well he likes you!"
I stand up and go to the kitchen to fix myself some coffee.
"Well of course Luke likes me. He's my boyfriend." I say.
Sam walks over to the fridge to most likely get herself some Diet Dr. Pepper. "I wasn't talking about Luke." Sam says as she cracks the top of a Diet Dr. Pepper. I jump up to sit on our counter and shake my head at her,
"You know Charlie is a flirt. He flirts with everybody."
Sam crosses her arms in front of her,
"That was totally different than his usual flirting and you know it."
Before I could say anything else, Mason and Luke walk into our flat.
"Ladies! It is our turn to pick what we watch!" Mason says as he strides over to my best friend. Luke comes over throws an arm around my shoulder,
"Hey babe. How was work?"
I wrap my arms around his middle, "Boring! Completely boring!" I quip. Luke looks down at me and laughs, "Alright then...ready to watch some Fast and the Furious?" I roll my eyes, "I'm ready to sleep during some Fast and the Furious."

I could use the rest. It's been a day.