Charlotte has finally finished high school and is moving into an apartment in the city. In her search for a roommate she meets Oli. He moves in and the rest is history.
Charlotte's P.O.V Pop Wham is a bar not far from our apartment. Oli and I got in my car and I drove us there. I didn't realise it would be so crowded though.
We pushed our way through sweaty bodies but then I lost him. I'm not tall enough to see over the crowds so I stand on my tiptoes.
"Oli!" I call his name in the hopes he'll be able to hear me over the blasting music. Somebody is singing Behind These Hazel Eyes out of tune but everyone is drunk enough to think it sounds like the original song.
I bump into a girl by accident who calls me a bitch. I stumble backwards and land on my ass. Suddenly I feel somebody helping me up. I get up and turn to see it's Oli.
"Are you okay?!" he is shouting to be heard.
"Yeah!" I hate bars and clubs and noisy places. Oli seems to be distressed. His hair stuck to his forehead with sweat even though we've only been here a few minutes and haven't danced.
"Want to find somewhere more quiet?!" I ask.
"What?!"
"Some place quiet!"
"Over here!"
Oli takes me by the hand and pulls me through the crowds hurriedly. I have a feeling he wants to get out. Maybe he has claustrophobia? Or maybe it's just a fear of crowds?
He takes me to the guy's bathroom.
I've never been in the men's toilets before now. They stand up to their reputation of being gross
Oli let's go of my hand and goes to the sink to splash water on his face. After he dries it he turns to me and says "Sorry."
"It's fine. I could take you home if you're uncomfortable then come back so I'm not bailing on Jake."
"Jake is sick."
"Oh. We can just go home then. Maybe put on a movie had just chill? Don't worry about it."
Oli shakes his head. "Let's stay for a bit."
"Alright. What do you want to do?"
"Karaoke?"
I giggle. "You have a fear of crowds but the first thing you want to do is karaoke?"
"I don't like being in them. I'll be above them on the stage if I do karaoke."
"Alright. Let's go then.
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Oli's P.O.V Charlotte and I reach the stage as the last performer finishes.
"Do you want to go first?" I ask.
"If I sang then Pop Wham would collapse."
"Prove it."
She laughs and goes up to the DJ. He asks her for a song and she thinks for a moment then says "Requiem."
"That's a bit of a downer, don't you think?" the DJ says.
"Yeah, but I'm not singing it for them."
She gets up on stage and is handed the mic. A soft piano intro begins to play and Charlotte closes her eyes.
The club seems to stop. All the movement and dancing comes to a halt as people stop to listen. Charlotte doesn't open her eyes as she begins to sing.
"Why should I play this game of pretend? Remembering through a secondhand sorrow..."
I hear mutters around me. People didn't come out for this, they can out for dancing and getting stupidly drunk... but they're accepting of it.
Charlotte's voice gives me chills. The hairs on my arms stand up as I look up at her.
The song is full of rage and sadness but I don't know who it's directed towards. I feel the emotions seeping into me.
As the song goes on, Charlotte gets louder and more confident with herself. I want to walk up there and hug her. I know that people are only able to sing like that when they have felt real pain.
The song ends. Charlotte opens her eyes and it's like she didn't even know we were here before. She steps off the stage and hands the microphone back to the DJ. The club is still silent.
As she steps out into the crowd, people move to let her through. It's like everyone is in a trance.
She reaches me and says "Your turn."
"I don't think I can top that."
"What do you mean?"
I gesture to the crowd around us. "Charlotte, you literally made everything stop."
Charlotte laughs. "They just don't like that I was a downer."
The crowd begins to get back to things as somebody else gets up to sing. I don't take my eyes off Charlotte.
"Who was it about?"
"That's not important. Are you still wanting to go home?" she asks.
"Sure. You can pick the movie."
"You know what I'm going to pick."
"Titanic."
Charlotte laughs. "Right, as always."
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Author's Note: Hi, thanks for reading this chapter. Sorry that it's slightly shorter but that felt like a good place to end things. The song that Charlotte sang is called Requiem and it's from the musical Dear Evan Hansen. I'll leave the videos for the original song and for the cover that I imagine is Charlotte's voice.
