invisible string • Gracie Abrams

033 no love

"put your hood up," gracie said as she began to pull out of the parking lot. she took a deep breath before taking charlottes hand in her free one, squeezing it tightly to confront herself as she began to drive down the crowded streets. thankfully, her car blended right into the numerous ones on the street and no one seemed to glance through the windshield and spot them. by the time they made it through one street, charlotte had already fell asleep, calm and totally oblivious to how chaotic things would be when she would wake up the next morning.

the drive was extremely difficult, gracie kept having to fight the temptation of picking up her phone and re-checking the news every ten seconds and instead focus on the road. she tried to play music, but even that couldn't help distract her mind from what had just happened. so instead, she began to subconsciously play with charlottes fingers and rings, fiddling with them as she drove. by the time she reached sadie's house and parked, she immediately picked up her phone and was about to click open twitter when charlotte groaned and stretched out her arms, causing her to pocket away her phone.

"we're at sadie's now," gracie whispered soothingly.

"wait, pinch me," charlotte mumbled, knocking gracie's arm. "i gotta check if this is still real."

"it's real," gracie sighed, lightly pinching charlottes arm. "can we just... leave this shit till the morning, i don't got the energy to deal with all the texts in my phone."

charlotte nodded, "exactly what i was thinking."

the two stepped out the car, but before walking up to sadie's door, they stood in the rain face to face, their clothes now soaking wet and raindrops mixing with the tears in the crooks of their eyes.

"come here," gracie lightly took charlottes fingers into her hand.

"i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry i should've—"

"shh," gracie shook her head and pulled charlotte into her arms, hugging her tightly. "it's not your fault. jude texted me everything that happened. you couldn't have done anything," she said, rubbing charlottes back.

charlotte sighed, still feeling defeated as she raised her head and let gracie kiss her lips under the rain. she then realized, this was the first time they kissed outside of a home. sure it was only in sadie's front yard and no one else was around, but it was still a whole new experience. it made this whole scenario bittersweet. gracie slowly pulled away, kissing charlottes forehead before interlocking their hands and turning to walk to sadie's front door.

before charlotte even knocked on the door, it swung open and revealed sadie, who immediately pulled them inside, giving both of them a hug as she wrapped her arms around either of them.

"holy shit," she gasped, pulling away. "i—i saw the tweets. also what're you guys doing here?"

"we couldn't go home," charlotte mumbled, her head resting on gracie's shoulder as she struggled to stay awake.

"but what happened?" sadie asked as she guided them to her living room. "aw jesus, you guys are soaked let me go grab you clothes."

as sadie quickly disappeared upstairs, the current most popular couple in the world stared at the fireplace in silence. they both left their phones in the car, charlotte couldn't stand the constant vibrations of notifications and gracie felt a chill run down her spike every time her parents sent a new text.

suddenly, gracie decided to break the silence, "are we going to be okay?" she asked ever so quietly, looking down at charlotte who's head was falling into her lap.

but charlotte didn't respond, she just couldn't.

sadie returned and the two of them got changed. they promised to tell sadie everything that went down the moment they wake up and when charlotte wasn't as drowsy, so for now, gracie and charlotte crawled into the bed in charlottes honorary bedroom. they stayed awake staring at the ceiling, but they didn't need to say anything because they both were thinking about the exact same thing: what are their parents going to do, and what is the public thinking? they could both hear sadie on the phone with caleb and marcus, pacing out in her living room and telling them about how matthew was a cover for the relationship. honestly, charlotte was thankful sadie was telling them for her, she didn't have the heart to say it to them. but she knew caleb and marcus would be understanding, they always are. and besides, she had bigger reactions to worry about.