a sky full of stars - louis partridge

happiness

CHARLOTTE
SATURDAY, NOV 4th, 2020

Charlotte froze as the lock of the front door clicked, terrified that she would be caught. She leaned against the wall, listening, praying that Margaret wasn't home still. Her hair was still a mess from the rain and... the thought of him brought a smile to her face. Charlotte took a few steps forward and peeked around the corner, into the living room. Margaret wasn't home, but she could hear her little brothers talking upstairs. "Charlotte" Elliot said, leaping up to hug her. She wrapped her arms around her brother pulling him into a tight hug. It wasn't long before her oldest younger brother River joined the hug, wrapping his arms around them both.

"Hey, Char," River mouthed.  She smiled and sat down next to him on his bed, hoping he wouldn't notice how messy her hair was. "Did you guys have fun without me?" she replied. "no, Margaret left around an hour ago, Eli and i were gonna go look for you but it was raining." River said as he ran a hand through his hair.

Charlotte lay awake long after Riv and Eli had gone to bed. Her mind refused to go to sleep, too filled with thoughts of the past twenty-four hours. When Charlotte was 13 Margaret had struggled with an alcohol addiction, although in those days Charlotte didn't quite understand it. The last time Margaret showed affection to her children was around 3 years ago when there dad was still alive. Since then she did nothing but act like they didn't exist and when she did remember they were there she use them to take her anger out on.

Within days of their dads death she had a cigarette between her fingers. After weeks she had developed an alcohol addiction. She never really found herself after that, but it was never explicitly stated as the reason why she spiralled out so badly. She wondered what it would be like if her dad was still alive, her youngest brother Eli wouldn't even remember there father. He was only 3 when he passed away, therefore leaving Charlotte to raise her two younger brothers. She sighed, rubbing a hand over her eyes. She was exhausted. It must have been around 2am by the time she finally got into bed, after making sure Eli was safely tucked into bed and even after that she lay awake. She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and she winced at the glow of the screen. It was Louis. 

from: louis   i don't know if you've gone to sleep or not but i hope you're okay and  i'm here for you if you're not.

It took her a minute to type back a response. 

from: charlotte  i'm awake. she's not home, i won't have to see her until the morning.
from: louis sorry if I woke you up
from: charlotte no it's okay 
from: louis i was wondering if you wanna hangout again tomorrow?
from: charlotte yea i'd love to, what time
from: louis i'll be at yours at 10am, so be ready x
from: charlotte sounds good x
from: louis goodnight charlotte💗
from charlotte night louis🤍

Charlotte stared at the text for a while after the conversation ended, half a smile appearing on her lips. She didn't know what was happening or why she always felt like everything was okay when she was with louis even if it was for just one second. Finally she turned off her phone and tried to close her eyes. Within minutes she fell asleep, and dreamt of him.