more than this// charles gitnick

3;

   I slightly smiled and leaned in, closing my eyes. I felt the butterflies in my stomach and there was a shock of excitement that ran through my body as our faces got closer. There was a split second where we paused and before I knew it Charles was holding me bridal style and walking me to the edge of the pool.

"Charles what the hell!" I screamed, letting out a nervous laugh.

"Jokes on you", he laughed

"Haha funny," I say, "Now put me down," I finish getting slightly serious

"What are you gonna do?" he taunted. I opened my mouth to talk, but when I couldn't think of a comeback, I quickly shut my mouth and rolled my eyes.

"Okay here," Charles smiled and put me down.

"That was a biiig mistake" I laugh, pushing Charles into the pool

Joey starts to laugh hysterically behind me while Lexi walks out, confused by what had just happened.

"Jokes on you huh?" I taunted with a smile.

"I guess so", he replied lifting his hand up, "can you help me up?" he asked

"I guess it's the least I could do" I smile, taking his hand in mine and lifting him up.

After I helped Charles up, we all messed around for a while. It had been about an hour since we'd all gotten to Lexi's and Lexi and I hadn't gone in the water at all yet, while Joey and Charles were messing around with Lexi's ginormous animal floaties in the pool.

I heard a noise from my phone, indicating that I got a text and without looking at who it was I put my thumb against the home button and my phone unlocked and I went into my messages. It was an unknown number.

'Don't look behind you' it read.

'Okay' I respond back and turn my phone off. I grabbed a bowl of strawberries sitting on the table next to me and ate a few.

I felt a hand creep up my shoulder and I knew it was either Joey or Charles so I acted like I didn't notice. I turned my head to the side a little to look over at where Lexi was and I got a peak of blond hair in my peripheral vision.

"Charles you aren't very good at sneaking around" I say, picking up my phone from the table and turning it on.

"Hey, at least I tried," Charles said, walking from behind the lawn chair and to the end of it where he sat down near my feet. I glanced up at him and noticed he was staring at Joey and Lexi, who were quietly flirting by the edge of the pool, "he looks really happy"

"They both do", I reply, "and that's saying a lot because of Lexi's last relationship"

"What happened?" he asked, looking over at me

"It's not my story to tell so I'll let her do that when she's ready, but he didn't treat her right", I finish, scratching memories from the back of my head from just six months ago.

"Wanna go in the pool?" he asked

"Sure why not," I reply, standing up.

Charles immediately runs over to me and picks me up bridal style once again and runs to the edge of the pool where he jumped in, with me still in his arms.

We both rise back to the surface and we began to laugh, "I hate you" I giggle.

"No you don't" he laughed. I playfully rolled my eyes and smile, putting my hair in a high ponytail. I look back up and Charles is still looking at me.

"What?" I giggle.

"You're gorgeous", he said. I felt the blood rush to my cheeks and I smiled, "stop it, Charles". Charles' smile slowly faded and he opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Lexi, "My brother's dropping off the pizza"

"I thought he was in Miami?", I asked, clearly very confused

"Yeah he was but he flew in last night", Lexi explained

"How old is your brother?", Joey asked

"Sixteen"

"And he's super hot", I joked, trying to see if I could make Charles jealous in some way, but he seemed unfazed. I frowned to myself and looked at Lexi with that same facial expression and she shrugged.

After a few minutes, we all decided to go back inside and get dressed. Joey and Charles took quick showers in Lexi and her parent's bathrooms and then Lexi and I did the same.

After my shower, I put a towel around my wet body and walked into Lexi's closet to look for something comfy to wear. It took me minimal effort to find something to wear and change into, which consisted of grey sweatpants and a dark grey Calvin Klein sports bra. I then blow dried my hair and put it into a high ponytail and let small stands of hair out to frame my face.

I was done getting dressed and I decided not to put makeup on since there wasn't much of a difference when I'm wearing makeup and when I'm not, so I turned the bathroom light off and started heading down the soft, carpeted stairs.

I was at the bottom of the stairs and I could hear the faint noise of Joey and Charles talking so I gradually made my way down the hallway until I heard one of the two say my name. I perked my ears and made my way closer to the end of the hallway so I was closer to the living room, trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Char, just tell her, she clearly likes you", Joey stated.

"She just called Lexi's brother hot bro", Charles chuckled, trying to prove a point.

"She said that to make you jealous, girls do it all the time", I shrugged and mentally agreed with Joey and continued listening, "You tell Taylor, or I will."

"Come on joey", Charles complained

"You've liked her for over a month, and haven't said anything", after hearing that I smiled to myself, slowly making my way back to the stairs to make it sound like I was just now walking down the stairs. I tried making my feet thump harder against the stairs so they'd hear me and then walked down the hallway and into the living room as if nothing had happened.

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A/N; took me a month to update but it's finally here😂