Stray Hearts // Charlie Gillespie

10

Everyone was asleep in their tents right now. But for me, I'm tossing and turning. The sound of Warrens light snores have been keeping me up.

I sigh as I sit up. I check the time to see it's one thirty. There's still no service so I can't mindlessly scroll through Instagram.

I get up as slow as I can so I don't wake up Warren. I can hear the fire popping so it's probably burning out.

I unzip the door to the tent, crawl out, and then zip it back.

"Can't sleep either?" I hear behind me. I jump, my breath getting caught in my throat.

I turn around to see Charlie sitting by the fire. I place my hand on my chest as I catch my breath. "You scared the shit out of me." I breath slowly.

He stood up and walked over to me. He stuck his hand out as I took it. He helped me up as I dusted myself off.

It was pretty peaceful out here because there wasn't much noise like out in the city.

I sit down as he sits next to me. "Warrens snores is keeping me up." I answer his question.

I look over at him, the glow of the fire shining on his face. "I thought that was you." Charlie joked making me laugh.

He chuckled lightly as he put some of his hair behind his ear. "You're a jackass, you know that right?" I joke with him.

"I can be." He shrugged. He was a cute jackass. "So, how come Owen sent you to the singles club?" I ask curious.

He never told me why. He turned red as he thought about it. "He said it was because I seemed lonely." He explained.

So we basically had a similar story. "Why did Jasper and Lauren sign you up for it?" He asked looking over at me.

I take a deep breath before speaking. "Because apparently I needed to put myself out there." He looked at me confused.

"I've never been the type to settle down and have a boyfriend. I'll have the occasional few, but nothing too serious." I admit.

It's embarrassing. Everyone my age has been with their partner for years and having sex. While there's me who's only had the occasional kiss.

He looked at me shockingly. "How? You're attractive." I blushed at his words. "I was always focused on dance. And it was always scary."

It's strange because I feel like I can tell him anything on my mind. And he won't judge me. He looks at me softly.

"I hope I don't scare you." He whispered. He looked away and into the fire. "You don't." I saw a light smile form on his face.

His smile was infectious. "What about you?" I ask changing the subject off of me. "I never really found anyone that understands me."

He looked up at me, barely moving his head. "Until I met you." He flirted. A small blush crept onto my face as he said that.

"Are you blushing?" He teased, making me bite my lip. "No, it's the heat from the fire." I deny it. He chuckled as he shook his head.

I heard something zip so I looked at the noise. "I love you both, but can you take your flirting some where else?" Jasper asked.

His voice was raspy from waking up. I look at Charlie to see him now blushing. "Yeah, sorry bro." Charlie grimaced.

Jasper stuck his head back in his tent and zipped it back up. "You wanna go for a walk?" I nodded and stood up.

We started walking away from the site, but as we walked away, the darker it got. "You think we should've grabbed flashlights?"

I left my phone in my tent. "I knew I forgot something. I just hope you're a fast runner." He slightly joked as we walked.

"I dance for a living, of course I'm a fast runner." I fake brag. "You on the other hand." I grimace as I look at him up and down.

He looks at me with a shocked face. "I'm an excellent runner, thank you." He beams over to me.

I decided to mess with him a little. I get a scared look on my face as I look behind him. "What the fuck is that?" I ask pointing.

He jumps and stands behind me. He grabs onto my hand as I start laughing. He then realizes it was a joke causing him to let go.

He looks defeated as I look over at him. "Uncool." I tried to slow my laughter, but every time I thought of his face, I'd start up again.

I had to stop walking from the laughter. My stomach was in pain as he turned to me. "Will you quit laughing at me?"

I had tears rolling down my eyes. "You should've seen your face." I say in between laughs. "I've had enough." I heard.

He walked over to me and picked me up. He threw me over his shoulder as I instantly stopped laughing.

"Charlie!" I squeal. I hit his back as he continues to walk. "I'm not putting you down, Taylor." He laughs.

"Charles Jeffery Gillespie. Put me down." I tell him. I could hear him gasp as I pulled out his middle name.

"I'm definitely not after that." I groan as I go limp. I might as well get comfortable. Maybe that will aggravate him more than hitting his back.

I started tracing circles on his back with my fingers. As I did so, I could feel the goosebumps. "You're tempting me." There was a rasp in his voice.

I don't know how to explain it, but it was really attractive. "Good, then I'll do it more." I teased him a little bit.

He stopped walking, and put me on me feet. I looked up into his hazel eyes. And then I look behind him.

I put my scared face back on as I slowly pointed. He looked at me with wide eyes and then turned to see it was nothing.

He looked at me with disappointed look. Not at me, but at himself for believing it again.

"I fucking hate your ass." He pouted as I laughed at him. He started walking away as I laughed lightly.

"It's just a joke." I try to tell him. He flipped me off as I watched him walk away.

He was so fun and cute to mess with.