Original Love

Charlie's POV:

"Alright kiddo! Let's get your things! We need to leave!" Charlie called followed by tiny footsteps as the small boy came flying into the room with his backpack in hand. "Ready to go Noah?"

The little boy nodded and she smiled as she grabbed her bag and then his hand and led him out the door and down the hall to the parking lot. Opening the door, she lifted her Nephew up into his carseat in the backseat and buckled him in, giving him his stuffed lion and then putting her bags in the back and getting in the driver's seat. As the car turned on, so did her stereo which was still playing the Disney music Noah had insisted to listen to the last time they had gone somewhere. And even if Charlie had put up somewhat of a fuss about it, she secretly did like it and found herself singing along to it out loud most of the time. She pulled into the parking lot to her studio minutes later and then helped Noah out of his seat and grabbed her things before walking inside with Noah's little hand in hers.

"Good morning Ella," Charlie said in a singsong voice as they walked inside and the receptionist at the front desk looked up and greeted them as they walked in.

The younger girl smiled as she saw Noah walking beside her, "Good morning. I see Mr. Noah has come to help his Auntie Charlie again today!"

The little boy nodded proudly, thinking it was the best job in the world while the two older women laughed at his cuteness. Ella handed Charlie all the messages she had and then began to lead Noah down the hall to the practice room to get set up for her first class of the day. She sat Noah down at the table where the stereo was set up and pulled out a coloring book and crayons to keep him busy. Kissing the top of his head, she mentioned she would be right back to change and when she got no reply from the distracted boy, she grabbed her bags and headed to the changing rooms. Thankfully when she walked back into the room a few minutes later everything was still in it's proper place and Noah was humming to himself with his little tongue poking out between his lips as he colored.

"Having fun buddy?" She asked as her nephew just looked up and nodded, not bothering to answer out loud as he went back to his book. "Ok, I promise we won't be here long. I just have two classes to teach and then we can do whatever you want. Ok?"

The little boy looked up and nodded enthusiastically. "Can we go see Alex?"

She couldn't help but smile at that. When Noah had shown up that day when Jer dropped him off, Alex and he had hit it off right away. Her boyfriend had really earned points with the little boy when he talked with him about sports since now Noah was obsessed with the older boy. And that was shocking since Noah usually didn't take well to strangers but for some reason Alex was a different case. So the whole time Alex had been in Wisconsin for the remaining part of his stay, the two had been inseparable. Not that Charlie really cared. Noah needed a guy role model in his life since his dad really wasn't around and he was always with Charlie. The two of them were so cute together and she had never realized how good Alex was with kids. It was just another thing the singer was good at and made her love him just a little bit more. And now that he was back on tour she missed him terribly.

"Alex isn't here buddy. He had to go work, remember?" She asked as he nodded with a pout. "But he'll be back in a few weeks and the you can play with him all you want. I was going to call him later tonight, you can talk to him then, how about that?"

Well that got him to cheer up. He began to babble excitedly about what he was going to say to the older boy and she listened halfheartedly as her students began to file into the room. She checked the time to realize that her class started in ten minutes and she needed to get ready. Kissing Noah on the head, she mentioned she had to go to work and told him to be good before going to the front of the room to talk to the moms and say hi to her students.

The first class she was teaching was her 3-5 year olds and the next would be her 6-8. All the tiny girls surrounded around her telling her about how they had been practicing every day and how they hoped to be as good as she was one day but what really caught her attention was a few of the girls staring at Noah. It made her laugh seeing the way the girls looked at her nephew with that love struck look. It was quite adorable really but she didn't have the time to start playing matchmaker for Noah since she actually had a job to do. Clapping her hands twice, all the little girls lined up and waited for her to give the first instructions and teach the next part to the routine they were learning.

A grueling hour and a half later, class was finished and she dismissed them and waved goodbye to the ones who shouted a goodbye first. There was thankfully a half hour between classes and she was planning on using that time to relax and rest her foot which had been acting up more lately and was beginning to worry she was going to injure it soon. She had no room for injury right then and needed to stop overdoing it so that it wouldn't result in that. That was just one of the many lovely risks that came with dancing. But she hadn't had any major injuries yet, and she planned on keeping it that way.

When the second class was finally finished and the next teacher showed up for the 9 year old and up classes, Charlie heaved a sigh of relief. She took the seat next to Noah and pulled off her shoes and rubbed her feet for a few seconds before mentioning she was going to change. Getting out of her dance clothes, she pulled on her favorite ripped pair of skinnies and a shirt of Alex's she had stolen before he had left. It still smelled like him and she closed her eyes and inhaled the familiar smell and smiled slightly giving herself a moment to miss him. She had taught herself not to think about him too much so she wouldn't miss him as much but that was proving difficult since he was always on her mind. But she forced herself to stop and get ready to leave since she was hungry and knew that Noah was probably bored out of his mind.

"Ok kiddo, I'm all done for the day. Why don't we pack up and go grab something to eat." She suggested and the little boy was happy to agree as he shoved all of his things into his bag without a care.

They walked hand in hand back out to her car once they had all their things and she helped him buckle up and the got in and headed towards one of Noah's favorite fast food places by the airport. Once they got food, she headed back to her apartment and then they ate while a Disney movie played on the TV. The rest of the day Charlie planned on doing nothing but relaxing and waiting until Rachael came over later that night after she was done with class and brought pizza over and all just hung out. Until then she was going to stay off her feet since her ankle was still hurting a little and didn't want to risk anything.

Just as she was cleaning up the garbage from lunch, her phone rang. And she grabbed it just as she made her way to the kitchen to throw some things away and nearly dropped everything she was carrying when she saw whose name was on the caller ID.

"Hey babe!" She answered with a huge smile that she couldn't wipe off her face as she leaned against the counter, keeping an eye on Noah as he played in the living room.

"Hey Charlie," was all he was able to say before shouting came through the speaker and then Alex pulling the phone away to yell at them. "Sorry, all the guys say hi. But how are you? I miss you!"

"Please don't ever stop talking,"

"What? Why!?"

"Your British accent is back,"

"Oh, I didn't realize I had it again. Sorry," he replied, trying to switch back to his American accent making her frown.

"Aw, don't change back. Your British accent is sexy."

His laugh came through the speaker again making her miss him even more. "Anyway," He continued, British accent back making her happy. "How is everything over there?"

"Good, Noah says hi by the way. He's been missing you almost as much as I am. Which is a lot by the way, in case you didn't know. But we're managing. How's tour? Has Jack stopped acting weird yet?"

He sighed, probably because she mentioned Jack. "Tour is good, really good actually. But no, Jack is still being strange. I'm seriously about to steal his phone and find out what the hell is going on with him soon. It's getting to the point where everyone is noticing and getting concerned. At first it was just me an Ri. Zack really didn't notice since he's got this weird thing going on with this girl he apparently met in LA. But now everyone else is catching on and we're worried."

"I'm sure it's nothing too serious. Just take him out to coffee and ask him what's wrong."

"Charlie, I've tried that. I've tried everything. We all have." He replied and she could hear the exasperation in his voice. Something really must be going on for Alex to be sounding like this. She had never heard him like that before and she was beginning to worry now too. Honestly she hadn't known Jack for that long but she did know that he was alway happy and crazy. But now from what Alex was telling her he had done 180 and was really different. And she really would do anything to help Alex stop stressing and to see what was wrong with Jack.

"Do you want me to call him?"

He sighed again, "I don't know babe. I really am at my wits end. But I'm sorry, I don't mean to make this conversation so depressing. Anything fun happening over by you?"

The occurrence earlier that day with all the little girls staring at Noah popped into her head and she smiled, figuring that would help. So with a laugh she told him finally getting a laugh out of her boyfriend and they just chatted about dumb things for the rest of the conversation. He told her about the latest tour schemes he and his other friends had gotten into over in England and how he went to see some of his family over there.

But they had to hang up soon after since roaming charges were so expensive and Charlie's next bill was going to be sky high if she didn't stop talking too. Though she really didn't want to. This was the first real conversation she had had with her boyfriend since he had left for the UK and she was missing him more that before. She thought that hearing his voice would help but it was just making it harder. And when they finally hung up, she sat on the counter, staring at the floor with a frown wishing he was back there with her to cuddle while they watched movies with Noah like it had been before he had left.

The sudden call of her name from the little boy finally pulled her from her thoughts and she forced herself to stop thinking and move on to happier things. She hopped down and headed back into the room just as the doorbell rang and Noah excitedly ran to the door and opened it to see Rachael standing there with a box of pizza. The little boy cheered as her best friend put the box down on the table and Charlie pushed all the depressing thoughts of missing Alex and Jack and made herself enjoy the night even if the hole in her heart made it hard to.