✦ ✧ ✩ Curtain Call ✦ ✧ ✩ - Charlie Gillespie

Chapter 32

[Charlie's POV]

I looked up at him as he walked away and let him make some ground before I followed him to the plane's gate. He checked his ticket with the girl at the front and made his way in. I ran to her once I couldn't see him anymore and begged for her to let me in.

She looked up and down at me.

"You know what? You seem harmless enough. I can't let you in but tell me her name I'll make sure someone looks for her inside"

"Really?" I asked back, my eyes round as two plates "Her name is Erato"

"Ok, just sit around here I'm gonna check in, you sure she is on the plane?"

"Yes, yes I'm sure"

"Ok" she said, and took her phone out "Hey Mark I have a hopeless romantic out here would you check for an Erato?"

"Ah really? I haven't had this in a while" the text she received back read. Five minutes later a tall lanky dude came out and looked at me.

"You must be him. She is not here, are you sure this is the right plane? Another one is taking off to Paris right this moment" He said, and pointed to a plane leaving at another gate.

"He is too good of a liar" I mumbled to myself, thinking about Matthew in her first class seat probably toasting to his own success. 

"It's a rare occurrence but it happens" Mark, the flight attendant, continued, crooking his mouth a little, looking sad for me.

"It's ok man, thanks for checking anyways."

I was walking back and ran into Owen and Maeve that were running to the gate. They both stopped in front of me and tried to recover some air.

"Eri turns her phone off on planes" I said, showing them my 100 sent to voice mail calls "I missed it"

"It's okay" Maeve said, "It's only 5 days, you'll talk to her when she comes back."

The next three days were torture. I was in the worst shape ever I've ever been and everyone could tell. I kept forgetting my lines and distracting myself with the thought of Eri pacing the streets of Paris hand in hand with Matthew.

"She needs to hurry back" I heard Jer tell Mads "This is the most low energy I've ever seen this kid be. I swear I saw him just walking on the steps instead of jumping them"

"Oh my god. It's bad." Mads replied.

Maeve and Owen came to me and sat next to me, each on one side.

"I'm stressed too. She doesn't even text me back. Come back and stay with us today and let's try to cheer up okay?" Maeve said, putting her hand on my shoulder.

So we all went back to the car and drove to the girls' apartment. Maeve and Owen went into her room not before asking me if I was okay being left alone after a very tiring day.

"Yes of course I'll just chill here" I said throwing myself in the couch "Watch some movies, suffer in silence." I finished, letting out a cackle.

Maeve looked back at me and tilted her head crooking her smile a little.

"Are you sure?" she asked, sitting next to me for a bit "We can stay out here with you and hang" I saw Owen behind her yawning, opened mouth like hippo.

"Yeah man we'll stay" he said, with his eyes almost closed. I just shook my head a little and told them they could leave. After 30 minutes I was bored out of my mind and my head wouldn't stop toiling, so I started pacing around the house. Eri's room's door was the tiniest bit open and I just wanted to go in and sit there in her room and think.

I finally caved in and went in. I walked around a little and found himself browsing through her books, that were stored in a huge wooden chest that rested in the corner of her room.

I finally got to the book that was on top of it. I grabbed it and threw myself on her bed, opening it in a marked page.

"I cannot let you burn me up, nor can I resist you. No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed." 

The line she underlined with a pencil read, "So much for a love story hater" I said, smiling at myself a bit and then the memories of Matthew telling me he was his first replayed in my head. I tried to distract myself from the fact that the book looked old and used, the pages being damaged and stained with the back cracked and soft. The thought of him being the one she was thinking about flooded my head. I left the book in her night stand and turned around trying to sleep.

A couple of hours later I felt someone throwing themselves in bed next to me abruptly waking me up. I sat still and saw Maeve next to me, looking up at me.

"Just checking in" she said, and smiled at me "If you came here you must feel really sad"

"Actually I feel pretty calm" I replied, looking around again. I saw that Maeve went quiet and I turned to her. She was reading Eri's notebook with a smile on her face, "Are you sure we can do that?" I said, furrowing my eyebrows.

"Yeah, I mean, I can" she said and kept scrolling the pages with her eyes. I threw myself in bed again, trying not to look at what was written on those pages. As I fought the urge to snatch the book off her hands Owen came in.

"Hey man" he said, walking around the room and opening a few of Eri's drawers "I'm sorry I'm just really curious as to what you girls have in these insane amount of drawers" he said, as Maeve gave him a nasty look. He opened the last drawer he needed to to complete the endeavor and pulled out a cassette and a little wooden box.

"Hey dude I found your tape, pretty easily may I add. Look this there its says Charlie" He said, as he put the tape in my hand that had a case with my name on it. 

I turned to Maeve puzzled, and she went red like a lobster.

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Very short chapter that I should've followed in the last one, but I was too anxious not to post what I had already written :)