PEACHES [bws]

05. FACETIME CALLS

05.

"Merry Christmas, babe!" Charlie showers Summer's face in kisses, holding her cheeks gently with his own two hands.

He pulls her onto his lap as he sits up on his bed but she pulls her face out of his grasp with a small smile. "Merry Christmas, Charlie."

He kisses her again and she scrunches her nose up before climbing off of his lap and holding his hand, pulling him off of the bed and into the living room. 

Charlie hasn't decorated his apartment with Christmas decorations because he claimed that 'only pussies did that'. So instead of having presents under the Christmas tree, there were presents on the coffee table.

Of course, most of them were presents which Summer had bought. Charlie would rather spend his money on alcohol and cigarettes than get a decent present for his own girlfriend.

Charlie grabs a cigarette and his lighter. "How about you make a cup of tea while I go outside to smoke, yeah?"

"Sure," Summer nods, letting him kiss her lips briefly. Charlie leaves through the door and makes his way downstairs, itching to light his cigarette.

Charlie used to smoke all the time in his apartment and the fumes made Summer cough all of the time and didn't make her feel great so she managed to convince him to start smoking downstairs. Of course, he only said he'd stop if she had sex with him. That's when she lost her virginity.

And even then, he still ignored her and did it inside.

She wouldn't say anything because to her it wasn't worth the argument, and at least he tried to stop smoking in the apartment. She could imagine him shouting at her about how it's 'his apartment' so it's 'his rules', and she couldn't argue with that.

But on Christmas Day, he would always smoke outside and claim it was a special treat for her, and he almost considered it a present for his girlfriend.

He steps outside into the crisp, winter air. There weren't many cars on the road since everyone was still in bed or opening presents.

He notices a boy with brown hair leaning against the wall, smoking weed while listening to some music from some wireless headphones. He didn't bother trying to start a conversation with him, not that he wanted to engage in small talk. He was eager to smoke his cigarette and get his girlfriend into bed.

Charlie lights his cigarette, puffing out some smoke quickly from his first drag. Brad looks over as the smell of tobacco lingers over to him and he rolls his eyes as he realises it's only Charlie.

Charlie was small, five four at a reach. He was thin and didn't have much muscle so he couldn't really defend himself. He had light brown hair that was parted in the middle so that it fell down to his ears.

Brad had lived opposite Charlie for two years, and he was surprised he'd never seen Summer before the party, but the world worked in weird ways. Instead of seeing Charlie coming in and out of his apartment, he'd hear shouting and arguing, or him having sex since the walls were so thin. They didn't speak to each other, since they had no reason to even though Brad regularly saw Charlie working at the gym as a cleaner or coming in for tattoos at his parlour.

But, today, Brad was feeling petty and pissed off because it was another year he was spending Christmas alone.

"Merry Christmas," Brad says through the crisp air, causing Charlie to look over instantly. He notices Brad has taken off of his headphones.

"Yeah. You, too," Charlie says back, intimidated by Brad.

"Celebrating with anyone today?" Brad asks even though he knew that Summer was in his apartment right now.