✦ ✧ ✩ Curtain Call ✦ ✧ ✩ - Charlie Gillespie

Chapter 8

[Charlies POV]

I don't exactly know what possessed me to say those words. All I could think about how would I feel if I had that connection with someone, a connection like Luke's and Julies. I guess the same connection I felt with Eri. Her words were engraved in the back of my mind.

"That was... cheesy" I heard Matthews voice coming from behind me. I wanted to punch his smug face so badly.

"Lets see what the actual experts have to say about it, shall we?" I replied, snarkily. We were cut off by Kenny and Eri. "That was great, I think we should keep that line in the scene, lets rewrite around it" Eri told me, Mads, Kenny and Matthew. She talked like she didn't even notice that the line she was talking about was exactly what she said to me only about 12 hours ago, "Matthew you should go think about something for Luke to say, bye" she continued, waving her hand in his face.

"Ok" Matthew replied, grabbing her hand and putting it down, "it is a kid show after all". He was easy to hate, no wonder Eri seemed to despise him.

Kenny continued talking to Mads and Sacha about the scene, so I saw a window to approach Eri. I was tired of being on what it felt was a carousel from hell.

"Hey" I said, tapping her shoulder, "You said you wanted to talk, lets talk" I didn't want her to notice I was much more interested in listening to what she had to said that she seemed from actually saying it to me.

"Yes, lets go out for a minute"

We sat down on the stairs that led up the building entrance and remained in silence for a couple of minutes, she played with her shoelaces a bit, took a big breath and redirected her eyes towards me.

"That, there, was..."

"Yes I know. It wasn't a conscious choice, I just thought about how Luke would feel when he was writing with Julie and that was the first thing that came to mind. You know I agree, we do make each other better. Last night, was definitely something" I didn't have time to stop myself from saying any of that. It was like word vomit "And then you just..." I was about to say she made my head a living mess when she went on to confirm she knew.

"Look Charlie I don't want to play games, and I feel like recently I haven't been true to myself, so I'll just say exactly what I'm feeling and you won't answer until you've had time to think about it."

I took a deep breath and nodded in agreement, my leg started shaking "Ugh, I have nothing to chew on right now" I said, trying to defuse the tension "Ok lets do this, spill it"

"We've known each other for so little so this might feel too intense but I think I might like you. A lot. But I'm not ready to dig deeper into that, or even attempt to explore whatever we could be. I'm only saying this because I feel like I've been confusing you and by doing that confusing myself too. For the time being, I would like to actually be your friend, no games, no weird moments that send us spiraling, because I really want you in my life and I don't want to lose you over childish bullshit" she stopped for a second and took a deep breath "I really hope you felt it too because if not I would've just embarrassed myself completely" she finished, giggling.

There was a lot I wanted to say. I wanted to tell her that I would fight for her. And that I wouldn't dare hurt her in any way. And we clearly saw relationships in the same way. The way she opened up about it so bluntly was refreshing to say the least. But for that same reason I knew I had to respect what she told me and keep all that to myself.

I grabbed her right hand, that was again fidgeting with her shoelaces. She looked up and smiled at me.

"No, you are right, I really do like you a lot, but I understand where you are coming from, and I don't want to lose you either, so, for the time being, eh?" I asked, smiling back at her.