INTERNET FRIENDS ( SIMON MINTER ) ✓

seventy five

"I better be going"

Charlotte rushed, grabbing her bag and turning to quickly shuffle out of the booth. But before she could escape, Simon's broken voice stopped her, the hurt and defeat buried deep in his tone, freezing her.

"Charlotte. Please" He looked down at her with pleading eyes, he was even taller in real life. Even though he looked like he hadn't slept in ages and generally looked shattered and damaged with his red eyes which had large bags beneath them and pale skin matched with frowny chewed lips, he still managed to look beautiful. Seeing him made Charlotte's heart ache and her fingers tingle with the want to touch him, with the want to run them freely through his hair, and for them to memorise every part of him. Every inch. But that would be inappropriate now.

This was definitely not how she imagined meeting him.

She watched him with large, wary eyes, that were beginning to gloss over, she didn't know how she would hold herself together in front of him. She had been hardly holding herself together when she was alone. His blue eyes watched her back just as intently and she didn't miss how he bit his lower lip. They stayed like that, staring at each other, as if the world didn't exist or that if they stared at each other long enough it would fix everything, for minutes that seemed like hours, but at the same time didn't seem like long enough. Charlotte didn't want to look away until she had pinpointed the exact shade of blue his eyes were. Simon didn't want to look away until he had memorised every single fleck of colour and how often she blinked, so when the memory would the only thing he had left of her, he could imagine she was still there.

Their trance was broke when Josh cleared his throat, causing them both to reluctantly look over to him. He was still holding his mug and looked between them awkwardly. Charlotte then remembered where she had seen his face and why she had that niggling feeling that she knew him well, he was Zerkaa.

"It was lovely meeting you, Charlotte, but I have to go, I said I'd do a collab with JJ" He smiled, showing his teeth again before quickly leaving the coffee shop.

Charlotte began to fiddle with the ends of her purple hair as Simon sat down opposite her, still managing to look like a giant, he clasped his large hands shut together on top of the table, so tight that his knuckles began to whiten. From closer up Charlotte could see the extent of the break up on his face, it looked worse, she couldn't help but feel guilty and she just wanted to stroke his face and carefully touch beneath his eye. She almost did, but she dropped her hand back on the table as soon as it subconsciously lifted.

"He's not filming a collab with JJ, is he?" Charlotte whispered, tracing the outline of her mug with her finger again, her purple nails silently scratching the porcelain and her eyes trained on the brown liquid inside.

Simon pressed on a small smile, "No"

She couldn't look at him, if she did she'd break down or forgive him or maybe even kiss him, and she couldn't do any of those. She didn't know what to say.

"So, what are you doing in London?" Simon asked awkwardly, even though she wasn't looking at him she knew he was tapping his feet under the table and biting his lip.

"Photography trip" She said flatly, still focusing on her drink.

She could hear the small, sad sigh escape from Simon's lips, he had thought she had came here to see him.

"Soo..." She dragged out pursing her lips and staring at her coffee, this was awkward to say the least. She downed some of the cooling coffee to give her an excuse to not talk, if she sat in silence for too long, her feelings might come falling out of her mouth before she could stop herself.