I'm Yours Tonight

SAM’S POV

I was sitting with Brad, Andy and Charlotte in Layla's bedroom as Layla fixed up Charlotte's undoubtedly painful injury.

"I'm seriously so sorry that you guys had to experience that. And, thank you for inviting us out with you tonight. You really didn't have to come and help though. I am capable of dealing with that asshole." Charlotte apologized, grimacing as Layla dabbed antiseptic on her wound.

"Don’t apologise Charlotte! It's totally fine. I wouldn't be able to walk away from somebody in need of help." I said. Layla looked away from what she was doing to smile at me. Charlotte yelped softly as Layla had dabbed the rag on her wound too hard.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what actually happened between you guys and that Ben guy?" Brad question. Charlotte bit her lip, looking uncomfortable as soon as that certain situation was mentioned.

"Him and I dated on and off for basically my whole high school life," Layla explained, focusing on what she was doing. "He was a horrible boyfriend. He wasn't abusive… well, at least not to me... he hurt Charlotte a few times when she was trying to protect me..." Charlotte nodded, looking down. "He made me constantly depressed. So, Char and I decided to leave our homes in Sydney, after we graduated Year 12, of course."

Layla stood up after she wrapped a bandage around Charlotte's leg. After she had finished tending to Charlotte, she came over and sat next to me on her bed. Andy was half asleep on Charlotte's bed. Brad was sitting on the floor, and Charlotte was sprawled across the rug.

"So Charlotte... did you have any boyfriends when you were in high school?" Brad asked, trying to make it sound casual. His face was close to turning red from embarrassment. He was making it way too
obvious that he liked Charlotte. I had known him long enough to know he wasn’t very far off making a fool of himself to get this girl’s attention, even though he really already had all her attention.

"No, not really. I was the kind of girl that was only friends with the boys,” she mumbled.

"That's not true!" Layla giggled.

"Having an obsession with a guy is totally different to dating him..." she said quietly, letting her hair fall over her eyes.

"Wait, wait, wait, who was this guy?" I asked.

"His name was Lucas, and Charlotte was in love with him since Year 7," Layla giggled again. All of a sudden, Charlotte quickly stood up.

"I think it may be the time for the boys to leave." Charlotte's voice was hard and stern.

"Come on Char, Andy's practically asleep already anyway. Why not just let them stay?" Layla argued. The feeling of tension in the room was getting uncomfortable.

"Layla, I thought you of all people would know that it is not very appropriate to allow people whom we only just met today stay at our home. That's like letting a random off the street drive your car!" the mention of this Lucas boy had really fired her up.

"Oh please. As if you've never brought home a random guy." Layla snapped. Charlotte refrained from yelling at her friend.

"Whatever. Do what you want." she snatched her pillow from under Andy. "I'm sleeping on the lounge." she announced before storming out.

"I guess she really doesn't like talking about Lucas..." I mumbled. Layla nodded and leaned back against the wall behind her.

"She hates talking about him. He broke her heart..." her eyes shone as she internally reminisced on her high school days.

"Oh well. We should just forget about it. She’s right Sam, we’d best be leaving. We have too much to do tomorrow. I’m just going to say goodbye to Charlotte, and then I’ll be off." Brad said, and he stood up and accompanied Charlotte in the living room.

I soon said goodbye to Layla, and dragged Andy out of the apartment. Brad was nowhere to be seen when we left, so we just assumed we would see him back at our hotel.

BRAD's POV

I slowly and hastily walked into the lounge room to see if Charlotte was okay. She didn't sound very happy when Layla mentioned that Lucas boy. It was obvious that Layla and Charlotte had a rocky past with all the people they used to know, but I was willing to help her with whatever.

"Hi Charlotte," I whispered. She was standing in front of the lounge, biting her fingernails. It was a bit hard to see her in the dark room, but I could see she was still wearing that dress. I thought she looked beautiful in the dress she was wearing. It was silver and black striped, and very tight. She didn’t really need any flashy clothes to make her look any more amazing than what she already did.

"Hey," she spoke softly, not looking at me.

"What's up?" I asked casually as she sat down on the lounge.

"Not much, just thinking..." she said, staring off into the distance.

"About Lucas?" I went and sat next to her. Her hand brushed past my leg, and it sent immediate shivers down my spine.

"...How did you know?"

"It was kind of obvious... because you got so emotional when Layla mentioned him..."

"Oh..."

"What happened between you and him?" I asked. I don't know why I had been asking such personal questions to a girl I had only known for a few hours. But there was something about Charlotte. She was special.

"Oh god, it’s such a long, boring story..." she explained. "I basically loved him for years... but he didn't love me. We were best friends for such a long time, and we would fight and make up again so much. We were poison for each other, but we kept going back. He was always so… messed up. I helped him through his depression, but all through that, I was feeling worse and worse. He knew I loved him, and he would use that to get to me, and make me nothing but a play toy for me. He manipulated my mind, and I don’t know why I didn’t just get out of whatever weird relationship we had sooner...” her eyes got a glazed over look as she thought of him. How could a guy be so mean? She loved him, and he just pushed her away, used her for his own selfish reasons. If I were he, I never would've taken advantage of someone who loved me.

"That sucks. He sounds like a dickhead." I said, frowning. I wanted to say so much more, but I couldn’t come across as desperate.

"He was a dickhead, a downright selfish dickhead. Probably still is, I wouldn't know though because I haven't seen him since my 18th birthday." she said, smiling slightly at me. This was good. Since he was now out of her life, he wouldn’t have any more opportunities to break her like he had in the past.

"Oh... Well then, I suppose that's good. You shouldn't hang around someone who hurts you as much as he did." I said as if I was talking to somebody much younger than me, which I kind of was, but she was only 11 months younger than me.

"So true. I should hang around nice people, like you." she smiled brightly at me. I looked over to the clock.

"Oh damn... It's getting pretty late... You might want to consider getting some sleep, especially after the crazy day you've had..." I said quietly.

“I’m not tired. Do you want to get out of here? We could just go outside for a walk if you’re up for it.” she suggested as she stood up. I quickly agreed, following her towards the door. Her dress clung tightly to her upper thighs. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing, but there were definitely some markings on her thighs. I just thought they were tattoos and shrugged it off.

"What are you looking at?" she asked. My eyes darted from her body to her eyes.

"Nothing... Anyway, where are we going to go?" I asked. I was thankful that the room was dark and she couldn't see me blushing.

"There’s a path that runs through the park towards the bush that I usually follow when I want to clear my head.” she explained as we walked from her apartment door, down the stairs, to the outside of the building. She stopped in her tracks, turning to face me. It was astounding that she could deliver such an elegant turn while wearing heels and sporting a large injury on her leg. “You can’t tell anyone this path. It’s a secret. It’s my secret place that nobody knows about, not even Layla. You promise you won’t tell, right?”

I nodded in agreement and followed her towards the park that she mentioned. It was early in the morning, so not only was the park completely empty and quiet, but it was also dark. There were no accompanying streetlights to illuminate the area. It worried me, but Charlotte reassured me that she knew the way around like the back of her hand.

“So you come here often?” I asked as we stopped on a small wooden footbridge over the top of a small creek of water. She stared out towards the forest in front of her, pausing to take in the nature before turning to look at me as she spoke.

“Yeah, unfortunately I do. It’s hard to try to clear your head with people around, y’know? I’ve been so close with Layla for a long time but I like being alone a lot. She’s the opposite though,” she explained. I could see a pain in her eyes as she spoke.

“I get what you mean. I’m very much to myself just generally, but the others boys don’t seem to understand.” It seemed odd sharing things about my personal life to a girl – who was also a fan of my band – of whom I had only met hours before. From what I had learned about her, she was a lot like I was. I wanted to keep talking to her, and getting to know her. She smiled at me, and turned her attention back to the nature in front of her.

Many thoughts were running through my head. She was a genuinely great person. I didn’t want to leaver her and I wanted that moment to last forever.