Love Bites [on hold]

☆|sixteen

The following day, Natalie woke up to the view of the living room, which startled her for a bit longer than necessary. Then events from last night surged from her memory and she shot up, only then noticing the blanket draped over her.

She eyed it warily for a minute before she shoved it off and stood to her feet. She checked the clock to find it well past eight. Her eyes scanned the surrounding but, as she concluded, Charles must have already set off for work.

She walked over to the balcony and watched the sunlight seep into the room through the pores in the fabric. Heaving a sigh, she grasped fistfuls of the curtains and pushed them open, only to be met with the unavoidable glare of the sun.

She winced and her eyes stung from the cloud of dust that rose into the air, but nevertheless she kept it that way. The room was much more illuminated now that the surfaces of the countertops and the floors glimmered. She took a few steps back and stretched her arms in the air. A yawn escaped her lips.

It was Monday. She had work and she was going out with Zack.

It was probably one of the lightest, most fast-paced days of her life so far. Work wasn't as awkward as she had expected, and Zack didn't push her to the edge of her seat with his nagging questions.

After that, he took her to a cozy diner where they ordered burgers and fries and giant buckets of coke. She asked about how his work went and he asked her about her life, although completely avoiding the mention of that night she had spent at his place.

Zack was still a trainee at his own father's company. He worked at administration, and although he was already meant to take after his father, he still had a long way to go. He needed to learn a lot of the basics. At twenty-two, he was really that experience yet. The fact didn't seem to bother him at all, for he spoke about how he really wanted to get to writing.

His eyes twinkled in amusement as he spoke about the literary side of his life, just like how they did every time she set foot into the parlor. He looked and sounded very genuine about his interest. She really, whole-heartedly hoped he would succeed, because there was no one who deserved success more than the good and humble Zacharias O'Connel.

When she came back home, Charles was already there. She was about to greet him when she noticed something off about the way he looked ahead of him at the open balcony. He was sitting down on the carpet with his back against the sofa. An empty bottle of gin sat on the tile next to him.

"Charles?" She asked hesitantly and took a step forward. She had last seen him the night before and he was perfectly fine. "Is something wrong?"

His head tilted slowly to the side and set on her, as if he had only just noticed her. His eyes were clouded, his pubils barely visible through the blur. "Yeah, just thinking."

She paused for another minute as her lips pursed and she observed him in silence. He turned away from her and rested his arms atop his knees, letting his head fall down so that his hair blocked it from view.

"Do you need someone to talk to?" She offered. "I'm free for the rest of the day. I can sit down and listen. I won't judge, I promise."

He let out a ragged sigh and shook his head, but didn't look her way. "No! It's alright."

"Are you su-"

"Just go away, Natalie," He snapped. She flinched at the edginess she heard in his voice as he said those words. Something was wrong with him.

She took off her coat and draped it over the back of the sofa, then crossed the room and sat down next to him, folding her legs underneath her.

"Why are you always so stubborn?" He mumbled in a muffled voice and cast her a quick sideways glance before shaking his head in approval.