traumatized minds, luke hemmings

you have a daughter?

Charlie felt like a true teenager when she wrote 'best day ever' underneath November 23rd on her stupid calendar. She even jumped up and down a little.

When Theo dropped Charlie off, and she went inside— she noticed Luke was out. Calum sent Charlie a sympathetic smile as she retreated upstairs to her bedroom.

Charlotte found the dinner at the Dyer's quite nice. It was especially funny when Elle gave Charlotte her number and said, "If Theodore ever becomes an issue and you'd like a better Dyer to speak to," Which made her cackle out loud.

Daisy and Noah gave her a hug at the end and told her she was welcome back anytime.

Theo was a different story altogether, though. My god.

Charlotte was no doubt gaining feelings for the boy. I mean—he called her pet names at least 20 times each day. He had her birthday on each calendar inside that beautiful home. She was pinned on his messages—and he was the first text she woke up to in the morning.

She couldn't tell if she was disgusted with herself or happy.

An hour later, Charlotte was sitting downstairs and eating chocolate covered strawberries with Ashton as she grossly explained how much she liked Theo. Their heads snapped over to the front door where Luke was walking in, extremely drunk, with a girl.

"Luke?" Ashton spoke carefully, examining the way he was stumbling along.

"Ash!" Luke cheered. "This is Missy. Missy, this is Ashton."

"Hi," Missy said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Nice to meet you."

"Why did you just get home at 9 pm? And you're drunk? It's a work night, for gods' sake." Ashton spat, "And your daughter is sitting right there."

"You have a daughter?" Missy snarled, looking up at Luke who was nervously looking around.

"No," He spoke after a moment of consideration.

Charlotte could swear her heart cracked into two halves.

"Fuck no," Ashton cursed loudly. "Missy, you need to leave. Call yourself an uber. Luke is way too drunk right now."

Luke whined and said 'no' in the background as Ashton urged Missy to call an uber, saying he'd pay for it.

Charlie wasn't even sitting in the kitchen anymore.

She was upstairs, packing a bag and texting every adult she knew to come pick her up. Begging.

First, she called Sierra—but to Charlie's luck, she wasn't in town and was visiting her family in Philadelphia. Second, she called her biological dad but since it was late, he didn't answer. Third, she called Aiden.

Who luckily picked up.

"Hi pretty girl," Aiden chirped. "What are you doing, calling me at 9 pm? What's wrong?"

"I need you to come pick me up." Charlie said as she shoved a couple of pajamas into the bag. "I just— I need space from home and no one else is picking up."

"I'm on my way. Send me your address." Aiden said before hanging up.

Charlotte was immensely grateful for Aiden.

She felt hot tears beginning to spill down her delicate rosy cheeks as she finished shoving things into her bag quickly. She put on her converse and headed downstairs.

She met Ashton and Luke downstairs— Luke had a water bottle in his hand, half gone. He glanced up at Charlotte and saw a bag.

"Where are you going?" He asked, his voice a bit more audible now that he was sobering up.

"None of your business," She hissed at him.

"Charlotte, I am your—"

"You're nothing to me." She pointed an accusing finger at him. "If you can claim to a bitch you just met on a Saturday night that I'm not your daughter, then you're not my dad. I am nothing to you, and you are nothing to me."

Luke's facial features softened. "Charlie—"

"Don't 'Charlie' me." She snapped.

"Come on," Luke frowned. "I didn't mean it."

"No!" Charlie spun around and looked at him with burning tears in her eyes. "I did not go through so much for you to tell someone you met randomly that I'm not your daughter. I didn't go through so much to be right back at square one, Luke."

Luke went to speak but Charlie interrupted him.

"I did not go through so much to be right back as a nobody who someone pretended to give a shit about." She said firmly.

Luke didn't answer. His shoulders slumped—he felt defeated and Charlie felt helpless.

She looked over at Ashton and inhaled. "I'm going to text you the address of where I'm at later. I promise. I just— I can't be here right now, I'm sorry."

Ashton nodded and said. "I love you, sweetheart."

"I love you, too." Charlie nodded and looked at Luke and said. "I love you."

"You never don't say I love you to somebody after a fight if they storm away. You don't know if you'll see them again." Aiden recited to her once. "Even if you just had the biggest fight."

Charlie left the house and went down the front steps with tears spilling from her eyes as Aiden pulled into the driveway. He saw her crying and left the car.

He brought her into a tight hug, holding her head against him and whispering. "You're okay," over and over until it sank in.

Charlie shook her head and wiped her tears.

"I keep going through so much just to be dropped on the curb for the 3rd time. Am I really that awful?"