Why Not Live?

Chapter Thirteen - Raindrops on the Window

Charly's POV

Charly sat on the window seat in her bedroom and watched as the rain poured down outside. The streets that were usually flooded with people were now close to empty and the few stragglers still walking along all carried brightly colored umbrellas. Some people darting from one building to another carried newspapers over their heads, or walked under the awnings, carefully avoiding where the rain splattered against the pavement.

It was nice to watch. Charly had always loved the rain. It soothed her. She leaned her forehead against the cold window and followed stray raindrops as they slid down the glass, joining up with each other as they made it down.

A pounding on her front door snapped Charly out of her peaceful moment. Joey was the only one she had let come around in the past week and he had a key. He wouldn't have knocked. Which meant it was probably Nathan. Charly took a deep breath, leaning her head back against the wall and closing her eyes. She knew he wouldn't stay away forever, this whole conversation was inevitable, though she was still dreading it.

Her heart was racing and her stomach twisting nervously. She took deep breaths, trying to keep herself from getting sick over it. It was so easy to get sick these days.

The pounding got louder and Charly knew she couldn't ignore it forever, so she pushed the blanket off of her lap and pushed herself to her feet, heading slowly in the direction of the door. It was hard to tell if she was so slow because of how bad she felt or because of how much she dreaded opening the door.

She made it down the hallway and just stared at the door for a minute. This was it, this was either going to be the beginning or the end. She took a deep breath before opening the door.

"Charly!" A shrill voice rang out as she opened the door, definitely not the deep voice of Nathan like she had been expecting.

Charly blinked a few times as she was carefully pushed aside when Stacy whooshed into the room. "What the hell has been up with you bitch? Not answering my calls, not texting me back! Even Joey won't talk to me!" She yelled, looking pretty scary for such a small thing.

"Stacy, I'm sorry. Calm down, I-" Charly started, reaching out to close the door.

Stacy stepped back. "Don't you tell me to calm down! I've been worried sick. You just dropped off the face of the planet! No one has heard from you. I saw Nathan a couple days ago, you know. He looks pretty bad, he said he hadn't heard from you either."

Charly's heart beat a little faster when Stacy mentioned Nathan, but she pushed it aside. Right now she had to deal with her hysterical best friend.

Stacy apparently had no intention if shutting up anytime soon. "So, are gonna tell me what the hell is going on or are you just going to stand there and stare at me, huh? Don't look at me like that! I am not crazy!"

"Okay, Stac. Look, let's just go sit in the living room. I'll make some coffee and I'll tell you everything, okay?" Charly said in a soothing voice, attempting to get Stacy to calm down.

Stacy just looked at her for a minute, still breathing heavy and looking ready to explode into her next verbal assault.

Charly sighed, "come on, Stac."

Stacy glared for a second longer before nodding her head and following her into the kitchen silently.

Charly went straight to the coffee maker. The coffee definitely wouldn't be as good as what Stacy made every day at the shop, but it was eatable. They both remained silent as Charly moved around the kitchen. Stacy was obviously waiting to explode until they had settled into the living room and currently looked like she was planning many different ways to attack. Charly on the other hand, was stuck in her thoughts.