Claire woke up at around seven in the morning. She sat up in bed quickly. She threw her feet over the edge of the bed and hopped out of bed. She kicked her discarded ice-pack while taking her first step to the bathroom. She bent over and groggily picked up the ice-pack. All of last night's memories instantlycame flooding back, awakening her foggy mind. She chunked the pack into the trash can before throwing her hair into a messy bun. She walked into the kitchen in her pajamas and saw April seated at the table with a plate of eggs and a pancake. April looked up from the morning paper and smiled at Claire. Claire smiled back.
"Morning," April said, taking a sip of her milk.
"Morning," Claire responded, her voice cracking. She poured herself a glass of milk and prepared a pancake April had made for her.
Claire sat at the table with her pancake. "Thanks for making me this." Claire told her friend as she scooped up a bite of the syrup-covered pancake to her mouth.
"No problem..." April responded slowly. She waved her fork at Claire. "What happened to you last night?"
"What?!" Claire squeaked, looking up at April. Did she know?
April chewed on her eggs before answering. "You said you were going out for some air, but you like disappeared." April reminded Claire.
Claire swallowed down some milk, nodding. "Oh yeah," she murmured, relief washing over her.
"So..?" April prodded. "What happened? Where'd you go?"
"Oh, uhm, I went outside... And I got sick, so I just came back here." Claire answered, telling part of the truth. She needn't spill all the details of her night, they were better off forgotten. Claire changed the subject. "So, what all did you do? You didn't get back 'till late."
"Oh, well, I watched DriveSHAFT, of course." April gushed, a big smile on her face. "And then, they had an after party. It was really fun."
"You went to that?" Claire asked, shocked.
"Sure, I went with a group of girls who knew Liam. I never saw him or Charlie, though." April sighed at the end of this statement.
"How long did you stay at the party?" Claire asked, thinking about how Charlie missed the party. Because of her.
"Oh, until around two am... I never got around to pulling the car into the garage." April thought aloud. "I think I'll pull in now. Wouldn't want it to get stolen."
Claire watched April walk out until the thought occurred to her... Charlie was in there! Claire hopped to her feet. "No! I'll move the car!" she protested, racing out the door after her friend. April was already pulling up the driveway. She clicked the automatic garage door opener. Claire held her breath, waiting for April's scream that would break the sound barrier. Claire looked as the garage door slowly creaked open... He wasn't in there. He and his sports car were gone; not a trace of Charlie was left. Claire released her breath. It was as if he had never been there. Claire watched April pull into the garage thoughtfully. Now Claire wouldn't ever have to tell April about all that happened. This was a good thing, right? She shook her head, trying to clear it of its thoughts. Why was she thinking about Charlie so much? He was just another stuck-up rock star. April walked up to Claire saying, "Well, I'm going to take a nap. When I wake up, wanna go to the beach? I heard Charlie always goes to that beach when he's in LA." Claire nodded. "Sure." she murmured, following April into the house. She was going to shower and take a nap as well.
Claire awoke from her nap and prepared herself for the beach with April. Claire gathered her towel and sunscreen and she and April climbed into the car and drove the short distance to the beach. April immediately went to where a group of surfers were gathered to check if one was Charlie or Liam. Claire watched her friend scurry off before looking for an empty chair. She spotted an empty seat... Beside a familiar baseball cap. She smiled, shaking her head and went to the empty seat. She lowered herself to a seat in the chair beside the man. Dark sunglasses concealed his eyes while the cap hid his hair and put a shadow over most of his face. She cleared her throat noisily and the man stirred, yawning a little.
"Oh, I'm sorry, did I wake you, sir?" she asked with a laugh.
The man looked at her, looked away, then, did a double-take. "Hey, you're that Claire bird from last night." he exclaimed, sitting upright in his chair. He pulled off his shades.
"That's me." Claire replied. "Did you sleep here?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, I slept in your garage for the most part, but then, came out here so I wouldn't be seen by anyone." Charlie explained.
"Okay," Claire rolled her eyes.
"What are you doing here? Are you following me?" Charlie asked, a smile on his lips.
"Yes. Well, I'm not. My friend, April, is." Claire stated, pointing out her friend who was laying out her towel.
"I see." Charlie nodded. "So, feeling better?"
"Yeah," Claire replied.
Charlie looked at the road just in time to see three large, black vans pulling into the beach's parking lot. "Bloody..." he murmured. He shoved the shades back over his eyes. "Can I use your car?" he asked Claire hastily.
"What?! Why?!" Claire exclaimed, shocked by his outburst.
"The papparrazzi are here... I need another car!" he whispered loudly.
"We can't just leave April without a car!" Claire hissed.
Charlie reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out a set of keys to his sports car. "Give these to April." he offered.
"Wait, what?" Claire stammered.
"So we don't have to leave her car-less." he elaborated.
"Okay, gimme a second." Claire said, snatching the keys from his hand.
Claire tip-toed over to where April lay sunbathing. She dug around in her friend's purse and grabbed the car keys in one hand while replacing them with Charlie's keys with her other hand. Once she finished pick-pocketing April's purse, Claire scrambled back to where Charlie sat. She gave him the keys and they raced up to the parking lot wher a mass of papparrazzi waited, cameras in-hand. Charlie and Claire crept to the car. Charlie unlocked his door before reaching across the seat to open Claire's door for her. The door smacked Claire in the head as it opened. Charlie winced, pulling his hand away. Claire got into the car with a hand to her head.
"You really need to stop doing that." she muttered, buckling her seat belt.
"Sorry," Charlie apologized. He started the car and tore out of the parking lot.
The reporters saw the car and sprinted to their vans. Charlie cursed.
"What?" Claire asked, gripping the dashboard with fear.
"They saw us... They're coming." Charlie grumbled.
"Oh, let's have some fun with them." Claire grinned wickedly.
Charlie raised his eyebrows. "What?"
"Step on it! Let's go!" Claire squealed, glancing back at the vans trainling after them.
"Alright, hold on tight." Charlie winked.
Charlie slammed down on the gas, taking the car from thirty miles an hour to nearly eighty in mere seconds. Claire braced herself, holding onto the car. An old song by Queen came on the radio and Claire reached over and turned it up so that the music radiated from the car in almost visible wavelengths. Caherlie grinned broadly, swerving into different lanes and onto different roads until they were out on a winding back road. The papparrazzi was left somewhere in downtown LA. Claire and Charlie sang along to the song at the top of their lungs. Charlie had slowed the car down to a reasonable speed now and was hitting the wheel to the beat of the song as he belted out the song. Claire fearlessly sang along, smiling at Charlie every now and then. Charlie pulled onto the side of the road and parked the car as the song came to a close. Clair was laughing, her hair tousled from riding with the windows down.
"That was really fun." Claire smiled, brushing the hair back from her face.
"Yeah, it was." Charlie agreed. "It was the most fun I've had... in a really long time, actually."
Claire looked at him, confused. "What do you mean?" she asked.
Just then, the old car spluttered and died beneath their feet.