invisible string • Gracie Abrams

033 no love

just then, sadie's door swung open again with matthew, caleb, and marcus trailing inside.

"charlie," matthew immediately ran up to her with his arms out, pulling her into a tight hug which caleb and matthew shortly joined in on. "jude told me everything." he pulled away and held her shoulders firmly, "where does alex live?"

"ok no, we're not beating him up again," charlotte clarified for everyone in the room.

"y'all beat him up?!" caleb asked, raising an eyebrow. "also, hi gracie nice to meet you, i'm caleb, i'd say i've heard a lot about you but that is not true."

gracie gave him a smile, "hi caleb i'm charlotte girlfriend as you probably know."

"damn matt, she is better looking than you, nice job charlie," marcus smirked getting gracie to crack a small laugh and matthew to roll his eyes. "hey, i'm marcus."

"can me and marc just ask how long have you two been together?" caleb asked.

"a couple days after that night i got roofied," charlotte nonchalantly said. "sorry i didn't tell you two sooner."

"it's okay, we understand now why you'd wanna keep it a secret, y'know since that literal internet bomb yet off yesteday—"

matthew elbowed marcus's side to get him to shut up.

"i um got you both something to see if it'll make you feel better, but don't think it'll be much help," matthew chuckled, pulling out 'this is what it feels like tour' hoodie and handing it to charlotte, something she oddly doesn't own yet, she's mainly just worn gracie's. "and charlotte says your a bit of an addict?" he then handed gracie a cup of coffee he picked up on the way over. "she's also memorized your order which is burned in my head from how much she mentions it."

"thanks matthew," they both sweetly said in unison.

"ooo, betrayal looks good on you," caleb joked as he watched charlotte pull on the hoodie, getting everyone to laugh and lighten the depressing mood that lingered in the house.

"wait, why is olivia rodrigo in the room with us?" marcus asked, pointing at olivia who waved at him.

"she's my best friend, she knew about me and charlotte," gracie said.

"have your guys's publicists contacted you?" caleb asked.

"yeah, we both haven't answered them though," charlotte said. "god, maya's probably freaked out and off the rails. i'm gonna have to pay her double this week."

all the talk about her and gracie, the tweets, and literally everything was making charlottes headache climb, she squeezed her eyes shut, subconsciously gripping harder onto gracie.

"you okay?" gracie whispered to her over the talking.

"head hurts," charlotte mumbled. "can we go back to my room for a sec?"

gracie nodded, taking charlottes hand as they slipped away amongst the conversation which the boys didn't notice because they were too busy shit talking alex and sadie was too busy staring up at caleb.

gracie shut the door as charlotte fell back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. gracie laid next to her, staring at the ceiling too for a minute before turning to her side, smoothly tracing the freckles on charlottes face with her fingertips

"i'm scared," charlotte mumbled. "i don't want—what if my parents pull as apart and i don't get to see you again?"

gracie swallowed the same fear in her throat, "we're not going to let them do that. y'know before we met in that dim bathroom i didn't really know who i was. i didn't know how i would ever move in from alex, how to handle my emotions or even how to get out of bed. you probably remeber that, that day you showed up at my house for the first time and took me to lunch and saw me looking like shit because i couldn't leave my bed or even bare to go outside."