WRONG NUMBER.
"PLEASE OPEN the door, linnea. please." charles begged as he stood outside linnea skarsgårds door, a bouquet of flowers in his hand.
hed been knocking for a good 20 minutes, but there was still no movement from the other side. he knew that she was home, she just didnt want to speak to him.
if only she would listen to him. if only she would open the door, so he could explain everything. explain how she was the one who got all touchy with him on the boat, and hed pushed her away, telling her that his loyalty lays with linnea. explain how shed kissed him and hed HAD pushed her away, but the photo must have been taken in the singular second it took him to register what was going on.
to realise whos lips where on his, to realise that the usual fluttery feeling in his stomach had been replaced with the feeling of nothingness. to realise the usual sweet taste of linneas vanilla lip balm had turned to an overpowering aloe vera lip balm.
to realise it wasnt his linnea that had her lips on his.
and the second he registered this, hed pushed her away as if she was poison.
but in charles eyes, any girl other than linnea was poison.
but in linneas eyes, charles was the poison.
as far as linnea knew, he'd betrayed her. he'd publicly made a fool of her, as if he didnt have a care in the world. was she just a distraction? was she just another pawn that he would keep for a few weeks before disregarding her as if she was worth nothing?
so why did he do it? why did he act like he cared for her? why did he hold her so tenderly, whispering sweet words into her neck while he stroked her hair, when she meant nothing to him? so why did he kiss her as if she was the only women in the world, is she was just another women to mess around with until he got bored and moved onto the next? was she was a mere toy to him, that he could throw away with no sympathy for how she felt? just move onto a different women, a model, who was far prettier than linnea. that was obvious, wasnt it?
so linnea ignored the constant knocking, the pleading for her to just open the door, the non stop messages and calls telling her how sorry he was and that he could explain.
and how dare he? how dare he throw out empty apologies to her? how dare he come back to her after what he'd done? what, had he already got bored of georgia? had he ran out of women to heartbreak, so he'd started the cycle again?
the muffled cries from the other side of the door was the only thing that linnea could hear, even over the sound of her strumming her guitar. she soon realised he wasnt going away anytime soon, so she reluctantly pulled herself from the comfort of her sofa and walked towards the door.
looking into the small mirror, she took in her appearance. her hair was messy and untamed, her eye bags were heavier than ever, and her oversized clothes drowned her in a sea of fabric.
a small smile made its way onto the girls face as she recognised it as one of charles' ferrari hoodies. she picked up the hairbrush laying on the counter and ran in through her unruly hair in an attempted to tame it. just because he'd 'cheated' on her, she didnt want to look like a complete mess.
linnea steadied herself, letting out a deep breath before pulling the front door open.
charles stood on the other side, his sullen expression brightening significantly when she opened the door. charles' hair, like linneas, was also messy, his eyebags also darker than usual and his hoodie - which was the same exact one linnea was also wearing - and joggers were also hanging off his tall body.
"linnea i-" he started, a distressed look plastered on his face. "please let me explain."
linnea rolled her eyes, reluctantly moving out of the way to let him in and beginning to walk back to her spot on the sofa. "you have five minutes. go."
and so charles explained. he explained how they had ran into each other in the shop and shes invited him to a boat party with other people. he explained how when he got there, they had been the only ones there. he told her that apparently 'everyone had cancelled' so it was just the two of them. he explained how the next day, she'd asked if he wanted to go snorkelling with her, 'completely platonically.' he told her how he'd been laying on the deck when she'd climbed next to him and wrapped an arm around his neck. he explained how he'd pushed her away and told her that he only wanted linnea, and that she needed to back off.
he told her about the kiss, about how she'd forced herself onto him, about how he pushed away after a second and the photo had been taken the second she kissed him. he told her how he'd felt, how wrong it felt when it wasnt linnea kissing him.
he confessed everything he felt about linnea, that he was completely and utterly head over heals for the women.
and linnea listened. she listened to his entire story, debating in her head whether to believe him or not. and more importantly, whether to forgive him or not.
and by the time the two where plunged into deafening silence, she still hadnt decided.
"charles i-" linnea was at a complete loss for words. "charles, you have to understand how it felt to be me. do you know how fucking humiliating that was? for pictures of the guy everyone thought i was dating KISSING another girl? for other people knowing that you were doing those things before even i did?
do you know how utterly heart wrenching it is to find out by being tagged in an instagram post that the guy i like is out fucking other girls? i didnt even get a message telling me what was going on, that you werent with georgia. do you know how many fucking death threats i got, charles? do you know just how many instagram dms ive got, telling me im not good enough for you? telling me im just a 'fuck toy'? telling me im a 'fat fucking slut who needs to kill herself'? all because YOU kissed someone else. i didnt do anything fucking wrong!"
linnea was screaming at him though choked sobs as charles watched, completely helpless.
"what the fuck did i do to deserve this shit?"
"you didnt do anything, linnea. im so-"
"oh what? you're fucking sorry? im not even mad about the kiss at this point, charles. im mad about the fact you werent there for me. you know how shit my past relationships have been, i fucking poured my heart out to you and you fucking stomped on it! if you really cared about me that much, if you really were that sorry, why didnt you tell me through message what was going on? and dont even say i was ignoring you. you said you wanted to explain, so why didnt you? i never told you you couldn't!"
"linnea, ive fucked up so badly. i know i have. i- god im such an idiot. but those dms- theyre not your fault. theyre not true."
"but what if they are?" linneas voice was barely above a whisper. "w- what if they are true?"
charles was speachless. "linnea-"
"i have tried to, y'know." linnea looks up at charles. shes not crying so hard anymore. "i have tried to kill myself."
charles hearts plummets to his ankles.
"three times." linnea lets out a dry laugh. "three fucking times. three times ive tried to end my life, and not a single one worked. the first time i was getting bullied so badly, i couldnt take it anymore. i didnt have my big strong brothers to protect me once they went off to secondary school. it just got so bad that one day i just... snapped. i- i fucking overdosed on paracetamol in the school bathroom.
i was 10.
the second time was for the same reason. i tried to drown myself. i was 11. my brothers saved me, but i was passed out and a few seconds from... going.
the third time was when my parents got divorced. they told us we would have to pick one parent to live with after my dad moved out. id been struggling with my mental health, and i didnt help my parents were screaming at each other every night. my brothers tried to help me, but they were barely older than me. mum and dad were to busy fighting to take notice of their kids. one night i was feeling especially shit so i went downstairs to talk to my parents about it, but they both dismissed me no matter how hard i begged for them to listen. and i couldn't help but wonder how far i would have to go to get them to notice.
so i went all the way.
and you know what? they still didn't notice."
silence.
silence filled the living room as linneas voice faded.
until she cracked.
tears ran down her face as sobs racketed her body, and charles was quick to pull her into his embrace.
he stared down at the sobbing girl, stroking through her hair with his hand.
for one of the only times in his life, charles leclerc was completely helpless.
not re-read, excuse any mistakes im really tired 💞
💌
my baby :((
i really like this chapter (obviously not bc of what she told him but yk what i mean)
samaritans (suicide helpline) : 116 123
anyways i wanted to say something
i actually love you all so much. like i know i say it all the time but im being genuine.
the amount of love i receive literally makes me want to cry. the fact that people actually appreciate my writing makes me so fucking happy. every single one of you mean the world to me.
i literally cried earlier cause i published the last chapter and within 10 seconds a good few people had already voted for it. i know that might sound stupid but it honestly means so so much to me that people enjoy something that ive put so much time and effort into.
so genuinely genuinely thank you.
every single one of you are such amazing human beings (not just for liking my book ofc) and i really hope you all appreciate yourselves.
if anyones going through a tough time, im here to talk. i will listen to whatever you want to say, even if its a random rant.
i love every single one of you so so much and i just want to say thank you.
love,
el 🤍