What Happened to Perfect?

The Next Day

Tomorrow came way too soon, and so did the dreaded phone call. Ignoring my phone and moving about the room to find a shirt I heard that Charlotte was awake in the living room. After pulling on a t shirt I went out to see Charlotte flitting about the kitchen and humming a song I didn’t recognize. I stood in the doorway recapping all the things that happened last night, “I hope you don’t mind” Charlotte’s voice brought me out of my thoughts, “but in case you do I made you an omelet.”

I went and sat at the kitchen bar, “How did you know I was here?” she hadn’t turned around once since I came into the room. “I have eyes in the back of my head, all girls do, and some just develop later than others.” She handed me a plate with an omelet full of various ingredients I didn’t even know were in the kitchen.

“In case you’re wondering there’s no meat in it because I’m a vegetarian.” I looked down at the plate, “But these are eggs which come from a chicken…” which she isn’t supposed to eat, right? “I’m not vegan; I just don’t eat meat, even though with enough prodding I will eat fish.” I nodded and began eating; not only was this girl a great cook but she cleans too. Before I was even done with my plate she had cleaned and put away every dish she used and more. “Please stay here forever, you are like the magic fairy I’ve always wished for, but in human form.” She laughed, which sounded more like a song than it did an actually laugh, “Ah an open invitation! I definitely would but my parents would flip and pull the ‘we actually care about our daughter’ act out and have search dogs out looking for me by noon.”

I had completely forgotten about her parents, and her story. “Yeah but, you could get emancipated right? And then just come and live with me forever?” She definitely shouldn’t have to deal with shitty parents who treated her like the ugly stepdaughter. “The only problem with that are my parents. I need their signatures to leave, and they’d never let me go. Who would cook and clean everything when they were too plastered out of their minds to even stand up straight? Plus if I was to drop everything and come live with a pop star what would happen when you went on tour?”

“I’d take you with me.”

“You barely even know me. What happens when you grow up and decide you want to settle down and get married and have kids?” Oh fuck, kids. I choked on my own spit and had to rest my head on the cool counter before I passed out. “I don’t even want to start thinking about this right now.” I mumbled into the marble.

“I guess I’ll be on my way now—” Charlotte turned to leave. “No wait, stay.” I grabbed her arm not wanting to be left alone right now. “I really should be getting home; my parents are probably going nuts right now.”

“No um- you can call them here use my phone” I ran to my room and grabbed my iPhone and handed it to her. “You have 17 missed calls from a Selena, 4 from a Scooter, 2 from your mom and like a billion text messages.” She held the phone out, but I waved her hand away. “I don’t care.”

I went to my bedroom to grab my laptop and check my texts online. Most were from Scooter asking if I was dead or not because, “You don’t ever just not answer the phone, what’s going on man?”. One stood out the most and it was from Selena. All it contained was website address, and a “Really??” I clicked on it and one of those stupid pop culture websites popped up. There were tons of photos of me and Charlotte coming in early this morning and the paparazzi took it totally out of context. The headline read, “Does Justin Have a New Boo?” and there was some bullshitted article underneath included with the pictures that were taken earlier. “Oh fuck…” I mumbled and went back into the living room to see Charlotte gathering all her things.

“Yeah they’re totally pissed so I need to get back home like… now.” She smiled, despite her bad news “I have no clue where I am though, or how to get back… I guess I should have figured this out last night.” She handed me my phone back.

“I’ll take you” I went to grab my keys and exchanged my pajama bottoms for jeans. As I was throwing on a YMCMB hoodie I heard her call out, “How do I know that I can trust you enough to know where I live?”

“Well you trusted me enough to stay here last night, didn’t you?” I called back, slipping on my sneakers before walking out and into the living room.

“Hm, true… I guess this is better than taking a taxi, or walking.” Charlotte reasoned “Wow two bad decisions in less than 24 hours, this is a record for me.” She commented while grabbing her things. I watched silently with an amused smile, she was so blunt that it was almost funny. “Well are you coming?”

“Yeah, let’s go.” I ushered her out the door and to my car.