"Hey dude, we need to talk" Hurly declaired as heapproached Charlie, takeing little notice to the fact that the boy had been playing an anti-social concert to himself for the past three days. Charlie looked up, blinking a few times. He felt like he'd been stareing at nothing but his own lap for hours. The last time he'd looked up it was still dark.
Now it was morning. Bright, blinding, island morning. I fucking hate this island, he thought to himself, squinting at the giant before him as he laid his guitar aside. Hurly stopped in front of him for a long ass time and simply stared.
"What?" Charlie finaly blurted out, giveing his friend a confused look.
"Not to intrude on your merital life, I know you and Claire had a fight. But the kid won't shut up. I'm thinking it has something to do with you" Hurly confronted simply, takeing a seat beside him.
Charlie shot him an anagry glance for about a split second, then shook his head and looked away. He decided it might be better to ignore there comment then to take the breath and energy to correct it. But after sitting in silence for an awkward moment and haveing Hurly stare at him, he reconsidered.
"Hurly, incase you didn't notice, Claire and I aren't married. We're not engaged, we're not dateing, we're not fuck buddies. Aaron is not my son. Aaron is not my responsabilty. If you have a problem with him you can take it up with his mother" Charlie concluded in one simple snap that left Hurly gapeing in confusion.
"Uh, dude...i didn't mean-" Hurly tried to defend himself, wondering what had left his friend so moody all of a sudden. Then again, with Charlie, it could be anything. The kid was a PMS parade and he didn't even have a cycle.
"Just...back off" Charlie muttered, trying to calm down a bit. He knew Hurly was jokeing. He didn't know about the fight. No one did. No one noticed that him and Claire had stopped spending time together. Or that he'd speant all his time alone ever since.
"Yeah. No problem" Hurly nodded, deciding it would be best to do as told and leave the brit alone, even if he was acting weird. Hurly gave him a slight smile to prove that there were no hard feelings stured from the outburst, and wondered off, once again, leaving Charlie alone.
A blur of time past as he picked at the strings of his guitar, which had become highlydurable in the last couple of days due to his exsesive playing.
The lack of sleep and food and the bright island sun must have been getting to him, because his senses lacked the ability to detect the fact that Claire had been standing a foot away from him for a good few minutes before she finaly spoke up.
"Charlie" She broke the silence, arms crossed under her chest as she stared at him in concern and slight amusement. His head snaped up in surprise. Not just from the fact that someone had been standing there, but the fact thatClaire had beenstanding there. After the initial shock, he remebered that he wasallegedly pissed at her and looked away again.
"I was wrong" She blurted out, a little disapointed in the way he was acting. Boys and their egos. He couldn't just be the sweet Charlie that took care of her and her baby and jump off the rock and apologize. Noooooo, he had to be edgy. He had to pretend he didn't care. He had to make her feel like shit.
"About?" He questioned, setting his guitar aside. Claire sighed. Why couldn't he make this easy? Oh well,I deserve it.
"About thinkingI could take care of everything alone" She explained bluntly. "Looks to me like your doing fine" He noted, stareing back at her with tired, empty eyes.
"Well...I'm not." She confirmed, not really prepared with a comeback. He looked away again.
"Look. I can take care of Aaron. I know your only trying to help and I apreciate that your willing to do so much, but he is my son. You have to let me take care of him" She insisted, kneeling down in front of Charlie so that the they were almost leveled. She could tell from the expression on his face that this was not the apology he was looking for.
"I don't need you to take care of Aaron" She began, laying her hand on top of his. "But I do need someone to take care of me" She explained, trying her best to smile. The attempt must have worked because after a moment, he smiled back.
Thisis reasureing. Thisis good. Smileing means he isntmad. Or atleast, not mad enough to not smile. Ok, Claire, focus.
"And I'm sorry about blowing up at you. You've done nothing wrong. Its just...I'm on an island you know, I'm prone to be-" Claire tried to explaine, searching for the right word.
"Moody?" Charlie injected, raiseing his eye brow. Claire laughed slightly. "Yes. Moody" She nodded in agreement, smileing to herself.
"Its ok, Claire. I know you weren't trying to make me want to jump off a cliff or anything. I just...I overeacted" He assured, trying to take a little of the guilt of her shoulders. Claire smiled. This was going alot better then she had anticipated.
"We should have done this two days ago" Claire noted, smiling playfully. "I know, right? My fingers are killing me" Charlie noted sarcasticly, although there was some truth in his words. The indents he'd gotten on his fingers from the guitar strings were pretty painfull. He hadn't really noticed it untill now.
"Aw" Claire pouted, looking down at his hands. There was a slight discomfort in the wayshe leand over his lap, inspecting his hand.
It wasn't really that he wasn't enjoying it. It was great being close to Claire again. Letting her take care of him. But he knew that to any passer-by, her hovering over his lap would look very inaproprate. He shifted uncomfortably and pulled his hand away.
"Its not that bad. Its what I get for playing so much" Charlie assured, leaning back on his palms in order to give them something to do besides sit on his lap at Claire's disposial.
"I know. You've been doing nothing but play for the past three days" Claire noted with a scoff. Charlie shot her a confused look.
"So you've been spying on me, then?" He questioned playfully, raiseing an eye brow. "Well...watching you" She corrected, feeling a little embarrased. "I was worried about you. You looked so wounded. Have you even eaten since..." Claire questioned, giveing him a concerned look.
"Since you blew me off? No" Charlie answered, giveing her a playfull smile. Claire blushed. "Well come on. Lets get you some food" Claire insited, pulling at his shirt playfully before riseing to her feet. Charlie hopped up and travled close behind.
It was nice walking with Claire on the beach again. Holding his guitar in one hand, the other dangling at his side. To his surprise, Claire took it. She tangled her fingers with his and swung their arms back and forth between them, looking around idaly as if there was nothing awkward between them.
After a moment, Charlie relaxed. It didn't feel so weird after all. Holding hands with Claire was nice. Very nice. Even if they weren't talking.
"Man. I've never seen you eat that fast" Claire notted, sitting next to Charlie on a log by the comunity fire. Charlie blushed and whiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "Well...I was hungry" Charlie replied with a shrug. Claire smilled.
"Understandable" She assured, patting him on the leg. Once again, Charlie stiffined uncomfortably. Why was she touchingme so much? Not that it was a bad thing...
"So, how's Aaron doing? Hurly said he's been crying alot" Charlie questioned curiously, setting his plate aside. "Yeah." Claire nodded, feeling a little guilty at her inability to keep him quiet.
"I think he misses you" She admitted sheepishly, giveing him an apologetic look. Charlie couldn't help but smile. For a moment it was quiet.
"Claire, can I ask you something?" Charlie questioned, turning to her with a nervous look. "Sure" she replied with a shrug.
"When we...well, after we had the argument, Lock told me you talked to him. He told me you said "We're not married". Why did you say that?" Charlie questioned, bitting on his lower lip.
"I don't know, Charlie. I was...frustrated" Claire explained, not really wanting to get into it. "I know that, but...why married? Why the word married?" Charlie persisted, not satisfied with her initial response.
"Well...we're not. I mean sure, we hang out alot. Pretty much all the time. And your are kind of like a father to Aaron...but, that dosen't mean we'er married. You've never even kissed me-" Claire quickly closed her mouth.I said it. Oh god, why didI say it? It just flew out. Word vomit. Shit. Charlie gave her a surprised and confused look.
"I...I didn't know you wanted me too" He replied, still pretty shocked. "Well...do you want too?" She questioned, raiseing an eye brow at him curiously. He was silent for a moment. He took a deep breath, and nodded. Claire felt her cheeks go red.
"Ok then..." She cocncluded with a shrug, unable to keep the smile of her face.Charlie nodded as well, altough he had no clue what she meant.
She wanted to kiss him. Well, she wanted him to kiss her. Did she mean now? If she meant now she would keep looking at me, right? For christ sake, man, just do it!
Charlie closed his eyes, started to lean in. She pulled away. Shit. You odiot. He opened his eyes.
"Not...not now. To awkward." Claire confirmed, shakeing her head. "Right" Charlie nodded, and shifted uncomfortably.
"But...Later. Definetly later" Claire confirmed, reasureingly. Charlie turned to her, smiling in releif. "Right" He nodded in agreement. "I'll...see you later" He confirmed, and rose to his feet.
"Later" Claire replied with a smile, blushing bright red as she watched him walk away.