GINNY HAD swiftly came up with that she "knew would work" and prepped the girls on what to say and how to say it without sending Georgia into conspiracy land.

Georgia so entered the living room with a smile. "Time for karaoke."

"Hey, Mom?" Ginny called. "I have to admit, this is pretty cool."

"I knew you'd like it."

"Know what would push it over the edge?"

"Hm?"

"A champagne toast." Ginny smiled.

"I'm sorry." Georgia smiled. "Is this your 16th birthday or your 21st?"

"Come on! It's not like we're driving."

"No."

"A birthday toast?" Ginny pushed. "It would be really cool. Come on. Don't mom right now. We're having fun."

Georgia sighed. "Okay, one birthday toast."

The girls watched Georgia leave the living room quickly and returned with a key and unlocked the cabinet that she kept the alcohol in.

"I'll get it." Ginny said.

Georgia looked back, giving Ginny a small smile as she grabbed to glasses and the champagne bottle.

"Thanks."

Georgia stood to her feet and left the girls alone with the key and access to all the alcohol that they could grab.

The girls grabbed what they could and poured some of the alcohol into some of their water bottles and stashed bottles that they hoped Georgia wouldn't notice.

Soon Ginny and Georgia returned with the glasses of champagne in their hands.

Once they were handed the glasses they cheered for Ginny and did some karaoke and soon enough one of Georgia's coworkers, Nick, and his boyfriend arrived and joined in on the karaoke party.

Soon, nightfall came along and Georgia had put on a small rendition of Clue before she left the girls with the same movie playing on her laptop.

Once the door shut, the girls set up their dummies to try and trick Georgia into thinking they had slept through the night.

As for Charlie, she snuck out the window as swiftly as she could and ran home to get changed, As much as she liked Ginny, she wouldn't be caught dead in her clothes.

She snuck her way upstairs and threw her clothes off just as fast and rummaged through her closet to try and find something to wear for the party.

She slipped on a long white skirt and a random pink tank top that she was 100% sure was Billie's. Regardless, she shoved her foot into her Converse and stuffed the clothes she'd worn over to Ginny's into a tote bag, and made her way out of her window and back over to Ginny's.

Abby helped her back inside the room and Charlie sat down on the floor and began to pull her makeup brush from the tote bag and ran the blush over her face quickly.

Once her makeup was done the girls snuck their way out of the house and next door to the Baker's where the party was on full blast.

There weren't many people there, but enough to call it a party and enough for Charlie to grow bored after a couple of hours and one too many bottles.

She laughed to herself as she stumbled up the stairs. She finally made her way towards Marcus's door and waited for him to open the door. She could hear him groaning on the other side and she covered her hand over her mouth as she waited for him a moment longer.

"What?" He groaned once his door opened.

His look softened when he saw Charlie leaning against his doorframe. It was clear that she was drunk but so was he. He'd been alone in his room drinking out of his mind and only coming downstairs to grab another bottle to sneak back in his room.

"Party's downstairs, Marcus." Charlie slurred.

Charlie pushed the boy to the side and sat down on the floor near his bed. She chuckled to herself as she held a bottle that she'd taken from downstairs and waved it in front of her to try and grab his attention.

It worked. Marcus had shut the door behind him and joined Charlie on the floor, sitting close to her as he grabbed the bottle from her hands and pressed it to his lips as he took a large swig.

Charlie continued to laugh as she rested her head against his shoulder. She took the bottle from his hands and took a drink for herself. She sighed soon after, her legs crossed over the other as she began to speak.

"Did you hear that Hunter ate Ginny out?"

"Sadly." Marcus answered.

"Oh!" Charlie laughed and switched her sitting. She sat on her knees as she turned her body, her thighs still touching his as she looked his way. "And Max lost her virginity to Sophie! I think that shit is mad insane! It al- almost makes me feel bad for myself."

Marcus furrowed his brows. "Why?"

"Be- because" she hiccuped. "I didn't lose mine! Technically Ginny didn't either, but she got more action than I did, like my God am I that much of a psycho loser that can't get laid?"

Charlie smiled as she pressed the bottle to her lips once more and removed it with force.

She had a line of alcohol falling from the side of her lips and Marcus didn't hesitate to lean forward and take his thumb to wipe the corner of her mouth.

He could feel the heat emanating from her body, the scent of her perfume filling his nostrils as he stared into her eyes. She normally smelled of vanilla and oranges, but tonight she smelled of Cherry Coke and tequila.

For a moment, they simply held each other's gaze, their breath mingling in the air between them.

Slowly, hesitantly, Charlie leaned forward, her lips parting slightly as she began to close the distance between them.

But just as their lips were about to meet, there was a loud noise coming from outside and Charlie stumbled to her feet to open his door.

"Holy shit!" A voice shouted. "It's the cops."

Charlie's eyes widened as she looked back over at Marcus.

The boy, as quickly as he could, stumbled his way up and grabbed the girl by her hand, and shoved the two of them into his closet.

The space was tiny and their chests touched as they heard the cops make their way into the house. Their voice were loud as they gathered some of the others downstairs and shoved them into cop cars.

But no matter how loud they were, it could not compare to how fast the two teenagers' heartbeats were. For one, they could be caught by the cops and slaughtered by their mothers for underage drinking and being fucking arrested for it. Second, and probably the most important, they had almost drunkenly kissed.

Marcus shut his eyes and he rested his head on the wall of the closet. If he could, he would end it all right here right now. He could just tell Charlie that he was drunk and whatever happened he either didn't mean it or had forgotten because he was that drunk. But Charlie could pull the same card and it would kill him if this all ended up being some sort of mistake.

"I think we're clear."

Charlie slowly began to open the closet door as soon as the front door shut with a slam.

The girl sighed and stepped fully out of the closet and turned towards Marcus.

"Close one, right?" She chuckled as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"Yeah, yeah."

Charlie sighed as she rocked back and forth on her heels. Neither of them knew what to say or what to do. It wasn't like they had sobered up in the amount of time they had, but God did it feel like it.

"Charlie, I-"

"No, no." She softly scoffed. "I... I rather just..."

She didn't know what to say or how to act and on top of all of that she was drunk out of her mind.

"Charlotte-"

The girl sighed at the call of her full name but continued to shake her head.

"Maybe we can talk about it tomorrow or something." She muttered.

"Charlie, I-"

She approached him and rested her hands on his shoulder, she stood on her tiptoes and pressed a a gentle kiss against his cheek.

She felt Marcus sigh as her lips moved from his cheek. She drunkenly chuckled and wiped her lipgloss from his cheek as his hand reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

There was a difference between platonic and romantic.

And Charlie now knew how she felt about Marcus Baker.

— lucy has something to say !!

norah's boyfriend is so nice let's talk about him some more.

next chapter will be a serious one and will have a trigger warning above said chapter. i will however let you know now that charlie will be seeing a therapist and will talk about what happened in chapter four

bye :))))