Charlie stared at the bars of the jail cell as she glared at Caleb from the corner of her eye. She felt tired and her body was sore. "This is all your fault." She whispered under her breath. She impatiently tapped her finger and the officer approached the two. "Looks like you two rascals are are gonna be sittin' in that cell for quite some time."
-----12 hours earlier-----
"What do you mean 'dad called?'" Charlie gritted her teeth as she hurtfully stepped farther away from Crystal.
Crystal tried to grab her hand, but she yanked it back. "I'm sorry. I don't..."
Their mother interjected with a shaky voice, "Crystal Vanessa Harper, you have some serious explaining to do."
"Okay, just listen to me." Crystal begged with pleading eyes. "Dad called the home phone. It was a few weeks ago. He asked me... Charlie? Is that you? And I was all like who is this? And then he said. Charlie, I've missed you so much, and for some reason I didn't correct him, I just said who are you? And then he said, It's your father, and then I choked out Dad? And then he told me he wanted to meet with me. Because he knew my birthday was coming up in a month. Well- your birthday, I mean. And then I said okay and hung up. Guys, I'm sorry, I just couldn't find the right way to tell you."
"He called for... Charlie?" Their mother squeaked. Before waiting for an answer, she stormed off to her room, slamming the door shut.
Charlie swiveled around and started to run away. "Charlie, please." Her sister croaked.
Charlie held up her hand and said, "Don't talk to me, Crystal." And she ran out slamming the house door behind her. She burst into tears all over again. Charlie couldn't believe the turn of events. Caleb loved her, she couldn't love him back, her father called for her. How does he even remember my birthday after he left me? She thought.
She was so out of it, she didn't notice Caleb sitting on her porch with his head in his hands. He was now looking up at Charlie, and she was staring back down at him, wiping her tears away.
"How much of that... did you hear?" Charlie whispered, looking away and up at the sky, thinking about how she wished the walls of her house weren't so thin.
Caleb looked up at the sky too. "All of it." He answered after a few moments.
"Why is everything in my life so fucked up?" She asked him, not really expecting an answer.
"I can't even begin to answer that question." Caleb sighed.
"Did you hear... what I was saying... about you?" She asked, biting her lip.
Caleb blankly stared at her before he slowly nodded. "I did." He said.
"Oh, alright.. okay... wow." She said, her mind jumping from one thought to another. She defeatedly sat down next to him on the wooden floor of her porch. The two sat in silence for a while. Charlie could hear Crystal's cries from inside as well. When her cries were finally muffled and no longer audible, Caleb said, "What's going on in your head right now?"
Charlie thought about her answer, "A lot." She stifled a laugh.
He put his arm around her shoulder and she stiffened, but finally relaxed, realizing that he wasn't trying to put a move on her. He was just trying to be a comforting friend, and she did really appreciate that.
"I just dont know what to do, Caleb." She whispered. He nodded, waiting for her to elaborate.
"About you and... Luke... and the rest of my friends. I messed everything up. And now I don't know if I can even forgive my sister. And now. My dad called asking for me? He wants to see me on my birthday? Can I even call him that? Dad? Does he even deserve that title, Caleb?"
Caleb suddenly stood up and held out his hand. Charlie grabbed it without hesitation and he pulled her up, saying, "I know something that will get your mind off of this."
Charlie raised an eyebrow, unsure. "Come on, Charlie. Live a little. For once in your life, just let go."
She nodded, letting his words sink in. "I'm in."
-----
"Caleb... what are we doing here? What is this place?" Charlie asked, bewildered. She stared at the Italian cuisine in front of her.
He laughed and grabbed her hand, pulling her into the tiny restaurant. "My uncle owns this place. The food is amazing."
"I dont really have an appetite." She interrupted.
"We're not here to eat. Just follow me." He let her into the restaurant. Caleb waved to a few people until he spotted a blad man with an obvious shade of stubble. "Uncle Benny!" Caleb hooted.
Uncle Benny walked over and threw his arms around Caleb happily. "So great to see you, son!" He cooed, and then grinned at Charlie. She smiled back at him.
Caleb introduced the two, then excused the two of them. "Mind if we go upstairs?" He asked.
Charlie's eyes widened and she wondered about how wrong that must have seemed.
Uncle Benny simply grinned and tossed Caleb a key. So Caleb led Charlie up a stairwell, turned a key in a door, walked up a few more staircases, the key again, and Charlie suddenly felt a breeze on her face.
They were on the roof. They walked over to the edge, which thankfully, had a safety railing. Charlie looked over and the sight was breathtaking. Lights lit up the streets, and the breeze was slamming her hard in the face. But it felt good.
Caleb pulled out a flask, and Charlie suppressed a laugh. How old fashioned of him. he took a swig, then pushed it to Charlie. She thought about it for a moment then told herself, "No thinking tonight." And she drank it down. The alcohol burned at her throat, but she kept it in, and pushed it down.
After taking a few more sips, the burn was gone. So they stared at the view while passing the flask back and forth, until they were both tipsy.
Caleb grinned, "We aren't really supposed to do this. That's why they locked the rooftop, but I think we could both use the thrill." Charlie gave him a questioning look, and Caleb staggered to the other side of the roof, pulling a stumbling Charlie.
She gasped and stepped back as she saw the unmistakable rope of a zipline.
"Who knows w-where this will even l-land." She stuttered, a little bit scared.
Caleb rolled his eyes, "No thinking, right?"
Charlie nodded, and said to Caleb, "I'll go first."
So Charlie hooked her arms around the string, and secured a safety vest attached to the rope around her. "Pull the string when you get to the bottom, Charlie." Caleb directed. Charlie hazily nodded. "Promise you'll b-be right behind me?" She whispered, her lips centimeters away from his neck.
His lips were swollen as he nodded. "I promise I'll be right behind you."
And sure enough, as Charlie screamed at the top of her lungs, she descended down the zipline. It zoomed past buildings and her eyes gleamed as her heart melted. The wind slapped at her face, and it did hurt a little bit, but the fun of the speed she was moving out distracted her from it. She felt Caleb's presence a few feet behind her, but surprisingly, he wasn't screaming. She turned her head back to see he was inhaling, taking in the view that they were rolling past at an intense speed, not at all frightened.
Charlie pulled the string once she reached the concrete, which was covered by a net. She dropped in it, and once her butt hit the net, she laughed loudly. Caleb toppled down beside her a few seconds later.
"Can we go again?" Charlie asked, when suddenly a flashlight blinded the two laughing kids. A police officer glared at the two, handcuffing them, and pushing them into the back of a cop car.
"Officer? What are we being punished for?" She asked in a flirty, drunken voice.
"You two kids were trespassing. I swear the authorities need to shut down that little italian place on the corner. This is a serious offense. You two are in a shady part of town, and you're lucky I found you before some shady hood kids did." He warned in a stern voice.
"Oh, officer hunky hunky." Charlie giggled. "You're so cute. I like a man in uniform."
Caleb glared at both Charlie and the officer. "I could've handled a few shady hood kids, bro." he addressed the cop.
The cop told the both of them to shut up as he pulled into the station and put the kids in holding.
-----Present Time-----
And that's how I ended up sitting in a jail cell beside Caleb.
"Why are we going to be here for a long time?" Caleb asked impatiently.
"Neither of your contacts picked up the phone." The officer said with a smug look on his face. The two kids glared at him. "Can we atleast get a phone call? I'm pretty sure we have the right to it."
The officer snarled at them, "Yeah well, you two just used yours up. And no one answered, so it must suck to be you right now."
Charlie sighed. They had already been sitting in this cell for a few hours. Charlie guessed it was somewhere around 2 AM, and she was suddenly feeling very sleepy, so when a tall man in a suit strided into the room, she thought she was dreaming.
"Who are you?" The officer snarled at the man.
He held up a card of some sort. "My name is Jeremy Harper."
Harper? As in my last name Harper? Charlie thought.