Wow, this took awhile to get finished…I've been majorly busy with the summer wrapping up and all that jazz. :gives you a few more excuses just to be on the safe side: Now school's started, which bites hardcore, so yeah…errr…:tosses in another wayward excuse: I tried to make this a decent-sized chapter for you guys. I AM A FAILURE AT LIFE. :P And eeeee! Yay! We broke 100 reviews! Eeeee. :dances: Thanks so very, very much to all of our lovely readers and reviewers. You guys are truly fantastic. :)
-Charlie's POV-
I wake up to the faint smell of vanilla and the strong desire to never move again. I feel warm skin against my chest and slowly open my eyes. When I see Connie's tiny body curled against me, everything comes crashing back like a ton of bricks. An intensely confusing ton of bricks when she slowly opens her eyes and looks up at me. Everything else in my mind kind of leaks out my ears, and all I'm left with is how incredibly beautiful she looks.
The trance is soon snapped when familiar voices sound outside the door. Panic suddenly floods up and fills me from my core out to the tips of my fingers. I see the same panic flash across Connie's face as she quickly nudges me and whispers frantically "down, down, get on the floor!"
I roll onto the floor with a thump and scramble under the bed just as I see Elisha's shoes appear between the floor and bed-skirt. My heart's pounding a mile a minute, and I try not to think about how little space there is under the bed. All I can think about is that my clothes are somewhere in this room, and if Elisha finds them, we could be kind of screwed.
Well, that's not all I can think of, but it's definitely a grave concern.
"Connie, you awake?" I hear Elisha ask. The slight shifting of covers sounds over head, and I figure Connie's feigning sleep. I hold my breath and focus on Elisha's moving feet. They walk across the room and pause for a second. Something clatters on the dresser, and she finally walks into the bathroom.
I notice I've been clenching my fist, and my knuckles are turning white, so I force my self to loosen a little. A few moments later, the water starts running.
Almost instantly, Connie's feet land on the floor less than a foot from my face, and she drops down on all fours to face me.
"Get out here," she whispers, moving back so I can climb out. I see her send a nervous glance at the bathroom door then glance back at me and jump. "Wait, no, hold on a second, don't look!" she squeaks, grabbing a robe from her discarded clothes.
I blink a little as she puts it on and ties it around herself, running over to my clothes and practically hurling them at me. "Put those on!"
Blindly following orders, I quickly dress in my clothes from the day before. I see her chewing on her lip.
"Come on, let's get you out of here," she says, careful to keep her voice in a whisper. I start for the suite door, and she suddenly jumps at me, grabbing my arm and shouting "NO!"
The water in the bathroom stops.
"Connie?" the muffled voice of Elisha says. "You okay out there?"
Connie looks like a deer in headlights for a moment before snapping back together. "Um, yeah, I just, uh…just, uh, stubbed my toe." She swallows. "It hurt and took me by surprise," she lies.
"Okay. You should be more careful. And sorry I didn't say hi when I first got in. You were sleeping, and I didn't want to disturb you. I've only been back a few minutes."
"I kno-" Connie starts before stopping herself and clearing her throat. "I uh, it's okay. Don't worry about it."
"I'll be out in a sec, and I'll tell you about yacht. It was awesome," Elisha says.
"That's uh, cool. No rush!" she says.
The water starts up again, and she lets out a sigh, leaning against my arm. "That was close."
"Why can't I go through here, anyway?" I ask, blinking a little at her behavior.
"If Tay and Alex are in there, they'll see you coming from my room. They know we were alone here last night. You're dressed now, so go down, grab a bagel or something so it'll look like you were out getting breakfast, then come back up," she whispers, still sending an occasional glance at the bathroom. Then again, I am too. Ready to bolt.
I nod.
When the door closes behind me, I simply stand and look at it for a moment longer. I know what happened last night, but if I hadn't woken up naked next to Cons on her bed, I'm not sure I'd entirely believe it. I mean, she definitely gave no indication. Then again, we were way too close to getting caught. I could almost feel the doom threatening to rear its ugly head.
Letting out a breath, I walk downstairs to where the continental breakfast is being served. No matter how much I try to push away them away, thoughts continually plague me. What was she thinking then? What is she thinking now? What would have happened if Elisha hadn't come in the room?
The nervous feeling at the thought of going back up there curbs my appetite, but I do as Connie told me and grab a bagel and some coffee. Makes me feel old…or at least sophisticated. Heh.
Slowly I make my way back up to the room. As I pass Connie's room, I wonder what she's doing at this precise moment. Is this confusing her as much as it is me? What did it mean? Are we still friends? More? Less? Something in between? I really want to know, but the thought of the conversation doesn't help the bagel go down. I just want to know. I want to be able to look at her and just know, but I don't know if I'll be able to this time. Did I screw this up?
I unlock the door and walk in to see Alex sitting on his bed. The shower's going, so I assume Tay is showering.
"Hey, where've you been?" he asks me.
"Breakfast," I say, holding up my bagel (minus two bites) and my cup of coffee.
He raises an eyebrow. "Now, I know I don't know you as well as most of this family, but I was under the impression the apocalypse couldn't get you out of bed before noon in the summer."
I shrug, glancing at the clock and notice it's 10:02. Which really is weird.
"I dunno. Guess there's a first thing for everything?" I try, raising my eyebrows almost with question.
He looks at me for a second a shakes his head. "Oh well. I'm not even going to ask about the clothes," he says, referring to the slightly wrinkled clothes from yesterday that I'm wearing.
"Good plan," I say, collapsing onto the couch/my bed.
Later that day, I finally will myself to leave the room when we all head out to lunch. I do my best not to continually glance at Connie, as that looks suspicious. She's sent a look or two over, but the jittery feeling is building up. This entire trip has felt like one big awkward feeling after another.
We split off as usual – adults and Shawn go somewhere, and the rest of us divide and eat amongst ourselves.
Today Tay and Alex split off to eat on their own, and I go with Elisha and Connie. I don't know if I'm just a glutton for punishment or what, but I can't seem to avoid an uncomfortable situation for the life of me.
Connie's body language is mixed, and she seemed to be purposefully avoiding my eye. Conversation is practically nonexistent, and I think Elisha has caught on that she's encroaching upon a private, awkward, and unspoken conversation. It remains unspoken for the duration of lunch, though, and I'm not sure how I've survived up to this point. There are very few times in my life that I've had to force myself to eat, but this is one of them. Part of me wants to hold onto her and never let her go, and the other part wants to run away screaming, if only to longer avoid The Conversation a little bit longer. As the seconds tick by, The Conversation seems less and less like something I want to take part in. It like The Other (Kiss) Conversation on steroids. A fear of her regretting it bubbles up in my stomach, but I push down the sick feeling, resting my elbows on the table and chin in my palms in hope that it isn't noticeable.
"I…think I'll go find the boys," Elisha says after a moment, looking between Connie and me in a weird, curious way. I guess I'm not the only one smothered by whatever colorful form of tension is hanging around today.
I swallow the knot in my throat and look at Connie to see if she looks remotely as uncomfortable as I feel as Elisha excuses herself from the table to find Taylor and Alex.
"So um," she starts, and the air closes in with silence again. The words hang, but nothing comes out. How do you have this kind of conversation anyway? I need my script.
We sit in silence, the bustling of conversation swirling around at the surrounding tables.
I open my mouth to speak, but no words come out. I'm not even completely sure why I opened my mouth in the first place because I definitely don't know what I would say.
When words refuse to come, I settle for looking at her. Our eyes catch, and I can't seem to tear mine away again. All those sappy cliches about getting lost in someone's eyes really are true, but that doesn't mean I will subject them upon anyone or anything. I will not permit my mind to turn into sappy mush. I have dignity. Well…at least as much dignity as one can have in this particular situation.
I begin absently chewing on the inside of my cheek, unable to break the stare. To break the fragile trance we somehow slipped into.
I open my mouth slightly to say something. We can't sit here forever, I suppose…
"Co-"
"Hey kids, ready to go?" Taylor's voice cuts in, overlapping both my voice and Elisha's as she calls for him to come back.
I blink and shut my mouth. My and Connie's eyes break their connection and shoot down to the table or to Taylor, anything that was going to be said instantly whooshing away.
"Uh, yeah, I think we're good to go," I say, nodding and standing. I send a careful glance to Connie who also nods and stands up.
"Yeah, we should be done here," she says, folding her arms against herself and walks around the table to stand with us.
It was a long walk to the beach.
Punkteacher- Word to that, lol. :P Thanks for the review!
antiIRONY- Seriously, I know right. I'd snag Charlie for myself, but Connie scares me and would totally take me out, lol. I'll have to grab him when she's not looking. Anyway, thank you! Hee!
Duckys- Only time will tell, hee. Thank you. :)
Banksiesbabe99- It's okay, darling. :) I've still got a lot of catching up to do on yours (yes, the one you've already finished, lol)…I went all summer with like no time to do so. And it's even a C/C one! Guh. I will catch up ASAP. Hee, dude, I'm jealous of Connie like constantly. Lol. Nice, eh? She's a bit slow. :giggles: And sorry for the long wait. I'm such a failure at life. Lol. :)
Tiff- Thanks, and I hope you found the chapter to be suitable. ;)
Blonde-brain- They're a bit slow on the uptake, lol. Sorry for the wait, and thanks for the review:)
Emma- Thanks Em. :) I'm so glad you're enjoying it! And of course, thanks for the review. You were number 100! Hee. :D Go you!
Agel15- Indeed, our sweet babies got themselves into yet another sticky mess. They do that sometimes, lol. I'm so glad you're enjoying it, and thanks very much for the review. :)