| 25 |

❝ If life gives you melons, you're probably dyslexic. ❞

THE LOOMING THREAT of finals was slowly but surely creeping up on her.

Charlotte had studied here and there, but with everything that had been going on, finals were the last thing on her mind.

Buzz.

Teddy Orion: do you want to come over?

Charlie huffed.

Charlotte: can't. studying.

Teddy Orion: i can help?

She rolled her eyes.

Charlotte: fine

Charlotte: be there in a sec

Closing up her books and stuffing them in her backpack, Charlie cautiously walked up to Skylar's bedroom and knocked on the wooden door.

"Sky?" she drawled out. "Skylar...?"

The door creaked open, a frizzy-haired, pajama-wearing girl in the doorway.

"Whaddaya want," she sleepily mumbled, leaning against the door.

"Did you seriously just wake up?" Charlotte asked. "It's already eleven in the morning."

"So?" she yawned out, rubbing her eyes.

"Could you please drive me to Teddy's? Please?" she begged, adjusting the strap on her backpack.

"Why don't you just drive there yourself?" Skylar mumbled, narrowing her eyes.

"Because I don't like to drive, and you know it!" she exclaimed.

"Fine," Skylar said, rolling her eyes. "But you're going to have to start to drive yourself. I'm not driving you everywhere your whole life."

"Alright," she muttered.

"Go out to the jeep, I'll meet you out there.  I just need to... Clean up..." Skylar mumbled, shutting the door on her.

Charlotte ran to the jeep before Skylar changed her mind.

•|•|•

"Hi, Mrs. Higgins, nice to see you again," Charlie said with a grin to Teddy's mom.

"Aw, Charlotte, it's good to see you too!" Kathy gushed, leading her inside the house.  "Theodore's been cooped up all day, so I'm really glad you're here."

Her heart warmed.  "It's my pleasure."

"TEDDY," Mrs. Higgins shouted.  "CHARLOTTE'S HERE!"

It slightly surprised Charlie that Mrs. Higgins called him Teddy. She wasn't the only one to call him Teddy?

"COMING!" he yelled back, and Charlotte heard him stomping down the stairs.

"Just warning you now, he's been a little grumpy. That's given, since of recently, but if he's being a pain in the butt, just tell me and I'll slap him for you," Kathy side-whispered to her. 

"Will do," Charlie whispered back.

Teddy came into sight.  Wearing a navy blue flannel (the blue matching his eyes) with the sleeves rolled up, Charlotte gulped.   She marveled at how tall he was, at least six foot one, maybe six foot two.  His midnight-black hair was messily swept to one side, sticking up in some places and almost fluffy-looking.  His hands were in the pockets of his shorts and his glasses were resting on his nose.

"It was nice seeing you again, Charlie," Mrs. Higgins said, interrupting Charlotte's sight-seeing.  She waltzed into the living room.

Teddy swaggered towards Charlotte, a massive grin on his face.  He looked absolutely giddy for some reason, his teeth gleaming, a dimple appearing, and eyes glinting.  A rare occurrence as of lately.

They slapped hands, exploded out of the fist bump, and wagged fingers.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Charlie shouted.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Teddy dramatically boomed, the grin not leaving his face.

She beamed back, his smile like the flu.  Contagious, as well as making her feel nauseous in the pit of her stomach. 

"What's with the smile?" she giggled out.

"I have a present for you," Teddy beamed.

"Oh, really?" she laughed.  "That's what you've been all smiles about?"

"Maybe," he drawled, and then snapped his fingers. "Uhh... You can go to my room as I get it. Sooo... Be right back."

He dashed away, causing Charlotte to roll her eyes, a smile radiating on her face. She had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop her smile from verging on creepily-big.

Gosh, what a nerd.

Charlotte climbed up the stairs like he told her and walked into his room.  The walls were a deep, dark blue, the bed shoved in the corner, a desk neatly parked beside it. Charlie sat down, fiddling with the strap on her overalls.

He had a present for her?

When she heard footsteps marching up the stairs, Charlotte quickly took a deep breath and wiped her sweaty palms.

"Sorry about that," he apologized, appearing in the doorway. His hands were behind his back so she couldn't see it yet.

The bed dipped when he sat down beside her, their knees touching.

The fleeting thought of so much for studying buzzed by her brain.

Teddy pulled the present to the front of him, and it was thin, almost square. It was neatly wrapped in blue and white, polka dotted wrapping paper.

"You wrapped it?" she inquired in a strangled voice.

"Of course!" His smile only continued to grow.

She gingerly grabbed the present from his hands. It was thin and light, and she was thoroughly confused.

"Th-this... For me?" Charlie blinked up at him, his eyes closer than she expected. 

"For you."

Her eyes were glued to his lips as he spoke, mesmerized. For her. Charlotte could picture it now, those lips murmuring You Are My Sunshine in a sleepy haze. Those lips forming her name in a sentence along with the words I like you. Those lips had been on hers.

She tore open the wrapping paper.

"It's a mixtape sort of thing," he mumbled, clearing his throat. "Uhh, I just thought, y'know, if you ever had trouble sleeping and I wasn't there to help, you could just play this and think of me. It has some oldies and other songs that I thought you might like."

On the back of the CD case there was a piece of paper stuck to it. Charlie's Insomniac Playlist, she read.

"Oh my gosh," she whispered breathlessly, the words just barely escaping her lips. "You... You did this for me?"

Teddy nodded, his eyes sparkling. "I thought of it since the other night you said that fifties music helped you fall asleep. There's around twenty songs on it, and I think it's an hour and forty minutes. Something like that."

It felt like a hand had grasped her heart and squeezed, her breath rattling and her stomach tossing and turning.

What are we?

"I... Thank you," she murmured, tracing his handwriting on the paper.

The ghost of a wide grin appeared on his face, the dimple out once more. "Anything for you, Charlie."

•|•|•

Charlie had been attempting to study for a while. The muffled voice of Nat King Cole was slightly distracting Charlotte from her work.

Teddy had been humming along to every song, shooting a mini basketball into the mini basketball hoop on his door. 

"Urghhh," Charlie groaned.  "Ughhhh."

"What?" Teddy asked. 

"I'm so done with this.  I'll just fail," she sighed, closing her history book.

"You're smart. You won't fail," Teddy replied, placing the puny basketball on his nightstand. He walked over to his bed and flopped onto it, stomach-down, facing her. He propped his chin on his clasped hands and looked up and her with his big, blue eyes.

"You know..." she slowly said after a moment of silence. "I've never had a friend like you. You're the best friend I've ever had."

He grinned up at her in the rolling desk chair, pushing his glasses up his curved nose with his thumb. "I could say the same to you."

"Thank you," she blurted out, rolling closer to his bed in his rolling desk chair.

"For what?" he inquired, his bushy eyebrows furrowed.

"Everything!" she exclaimed, her hands subconsciously waving her hands as she talked. She began to tick off her fingers for everything she named. "Helping me sleep, always being there for me, the playlist, quitting your job for me-"

"-Whaaaat?" he interrupted, a mock gasp escaping his lips. "I totally didn't... Whaaat..."

"You dork," she laughed. "I know you did that for me."

"I was worried," he mumbled, looking anywhere but her eyes.

"Well, thank you for that," she responded. It was quiet. Charlotte puffed a deep breath, and Teddy was fiddling with his hair, combing his fingers through it.

"What should I do about Malcolm?" she asked him softly, bringing her knees up to her chest.

"What do you mean?"

"Well..." she began. "I need to tell him my feelings don't reciprocate. As nicely as possible."

"T-they don't?" Teddy inquired, his eyes wide and innocent.

"Nah.  He's nice, and I like him as a friend, yeah. Maybe at one point I thought about it, but..." she trailed off, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Oh."

She could have sworn she saw the trace of a smile.

"Yeah."

"I would just be honest with him," Teddy replied, sitting up. "Just go and flat-out tell him."

Charlotte took a deep breath, squeezing her legs even closer to her chest. "Consider it done."

a/n

Charlie's Insomniac Playlist is on 8tracks! go check it out @siriusly_fandoms on there, on external link, link also in my bio [it's at gold already and i've never had a playlist make gold and it's been three days and i'm actually screaming how???]

MERCHANDISE: if you go on redbubble, i have started a store on there, sophieclaflin.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/sophieclaflin

i'll be making shirts and notebooks and hoodies and things with quotes YOU GUYS WANT! comment below quotes/parts you'd like on a shirt/mug/hoodie/etc. and i will try and get it done! i'm not amazing at graphic design, but i really want to make prints, that would be awesome. i already have an idea for one, "lol ur not teddy orion higgins." i would buy that myself tbh

thank you to @elucidated for that awesome joke at the beginning of the chap. i was literally in tears

also just a huge thanks to 980410l for helping me sooo much with a pretty cool thing for this book! more info on that later ;-) this chap is dedicated to her as well. THANK YOU SO MUCH

again, send in fanart! i have a few... thank you! only FIVE CHAPTERS LEFT!

thoughts on the chapter?

ps. i'm sorry for how long it took to post this & how short it is. school is starting in four days and i'm an absolute mess

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