Charlie's Lucky Charm

2: Adult Living

I've been hanging at the bar for weeks now and really enjoy hanging around those 5 crazy bastards. One night it's just Charlie and I in the bar as the others went to the basement to argue over something when he drunkingly admits "yanno, Dennis and Mac-"

I correct him "sleeves!"

"Yes! Dennis and slllleeeeeves didn't want you to be apart of the gang but I told them- I told them- me! I said that you're a gooooooood fit!" He pushes his glass to mine to cheers it and pushes it over "shit!"

"Ahhh, shit!" I mutter back moving to get away from it before it can drip on me further.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm shit— shit- here—" Charlie quickly takes off his grey sweatshirt to try and help clean me up.

"Wow, wow! Charlie, are you trying to feel me up right now?" I tease him, knowing he's just drunk and flustered and trying to be nice. However, he's rubbing at the spilled beer directly over my crotch.

His eyes go wide "what! No, no. Why would I do that? It's beer— the beer. It spilled."

I laugh and rip the sweatshirt out of his hand "I know, I'm kidding. Put your shirt back on." I throw it at him and stand up to get a towel from behind the bar.

As I'm wiping at my shirt everyone comes up from the basement and I hear Mac holler "wow, what happened to you two?"

"Did you guys figure out where to put that barrel of wine?" I call back, deflecting his question.

Frank and Dennis talk at the same time, getting louder and louder until one of them says something that gets Dee and a Mac back involved. Charlie eventually starts to yell in as well and after a few more minutes of them fighting, they stop and turn to me, waiting for me to make the call. That's kind of what I do for the gang now. If they can't come up with a solution to their issue, they look over to me. "I say leave it by the bar!"

Frank and Dee cheer, happy with my answer as Dennis, Mac and Charlie cus me out. I shrug but smirk, knowing they'll forget all about this soon enough and be off on their next tangent. I stumble my way home around 1 in the morning and wake up to my phone ringing really friggen early. I pick it up, not even saying hello and I'm met with Dee screaming on the other side "we need you to come down to the bar!"

"What? Now? What time is it?" I question, trying to sit up and look at the clock.

"8:30, shit. Do you even work?" She mutters back "bar. now." She hangs up and leaves me confused. I slowly dredge myself out of bed and hop into the shower. After brushing out my hair and putting on some make-up I head out to get a cup of coffee before making my way to Paddy's. "Where the hell were you, I called you over an hour ago!" Dee hollers as I walk inside.

Mac adds "yeah, what the hell. When we call, you come."

"I'm not a dog Sleeves, shut up." I growl over to him, too hungover to deal with his shit at the moment. I look to Dee "what do you need?"

"well, Frank was insisting on staying with me while his and Charlie's apartment get sprayed for bed bugs." She explains.

"Ew" I comment out at the comment about bed bugs "what do you need me for?"

"Well, we were trying to figure out where they were going to stay and just have you decide but since you took forever and a fuckin' day, its been decided that Frank and Charlie will stay with you." Dee smiles, already sipping on a beer.

"Are you out of your fuckin' mind? No way!" I exclaim back.

Mac agree's with her "sorry, if you wanna be a part of the gang you have to get your hands dirty. They went home to get their shit, they're probably there already."

"Assholes!" I call back to them as I start to leave and head home. There is no way I am letting the two of them stay with me in my two bedroom apartment. It's barely big enough for me and all my work stuff as it is. I hurry back to my apartment and am relieved when I don't see either of them waiting outside my door. I push my key in to unlock the door and am a bit perplexed that it's already unlocked "what the hell?" I comment out loud confused, knowing I locked it.

"Hey!!!!! Bev! This place is great!" Charlie's voice echoes through the front room to me as my face appears in my apartment.

I ask "how the hell did you guys get in here?" My eyes glare around me at the few things they brought with them. It's not much but it's all dirty "no fuckin' way did you bring your dirty ass clothes with bed bugs into my apartment!" I scream, pissed as all hell. If they brought bugs into here, they could easily get into my products and I can get a bad reputation for selling shit with bed bugs. I rush over to their shit and pick it up quickly "what the actual fuck you guys?"

"What? It's just some clothes, they don't go on clothes." Frank utters in between bites of whatever he is eating from out of my fridge.

"You need to wash this shit, NOW!" I demand, storming over to my little closet to grab the laundry detergent.

Frank and Charlie say at the same time "not it!"

But Frank adds on "Jynx!" Just a tad faster then Charlie and Charlie lowers his head in defeat. He grabs the clothing from the floor I dropped and the rest from my arms and I walk him to the laundry room down the hall.

Charlie throws everything, whites, colors and dark's into the washer. I ask "shouldn't you separate them?"

Charlie puts the money into the machine "I can't afford two loads."

Before he could push the money in to start the load, I grab a hold of his hand and roll my eyes "I'll pay for another load. Come on, that's too much shit in one load anyway. It wouldn't actually get everything cleaned."

He looks at me with confused eyes for a few moments before shrugging and accepting my offer "alright."

He leans down to pick up half the pile and throws them into another washer "are you serious?" I ask, still dumbfounded "do you not know how to do your own laundry?" I question.

He replies "I usually just boil my clothes in a big pot. Same thing."

I chuckle and respond "no, no it's not. That doesn't actually clean your clothes. Here.." I step around him to pick out some of the clothes and help sort them "you can do a darks wash and a lights and whites wash. Doesn't seem like you have too many whites as is." I say as I pull out a pair of dingy white and ripped pants from the darks load I started to sort.

He says as I toss them into the other wash "those'll be done before bed, right?"

"Yeah, they'll be nice and clean when it's time for bed Charlie. I can't believe you don't know how to do your own laundry."  I say to him.

"Well, lucky for me I got you to teach me." He smiles, leaning down to pick up a dark sock out of the lights load to switch it.

"There you go, you got the hang of it. Hey, before you know it you'll be a different man!" I smile, turning to grab the soap so we could poor it into the washer.

"Maybe a man the waitress would consider dating." He comments.

I push the coins in then turn and smirk to him "stick with me and she'll be after you in no time."

He smiles happily back "you're my lucky charm! What's next?" He waits with wide eyes.

"Next, I go make sure Frank isn't burning my apartment down." I smile then quickly turn to get back to my apartment to make sure it's all intact.