(づ-̩̩̩-̩̩̩_-̩̩̩-̩̩̩)づ

Charles could only hum in response. He wasn’t too keen on talking about high school, regardless of if it was from his point of view or his sister’s, now that it had become painfully obvious to him that he was the cliché quarterback who peaked when he was eighteen years old. “Wherever you wanna go,” Charles decided. The left end of his mouth slipped up into the smallest, borderline sarcastic smile when he added, “Though I’m sure nothing here lives up to New York dining.” 

He hummed thoughtfully. Charles knew he should have been proud of her for that, but it would have been hypocritical. The past seven years he’d spent hoping that Cara would make her way back to Baltimore with a pile of paintings that hadn’t gotten her anywhere tucked between her hands. He was that selfish, to have wished he wasn’t the only massive failure to have come from their graduating class. “She left too, I think, but she comes around for holidays and what not sometimes. Y’know, pass her by in the mall and all that,” Charles decided to downplay. They might have hooked up once or twice during those breaks Katherine decided to make her way back to Baltimore, but they weren’t ever serious. They hadn’t ever been, even when they were seventeen and Charles was practically glued to her hip when he wasn’t out throwing a football. “Not too many people stuck around. They’re all off living in, like, Kansas or some other nowhere town.” 

“What every other twenty seven year old is getting up to,” Charles halfheartedly answered, shrugging his left shoulder after. Frankly, he wasn’t doing anything. He had some menial job at the public library and went on dates with girls he met through friend’s friends. There was nothing substantial going on in his life right now, and it was a massive letdown to both himself and — although never outright spoken — his family. Charles had everything lined up for him to make something of his life after high school, and he ruined it all before it could even begin. “You’re the one who’s made it big time.” Charles did his best to keep the bitterness from his tone. 

He gave her a little smile back. Charles might’ve considered it his lucky day, running into her, but he certainly wasn’t going to give her an ego boost and admit it. The smile faltered at her question. “Some shit,” he echoed. Football hadn’t worked out for him as well as he had planned it to, and Charles got into a bit of a slump because of it. Being captain of the best football team in the Big Ten conference didn’t mean shit after high school. He had gotten a little too comfortable with the name chanting and constant stream of praise, Charles was in over his head when he stepped foot onto that USC football field. “—College just isn’t for me.” 

The break up was coincidental with this get together, yeah, but Charles didn’t think much of it. Truth be told, there was a small part of him that was happy with the image of Cara he had in his head now, too deep in her own art to be able to balance a withstanding relationship since he hadn’t grown the balls to outright say something to her before she fled. Charles had always been a little selfish enough to hope that she wouldn’t find anyone too interesting when she’d run off to what’s-it’s-face university. “That sucks,” he tried to offer in a way that would at least come off halfheartedly genuine. Quick to change the subject, he asked, “What brought you back here anyway?” 

“Yeah, yeah. Lets go.” She grinned, quickly grabbing her purse but the table by the door and stepping out into the night air with him. Being this close to him like this made her glow and she wondered if he could see that. “So, how’ve you been? Hows Allison doing?” she questioned, wanting to feel out just how serious his relationship with this girl was. Hopefully not too serious… she wasn’t cute enough for him… mainly though, it was jealousy.

Charles shrugged. It was one day, and she hadn’t bothered to text him after it — which probably had something to do with him leaving her by herself for the fifteen minutes it took to ask Cara out on this date — and Charles wasn’t into the girl enough to reach out to her. “Don’t think we’ll be hanging out much,” he decided to answer a little honestly. Charles’ hands stuffed away in his pant pockets to refrain from reaching out for her again. “What about you? How’s— what did you say your boyfriend’s name was?” 

Cara had just changed for the fifth time when she heard a knock at her door, Charles unknowingly choosing this outfit for her. She gave herself a once over, fluffing her hair a bit before she was at the door and opening it slowly, not wanting to seem to eager about seeing him again. “Hey.” she spoke softly, trying her best to add a bit of boredom to her tone. 

Charles made sure to keep his gaze set solely on her. The last thing he wanted to do was peer behind her into her apartment and spot anything that would make it painfully obvious to him that he didn’t stand a chance to be with her. Again. “You ready to go?” 

It seemed as if none of his reactions were what she aimed for. She wanted a chuckle at how even after years had passed his name was still as dorky as ever but nothing. “Yeah, see yah..” she muttered half heartedly, unsure of what this dinner would even bring about. At the moment it felt like all it would do was drag up old feelings and leave them both feeling like shit.

There was a solid minute that passed before he was able to rack up the courage to knock on her door, his hands immediately folding behind his back after. 

Honestly, Cara had wanted to see Charles a little more tore up at the sound of her fake relationship status. Maybe this was just a day to catch up.. that certainly put a damper on her mood. “Seven. works perfectly.” she smiled, forcing herself to seem all authentically enthusiastic as possible. “Uh, is it still the same one you had in highschool?” she asked, pulling her phone from her clutch and scrolling down it til she hit the C’s. “Curly-Headed Fuck. Got it.”

If she had his number the whole time, Charles had to wonder why the fuck she hadn’t thought to at least shoot him a message once in a while. At least let him know that she was still alive and well. It would have been a hell of a lot less painful for him to know that their sudden break of communication was because she’d had to change numbers one too many times and his got lost along the way. “Cool,” he muttered. “I’ll see you then.” Charles gave a flimsy little wave before wandering back towards the opposite end of the gallery. 

That certainly wasn’t the answer she had been looking forward to.. in fact it took a hit at her ego and before she knew it she was trying to regain some ground. “Good thing then, my boyfriend wouldn’t like that much.” she lied, knowing full well that she was single. She had dated a professional hockey player on and off for about a year after meeting at a private showing but they had called it quits last month. Charles didn’t need to know that thought. “But he won’t mind some catching up. How about dinner on Wednesday? I’m free anytime after six.”

His overall posture twitched a little at the admission, but Charles was able to stuff away his honest reaction. For the most part. Even if he’d come up with this mock relationship in his head already, there was a tiny part of him, in the far back of his mind, that wanted to think Cara wouldn’t actually have someone waiting for her back home. “Yeah, Wednesday’s alright. Text me your address, and I’ll swing by around seven,” Charles noted, already half-turned back in the direction he’d left Allison before his steps fumbled at a realization. “—But you don’t have my number anymore, huh?” 

Cara had been in the middle of explaining piece 1 when she was pulled away, her brows furrowed together in confusion as she watched the floppy haired boy in front of her lead her off to god only knew where. “Charles.” she whispered, not wanting anyone to hear her. “Charles, what are you doing? Wheres your date?” Cara wouldn’t have admitted it out loud but she was glad he had seemingly abandoned his date to come and find her. No matter the time, Cara still had a flame for Charles, she wasn’t sure if that would ever go away. Odd were, however, that this torch she carried for him was useless. 

“I don’t know. By the ... I don’t know,” Charles gave up, deciding not coming up with an answer would be better than giving some offhandedly offensive description of a painting that Cara would have — assumedly — worked weeks on. Frankly, now that he had her in front of him, Charles wasn’t sure why he’d even pulled Cara away. There was so much that he needed to say, and yet nothing seemed to want to come out. Not with all these people flitting around, ogling at the paintings hung on the wall and murmuring comments amongst themselves that Charles had a hard time believing was honest English. “Are you busy tomorrow? Or, like. Any day of this week. Any week, really. How long do these gallery things go for?” 

It was awkward, that much was for sure but if he wanted to pretend they had never mattered to each other then that was his choice and his choice alone. “Yeah well, on second thought, I’ve got quite a bit of stuff to do, so I’ll leave you guys to it. I don’t want to intrude on your private time together anyway. Uhm, so yeah, I’ll see yah around, Charles.. Tell your mom I said hi, ‘lright.” she grinned, trying to hide the sudden distress that was washing over her. 

After Cara walked away, Charles may have lasted five minutes — and that was being generous — before he was excusing him to the bathroom just so he could look for her again. It was stupid, honestly. They’d cut off all their ties for a reason and her artwork had clearly rocketed farther than Cara had ever let herself believe that it could, so Charles wasn’t sure why exactly he was wasting his time. She probably had some equally popular, humble artist boyfriend waiting back home at their played out studio apartment with paint splattered everywhere with some shaggy puppy named Rufus. Or whatever. The idea caused a little crease to form between Charles’ eyebrows as he sauntered up to a group of people and curled a couple fingers loosely around Cara’s wrist. “Sorry,” he halfheartedly apologized to the small crowd around her. “I’m gonna steal her for a moment.”