Stalking Charlie

Stay

Nick Stone

I pushed the infirmary door and instantly found my sister sitting next to a bed. In her hands she hold on to Charlie's left hand, watching her girlfriend sleep.

"Alex. What happened?" I asked quietly.

Alex looked up at me with worry and fear in her eyes. Without thinking too much about it, I cocooned her to a tight embrace, kissing her forehead. She leaned on to me and let me comfort her.

I heard a strangled cough behind me, and remembered Jake and Kenneth was with me. They look uncomfortable as hell with our affectionate display.

I just rolled my eyes.

"What happened to her?" I asked again.

I looked at Charlie again. She have a gauze pad on her forehead. She's extremely pale. She looked so foreign, but familiar.

Yeah, she looked exactly like that night I hit her with my car.

"I-I don't exactly know. She was okay when we left home." Alex said.

"Did you call Dad?"

"Uh.. No. Should I?" she said hesitantly.

I shrugged. Charlie is not exactly my father's responsibility, but I think he would like to be informed of this.

"Okay, I'll call him." Alex nodded in agreement. "Can you hold her hand for me, Nick?"

My sister didn't wait for my reply, she put Charlie's small hand on my big one. Then left to do the call.

I looked at my friends, Jake is trying his hardest not to laugh, while Kenneth just stood there, shuffling his feet. He too looks uncomfortable.

"You can wait for me outside." I ground my teeth in annoyance. Kenneth nodded and immediately pulled the reluctant Jake right away.

I sighed, sitting to the stool Alex left. I held on to Charlie's small soft hand gently, not wanting her to wake up from my tight grip.

It wasn't the first time I saw this little brat sleeping, but when I see her sleeping, she always look troubled. Like she can never relax even when she's resting.

It's funny that I live with this girl every day, annoyed at her constant presence beside me and yet there's very little I know of her.

What I know is she's the illegitimate daughter of that millionaire Devin Bishop, but there's never a mention of her mother. Maybe she looks like her mother, because there's very little resemblance between Devin and her.

She likes bikes, she hates Criminal Minds. She loves to eat but doesn't know how to cook. She likes to listen to punk rock and metal rock music, and absolutely hates pop. She hates bra, said it's very restricting. She likes to wear sunglasses, with or without bruises and sunshine. She likes dyeing her hair, and just recently she had colored it white. Or ash gray as she lectured me.

Charlie doesn't talk much about herself, now that I think about it. She just listen and make inappropriate and most of the time unwelcome comments. She laughs and jokes, but never share her personal story.

Why is this girl so damn mysterious? We never talked again about that incident where I hit her with my car, and of someone hurting and following her. It's as if it never happened.

Maybe that's how she wanted it to be. Maybe she doesn't talk about this things because she doesn't like being reminded of it, doesn't want to talk of it. And if it's not being talked about, it's as if it never happened.

I frowned as I stare at this pretty girl. Just what is her story? Alex said before she had a stalker..

"Rocky.."

She squinted her eyes, looking at me. Her eyes adjusted to the light, so she opened it properly. Her beautiful brown eyes shook me.

It's scared.

"Charlie." I called her softly. "What happened? How do you feel?"

She blinked, and all traces of fear was gone. Did I just imagine that?

"Like a fucking drunk that hit his head to a solid stone wall four times in a row." she murmured, clutching at her head.

Huh. What a definitio-

"Wait. Was that me? I hit my head when I was drunk last Saturday?"

She looked at me, blinking.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. That was you. But technically it was my fault. I sort of accidentally hit your head to the wall on the way to your room." she explained.

"Four times?!" I yelled angrily. That explains why my head hurt so much the next day.

"Ugh.." she closed her eyes, hurt written on her face as she massage her temple. "You're so big, and I'm small. How do you think I can take all of you with no difficulty? Besides, the stairs were an absolute pain in the ass. I have bruises to show for it. You were so heavy, and massive-"

There was a loud clearing of throat behind me. And I saw the nurse on duty looking at us sternly.

"Maybe if you refrained from having too much sex on a stairway, Miss Raven will have enough time to rest and not faint on school, Mr. Stone." the middle aged nurse said, looking at us with disapproving eyes.

"What?!" I exclaimed, not getting what she said. While, Charlie just laughed quietly.

The nurse examined her briskly. Alex came back with a worried face.

"Dad will pick you up, Charlie." she informed us, then turned to the nurse. "Is it alright for her to move and go home, Ms. Trudi?"

The nurse nodded.

"Yes. Just proper rest will do. I'll send a notification to her teachers."

"Thank you." she smiled at the nurse who walked away with a resigned face.

I stood up to leave also, but a hand prevented me to go anywhere. I looked down and saw that I'm still holding Charlie's hand.

"Are you alright?" Alex said, holding Charlie's right hand on the other side of the bed, smoothing her hair.

"I'm fine." she answered quietly, smiling at her gently. "Thank you."

I looked away, annoyed of her reaction to my sister. Why does she have to be kind to her and mischievous with me?

"Raven, let go of my hand." I demanded.

She shook her head, then hissed with pain.

"Stupid." she muttered to herself. "Stay for a while, Nicky."

"I have classes-"

Alex silenced me with her pleading stare.

"But Jake and-"

"They already left for their class." Alex said. I just sighed and sat back.

"Thanks, Rocky." Charlie smiled gratefully, then tugged at my hand and brought it to her lips, kissing the back of it.

I felt prickles of heat emitting from her slightly chapped lips, and an unfamiliar feeling stirred within me as she look at me through those thick lashes of hers.

Charlie's warm chocolate brown eyes owned me.

And that moment I just realized that whatever and whoever she is, I knew I was done for.