8Alcohol Intake Test
Summary: "Alright, if you aren't so drunk, spell my real name."
"C-H-A-R-L…" he crinkled his eyebrows in confusion, "I dunno, why is it so hard to spell anyway?"
"It's not when you're sober."
Waking up at around 2 am wasn't exactly Charlie's idea of a good Saturday morning.
Her phone was ringing endlessly, and as hard as she tried to ignore the sound of Linkin Park's 'Catalyst' singing next to her lamp, she knew her effort was futile. She made a mental note to switch her ringtone to something mellower. Owl City isn't that bad.
"What?" Charlie answered her phone quite grumpily. She was never a morning person, whoever was on the other line better have a good reason to call her, otherwise they WILL suffer the wrath of a sleep deprived Charlie. And a sleep deprived Charlie was sure as scary as hell.
"Chaaaaaaarlie!" slurred a boy from the other line.
Charlie's blood began to boil; she knew that voice all too well. She practically grew up with the annoying boy who owned that voice.
This guy better be dying otherwise he's dead! Charlie thought.
"What is it Evan?" She asked not even bothering to hide her annoyance. She could hear loud music blasting from the background, shouts from a couple of guys and even the irritating sounds of laughter from what she assumed drunken girls.
"Hey Charlie! Has anybody ever told you what great eyes you have?" The boy said. "They look like the sky at night. I love the sky at night."
"The better to see your head get ripped off with, my dear." She answered annoyed.
Laughter sounded from the other line making Charlie even more irritable. Did this guy just wake her up from her peaceful sleep just to tell her that her eyes looked like the freaking sky at night? It's like he lived to annoy the crap out of her!
"Fuck off Evan, I'm trying to sleep!" She shouted at the phone.
"Aww, but Charlie…" Evan started, but he didn't even have the chance to finish his sentence when another voice cut through Evan's sentence.
"Give me the freaking phone Evan! Charlie, you still there?" The voice sounded.
It wasn't as slurred as Evan's voice, but she could tell from the other line that the person who owned that voice wasn't so sober either. She could also tell that the guy was slightly worried and she could almost imagine him furrowing his eyebrows trying to think of a plan to get Evan and him out of whatever shit they were in.
This made her even more annoyed. Caleb wasn't supposed to be out partying. He was supposed to be in the room across Charlie's. He was under house arrest because their parents wanted him to spend the whole weekend studying for the make-up test he had to take in Pre-calculus; drastic times call for drastic measures after all; why Caleb sucked so much at Pre-calc but is great in anything else, she couldn't understand, if he flunked that make-up test, he might go to summer school. And Charlie didn't feel like spending her summer in California without her twin.
"Charlie!" Her brother said, snapping her back to reality.
"What do you want?" She asked sounding a whole lot more mean than usual. Caleb knew how his twin is every time she's interrupted in her sleep, he probably would have acted the same way if someone were to call him at 2 in the morning and ask him a favor. Her hostility was deeply understandable.
"Listen, me and Evan, well we're pretty drunk and…"
"Lemme guess, you want me to pick you idiots up?" She finished for him.
It wasn't the first time this had happened. On usual occasions, Caleb was the responsible one between the twins, mostly because of the fact that he was older and way more reasonable than Charlie, but whenever Evan comes into the picture, Charlie's resourcefulness is usually the one to get them out of whatever trouble they're in.
"This will be the last time I wake you up this early in the morning, I swear!" Caleb said.
Charlie sighed and said, quite exasperated, "Fine. Where are you this time?"
"We're at Cory Jenkins' place." He answered. Charlie could almost hear the relief flooding through his voice.
"I'll be there in 20." She answered and with that, she turned her phone off and left the comforts of her bed.
When Charlie arrived at Jenkins' place, the party was still in full swing.
She fought through the crowd just to get near the front door and even elbowed a guy who was making out with a blonde girl just cause she felt like it. The loud party music surrounded the whole house and the stench of alcohol made her want to puke.
She never did liked parties even though she was always invited to them.
"Caleb!" She shouted when she saw her brother laying down on one of the couches. Caleb didn't look up; a fact which didn't surprised Charlie seeing how her voice was instantly drowned out by the music. She pushed through the crowd of sweaty, testosterone filled guys just to get near her brother. Seeing how he ignored her calling his name for the third time, Charlie grew tired and instead just kicked him on the shin.
"What the f…" Caleb started to say, but stopped mid-sentence when he saw Charlie with one of her eyebrows raised. At first his midnight blue eyes looked startled, then confused. He must have been wondering why his twin was here at the party when she specifically told him earlier that night that she would rather hang herself than go to another one of Cory's obnoxious party. Then realization dawned on him, Oh yeah, I woke her up. Shit.
To say Charlie looked annoyed would be the understatement of the century. Her copper colored hair was tied up messily in a ponytail, she was wearing a jacket over the white shirt he saw she was wearing earlier that night and she changed from her pajamas to her favorite denim washed jeans. Her eyes, which was the exact same copy of his, was looking at him intently as if she already thought of more than a hundred ways to kill her brother and make it look like an accident. Sure Caleb was a good 5 inches taller than she, but seeing his sister like that made him want to run and hide.
"We're going home." Charlie said as started to pull his brother off the couch. The girl was small, but her grip around Caleb's wrist was as hard as steel due to the fact that the girl had been taking aikido for years.
"Wait!" Caleb said to Charlie when they were almost nearing the front door. Charlie ignored her brother; she was just too pissed to hear whatever he was supposed to say.
"We can't leave Evan! He's just around here somewhere."
"He can find his own way home." Charlie answered. It was only a few more steps till they get out of the place when Caleb tried to pull Charlie back in. At first she didn't want to, she was intent on going back to her bed, but Caleb IS much stronger than her, so she had no other choice but to be dragged deeper into this damned place.
"I'll look upstairs, you look down here." Caleb told her. She didn't make any movements but just continued glaring at her brother. Why does she too have to look for that asshole?
"C'mon, Charles, Please?" Her brother pleaded.
Charlie grunted a 'whatever' and left her brother to search for the other idiot who was responsible for waking her up.
That guy is DEAD!
Charlie was the one to find Evan.
He was intensely making out with a girl whom she recognized to be one of those annoying cheerleaders who often gave her dirty looks whenever she hangs out with her brother at school.
Charlie came up to Evan and tapped him on the shoulder. He made a gesture that indicated Charlie to go away. Again, she tried tapping him harder this time, but he only made a barely audible moan that sounded something like "get lost" in between his face sucking session with bimbo Barbie.
Charlie let out a deep breath to control her temper and kicked Evan in the shin harder than she kicked Caleb. He yelped out in pain and held tightly to the part of his leg that was sure to be bruising in the next few minutes. Bimbo Barbie gave Charlie an irritated look and left knowing that her kissing session with the asshole was over. Charlie ignored her.
Evan looked up to whoever bastard who kicked him and when he saw that all too familiar face of the little red head looking down at him with a scowl on her face, his anger was immediately replaced by some sort of happy feeling.
"Hey little red!" He said smiling.
Charlie wrinkled her nose; a strong scent of alcohol was coming from the irritating blonde kid who got her into this mess.
"You're drunk." She said a matter-of-factly.
"No I'm not." Evan answered defensively.
Charlie raised an eyebrow at this then shook her head. All she wanted was to get some rest because school took a lot of energy from her these past few weeks. Is that so much to ask? Why she had to be at some party she never planned on going just to rescue her brother and this idiotic guy who wouldn't even admit that he's drunk, she had no idea.
"Get your ass off that chair Evan. I'm taking you home." Charlie ordered.
Evan grinned at this and pulled Charlie closer to him by the waist. "Why wait for us to get home? I'm pretty sure there are empty bedrooms upstairs where we can… OW!"
Charlie pinched Evan's arm hard. The guy was muscled, she guessed that being the star quarterback of the football team does have its benefits, but years of practice of pinching Caleb, who also happens to be part of the said football team, just to annoy him can do wonders for your pinching skills. Evan quickly let go of her to rub the part of his arm where she just pinched.
"What the hell was that for?" He asked genuinely confused.
"You were born." Charlie answered. For a brief moment, Charlie saw hurt flash across Evan's face, but it disappeared just as fast as it had come, she might've just imagined it.
"Caleb asked me to look for you." She explained. "I need to get you guys home before the both of you do anything else stupid."
Evan scoffed. "Why do I have to follow you?" He asked her challengingly.
"Because currently, I'm probably the only one in this house capable of making rational decisions. While you, on the other hand, is drunk off your ass." She answered, not even disguising the edge around her voice.
The boy rolled his ocean green eyes, leaned on the counter and looked at Charlie with narrowed eyes. She could tell she was starting to piss him off. She smiled inwardly at this; it's nice to dampen his party mood, makes things even.
"I told you I'm not drunk!" He said quite loudly.
Charlie smiled, revealing her dimples making her look mischievous. "Alright, how bout we play a game then? You win, we stay, I win, and we go." She told him.
The boy's eyes looked a bit wary. He never liked most of Charlie's games. Ever since they were kids, whenever Caleb and he agree to play her games, one of them always comes out with a bleeding knee or a broken bone.
Charlie noticed his uncertainty and laughed lightly. It was a nice laugh, something that she rarely made whenever he's around. He liked it.
"It's harmless." She assured him.
Evan raised his eyebrow indicating the girl to go on. His head was throbbing and his stomach didn't feel too good, but he ignored it. He wasn't drunk.
"If you aren't so drunk, spell my real name then."
Evan frowned at the absurdity of the game but decided to play along anyway. "C-H-A-R-L-…" He stopped then crinkled his eyebrows in confusion, how do you spell her whole name again? Evan looked at the girl only to see her smirking. "I dunno, why is it so hard to spell anyway?" He asked, giving up.
"It's not when you're sober." The girl answered giving him a victorious grin. "I win. Let's go."
Evan was about to follow when he felt his stomach churn.
The next thing he knew, he was throwing up all over Cory's mom's expensive Italian rug.
Oh well, sucks for her.
Evan's head cleared.
Seems like the only thing he needed was to throw up and the peaceful environment of Charlie's quiet car. She didn't take them straight back home like she said she would, instead they were currently inside Starbucks drinking coffee so they could, according to little red, sober up. He was supposed to be sleeping over at the twins' place to help Caleb study for the make-up test he was supposed to have on Monday; Evan might be a jock but anything that has to do with numbers, he owned it, though the tutorial thing was just something him and Caleb thought of so the both of them could sneak out to Cory's party together.
Caleb left for the restroom, so he was left alone in the booth with the younger Harrison twin. Evan noticed that Charlie had dark circles underneath her eyes and her usually well-kept hair was tied up into a messy ponytail. He remembered how she isn't much of a morning person and how busy she was at school those past few weeks. Guilt started to come upon him.
Last month, he caused Charlie and her boyfriend to break up by interfering with their relationship. He didn't regret what he had done at that one; the guy doesn't deserve this great girl sitting across him, although he felt really bad when he saw her and acted like it didn't matter. She busied herself with school work, sports and her part time job. Whenever he would come to talk to her, she would snap at him and treat him coldly. Though she was usually acts that way around him, he felt that this time, it was for real. So he simply gave up. He would only talk to her whenever the situation calls for it, but that rarely happens. Charlie wasn't really the type of girl to need anyone's help.
Yesterday when he asked if he could sleep over at Caleb's place, having company when you're going to sneak out was only his second reason. The main one was simply because he just wanted to see her. It annoyed him so much how affected he is whenever she ignored him. And when she acted so coldly to him that night, well you could say that did it. He decided that he was going to party so hard, by morning any memory or whatever feelings he has for this girl would go down the drain. Unfortunately that didn't go as planned. The moment he got so drunk that he couldn't judge what he was doing, he called her. Good thing Caleb snatched the phone away from him before he could say anything that he might regret. He got so pissed off that he started making out with this girl just to prove to the Charlie in his head that she doesn't matter. Again, that was a failure. A few seconds into the make out session he started wondering what it would be like if she was the one he was kissing. He assumed she wouldn't smell like alcohol, she never liked the smell of alcohol. She would smell like vanilla or strawberry, that's what she usually smelt like. That's when he realized that he, Evan Daniels, has got it bad.
Evan Daniels, the star quarterback of Westfield High, the school's most sought after guy, is in love with his childhood enemy, Charlemagne Harrison.
Shit.
Charlie wanted to bang her head against the wall to keep herself from falling asleep.
The only reason she decided to bring the guys here at Starbucks was because she didn't have the energy to drag them both up to Caleb's room without waking their parents up. Lucky for her, after Evan disposed whatever remains of his dinner on Cory's kitchen rug, Caleb showed up so that he could help her bring him inside the car. Good thing her brother wasn't that drunk, otherwise she would've ditched the both of them. There is no way in hell that she could carry both guys who were way taller and heavier than her outside the house, across the lawn and into her car.
Caleb had excused himself to go to the bathroom, probably to throw up. Both of them drank too much this time, especially Evan. She knew that the guy could be an irresponsible ass but she knows for a fact that he wasn't an idiot. Stupid probably, but not idiotic. A proven fact.
She noticed that the stupid aforementioned was sneaking glances at her whenever he thought she wasn't looking. He looked considerably sober now, so she decided to talk to him.
"There's really something wrong with you, you know that?" She told him harshly. She was trying to hold her anger in for the past few hours because she knew that lecturing him while he was drunk would be useless. "You sneak out to a party, get drunk, call me at two in the morning and expect me to come bail you guys out! Do you have any idea how stressed I've been this week?"
Evan didn't answer; instead he just looked outside the window acting like Charlie wasn't even talking.
"You're nothing but a selfish bastard who cares about nothing other than how he looks or if he's going to have fun in a situation! You don't EVER take anybody's feelings into account Evan! Ever!" Charlie continued. This time, she wasn't sure whether she was referring to the guys' attitude in the party, the disturbance of her sleep or the incident that happened a month ago, she never really had a proper chance to tell him off about that. Who knows, maybe it's about everything he did or she was just too sleep deprived and upset about being woken up she decided to take it out on him.
She could see Evan's jaw tensed. Good, she was getting to him.
Charlie covered her face with her hands and tried to muffle her scream. She was too tired, she just wanted to go home, get back to her bed and sleep in until 1 in the afternoon. But no, instead she's stuck here with a guy she can never understand with her brother in the restroom throwing up.
This is so not my day!
"Is that what you think of me?" Evan's voice sounded, disturbing her little pity party. It sounded hurt and a little bit angered. The expression on his face was something Charlie had never seen on him before.
"Well, it's not like you do anything to prove me wrong!" Charlie countered.
"You know as well as I do that that's bullshit."
Charlie scoffed. "Oh really Evan? When was the last time you did something good for somebody other than yourself?"
Evan glared at Charlie. He really didn't want to go over that line but whatever. What else can he lose since it seems like the only girl he had ever seriously like (or loved, whichever sounds less dramatic.) only thinks of him as a selfish bastard.
"Tyler." Evan mumbled looking away, hoping Charlie wouldn't hear.
But unfortunately for him, the girl was listening intently on what he has to say. Honestly speaking, at that moment, Charlie wasn't even angry anymore, her lack of sleep sometimes brings mood swings. The red head was now just bored and was simply entertaining herself. It was a habit of hers to piss the guy off just to get some sort of reaction from him. It wasn't a good way to pass time, she knows, but it IS fun and she was bored.
"Tyler?" The girl repeated. "What about Tyler?"
Evan shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He didn't like talking about the guy in front of Charlie, it made him jealous. A feeling that he wasn't too familiar with.
"Do you even know why he was dating you in the first place?" He asked, trying to hide the anger in his voice. Evan remembered hearing Tyler talk with one of the guys during football practice. He remembered hearing him say to another guy that the only reason why he was dating Charlie was because she was hot and that how great it would be if he could get into her pants. He would've broken that guy's face at that exact moment if Caleb hadn't stopped him. He said that Charlie could figure it all out on her own, but Evan wasn't so convinced. That's why he picked a fight with the guy on Melanie's party and told him to stay away from Charlie. Caleb was considerate enough not to tell his sister what Evan's real intention was, although he chewed him out before he promised not to tell.
"Yeah, I do." Charlie answered lightly. There wasn't any anger in her voice, no resentment, no bitterness. It was just like he asked if she knew that it was sunny outside.
Evan was taken aback by her answer. He was expecting her to defend the guy, yell at him for breaking them up, even throw something at him; she has anger management issues, but he didn't expect that kind of reaction from her.
"I'm not going to say that I owe you or something, but I was planning on breaking up with him. It just so happens that I got so caught up with everything else, I didn't had the time. So when he 'dumped' me, you could say I was relieved. It's obvious that he only wanted to get in my pants." Charlie explained.
Evan was dumbfounded. Here he was getting so worked up because he thought that the girl he loves hated him for breaking her up with her previous boyfriend when the whole time she didn't even give the slightest damn about the whole thing.
Charlie was looking at Evan with an amused expression. He looked like a kid who just found out Santa Claus isn't real.
Evan scoffed a bit angrily. "All this time?" He said to no one in particular. "All this time I got so worked up over nothing? And I thought you freaking hated me!"
"Does it matter?" Charlie asked in between her sips of the latte she was drinking. She looked so calm about everything and it pissed Evan off.
"Of course it matters you idiot!" Evan almost screamed at her. "It fucking matters because I'm in love with you!"
Charlie almost choked on her drink. Her eyes grew wide and for a second she thought that she just imagined the whole thing. But one look at Evan's startled face told her differently. He did just tell her he's in love with her.
Talk about a drunken confession.
Evan was shocked. He hadn't meant for that to come out, not that way. He wasn't much of a romantic but he also isn't one of those guys who say they're in love with a girl so casually.
The two continued to stare at one another, both wide eyed with shock. Neither of them could believe what had happened a few seconds ago. It was Evan who broke the trance when he looked away. He could feel his face heating up from embarrassment.
She wasn't supposed to hear that! Evan thought. Not this way! Shit! Shit! Shit! He could feel his heart racing; his hands were shaking so badly, he had to place it on top of his leg just so she wouldn't see how nervous he was. What if she didn't love him back? That wouldn't be a surprise, every time the two of them see each other; they couldn't help but try to get on each other's nerves. But that's a good thing right? It just shows the tight bond they both had. What the hell was he thinking? He hated that she had this effect on him. How she could mess up his thoughts without even trying.
Evan kept glancing nervously at Charlie's direction. She seems to not have yet recovered from his sudden confession. Is it that hard to believe what he just said?
After what seems to be the longest moment of his life, Charlie spoke.
"Spell my name." She said looking at Evan in a way that could only be described as searching.
Evan laughed humorlessly at this. "I just told you that I'm in love with you Charlie and the reply I get is an order to spell your name?"
The expression on the red head girl's face didn't change. Evan sighed and followed her request. "C-H-A-R-L-I-E." He spelled flatly.
Charlie shook her head making her ponytail swish from side to side. "My real name Evan. Spell it."
Evan raised his eyebrow, he had no clue what was going on inside the girl's head so he just followed through. "C-H-A-R-L-E-M-A-G-N-E" He answered.
The girl's eyes narrowed, and then she spoke with a bit uncertainty. "You're not drunk."
"Forget it little red. I'm outta here." Evan shook his head, disappointed at Charlie's response. Here he was, professing his love over a girl and the only thing she could reply to him was to spell her name. Now that's anti-climactic.
He was already outside the store when he heard her call out his name. Evan didn't stopped walking, he didn't wanted to feel hopeful just to get his heart crushed two times in a row if Charlie comes up to him and just say something like he left his handkerchief on the table. He also didn't want to stay just so she could rub it in his face that he fell in love with her, she could be mean especially when she didn't get enough sleep. But most of all, he didn't want to be around when she tells him that she doesn't feel the same way and that they're better off being whatever they were. Yeah, he didn't want to hear any of that, especially the last one.
Seeing how Evan had no intention of stopping, Charlie did the only thing she could think of to get his attention. She picked up a small pebble and threw it at his head. Thank God she has a good aim otherwise she could've broken a car's windshield or something.
"What the hell?" Evan yelled, he turned around to see where the rock had come from and was slightly taken aback by the angry looking Charlie that was approaching him.
"What you do that for?" He asked when she was already at a reasonable distance.
"I tried asking you to stop, but you wouldn't. That's your fault." She answered irritated.
Charlie closed her eyes for a moment and breathed out heavily. She didn't want to be mad when she's having a somewhat important conversation with the guy.
"Why?" she asked, her voice now calm.
"What do you mean why?" He asked annoyed.
"I meant why me, you idiot." She said through gritted teeth. She was obviously trying to keep her temper.
Evan studied her face intently. She didn't looked like she was going to reject him at that moment, but she also didn't looked like she was going to tell him that she loves him back either.
"I don't know, okay?" He answered. He knew he sounded so confused the way he said it but that was the truth. "You're hot headed, impulsive, stubborn, painfully confusing, annoyingly opinionated and I could go on all night long saying every single thing that annoys me about you, but the fact that I'm honestly completely in love with you scares the shit out of me because whatever I do, I can't get you out of my head. I'm not expecting you to say that you love me back, but please Charlie, if you have it in you to think that there's a possibility, even if it's just a small one, that we could work out please tell me now so I could go home and put all of this behind."
Charlie looked at Evan closely. She could see that he looked confused and somehow helpless, two of the things she never imagined Evan Daniels to ever look like. It would have been funny if not for the fact that he was dead serious.
"You're an ass." Charlie started.
Evan visibly deflated and when he was about to open his mouth to say something, Charlie held out her hand making a gesture that tells him to let her finish.
"You're a jerk, you're arrogant, you're narcissistic, you're awfully vain, you're irritating, and you seriously annoy the living daylights out of me, I sometimes wonder if that's your sole purpose in life." Charlie went on, "I hated you so much there was a time when I was 9 that I was even willing to make a voodoo doll version of you just so I could set it on fire." Charlie laughed at the memory of this.
Evan didn't know where Charlie was heading to, but the Evan who always wanted to annoy the girl he was now confessing to was amused at how much he got to her.
"So call me crazy if I say that yes, Evan, I do think we have a chance, not just a small one but a huge gigantic one because, I can't believe I'm saying this, I'm in love with you too." Charlie finished and gave the guy a small smile.
Evan couldn't believe what he just heard. She loved him back. Who would've thought that these two rivals would end up falling for each other? Not them obviously. Evan was so glad of what Charlie's answer was, he immediately closed the distance between them, wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her.
He no longer would wonder what would kissing the little red head would be like, he no longer would have to worry about her ending up with some guy who only wants to take advantage of her. She was his and he was hers, and that's the only thing both of them ever want it to be.
"Took you both long enough to sort that out, I was getting bored hiding at restroom." A voice interrupted.
Both of them turned to see Caleb smiling knowingly at the both of them. Evan laughed at his best friend. He almost had forgotten that they came here to the café with him.
"So that's what you were doing the whole time." Charlie said.
Caleb winked at his twin. "C'mon. We have to head home before mom and dad realizes that the three of us are missing."
The three walked together towards the car they had used to get there, Caleb walking in front of them and Charlie and Evan happily walking hand in hand.
This Saturday morning didn't turned out to be so bad after all.
Author's note: I was at this party the other night and this girl, who's a friend of a friend, kept telling us stories of what crazy things she gets into when she's drunk. I wasn't really paying attention (although I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one.) and by the time I stopped zoning out on her, she was saying something about denying she was drunk even if she obviously was. I didn't got to hear what happened at the end cause I zoned out on her again.
And from that short sentence that I heard her say, this story was born.
Thanks girl whose name I forgot.
P.S. I had a different ending in mind but when I tried to type it down, I just couldn't get the words right. Also, some of the lines there were inspired by the movie Letters to Juliet. I just love old places.
P.S.S. I just realized that the main dude there is named Charlie! Would you look at that!