Charming Charlie | ✔

14. Halloween (pt1)

Halloween approached quicker than anyone would've liked but there was no stopping time.

Nothing eventful happened in the time crunch of Charlie being sick until now. Her and Holden were together almost every night. They spent the night in each others room, taking turns. Last night they had happened to end up in Holden's bed. Currently Charlie laid awake staring at the ceiling. Sunlight was creeping in through the closed curtains causing the room to glow. She could hear the gentle crash of the waves down at the beach since they fell asleep letting in some of the cold air. Ruth had the heater cranked up too high.

Charlie turned in Holden's arms causing his arms to fall from around her bare waist. She rested her arm on his naked chest and rested her chin on her arm as she looked at his sleeping face. Charlie had quickly figured out that Holden slept in until late on weekends. But she knew this even before they started sleeping together. He was also a heavy sleeper, she couldn't wake him even if she was about to die.

Sighing to herself, Charlie sat up and tried to locate her clothes in the semi lit room. She shrugged before walking over to her overnight back. Grabbing a pair of underwear, a bra, her jeans and a tank top she quickly put them on. She rushed a brush through her hair so she could put in up into a messy bun.

Taking one last look at her heavy sleeper of a boyfriend she left his room, closing the door behind her. It was almost noon but she knew that right now Ruth and Tony would be up, they were both morning people. Their son clearly didn't take after them.

"Well, would you look who it is. Ms. Magic, you could have told Holden to be a little quieter last night, the walls are paper thin." Tony boomed, causing Charlie's face to burn. She gave a slight smile and nodded her head. Ruth rolled her eyes, continuing putting up some last minute Halloween decorations. Tony was a Halloween enthusiast.

This years theme was "Murder Mystery" which Charlie had never heard of. That was until Tony thoroughly explained it to her. People gathered into a room killed off one by one while trying to find the mystery killer. They dressed in character that you couldn't break. If you guessed the killer right after the first kill after one guess then the winner gets a prize. Tony ran quite a few places around town so it wouldn't be a problem to give away things from his stores. He owned the beach shack, an electronics store, and though Charlie didn't know it then, the ice cream parlor that Holden had taken her on their first date.

Suddenly Charlie, who wasn't completely over her cold felt nauseous. Her face to lost its smile while listening to Tony and Ruth bicker about where things went. She held her cold hand to her mouth and ran for the bathroom to throw up. Her stomach was turning and she felt sharp pains in her abdomen that she passed off as cramps.

"Charlie, are you okay?" Ruth asked, she had apparently ran after Charlie when she abruptly ran from the kitchen. She put the toilet seat down while still sitting on the floor.

'I'm fine.' Charlie signed with her eyes closed, 'I'm still not completely over my cold. It was my fault for being stupid."

"Charlie, that was three weeks ago, you should be fine now. This is the longest time you've been sick in the last few months that I've known you." Ruth said, helping Charlie stand up. She flushed the toilet and Charlie rinsed out her mouth before brushing her teeth with a spare toothbrush, not using her usual one that she left here.

When she cleaned up Ruth stopped her from leaving the bathroom.

"Your costume is on the back of the door, I want you to change now. You can leave the bathroom once you're finished." Ruth told her, shutting the door in Charlie's face. 

She was right. On the back of the door on a hanger was an outfit that looked like the girl version of Sherlock Holmes.

She put on the short brown dress that was tight around the chest but flared out from around her hips. The collar was a lighter brown in a baby doll style with an attached necklace. There was a baggy attached to the hanger that held a plastic smoking pipe and a sort of tweed newsboy cap.