Charlie's P.O.V
I was supposed to leave after Dior's graduation but stuck around, for another night. I just-I wanted to be able to talk to her, get her to talk to me.
Thing was that I always told myself if I ever came across Dior again-I wasn't going to lose her again. But then again-I didn't even know if she had someone in her life.
So I got up out of my bed this morning in my AirBnB I was sharing with Joshua and started to get ready. Ready for what I don't know but I know that I have to go do some grocery shopping because Joshua says he'll be at the Airbnb longer then me so basically I was doing shopping for him.
Once I had gotten everything that I'd need and pulled on my boots I then opened the front door and walked out. I considered taking an Uber but we had booked an Airbnb near the city so it was a short walk, chilly but short and plus I needed time to think.
The walk took around ten minutes and I made it to Target. You're probably wondering why Target as it has mostly non food stuff but I remember Joshua telling me that this Target had a section only based on food related things.
So I walked through the double gliding doors and grabbed a basket as I then took two escalators until I made it on the top floor.
I was in the middle of my shopping spree when I bumped into someone, realizing I wasn't paying attention. I was going to apologize but when I looked up I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, it was the girl that hung around Dior a lot that night I saw her.
She wasn't close by but she did follow Dior into the Uber. I think she was her roommate. She seemed to recognize me too because she started speaking,
"Hey! I remember you! You're the one that was talking to Dior that night right?" She asks me and I nod.
"Yep, I'm the one" I said straightforwardly, not really trying to participate in this conversation as stupid thoughts came into my mind that maybe her and Dior were a thing and I didn't know about it, they seemed pretty close.
"Oh what are the chances huh? By the way the name is Holly" she says still cheerfully and I nod again trying to seem interested in some gluten free pasta that sat next to normal pasta which I wanted to get but then I hated whenever someone would see what I would like or buy.
"Charlie. The name is Charlie" I said and then it was as if her boyfriend was breaking up with her at the moment because she just had this solemn look in her eyes and quite frankly it terrified me but as soon as I saw it, it vanished and was replaced with a happy one again.
"Well since I've got you here, I just wanted to invite you to this party that'll be hosted at some frat house" she says and I seem to look interested but inside I was dying when she said frat house. Is that still around? Are those still cool? I never understood where they had houses like that.
"Uh-thank you Holly but no-"
"Dior will be there" she interrupts me as she says this and I look at her more seriously, trying to see if she was lying. But she wasn't so I straightened up more and held the handle of my food basket a little bit tighter.
"I'll uh-I'll be there. Where is it?" I ask her and she pulls out her phone and shows me the address and I also pull out my phone to write it down in my notes.
"Thanks Holly" I said and she nodded before she strolls on by as I stood there, something told me that I should look out for her, I don't know if it was just weird meeting people or my gut but I felt like Holly wasn't saying who she really was. I decided to keep Holly at the back of my mind as I continued on shopping.
Took around half an hour for me to do everything and then make it back at the Airbnb and Joshua was just waking up.
"Dude, it's noon" I told him and he shrugs as he rubs his stomach and goes over to the fridge and then pulls out a beer and uncapping it's cap off before skulking it.
"Jeez Josh, aren't you like a-"
"Oh wow. You're trying to put what I do for a career onto who I am really? Come on, alcohol follows me everywhere I go Charlie. Meaning so what if I am an alcoholic architect" he says and I just wave off his rambling. So what, the guy builds a tiny home and thinks he's the king of the world? Please
Joshua then sat down at the small kitchen table and gobbled down some cereal. And I went back into my assigned bedroom as I pulled out my phone from my pocket and FaceTimed Quinn.
A couple of rings and Quinn's face pops up as she smiles at me and I smile back but the moment is ruined when she comments that I was ugly.
Awesome.
"Just let me see my son" I grumbled after commenting that she was ugly too. She took a while but then I saw him, she had shown him playing in his play area and he was surrounded with Legos.
He loves Legos. My heart soared with love as I watched him and saw him look at Quinn then at the phone.
"Say hello to dada" Quinn says and he eagerly grabs the phone as I laugh when it shows basically half his forehead, not being able to concentrate it directly on his face.
"Hi baby boy" I embarrassingly cooed to him, I mean come on, I created one adorable kid I thought and I could hear him giggle on the other line then I could see his face.
"What you been up to?" I asked him and he proceeded in telling me all about his LEGO's and that took around fifteen minutes but then some lazy architect decided to interrupt him as he came into frame and Malakai looked at the phone twice to see if he recognized the human next to me then he beamed even more.
"Uncle Joshie!" He screamed through the phone that I had to cover my ears and actually kick Joshua away from the phone because of Malakai's excitement.
"Hey lil man, what's cracking?" He asks Malakai and Kai just looks at him weird then he looks at me weird and I shake my head.
"Come on man, simpler words, he's just three" I tell him and it seemed like Malakai, Quinn and her dogs were going to take a walk so I said goodbye to my son and said I'll see him soon before we hung up, and then I was just staring at my app filled phone, more like the wallpaper.
It was Kai and I. A time when he was only a year old and Quinn had caught us sleeping in front of the TV. He looks so peaceful I thought. My arms around him, knowing that I'd protect him for all my life.
"He's grown since I've last seen him," Joshua says and I nod as I tuck my phone away and then laid down on the bed, knowing I had at least 8 hours to sleep, eat and do whatever I'd want before I see Dior again. Damn-seeing Dior again.
"You know I never realized this-but you're a strange human being" Joshua then says and I look at him weird as I tell him to elaborate.
"Well I mean you in general. You're one of the coolest and strangest people I've met. I'm not talking about your condition on this one. I'm just talking about how you see life-it amazes me-"
"Okay now you're sounding a little but gay" I said not wanting to hear this because I didn't like hearing good things about myself.
"Just shut up and listen" he says more like demands and so I sat up and crossed my arms across my chest as I listened.
"Look-growing up as a black man I've kind of been told rules you know? The most prominent one was being taught about white people and-"
"Whoa whoa Joshua-please don't make this a race thing because I love you-"
"Charlie all I'm saying is that you're the first white person that showed me that-maybe racism isn't being birthed into people-it's being taught growing up. You were taught to be open minded, loving at a young age. I mean you did knock up a half Asian woman and also had been in love with pretty much black women all your life. I was taught different" he says then he ends it there.
I got up and walked over to him as I hugged him, bringing him more into my arms.
"Thank you for saying that-don't really know how you were going to take that topic still but thank you Joshua" I said seriously and he nods as he then pushes me down and walks out commenting "gay" and this guy was 23 years old and an architect.
An architect, people!
After that weird conversation I laid fully back down on my bed and turned to my side as I grabbed another pillow and hugged it to me pretending it was Dior. Come on, a person can dream and then I fell asleep and yelled at Joshua to wake me at 8:30PM.
When it came around 8:30 PM, Joshua awakened me by blurring a song with the lines "my neck, my back, lick my pussy and my crack" and that earned him a great punch in the gut for that.
Not that I didn't like the song, I loved it but not the way he was using it. I wanted to be gently woken up, but I got up anyway and yawned and stretched. I then got ready, showered, put on some deodorant and had put on some dark blue khakis and with that a blue checkered underneath button up and on top a brown sweater type thing, plus simple white converse.
How I've dressed myself has drastically changed over the years and even though Joshua makes fun at the way I dress right now especially for a 23 year old but I ignored him.
I liked it. And once I got everything on, I put on a little bit of cologne and I smiled as I remembered that Dior always loved this cologne on me, it was her favorite. When I had walked out of the room, I saw Joshua sitting at the kitchen table and what looked to be in front of him were-blueprints?
"Now that's an architect" I said and he threw a pencil at me.
"Whatever bitch, and also say hi to my sister for me" he says and I wanted to ask him how he knew but then he pointed at his watch and I looked to see the time and I had to hurry so I rushed out without waiting for his answer as I got into my Uber and told the driver the address.
Dior's P.O.V
I smiled at Holly as I watched her twerk on some guy that couldn't really stand up. I lifted my glass of Chardonnay and toasted her as if letting her enjoy herself for tonight after literally working her butt off these past three years. Even if I thought she was a bit out of it when I first met her, she became basically my only friend in the past three years-especially when I was trying to get over someone.
"Okay! Shots!" Holly yells as she comes barreling over that I'd have to catch her arm and lift her up right. She grabbed a bottle of tequila that was standing on a table nearby and filled up two shot glasses as she then hands me one and takes the shot herself.
I held onto the shot glass and lifted it up to my lips as I tasted the very strong taste of the liquor. As I was squinting my face to the taste, Holly was pouring more than more than more until I had thought I was going crazy because I saw Charlie. She was standing right at the entrance, she wore a sweater, some pants and she was looking right at me.
See, now I knew I was drunk, I should go home I had thought as I tried to make my way to the exit but a soft warm hand pulled me back gently and I clumsily crashed into their body hearing them groan and I had realized I stepped on their toe.
"Take it easy there- normally I'd be the one stepping on your toe" she says and I looked up into those blue eyes of hers and I could have sworn I didn't feel my legs anymore.
Now I know that it really was Charlie, I tried to walk away again but again she held onto me and I pushed her away, shocking both of us. Please-please don't make me break down right now I had thought as I pointed at her and spoke-
"Leave me alone" I said shakily and she shook her head as she walked closer.
"No. I thought about it but no. We are going to talk about it Dior. Once and for-"
"I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to think about it. Just plea-"
"Dior please. It's going to help me. Help me understand-"
"I'm sorry? Understand? You're the one that-"
I paused as I took a deep breath and ran my fingers through my long curly hair as I looked at her again.
"You're the one that quit on me" I said then I walked out and she didn't stop me this time and I sighed in relief and sadness-sadness because some part of me had wished she had followed me out, taken care of-
"You're angry" I heard her say and I looked behind me to see her walking behind me slowly and I groaned out loud as I rubbed my head in agony, alcohol in my system and me feeling well angry didn't mix well so I had thought why not get this over with.
"Yes-yes Charlie I am angry. I'm angry because the person that I had thought that I was going to spend the rest of my life with-had broken up with me-because maybe they were too scared about commitment-"
"I wasn't scared about commitment-"
"Then what the hell was it? You break up with me out of nowhere and take a world trip around the world traveling and having the time of your life? Where does that make sense? Including why are you here?" I asked her as I walked closer to her and I saw her looking at me unsure, she always had that look in her eyes whenever she'd get nervous. Nervous around me.
"I-I don't know what you want me to say Dior. That I panicked? That not seeing you for so long triggered me in ways I couldn't explain? That I had only come to New York to see you and it basically used up all my savings? That I wasn't-"
"These just sound like excuses" I then said and I was getting closer now, two feet away from her and she was shaking her head, I noticed her eyes getting glossy and my heart ached more, I hated whenever she was about to cry.
But confusion still wracked my mind as to why she was here if she was the one that broke me first.
"Dior these aren't excuses. Just please let me get this out-"
"You know I was finally getting over you" I had interrupted her as I said this and she stood up straight and looked elsewhere, assuming that those words hurt her but I didn't care, I wanted her to realize how broken I was.
"I was getting over you, I had finally thought I was done with you, done with dreaming about you, thinking about you, losing sleep wondering over you" I said and then I felt them, line tears streaming down my cheeks as I wiped them away, feeling my stomach become queasy because of the tequila, surprisingly I was holding up pretty good.
"Dior-baby I'm-"
"Don't. Don't call me that" I said shakily as I then couldn't stop the tears, another downside of my drunken state. I like to cry. And standing near her, not being able to hold her, touch her or kiss her was hurting me so much.
"Dior? Honey I've got us an Uber" Holly then says out of nowhere and I looked towards the street to see her standing by a white Nissan Maxima car.
"Dior let me go home with you-please" Charlie then asks me and was going to hold my hand when I had pulled away and started walking to Holly and the car but then I stopped and turned around to face Charlie.
"You need to leave. You need to go back home, and don't ever come back to New York" I told her, part of me meant it and another part didn't. But I'd rather not see her again then go through another round of heartbreak.
Charlie's P.O.V
I stood there for at least twenty minutes in the same spot hoping she'd come back, that she'd forgive me and wrap her arms around me as we'd kiss under the rain. It had started sprinkling. But she didn't come back.
"Dude, you okay?" Joshua comes up behind me as he asks me this, he said before he was worried that something had happened to me or Dior so he tracked my phone and found me where I stood, letting the rain water drench my hair and my clothing, my hands slightly twitching at how cold the air was.
"I'll be one the first flight tomorrow morning" was all I said before I turned away and walked off towards the Airbnb. Inside I felt empty, I couldn't sense any happiness within me-I had to see my son, Malakai. The only source of happiness that could make me happy right now.
Chapter 24. Please tell me what you think and comment and vote. Thank you again!