Can you keep up?

Chapter 22

A/N 

Two updates like I promised! Things are heating up, oi oi, wink wink ;) 

Hope you enjoy! Thanks for all the love x

Charlie's POV

Today has been such a great day! Spending time with Lauren is my new favourite thing to do, she's just so special. She's not like any guy I've ever dated and when I'm with her she makes me feel like I'm the only person in the world. I'm falling for her more and more every second I spend with her and I am terrified. I've never been in love and I'm scared of it. I'm scared that I could fall in love with her. And I'm scared that she could break my heart or worse, I could break hers. 

Sitting in my car watching her stare out of the window just makes my heart swell. She's so breathtakingly beautiful and I struggle to tear my eyes away from her when she's around. Am I out of my head? Am I out of my mind? 

We pull up outside of her house and I open the door for her and grab the pizza boxes. "Madame," I say courteously. She giggles and kisses me on the cheek making me blush. 

"Come on Casanova," she flirts, biting her lip and pulling me with her.

She allows me to step past her into the warmth of the house and closes the door behind us, shrugging off the hoodie I leant her and handing it to me.

I shake my head and push it back to her, "it looks better on you," I tell her honestly. She smiles wide and wraps it around her waist before kicking off her shoes and tugging me into the living room. A fire is roaring in the fire place and there's the sweet smell of apple and cinnamon candles in the air. A garland wrapped in fairy lights sits over the top of the mantle piece and the Christmas tree stands tall and proud, decorated so there is almost no green left. This scene makes me so happy, it's such a perfect family setting. 

I look around and notice Lisa, Dani and-

"Taylor? What are you doing here?" I ask in surprise. She stops talking to Dani and looks at me weirdly.

"Hanging with Dani obviously." I shrugged and joined Lauren on the couch for a sec, ignoring my sister's sass.

"Hey Laurlie," Lisa winked, putting her book down.

Lauren and I exchanged a look, "Laurlie?" 

"Yeah, Lauren + Charlie = Laurlie! It's your new ship name, I made it up." She announced proudly. I laughed and looked at Lauren adoringly. 

"Lise, you're so weird!" Lauren shook her head in amusement.

"Hey, I had to christen my OTP didn't I?" 

"Mhmm... anyway... Char and I are gonna go eat and watch a film so yeah bye," she said dragging me with her.

"No funny business!" Dani yelled after us, eliciting a laugh from the other two. I couldn't help the smirk that creeped onto my face as I checked Lauren out from behind, funny business would be pretty good though. Kath was in the kitchen making journals when we walked in and got stuck into the pizza we'd brought.

"Oh hey Laur, hey Charlotte," she smiled and took a gulp of her lemonade. 

"Hey there," I waved and offered her a slice, to which she accepted and got up to come join us. 

"So what'd you guys get up to today then?" She asked us innocently. Lauren and I made eye contact and we both blushed remembering this afternoon's less than platonic position. 

"Oh you know, just talking and I helped Lauren here with her running."

Kath basically choked on her pizza and snorted, "Lauren? Running? Don't make me laugh!" Lauren glared at her and I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped my throat.