What We Lost | Fillie

Chapter Three: Charlie's Visit

Charlie overheard the scene that unfolded in his family's living room and knew he had to do something. Back when Finn and Millie first broke up, Charlie didn't really know where his place was. He had enjoyed having Finn around, and from a big brother's perspective, he really appreciated the way the young actor treated his sister and the way she acted when she was around him. Charlie had never seen his little sister as happy as when she was with Finn, but then they broke up. At the time, he wanted to go teach Finn a lesson with a couple right hooks but he knew that wouldn't make anything better, so he just let it be.

Actually, Charlie had backed away from familial matters completely for the first couple of months. He backed so far that he left Georgia, and America, choosing to spend some time back in London instead. He wasn't able to wrap his mind around why these things had happened to someone in his family. Someone so close to him. He needed the distance to process. The time.

When he came back, things still weren't right, but he knew that leaving again would only make matters worse and Millie had flipped out on him when he mentioned he might go back to their homeland. 

He realized he had been selfish to leave, especially with his sister in that low state of mind. Looking back on it now, he feels like quite the prick. Millie was in a time of great need and being her older brother, he should have been there to protect her, to be a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen. But he wasn't, which is part of the reason that he is doing what he is doing now.

Charlie hopes he has the address right as he pulls up to this unfamiliar house mid-morning the day before his sister is supposed to meet with her idiot ex-boyfriend and the rest of the cast for their movie.  He has never been here before because the person he is going to see had lived somewhere else the last time he saw them. Charlie himself had lived somewhere else back then too. The Brown family only moved to the LA area about a year ago in the spring of 2021, though they still have their home in Georgia as well, mainly for convenience.

The determined Brit parks his car in the street and locks it as he saunters up to the front door. A doorbell ring and three knocks later, the hinged hunk of wood swings open.

"Can I come in?" Charlie asks the stunned looking, curly headed, nineteen year old, holding the door with a fear-frozen hand, "We have some things we need to discuss."

"Uh, h-hi. . .Um," Finn stammers, his eyes wide and blinking rapidly, like he's trying to clear out a spot in his vision that won't go away. Charlie imagines that he is about as surprised to see him as he would have been to see Millie—or say, a unicorn. Suffice it to say, Charlie suspects that Finn hadn't been expecting this visit from him today.

He had probably expected Charlie to come by back when he and Millie first broke up and if he's smart, he had probably expected that meeting to be quite unpleasant. Charlie sure had. But he also knew if he went to see him, he might not have been able to hold back. He had been so angry. So hurt. And what hurt the most was that he hadn't expected it to come from Finn. So, Charlie has decided that going to see Finn after what he did to Millie wouldnt help anybody, least of all himself.

Before the break-up, Charlie had always had a good relationship with Finn. But he had made it clear to the young actor that he didn't want to end up on his bad side which was exactly where he landed himself on that September night in 2020 and it's where he still is now, as Charlie waits patiently for him to digest the situation at his front door.

Finn finally shakes his head and says, "Um, yeah. Come in, come in." He opens the door wide to allow Charlie passage into his home that he shares with his older brother, Nick.