CHARLIE HAD found out a couple of days ago that Ginny would be turning 16 and wanted to get the girl something for her birthday.

She had asked her mother to tag along, and they found themselves in town and trying something that screamed Ginny Miller.

And although Charlie appeared to be fine, she had a thousand and one things bouncing off the walls that she called her brain

She was still trying to figure out her feelings for Marcus, aware that her mother had been metaphorically stapling her mouth shut to keep her from speaking that day in her bedroom. Meanwhile, she wandered the mall in search of a gift for a girl she barely knew.

Charlie sighed as she brushed her fingers through her hair. She had been shuffling through clothes at several different stores at this point and found nothing that she thought Ginny would like.

After meeting the Georgia Miller, Charlie knew that Ginny was nothing like her mother. Well, that's what it looked like from how that night drunk Georgia was when she waved Charlie, Max, and Marcus off.

In other words, Charlie believed that Georgia was more girly and out there than Ginny was. She had a free spirit while Ginny tried to keep to herself and the only reason Ginny had been so out was because she was friends with Max and the song her boyfriend had written about her had gone semi-viral in their small town.

Lori watched as Charlie pushed clothes on the hanger. Charlie had been clear about wanting to get Ginny "a thing or two" for her birthday and because Charlie had a part-time job as a babysitter, she had enough money to be able to do that.

But, and call her crazy, she knew that something was digging at Charlie. She would call it her motherly instinct but she knew that radar was way off when she decided to hook up with her shitty ex and have two children who missed their father and she had no idea until she found her daughter balling her eyes out in the middle of the night.

Charlie decided to give up for now and gestured that her mother follow her to the food court. Once there, the two of them ate at two different restaurants and sat together at what they hoped was the cleanest table available to them.

They ate in silence for a moment before Lori decided to bite the bullet.

"Charlie?"

The girl looked up from her little red box and up at her mother as she slowly chewed a piece of chicken.

"I know this may not be the most appropriate place to talk about this, but I would like to talk about what happened a couple of weeks ago."

Charlie sighed, popping the rest of her chicken bite into her mouth, and scooted her chair closer to the table. She knew that there was no avoiding this conversation and if she could, she would.

"We don't have to talk about it now, but I would like to know if you're okay."

Charlie nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." She sighed. "I just... I want him to know I exist."

"He knows you exist, Charlie."

"I wanted him to care, Mom. That's the difference."

Lori sighed and reached her hands across the table to hold onto Charlie's.

"Life's unfair, Charlie. It's not the thing you want to hear but need to know." Lori said. "If I'm being honest, your dad is the biggest piece of shit that I know and if he wasn't I would never keep you or Billie away from him. But at the end of the day, he wanted to do something different. Something different without me, you, and your sister." Lori paused, trying to find some more comforting words. "Missing him is okay, but what you did-"

"I didn't mean to." Charlie said. "I- I didn't know I was until I felt it."

Lori sighed, squeezing Charlie's hands. "That's not good, Charlie and you haven't talked to me about it since. I don't know what's going on in your mind unless you talk to me or someone. You were sending him a dozen emails a day knowing he wasn't going to respond."

"What do you want me to do?" Charlie asked.

"I want you to do what's best for you." Lori answered. "If you want to talk to me, that's fine. If you want to talk to a therapist, that's fine too."

Charlie sighed, pulling her hands away from her mother as she slouched in her seat and rubbed her eyes to try and prevent herself from crying.

"I'll think about it." Charlie muttered. "The therapist."

Lori nodded. "Take all the time you need." She sighed. "Are you okay?"

Charlie nodded, sitting up in her seat as she sighed and shoved a chicken nugget into her mouth. "I'll be fine." She chuckled. "Hurry and eat. I still have to try and find something for Ginny."

Charlie eventually found Ginny a birthday gift that she thought would satisfy the girl and she and her mother made their way home.

Monday would soon come, which meant it was Ginny's birthday.

Max had texted Charlie early that morning to let her know there was going to be a party at her place because her parents were going to Maine on Saturday.

Charlie met up with the twins and Ginny in front of the school and the two Baker's told the girls the rundown of what their party would entail.

"I don't want the bro squad infiltrating our house, puking in our bathroom, killing my fish." Marcus said.

Max scoffed. "Hey, Brodie didn't kill your fish. He ate your fish."

"Like that's any better." Charlie laughed.

Max scoffed once more. "Come on! It's for Ginny for her birthday. Just do it for Ginny."

"Yeah, do it for Ginny." The girl teased.

Marcus rolled his eyes as he glanced at Charlie who only shrugged her shoulders.

"Fine." He scoffed.

With that, he and Charlie separated themselves from the two girls and made their way down the hall.

Charlie ran her fingers through her hair as she yawned. She felt exhausted. She dumbed down her exhaustion to hear extensive research of not only a therapist but also trying to figure out where she and Marcus were.

Of course, they were friends but she didn't want to jeopardize their friendship by asking him if he saw her in a girlfriend-boyfriend type of way.

It quite literally made her want to rip her hair out just thinking about it. She stopped at her locker to grab whatever she needed out of it and Marcus leaned against the nearby locker.

"You comin' to the party, Charles?" He asked.

"Don't see why not." She answered. "It's for Ginny's birthday and I'm friends with her so I'd think it would be rude if I didn't show."

"That's growth." He smiled. "I couldn't imagine you attending the same party as Max and her friends a year ago."

"Shut up." Charlie laughed and shut her locker. "I'm cool with Abby and Ginny while Norah and Max are... Norah and Max."

Marcus held his smile as he slung his arm over Charlie. The girl held her smile and chuckled as she looked up at him. She ran her fingers through her hair again and followed his steps in rhyme.

It was bullshit like this that made her want to rip her hair out from the scalp.

     LUNCH CAME around and Charlie held her sandwich and chips in her hand as she made her way around, looking for a table to sit at.

"Charlie!"

The girl sighed and turned around. There she saw Ginny, Norah, Max, and Abby sitting at their usual table.

"You're coming to the party right?" Max asked.

Charlie nodded. "Yeah."

Norah scooted over and Charlie bit her lip as she sat down next to the girl and threw both her sandwich and chips onto the table.

"So, Ginny and I were thinking that we should all lose our virginities together." Max smiled.

Charlie chuckled. "What the hell is wrong with you? What is this? Some sort of bonding exercise?"

"Yeah, basically." Max said. "Come on. You need to get laid. It'd be so therapeutic."

"I mean, would it?" Ginny asked. "Losing our virginities isn't that big of a deal. It's like a hot dog being placed into its bun."

Charlie looked over at Ginny her brows furrowed before she brought her attention back over to Max.

"Who's gonna be at this party?" She asked.

Max shrugged her shoulders. "Our friends. And I swear I won't let Press be the one to take your virginity."

"Take whose virginity?"

Charlie looked up, seeing Marcus standing at their table. The girl quickly stood to her feet and grabbed the things that she threw onto the table.

"No one-" Charlie began.

"Ginny, Charlie, and I are gonna lose our virginities together." Max cheesed.

Charlie scoffed and pushed Marcus forward. "Goodbye, Max."

Charlie dragged Marcus outside of the cafeteria and plopped herself down by her locker. Marcus slid down, joining her side as he stole the chips from her lap.

"My God." The girl sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "Your sister is insane." She muttered as she bit into her sandwich.

Marcus nodded, but his mind wasn't on his sister and how insane he knew she was. His mind was on the fact that his best friend was possibly losing her virginity on Saturday.

He didn't know why it was such a big deal... I mean, he did. He was practically head over heels over Charlie and he'd lost his virginity what felt like years ago, but there was just something about her losing her virginity to someone that wasn't him that made him think a little too hard about the situation at hand.

"Are you?"

Charlie looked over, her legs crossed over the other as she continued to bite her sandwich.

"Am I what?" She asked.

"Gonna lose virginity on Saturday?" He asked, opening her chips and eating them.

Charlie shrugged her shoulders. "Doubt it." She chuckled. "Who the hell does Max know that I would let have sex with me? Why?" She asked. "Are you jealous?"

Marcus smiled, looking down at the girl. "Do you want me to be?"

Charlie smiled as she scrunched her nose. "Nothing to be jealous of, Marcus. It's me and you till the day I die."

She held her smile as she rested her head on his shoulder, continuing to bite her sandwich.

Till the day that she died.

    SATURDAY ROLLED around Charlie showed up at Ginny's house for the surprise party her mother had planned for her. She ran home quickly to change knowing that she would once again have to change for the party. But for now, she wore a gray sweater, some spandex, and her UGG slippers as she stood in Ginny's living room and waited for her to come downstairs.

"Can I come down now?" Ginny asked.

"We're ready!" Georgia smiled.

Ginny came down the stairs and watched, in what looked like horror as the girls shouted "happy birthday" to her with the living room heavily decorated.

"Welcome to your birthday surprise!" Georgia shouted. "Okay. Over here, we have our beauty corner. Over here, we have our karaoke dress-up corner. Then over here, you can make your own clothes. I got plain T-shirts, socks, underwear, fabric paint, decorations, and bedazzler."

"Isn't it fabulous?" Norah asked.

The doorbell soon rang and Georgia looked over at the girls with a smile.

"Wonder who that could be?"

"You guys knew about this, and you didn't warn me?" Ginny asked once her mother was out of hearing.

None of them responded as Georgia returned with two women holding small cosmetic bags.

"Girls, this is Brenda and Beth." Georgia introduced. "They work at my favorite salon, and they're here to give you pedicures. Anything you want."

"Cool." Abby smiled, but Ginny looked over at her with a grimace look. "What? I want skulls."

"Come on, ladies." Brenda smiled.

After a while, the group lounged around the living room. Charlie looked down at her now-painted, pastel-pink acrylic nails. She had a sheet mask over her face as she listened to the conversation.

"How much longer is this supposed to last?" Ginny asked.

"That's the problem. Your mom wants this to be a slumber party." Max answered.

"What?" Ginny exclaimed. "No! I wanna go to your house."

As the others exclaimed their frustration, Abby and Charlie seemed to be in their own world.

"Abby? Charlie?" Max called. "Abby! Charlie!"

"Oh, I don't know. I mean, this was... This was kinda really nice." Abby said. "Yeah, your mom put in, like, a lot of effort for us. It's sweet."

"And that Brenda lady did a nice job on my nails." Charlie said from the floor. "I don't think I've ever had them done in the way that she does them."

"Are you two going soft?" Max asked.

"No, no, no." Abby said. "Like, obviously, I want to go and get wasted. Whoo-whoo! You know?"

"Don't be fooled by Georgia." Ginny said. "Okay? She just wants to act like everything's normal, and pretend she wasn't full on pointing a gun at my head the other night."

Charlie turned her body around, looking over at Ginny with raised brows. "Like... on purpose? Holy shit." She chuckled out of awkwardness. "Are they in the house right now?"

"Yeah, two of them." Ginny answered. "I mean, who does she think she is? Kill Bill?"

Charlie smiled. "Kill Bill is pretty badass."

"She's trying to be cool and show off for you guys, but she doesn't care what I want, so I don't care what she wants. I have a plan" Ginny said.

Max gasped. "Thank God 'cause I got a bikini wax for tonight."

"Really?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah." She smiled. "I'm all bald down there. Like a naked mole rat."

What an interesting night they had ahead of them.

— lucy has something to say !!

i hate blunt bangs but norah's bangs are so good i remember when the actress didn't have them when she was in degrassi (where her character helped someone get addicted) and shes like a new person

anyway

i was listening to dear john (taylor's version) and that shit was EATING taylor went in the studio mad as hell

bye :))))