Remember This✔

Chapter Thirty-Three

"You're begging," Charlie mutters. "Really?"

"Just give me one more chance. I promise I'll be the old Aubrey again! I'll be the girl that you met a year ago, the girl that you adored and who made you happy."

"It's too late," Charlie says as he pauses beside the door.

"It's not too late, don't say that." Aubrey walks towards him and Charlie freezes as she places her hand on his face. "I love you; I've always loved you."

"I don't love you," Charlie whispers.

"You still care about me or you wouldn't have turned up," she says. "Don't you remember the way we were together? The way we touched each other? It was fire."

Charlie swallows as she drizzles her fingers along his jaw. He catches her hand and her eyes are seductive and luring. Before he even has time to blink, she's kissing him. At first he tries to fight it but he can't resist it and that's the weird hold she has over him. The kiss becomes stronger and he pushes her into the kitchen counter as she starts zipping down his jacket and unbuttoning his jeans. He pulls away and shakes his head before moving towards the door.

"Like I said," Aubrey calls. "Fire! You'll be back!"

He doesn't say a word as he leaves her apartment. He runs down to his car, not stopping to take a breath. Outside, a group of kids on bikes are staring at him from across the street.

"What are you looking at?" Charlie yells.

He's so angry and he can't contain it. He thumps his hands against the steering wheel as he tries to make sense of what just happened. He takes out his phone and he scrolls through his contacts, clicking Molly's name. It rings for several seconds before going to voicemail. Charlie throws the phone at the passenger seat and drives home.

In the evening Charlie is forced to help Jaz with her homework after dinner while his mother enjoys her downtime in the next room. She's working on a case study for environmental science, and she's chosen trees.

"Did you know that some trees can live up to five thousand years!" Jaz says in an amazed tone. "It's called the bristle cone pine and it's found in Southern California. Cool, right?"

"Cool," Charlie mutters.

"We live in the city of trees," Jaz says. "That's what they call it because there's hundreds of different species of trees that cover like a quarter of the land. Trees are amazing, they produce their own oxygen through photosynthesis until they lose their leaves."

"Cool," Charlie repeats.

"And they make up thirty percent of the world's oxygen. Yet, billions are cut down every year, more are cut down than are planted. It's really sad because it means that one day there won't be any more trees because of selfish humans."

"That'll be hundreds of years from now," Charlie says. "You won't need to worry about it."

"How could you not worry?" Jaz says angrily. "They are beautiful, incredible creatures with centuries worth of life and we just come along and destroy them."

"Yeah for this," Charlie says, flipping the pages of her book. "Without trees you wouldn't be able to read about trees."

"True," she mutters, scowling to herself. "But we have the internet now. We have computers. I'm still on the side of the trees and I'll keep that argument in my case study."

"It's not just paper," Charlie says. "Look around. There's parts of trees everywhere. The doors, the table, the-"

"Yeah I get it," she says. "But it doesn't mean I have to like it."