Cherry Lips // s. black

-FEBUARY-

He peeked up at her, one eye scrunched shut. "Can you be my girlfriend?"

She stared at him.

"...Please?"

She didn't understand. Carmilla's chest felt weird, and she didn't like it. Charlie was her best friend. She was supposed to be his. He was the one she was supposed to gossip about boys with, not that they really did that much, but he wasn't supposed to be the boy.

Did he, what, think about snogging her every time they hugged and sat together and drew magical creatures for class? Was any of the time they spent together not about romance? The music was too loud. She wanted to cover her ears. 

No. that wasn't right. Charlie wasn't like that.

She squinted at him and opened her mouth to speak, but then she frowned and looked down to the roses she'd bought for June to use as a reference while she painted the flowers onto the belt that she'd also got her friend. She looked to the lollypop sticks discarded in the bottom, near her empty purse. The ones he'd bought. The heart shaped ones. 

Her eyes widened. "Is this a date?" 

His face spiralled into panic, and he waved his hands around frantically. "No! not like that, wait... actually... Well yeah but... no."

"...Huh?"

The smell of must in the shop was making her nose itch. Charlie sucked in a breath. "I... I need a girlfriend. But I don't actually want one, and you're my best friend, so I won't be accidentally messing with your feelings cause you'd never actually want to date me, and... and..."

"Why..." Carmilla scrunched her nose up. Now she was even more confused. "Why do you need a girlfriend?"

"I...um..." Charlie trailed off. "You know how I was telling you about the guys in my dorm?"

"Yeah?"

"And how they're kinda shitheads?" he chuckled. It didn't ease the uncomfortable feeling in the small record store. He was still wringing his hands out and Carmilla wondered if she should say she needed to go to the bathroom and then climb out a window. Rose did that once. Then she broke her toe on a trashcan and Carmilla had to carry her home. 

She didn't say anything. Charlie's shoulders slumped. "They always pick on me, and stuff like that. I can handle it, I'm fine, but..."

Carmilla narrowed her eyes. There was a chunk on red lollypop stuck on her fang. It wouldn't come off. It tasted sickly sweet now. "And you need to get a girlfriend to prove you're not a loser?"

He nodded, but his expression was still set in stone. She didn't like it. Charlie sighed. "Sort of. They think..."

He looked away and blinked quickly. Carmilla wanted to give him a hug, but she was a bit lost to begin with.

He looked around the store.

The girl with tights was gone. It was empty, save the woman sitting at the counter by the front of the store reading the paper. Some of the flowers had fallen out of her dark hair and landed on the ground. Charlie and Carmilla were tucked into the back corner on their squishy couch while the record spun quietly beside them.

"...They think, that... that I like boys."

Carmilla was about to ask him why he didn't just tell his asshole dormmates that he didn't like boys, when she saw him wipe his eyes with his sleeves quickly. He didn't look up. She frowned.

Why was he so upset about...

Oh.

Charlie flinched back when she touched him, but when she leant back into the faded green couch cushions he collapsed into the hug. Her robes were bunched in his fists, and she felt him shake.

He was more scared than she'd felt when she found out he knew about her secret.

And her secret warranted pitchforks and wooden stakes. Not this one.

Carmilla held him tighter. His hair smelt like honey soap and candle smoke, and she pressed her cheek to it aggressively. "Charlie, I don't know if you know... but you're my best friend."

She felt the grin on his face on her own shoulder, and then saw it when he sat back a little bit, wiping at his face. He chuckled wetly, and it sounded far more genuine than last time. He shrugged, and sniffed. "Yeah, I know."

"Good, and-"

"Oi! No canoodling back there!"

Carmilla let go of his tear-stained sleeves and peeked over the back of their couch. His head popped up next to her, and the woman at the bench glared at both of them over her newspaper displaying something about more muggleborn attacks. 

She looked between both teenagers. "...Never mind."

They slunk back down, and Carmilla tried not to giggle. Then Charlie began laughing, his hand over his mouth.

She rolled her eyes. "Of course, I'll be your girlfriend, you dork... But I'm not wearing your sweater. It's the ugliest thing I've ever seen."

"You're a terrible girlfriend!" Charlie hissed back, poking her side.

"Watch it," Carmilla chuckled, and leant forwards to the record player on the low legless coffee table propped up on old record crates. She turned the volume up and a quiet choppy paced guitar filled the little record store. Of course, it had been playing the whole time and now they were in the middle of a song. Oh well.

There's a Starman waiting in the sky

"Maybe I'll have an affair," she finished, and flopped back, her bag of roses and heart shaped lollypops by her feet. They no longer made her want to throw them onto the ground and stomp on them. "Or poison you for the money."

"Yeah yeah," Charlie muttered, looping his arm through hers. "Shut up."

He'd like to come and meet us

But he thinks he'd blow our minds

Carmilla liked this song. She picked the chunk of lollypop off her fang and sucked on the hard candy. It tasted nice. Through the music she heard the bell above the door tinkle as someone else came into the shop.

"So, like... are you gonna propose to me in front of all your dormmates, or do we just shag right in front of em, or..."

There's a Starman waiting in the sky

"I hate you," Charlie said, leaning back and staring at the roof. Carmilla tilted her head too. There were cracked records glued to the wooden ceiling, cobwebs woven between them and dust bunnies stuck to the vinyl. "Just... yeah... I didn't really get that far into the plan."

"Dumbass."

He's told us not to blow it

"Just promise not to fall in love with me," Charlie said, glancing over at her with a smirk. His eyes were puffy and there was snot on his sleeves. He looped his arm through hers.

Carmilla grinned back. "Done."

"Okay, you don't have to be that quick about it!"

Cause he knows it's all worthwhile

i wish someone would let me direct this book into  a show or something just so that I can make this chapter cause y'all cannot understand the absolute perfection that this could be like the little store and the song and they're crying and now I'm crying like ughhhh 

it's giving perks of being a wallflower

<3