You Belong With Me

6.

After a few hours Charlie cooled off and decides to apologise to Anna as Charlie had no right to snap at her. As she walks to Anna on the sofa, Stoffel and Max are also there. Charlie gets nervous as Max doesn't know about her parents as she doesn't want him to sympathise her. "Hey Anna?...... I just want to say I'm extremely sorry and you know I hate saying sorry because I'm so stubborn but I am truly sorry, I had no right to snap at you its just after 5 years it is still hard to talk about especially as tomorrow is the 25th" Charlie explains quickly while looking to the ground.
"It's okay, I need to apologise about pushing you about......" Anna says while looking at max "Anyway let's forgive and forget" Anna continues while hugging Charlie.  "Right me and Anna are going to a grocery shop, anyone want to come?" Stoffel asks. "Nah I'm pretty tired I'm gonna stay here" Max declines nicely. "Yeah I've got an interview to start so I best start it" Charlie says while getting her laptop.

Max and Charlie are on the sofa, Charlie is working and Max is watching Tv. It's silent between as Max doesn't want to distract Charlie until she slams her laptop and throws it across the sofa. "Argh I give up" Charlie huffs. "Why, what is it?" Max laughs due to over dramatic performance. "I'm just so bored of this job like I love writing but this is not what I want to be doing, I want to be writing for a magazine off my own experiences not what someone else has done." Charlie complains.
"Then leave"
"What? I can't leave my job"
"Why not? Like Anna said Monaco is a fresh start for you and what better way to start then get a new job"
"What if I can't find another job"
"That's why you leave this job once you have found another one"
Charlie is silent as this actually sounds like a decent idea, but she doesn't know what to do. And then it hits her, she could write for the local newspaper about places in Monaco.

"Hey can I ask you question. You don't have to answer it's just I over heard Stoff and Anna talking" Max asks. "Ummm...sure" Charlie answers hesitantly as she scared what max will ask her. "What's the 25th of January"
Charlie's heart sinks as she hates this question, but she's just going to have to bite the bullet and answer it. She wants to be open with Max and she may as well get it over with now.
"It's my mom's birthday"
"Oh nice, are you flying back to Belgium to see her"
".....She's dead......and my father" Charlie feels her eyes start to water up and her voice gets shaky. Max notices this and he places his hand on her knee "it's okay you don't have to tell me"
"I'm fine, I was 18 and I was at Stoffel's having tea as my parents were coming back from Spa, I got a phone call saying my parents had been in an accident.....We rushed up the hospital....when I got there......both of them had died lying next to each other...... I hit rock bottom I didn't know what to do. Thanks to Stoff, he helped me and he's been my rock these past years." By now Charlie was fully crying, Max felt bad for bringing it up so he stands up and hugs her. Charlie accepts the hug and she gets a little flutter in her stomach, Charlie is a lot smaller  than Max so her little arms wrap around his muscular stomach.

At this Stoffel and Anna walk in, when Stoffel sees Charlie has been crying it breaks his heart. He knows she must of explained everything to Max, Stoffel hates seeing his best friend upset. Charlie can't help but feel happy when Max hugged her, she liked it.

Charlie wakes up sweating and all flustered as she woke up from a nightmare. Ever since she lost her parents she has nightmares, mainly the ones where she is with her parents in the accident or Stoffel having an accident. Charlie goes into the kitchen to get a glass of water when she also see max on the balcony. She decides to see why he's awake at 1 in the morning, "heyyy, you alright?" Charlie whispers.
"Yeah just thinking, how come you're awake?"
"Nightmare" Charlie explains bluntly. "Wanna talk about it" Charlie just shakes her head "I could do with some company" Max just nods at this and follows Charlie to her room.

Luckily Charlie has a king sized bed so max sat on one side as Charlie lay under the covers on the other side. Max waits for Charlie to fall asleep, as she does he gets up and turns her bed side lamp off. "Don't go" Charlie says half asleep.
"Are you sure" Max doesn't want to intrude. Charlie just nods. Max decides not to get into the covers so he lays on top next to Charlie. They both find them selves falling into a deep sleep.