invisible string • Gracie Abrams

030 stained t-shirts

"honestly, that's the only idea we got," she said, watching gracie raise her head. "you don't have to talk to him, me and sadie can."

"oh me too, i wanna talk to that bitch," olivia piped up.

"ok, me sadie and olivia. we better just deal with him now, right?" she said, rubbing her thumb against gracie's hand that was clenched around hers. "only if you're okay with it, just say the word and we'll leave."

gracie sighed and cleared her throat, "okay."

"okay," charlotte repeated softly, kissing her forehead in comfort.

_

"y'know, out of all the crazy ideas you've had in your life, this one has got to be the most psychotic one," charlotte said as she was helping sadie pour glasses of wine in the kitchen. she looked over to the living room where gracie was happily in a conversation with matthew, jude, and olivia, thankfully distracted from alex who was on his way over.

"i know. i just— i wanna prove to you i can protect you and gracie from getting outed," sadie said. "in my defence, you did hide this from me for—"

"yes yes, i know and i'm so sorry," charlotte said. "let's just hope nothing goes wrong."

"it's a shame though, that alex dude is really hot."

"you can't be saying that, what about your boyfriend caleb," charlotte teased.

"okay, we're not here to talk about caleb, we're here to talk about how adorable you and your girlfriend is," sadie smiled, leaning over to also look at gracie who was now being taught by jude how to play the guitar he brought down from sadie's room, even though gracie already knows full well how to play. "i approve."

"why thank you," charlotte laughed. "oh my god, i have to show you her music, she's so good," she excitedly said and pulled out her phone to search up gracie. "y'know she can play the piano? she's got this one by her window in her room with all these song lyrics she's been writting taped to her window—"

just then, the doorbell rang. sadie and charlotte stared at eachother for a solid ten seconds before sadie dashed to the door and charlotte went over to gracie, sitting in front of her as jude and matthew stood up.

she grabbed jude's wrist, "don't do anything stupid, and don't say anything stupid either," she growled at him.

"i know, i know," he said, easing out of her grip and folding his arms.

a minute later, sadie walked into the living room, followed by the monster.

"this hair natural or dyed," alex asked, his hand lightly grabbing at sadie's hair, despite sadie's clearly uncomfortable look. just then he noticed the group of faces staring at him and stopped in his tracks. his eyes went from charlotte to gracie, a grin appearing on his face. "okay, what the fuck is this?"

"a talk," sadie said, crossing her arms across her chest and staring up at alex trying to look intimidating, which was difficult given her size compared to his.

"ew, what's with the uneven stubble," olivia whispered to charlotte.

"nah, this is halarious, but i'm out. oh and hey gracie," alex smirked. "you still wear bows in your hair?" he chuckled and turned to walk to the door.