"Hey!" I call as I push through the library entrance and hurry down the stairs after Charlie's sister. She turns around but doesn't stop walking. But I'm determined to talk to her so I don't stop until I reach her and grab her shoulder softly. "Hey, wait up." I manage to pant out, shaking away the thought of how unfit I am. I really need to start following Shadè on those runs.
She flashes me an apologetic look "I'm so sorry to bother you. IâI shouldn't have come. Forget I was ever here." She turns to leave again.
"No," I stop her by getting in her way. "You're Charlie's sister?" I readjust my bag on my shoulder, making another mental note to apologise to Isaac about leaving in a rush. After introducing herself, she said it was an accident and rushed out. My intuition told me otherwise and the urge to know something other than the basic about Charlie got the best of me. I had to know her. Or at least why she's here. Why she approached me, there has to be a reason. Because as I stand in front of her, there's no single doubt that she's related to Charlie. This girl practically looks like she vomited Mila.
She looks around, like she's afraid to let anyone know that she's related to Charlie. I look around too, although no one seems to care what we have going on, I totally understand her.
"Do you want to go someplace to talk?" I ask. This isn't the main library, so we are not too far from home. "My complex is just a 20 minutes walk from here."
She eyes me, I can tell she's contemplating whether or not to trust me. Unlike Charlie, she's a completely open book. When she finally nods, I give her a smile. "We can't walk though," she says. "My chauffeur's over there." She points to a black Rolls Royce that I didn't notice before.
That will explain the uniform, definitely a private school.
Although I tried to hide it but she must have seen the gobsmacked expression on my face.
"It's my dad's car, and my dad's chauffeur. He picks me up and drops me to school. If I choose to walk, he'll just follow us anyways so we might as well take it." She explains.
"Okay." I say, deciding to trust that this little girl is not part of some weird plot to kidnap me. "Okay, let's go."
***
We get to my apartment relatively quickly. Thankfully, it's quiet because there's nobody at home. The house is still a bit chilly, meaning Sam left not too long ago so I go to reset the thermostat and instruct Dixie to take her shoes off.
She hasn't spoken much. Except for the two times she thanked her chauffeur for waiting and dropping us and then told him to come back in an hour. I haven't spoken much either. I was lost in my own head the entire ride. I have so much to ask, so much to know. And I need to ask and know in an hour or less.
"Sorry about the cold," I tell her as I walk to the kitchen. I drop my bag on the counter and go to pull out a glass from the cupboard. "One of my roommates is a bit of a Chionophile. The temp should go up in a few minutes."
"It's okay." I hear her call from the living room, where she's perched lightly on the sofa. Like she doesn't want to get too comfortable. I quietly watch her as she looks around the apartment. There must be something in the Murtaugh blood because she is very beautifulâJust like her brother and Mila. Unlike Charlie, she's got blonde hair âwhich I'm guessing Mila got from herâbut I'd recognise those blue eyes anywhere. It reminds you of the skies or clean pool water. She catches me watching her and smiles softly. "Your apartment is beautiful."
I blink, registering what she said. "Thank you." I smile back and she nods.
Silence.
I take a deep breath and turn to the refrigerator. "Would you like something to drink. Water, juice, tea?" I cringe when I remember that we absolutely do not drink tea in this house. Occasionally, Elle would pick up a box of green tea when she's trying out a new diet but the diets never lasts and the teas always end up in the bin.
"Water, please. Bottled though, I don't drink tap." I wait for the statement to sound snobbish but it never does. Because she was never trying to be. I pull out a bottle of water from the refrigerator, ditch the glass cups and head back to the living room. "Thank you." She takes the bottle from me but doesn't open it.
"You're welcome."
I take a sit next to her. "Dixie right?"
She nods. "Lorraine?" I nod. There's a bit of an awkward silence as we both sit there, staring at each other. So much to ask, so much to say, but no way to start. "That's a nice name." She adds.
"Thank you." I say, genuinely. "But how do you know itâmy name, how do you know my name? I haven't introduced myself yet."
"You didn't really think I'd follow you home if I didn't already know who you were?"
"Fair enough." I say, not giving away that it never crossed my mind. I know it's crazy but I saw her and I trusted her immediately.
"I read your article on Charlie." She continues, setting her water down on the coffee table. "And I watched his interviewâcan I just say that I am sorry about that whole thing, I'm pretty sure he didn't mean it. Charlie says things he doesn't mean when he's angry. And then I saw you at his game. And then his instagram post about you so I kind of followed you and started stalking youâI know I shouldn't be admitting that but I stalk a lot of people on instagram. Not because I'm a creep or anything, I promise I'm not. Butâ" her eyes widen as she stops rambling. She sighs in defeat. "I try to keep up with Charlie in any way that I can. I have this fake page that follows him and his friends because he blocked my real one. He blocked my number. If he sees the name Dixie or Murtaugh, he just blocks it. Did you know Charlie has almost 100 thousand followers on instagram and there's not one person called Dixie on the list? I know because I've checkedâwell as far as it would let me anyways because he's the only one who can see all his followersâ"
If I was confused before I'm even more confused. I have no idea what she's talking about. Or why Charlie would block his little sister. So I take a deep breath. "Charlie blocked you?"
"He's never really liked meâfor obvious reasons. Because of the whole, you know, family thing."
Family thing? What family thing. What is she talking about.
"And I don't blame him," she continues before I can ask any questions. "I'd probably hate me too. Even though technically, I had no choice in the matter. Everything was up to dad. But Charlie just hates our dad so much and he hates me because of that. And I just want him to listen to me even if it's just once, I just want him to hear me out. And listen to my side of the story. I've never reached out to his friends before but youâI don't know I felt like I could trust you and then I saw your post with Mila. Charlie doesn't let me see herâever. I see bits and pieces of her but he doesn't let me see her and I'm dying to meet her again. And I know Regina must have skipped town if Mila's living on campus again. She's sickâ"
"He doesn't let you see your daughter?" I ask, cutting her off her ramble.
"My daughter?"
"You know, Mila?"
"Oh. Mila's not mine. She's Robin'sâ" she stops and watches me. I pause. "Wait. You have no idea. Youâoh God. I have to go." She scrambles off her feet and rushes to the door.
I scramble after her.
"Wait."
She turns around swiftly and we almost bump into each other. She looks scared, terrified almost. Of Charlie? "No. I shouldn't have come here. I thought you were his girlfriend. I thought you knew. Oh God, what have I done? Please you can never tell Charlie I was here. He already hates me he's never going to see me as his sister if he knows that I told you."
"See you as his sisterâwhat?" I look at her in utter confusion and desperation to just have a clue on what she's talking about. "You haven't told me anythingâ"
But she's already out of the door before I can complete my sentence. And when I walk out the door she's already entering the elevator, her phone to her ears instructing her chauffeur to hurry up.
What just happened?
****
Two hours after sneaking into Charlie's apartment, I still can't get the thought of his sister out of my head. The longer it is since our interaction, the more obsessed I am. I spent an entire hour on instagram conducting an investigation that has left me even more curious. The first half an hour was spent going through my followers for any fake pages. It was not hard to find the page that was following half of the UCLA basketball team, UCLA basketball page, the coach and the assistant coach, Brontë Donahue, me and a private account called dix.taugh. I contemplate on following her but my curiosity got the best of me and I do. After requesting to follow Dixie's account, I spend the next hour scrolling through Charlie's followers. To my surprise, there is in fact no Dixie of any kinds or forms of the nameânot that I was able to go through everything. The next hour was spent clicking on every single Robins that I found on Charlie's following. I was about to give up on Robin number 47, but then came robinslou.
Followed by Charlie and dix.taugh.
No profile picture, no posts. Another dead end.
Sighing, I drop my phone next to me and concentrate on Grey's anatomyâa show I never would have thought Charlie would watch but is so obsessed with. I of course have never watched the show because I am aware that it's still running and honestly cannot be bothered to binge that many seasons but Charlie was very convincing when he asked. When a man's asking you to promise to do something when he's literally inside of you, it's kind of hard to say no. I blush at the thought and focus on Meredith and Christina bickering as the roam the empty hallways of the locked down hospital because of a shooter.
There has been two deathsâone of the new female doctors was shot and Karev too. Well I'm not sure he's dead but hopefully not. This episode is so
intense that I don't hear anyone come into the house until the door to Charlie's room opens. My eyes snap to see an obviously exhausted Charlie walk into his room, a north face duffel bag sitting on his shoulders.
My entire body stands at alert in reaction to his presence as he shuts the door.
I smile, but we both don't say anything. I know he's tired from his drooping eyelid and the mechanical way he moves. Although I didn't catch the game because I had classes and then I was with Isaac, the game against Connecticut this afternoon was very difficult and we almost lost. According to Elle who basically gave me a play by play, it was Charlie's last minute 3 pointer that saved us and then another 2 pointer from Sawyer just ten seconds before the end of the game. Either way I'm glad they won because Charlie told me there'd be some NBA scouts there. Charlie dumps his stuff next to his bed, strips out of his Ucla tracksuit, leaving him in nothing but his Calvin Klein briefs before climbing onto the bed.
He lays his head on my chest and wraps his hand around my waist. "Hey." I whisper, my hands coming up around him. He's body isn't warm yet but it doesn't bother me.
"Hey."
"Rough day?"
"Rough day." He repeats. "I'm glad you're here." And I'm glad too. Even though when he gave me his key so that I can be here waiting for when he got back, I was genuinely confused. I'm happy to see him. He has been gone for almost 48 hours. I know it's sad and pathetic.
"You're watching greys without me." His says in a tired voice, snuggling closer to me. "And it's the shooting scene. I'll never forgive you." He mumbles and I chuckle, absentmindedly running my hands through his hair. "This episode is so good. Watch what happens in the OR when Christina tries to operate on Derek. The guyâthe shooterâhe comes in. Watch."
"Stop spoiling."
"Sorry." We both continue to watch in silence. "He's going to shoot Derek and then April willâ"
"Charlie!" I half laugh, half scold.
"Sorry." But I doubt he is. Either way, he turns his head around so that he's facing me. And although, im panicking that he's got a front row ticket to see my double chin, Charlie's eyes are shut. I stop running my hand through his hair.
"It's okay, I don't think I'm going to get to that part anyway."
His eyes flutter open slowly and when I see them, the first thing I think is Dixie's terrified blue eyes as she pleaded with me to not tell Charlie about her showing up. I stare at Charlie, afraid that he might hear my thoughts, unable to look away. "Why?" He asks softly, helping me zone back into the conversation.
My eyes dart to the clock on the wall. "It's almost midnight. You're too tired to drop me home and I have to get the shuttle."
"Stay." He says. It's not like I have never stayed past midnight. I have. But on those nights, Charlie and I had sex. And even if it was 3am, no matter how much I hated it or how tired I was, I'd drag myself out of his bed and ask him to drop me home. He's never told me to stay. "Why are you always running away?"
"I'm notâI don't run away." I swallow. "I just never thoughtâI didn't know that I'm supposed to stay."
"You're not supposed to. If this was a typical FWB situation, I'd kick you out as soon as we're done."
"You're an ass." He chuckles when I slap his shoulder.
"But this isn't typical sophomore." He says softly. "We both know it."
I'm sure he can hear just how fast my heart is beating. "So fuck the rules. I want you to stay. I hate when you run off in the middle of the night. I hate when I have to sneak out of your room at f*cking 5 am in the morning. I don't care how fuckong corny this sounds but I want you there when I wake up in the morning. Like our first time. That was nice."
"You weren't there when I woke up." I grumble out,
"I promise you, if it were up to me we would have been in that bed all day." I feel my body heat up at his words. I know him enough to know that he means it.
"I didn't pack a night bag." I say stupidly.
"You can borrow my clothes. I've got spare toothbrush. No excuses. Just stay."
"Okay," I say, relaxing a little bit. Charlie smiles and places a kiss on my abdomen. A kiss that burns through the fabric of my top, spreading heat all the way down to my toes. And when he finally resettles on my chest, my hands absentmindedly find their way back to his head, caressing his hair and playing with his ear as I watch his favourite show. It's not until I hear him snoring softly that I realise just how couple-y the whole thing is.
It scares the crap out of me. Because I'm trying so hard not to get attached but Charlie is making it difficult. He's the one who emphasises that we're friends but he's also the one breaking every single rule, doing things that we shouldn't we caught dead doing as friends with benefits. He's making this very difficult.
As happy as I am, I'm scared of what's going to happen when he gets bored.
My phone pings, distracting me from the gnarly thoughts. I stretch to pick it up from where i left it on the dresser, making sure to not wake Charlie up in the process.
dix.taugh accepted your follow request.
Not long after I hear another ping.
dix.taugh started following you.
My eyes dart to a sleeping Charlie before going back to my phone.
dix.taugh sent you a message I'm sorry for leaving in a rush but I was afraid that Charlie would never wa..
I click on the message and send her a reply.
Hi guys, I know this was supposed to be a Charlie POV but it got
Pushed back a couple of chapters because it just makes more sense to have it like that!