As Charlie starts his car and pulls out of the space, he reaches over and takes my hand, leaving both of ours to rest on my leg. I look to him with a slight simile, and he has one too, but his eyes remain forward, on the road.

I can tell that he’s worn one of his thin headbands today, and recently taken it off, because not only is the top of his brilliantly messy hair pushed back in front, but the more curly sides are as well.

He blinks slowly, his eyes and brow relaxed as he focuses on the road, and the perfect corners of his lips remain slightly upturned into a content smile.

With my hand that isn’t in his, I start to play with the simple band on Charlie’s index finger and let my head fall back onto the headrest.

Jeff Buckley’s cover of “Hallelujah” plays quietly in the background and we don’t speak much. The song is enough. It’s the first time that Charlie’s had the music in his car turned up enough for me to really hear it, and “Hallelujah” is so calming that I nearly far asleep.

I’m still leaning back into the headrest. My face is turned towards Charlie, but my eyes are closed. I’m disrupted by my own ringtone.

Charlie sighs and lets go of my hand, moving slightly in his seat so that he can reach into his jean pocket and retrieve my phone.

He looks at the number before he lets me see.

“It’s your parents,” He says, finally offering me the phone.

“Hello?”

“Stella? What did Charlie say? Are you still talking to him? Where are you?”

“I’m with him now,” I answer all of her questions at once.

“Oh thank goodness. Do you feel okay about everything? Jason wouldn’t show up at Charlie’s, I suppose.”

“No, I’m okay now. I’m sorry to have scared you.”

“It’s alright sweets, you two have fun tonight. I guess you’re staying with him?”

Oh. I haven’t actually mentioned to my parents that I’ve slept over at Charlie’s. At least I assume that they assume that I haven’t slept over at his house yet. If I’m correct in my assumption, this is an opportune time to tell them, anyway, because they want me with someone, somewhere Jason can’t find me.

“Yes, I’m just going to stay there tonight.”

“Okay well, have fun and relax. I love you, your dad loves you too.”

“I love you both. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Wait, Stella?”

“Yes?” I ask, wondering if she’s going to ask for an audio tour of Charlie’s house or something.

“Could you just tell him thank you? For us, because it’s such a relief to know that you have someone there whom you can trust.”

“Yeah, I’ll tell him, mom. I love you,” I repeat myself before hanging up the phone.

I’m lucky to have such understanding parents. I always wonder if they would be the same, had Jason never happened to me. I know it had to have changed them, too, because I feel like the only thing worse than being abused yourself, would be realizing that your child had been.

“Were they… were they alright with you staying over?” Charlie asks, turning his head slightly towards me, but keeping his eyes on the road.

We are nearing his driveway now, and I can’t wait to get inside. I can’t wait to lay my head on his chest and fall asleep – nothing sounds better right now.

“They were happy. They told me to tell you ‘thank you.’”

He grins as he pulls into the driveway, opening his garage door by remote and parking his car inside. As the door closes behind us, we both open ours, and he tells me that he’ll get my bag before I can even reach for it.

Cooper is waiting for us when we open the door, of course. Charlie walks ahead of me as I kneel down to pet him.

“I’ll just take your bag to my room. Are you hungry? I don’t know if you’ve eaten dinner already. If not, I can make you something.”

“I’m alright,” I say, standing up again and walking further into the kitchen, “I met a friend for dinner earlier.”

Charlie turns around as he’s walking towards his room, giving me a slight nod with his signature frown – which is somehow rather pleasant, as far as frowns go. The specific frown seems to always happen when he wants to say or ask something, but is holding back. I immediately realize what he is thinking and start to walk behind him, into the living room.

“You know her, at least you’ve seen her – my friend. It’s Allie. She’s the little blonde who I work with on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”

When I stop to sit down on the couch, he’s already made it to his bedroom, but I hear him say “Oh!” and I catch a bit of relief in his voice.

I chuckle a bit to myself, wishing that I had some sort of signature look that I could give people to make them tell me what I want to hear.

I’m still smiling about it when Charlie walks into the living room.

“What is it?” He grins, too, when he sees me smiling, and plops down on the couch beside me.

“Nothing. It’s just, you look cute when you do that frown-y thing.”

“What frown-y thing?” And he does it as he asks.

I laugh loudly for a second, “It’s not when you’re actually angry. I think you do it when you’re focused, or thinking – wondering I guess.” I bite my lip so I’m not tempted to giggle again, but I think he knows I want to.

He tilts his head a bit to the side and smirks, “You think it’s cute, huh?”

“Very,” I say, and then, rather than smile or giggle, I yawn, quickly covering my mouth with my hand.

“Are you tired?” Charlie asks quietly.

“Very,” I repeat.

“Would you like to go to bed now?”

I shift my body so that my back is to him and lean back into his chest.

“I don’t want to be a boring guest. We can do whatever you want.”

“I’m tired, too,” He says, “But I could run us a bath, before bed.”

I tilt my head back and look up to him; he is smirking down at me. Showering with Charlie is amazing, but I’ve never thought about being with him in the bath. I’m curious, of course.

“Okay,” I smile and bring my hand to my mouth, biting my middle fingertip, thinking about what a bath with Charlie might entail.

“I’ll start the water then,” I lean up and he starts walking towards the bedroom and bathroom.

I notice Cooper jump up from where he was lying at the same time that Charlie exits the room, and I suddenly ask, “Have you fed Cooper yet? Do you want me to give him food?” I should really be more help.

Charlie is only as far as the opening to the hallway, and he stops to lean on the framing, looking back towards me and smiling, “Sure, baby. Thank you.”

I tell Cooper to come with me to the kitchen and he follows, happily. I remember where his food and bowl are kept, and I give him a generous dinner before refilling his water and heading towards Charlie’s room. I turn off the lights as I go, so Charlie won’t have to later.

When I enter the bathroom, he is already shirtless, leaning over the tub and feeling the water. When he sees me, he removes his hand, flicking the wetness from his fingertips. He takes two steps toward me, lifting me by my waist and setting me on the counter near the sink.

He wraps his arms around to my back and tugs gently at the ends of my curls while his soft lips graze my neck. I tilt my head and sigh, releasing any stress that I’d held onto from the night.

Charlie’s hands move up to my scarf, which is still tied in my hair, and he pulls it slowly from my head before he begins to remove my clothes.

I’m endlessly more sleepy and relaxed after our bath together. My arm feels limp as I extend it towards the fluffy, navy blue bath towel that Charlie is holding out for me. He chuckles at the laziness of my reach. I am standing in the bathtub, while Charlie already has most of his body dry and his towel is wrapped around his waist.

Rather than let me take the towel from him, he comes close enough to me to wrap it around my body and lifts me from the tub. I bend my knees behind me, but he lifts me high enough over the bath’s edge that I probably could have let my feet dangle and still not have touched it.

It’s strange, being so tall, I never thought that I would be lifted and carried much by anyone, but Charlie seems to like physically displacing me, and I’m certainly not complaining.

Once my feet are on the ground, Charlie lets go of me, still laughing a bit to himself. As he turns to go into his closet, he runs a hand over his scalp, shaking out his wet hair.

The first time that we showered together, he told me that he hates when his hair is soaking wet, because it looks so long and straight, hanging limp around his face. Even when wet, his hair still isn’t long enough to hang past his jaw or neck by any means, but he does have a lot of hair.

I hurry to get ready for bed, looking forward to closing my eyes and sleeping peacefully. Charlie is already sprawled out under the covers when I emerge from the bathroom. He’s left the lamp on by my side of the bed.

“I like that,” He comments, eyeing my light pink nightdress – the one that I’d packed previously, but opted not to wear because I’d ended up in Charlie’s shirt.

“Thank you,” I smile, crawling into bed beside him.

He sits up suddenly, and brings his hand to my face, turning my head slightly so that he can look at my cheek.

“Are you trying to cover your bruise from me? Did you put more makeup on?”

I instinctively bring my own hand to my cheek, resting it on his.

“No,” I respond honestly, “No one even noticed it today, and it already looks so much better.”

We remove our hands at the same time and he settles back into the pillows. I notice Charlie take in a sharp breath and I know he’s worried about sleeping next to me through the night. I start to trace circles into his chest with my fingertip, hoping to relax him.

“Charlie, don’t worry.”

I know that he understands what I mean.

“I just don’t want to hurt you. Ever.”

He starts to play with my hair, which is still quite wet.

“I’m sorry that I told you this morning that I couldn’t to hang out tonight. I didn’t know how late I would be coming home.”

“It’s alright,” I say, yawning.

“I should have been there when he texted you, though, when you were scared. I still wish you would’ve called me, I would’ve picked you up sooner.”

“Charlie it’s alright, you had other things to do.”

“I was with Mark’s family, you know. I wasn’t with anyone else.”

I move my head so that I can look up at him. I hadn’t really been worried, but the reassurance is nice, I suppose. “Did you have fun with Mason? Were you playing football with him?”

“Yeah, we went over things that he was having trouble with during practice. He is very good for his age, though. I thought that I would have to go out with Mark after, but I convinced him to let me take Casey, Mason and him out for dinner, luckily. He doesn’t need to be going out and gambling, and I wanted to see you anyway.”

“Do you gamble with him often?”

“No – not often. Sometimes, yes, but I don’t enjoy gambling nearly as much as he does and I don’t like encouraging him either. Casey asked me to go with him, though, so I could… monitor him.”

I turn around to face him, folding my arms onto his chest in front of me and resting my chin on them.

“You’ll be careful though, won’t you? I mean, I’m glad that you’re trying to help Mark and his family, but you’ll be okay, right? What if the men that he’s-“

Charlie chuckles, cutting me off, “I’ll be fine, baby. Don’t worry about me.”

I lift up, leaning forward and kissing his lips before moving over to turn off the lamp and cuddling back into Charlie’s chest. He scoots down further into the pillows and wraps his arms around me, his hands resting on my lower back, rubbing it gently. I lay a kiss on his chest and begin drifting off, hoping that we are both able to sleep until sunrise.

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Thanks for reading xx I'd love to hear your thoughts! Also, I've left a video of Jeff Buckley performing "Hallelujah," in the sidebar, since it's mentioned in the chapter. It's one of my favorite versions of the song.