The Wilde Expedition

4. charlie

Copyright © 2015. All Rights Reserved.

〮CHAPTER FOUR 〮

"Oh, hey there Emma, Alister! What brings you two this way?" Charlie's mom said, regarding us with a gentle smile that didn't quite reach her stoney eyes. I knew she was pissed about the whole ordeal, but Charlie's month was almost up. I never knew someone could hold a grudge over a run-about with a college boy.

I cleared my throat and explained to her, "We came by to see Charlie. I called the other day... we sort of arranged it."

She stared at me for a second before her memory kicked in and she snapped her fingers. The action nearly had me flinching—she looked like she could deal some damage if she wanted to. "Right! Right, of course. Come on in, leave your shoes by the door. Charlie's in her room, you can let yourself up," she invited us in, taking a step back from her door to make way for our not-quite-petite physiques. Alister, like myself, contracted quite a bit of muscle, but while I remained relatively lean (minus the broader shoulders), Alister was built generally heavier to accommodate hours of training.

Charlie's mom saw us up the stairs before going back to work at the kitchen table. Her dad wasn't anywhere in sight, and I couldn't sense his presence anywhere in the house, so I figured he must've been out.

As we approached the final door at the end of the hall, I saw that her door, the one with bumper stickers on the wood and posters taped on the surface, was shut and locked. We could both hear music coming from inside, but it was an artist I knew all too well from her habit of listening to depressing songs on repeat when she was sad. Muse.

I knocked on the door a few times until she answered with, "What is it? I'm reading!"

"Yeah right, open the door," I called back. A series of movements sounded, including when she tripped over something and spouted curse words. At my side, Alister rolled his eyes, so I elbowed him in the ribs.

In the next moment, there came a click from the door prior to Charlie finally creaking it open, just a smidgen, so I couldn't quite see her face. "Is my mom out there?" she asked, voice hushed, but I could smell it anyway. I crinkled up my nose and tried not to breath through it.

"No, she's downstairs," I reported. A relieved sigh passed through her lips. She opened the door all the way then, letting us enter her den, along with the stench of senseless alcohol.

I never did like the smell of it.

"Jesus, Charlie," Alister muttered from behind me, using his foot to kick the door shut. She had staggered away from us, and stood with her hip cocked and her arms folded over her chest. She was a spritely little thing, but when she was like that, she could easily come straight out of a horror movie as the little girl you saw at the end of the hall, her hair askew in her face.

I moved over to the blinds, which were pulled shut and struggling to keep the afternoon light out. She made a weak attempt to stop me, but I opened them up anyway, and tucked them behind the metal hooks on the wall. When I did so, Charlie turned away and tugged her sweatshirt hood over her frizzed-up hair.

"What's the matter with you?" I hissed at her, rushing over and grabbing her shoulder in a claw-like grip. She pursed her lips and stared at the ground. "It's not even one in the afternoon and you're drinking?"

Charlie brushed my hand off her shoulder and blinked against the light. She probably hadn't seen the light of day since the last time I saw her. Unlike Alister and I, Charlie had a regular time schedule, like all the other humans in the world, but for all I knew, we'd just woken her up.

"Shut up, I haven't had anything to drink since last night," she told us, voice groggy and hoarse. She swiped the back of her hand under her nose and looked over at Alister, who seemed less than eager to enter her domain. He still stood by the door. "What the hell're you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in school?"