G O L D E N | why don't we |

│F O R T Y - N I N E│

the damage is done, the police are coming too slow now, i would have died, i would have loved you all my life - ryan star

2 weeks later

Charli sat by the window of the tour bus with her scrapbook balancing on her lap, her head leaning against her fist as she slowly flipped through the thick book. The roar of the bus' engine was drowned out by her headphones playing a soft song so loud the world outside seemed to be moving to the melody. Her hazel brown eyes gazed at the pictures of her smiling faced friends, all frozen in those perfect moments, happy and perfect, so far from what they really were.

But the closer she got to the end of the scrapbook, there were fewer smiles and more pictures that captured solemn faces and far-off looks, soft smiles that never reached their electric eyes. Charli slowly came to a stop as she looked at a Polaroid of her and Corbyn, her sitting beside him with his legs propped up on her lap as they both were frozen in a laugh over something stupid he had said. They were in central park and she remembered Jessie taking the picture for them without them knowing. The picture had captured them in the greatest way possible in her eyes, capturing them the way she always wanted to be with him.

Charli closed the book then, rising from her window seat and placing the book on the table, the sound awaking Leylah who was napping on the couch across from her.

"Charli? Are you okay?" Leylah's sleep heavy voice was heard as the song blasting through Charli's headphones had come to an end. Pulling her headphones out, she turned slightly to face the girl who was sitting up rubbing her eyes.

"That's bad for you ya know, rubbing your eyes? Could get an eyelash or eye crust in them." Charli responded making Leylah laugh a little.

"Wow yeah, thanks for telling me, now what's with you?"

Charli shrugged as she leaned against the table because honestly, she didn't know herself. It had been two weeks since they had seen the boys in person, two weeks since they've been on their tour, which had three sold out shows, and things were starting to really patch up between all of the girls. But there was something still nagging her in the back of her head.

"Nothing, I just don't feel right you know? Like something is all wrong and there's something that should be happening but it's not? I don't know it's weird and I'm also fucking exhausted." Charli shook her head and stood up straight, "Go on back to sleep, we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

Leylah nodded and said no more because it was true. They were to have a show in their hometown, it had been shared all over and they knew everyone from home was coming to see, all the kids who taunted them, every person that made them feel small, every person that made them feel on top of the world, their families, friends. They were all so scared and yet bursting with the adrenaline to know they were finally going to prove the doubters wrong.

As Charli walked into the back of the bus where their bunks were, Jessie was asleep in her bunk with her phone flat against her cheek, Emilia was braiding her hair to get ready for bed, and Lee was skyping with her parents. They were all in their own little worlds before it happened. In the norm, calm and at peace for the first time in so long that Charli almost couldn't recognize it all.

It was all too normal.

But it was Leylah who heard the screeching of the tires first. She sat up fast, seeing the bright lights through the windows and then she felt it. The sharp shards of glasses nabbing her skin as that entire side of the bus was crushed in and flung her across the bus.