Unbound

Charlie left the restaurant and didn’t even bother looking behind her to see if Gerard was following her or not. It wasn’t until she was waiting on the elevator, that she remembered something.

“Oh shit Jo!” She whispered furiously as she pulled her phone from her back pocket.

She hadn’t realized it before, but it had been on silent. There were seven missed calls on her phone all from Jo. Charlie redialed Jo’s number quickly as the elevator doors opened and pressed the phone to her ear. It rang only once and was answered by a frantic sounding Jo.

“Hello?!”

“Hey Jo.” Charlie said, stepping onto the elevator. “It’s me.”

“Charlie!” Jo shouted, causing her to immediately pull the phone away from her ear from the loudness. “Oh my God I was so worried!”

“Jo it’s alright, I’m fine.” Charlie said, in an attempt to calm her down.

“Where are you?” Jo demanded. “What happened?”

“I’m on an elevator on the way back up to my room.” Charlie said as she hit the button for the twelfth floor.

The doors were about to close shut when someone’s hand blocked the doors and pushed them open. Charlie looked up to see who was getting on the elevator and almost dropped her phone when she saw it was Gerard.

“Uh Jo…I’m…I’m going to have to call you-”

“NO!” Jo shouted. “Don’t hang up! Tell me what happened to you.”

“We need to talk.” Gerard said.

“Charlie?” Jo asked. “Who was that?”

“We have nothing to talk about.” Charlie said coldly.

“WHO’S WE?!” Jo shouted. “Charlie answer me!”

Gerard rolled his eyes and grabbed Charlie’s phone from her.

“Hey!” Charlie shouted angrily.

“Whoever this is, Charlie’s gonna have to call you back.” Gerard said into the phone before snapping it shut.

“What the hell?!” Charlie shouted. “Give that back.”

“Not until we talk.” He said, letting the doors of the elevator close behind him.

“About what?” She asked, becoming more and more irritated by the second.

“About you.” He said, reaching over and pulling the emergency break so the elevator would stop.

“What about me?” Charlie asked, leaning against the back wall of the elevator. “I’m not your problem Gerard. And I’m not just some broken thing you can fix by pretending to care.”

“You know you’re making it awfully hard for me to be nice to you.” He said.

“So don’t.” She snapped. “I don’t need people to be nice to me and I don’t need your help.”

“Well it looks like you do from where I’m standing.” He said. “Look at you! You’re alone, miserable, and starving yourself half to death.”

“Will you stop pestering me about my damn weight!” Charlie exploded. “I feel fine, my weight is fine! And I’m not alone or miserable.”

“You’re not miserable huh?” He scoffed. “I do believe I found you drinking alone in a bar.”

“Hey I was with a friend.” She defended. “And you were drinking alone too. Are you alone or miserable?”

“Nope.” He said brightly. “I’m perfectly happy.”

“Then why are you following me?” She asked as she hit the emergency break again so the elevator would move.

“I’m trying to help you!” He exclaimed, running his hands through his hair furiously. “You are alone. You are miserable. And you will die if you keep on living like this.”

“People die all the time.” Charlie said quietly.

“You are unbelievable!” He shouted. “Do you want to live like this? Are you doing this to yourself for a reason?”
“I happen to like the way I live.” She said.

“Do you?” He asked. “Cause it sure as hell didn’t look like it to me when you were at the restaurant with your mom yesterday.”

“Yes but I-” Charlie started before she processed what he had just said. “Wait…how did you know that?”

“I was there.” He said quietly. “I saw you.”

The elevator finally stopped and the ding of the bell momentarily distracted Charlie.

“How I live is none of your business. Thank you very much for helping me tonight. Goodbye Gerard.” She said before walking off the elevator only to be followed closely by him. “Will you stop following me?!” She shouted, whirling around to face him.

“My room’s on this floor too!” He yelled back angrily.

Charlie glared at him but went back to walking down the hall. They both halted a minute later in the middle of the hallway.

“You are following me!” Charlie shouted.

“I already told you I wasn’t! This is my room.” He pulled a keycard from his pocket and opened the door directly across the hall from Charlie’s.

Charlie grumbled something inaudible under her breath before turning to do the same. She entered the room and closed the door behind her quietly as to not wake her mother up. She didn’t feel like having another one of their confrontations. It wasn’t until she was reaching for her phone to return Jo’s call that she remembered Gerard hadn’t given her phone back when he took it from her on the elevator.

“Dammit.” She groaned before opening the door again and walking across the hall.

“Gerard where’ve you been?” Ray asked as Gerard stormed into the room, slamming the door behind him.

“Nowhere.” Gerard said harshly as he sat down on the couch beside Frank to watch TV.

“What happened?” Bob asked from the armchair next to the couch.

“Nothing.” Gerard said.

“Who did you do?” Frank asked, rolling his eyes.

“No one!” Gerard yelled angrily as he stood up and walked off towards the bedroom area of the room.

“What’s with him?” Mikey asked, after he was almost knocked to the floor as Gerard passed him coming out of the bathroom.

“I dunno.” Ray said looking curiously after Gerard. “You guys ever seen him like this?”

Mikey was about to respond, but was interrupted by a furious pounding on the door.

“What the hell?” Mikey said as he walked to the door. He opened the door quickly and his eyes widened at the sight of the young woman standing there.
“Married, married, married.” He repeated to himself in his head.

“Where is he?” She demanded, jogging him from his thoughts.

“Who?” Mikey asked, confused at her harsh tone.

“Gerard, where is he?” She asked angrily.

“Oh sure.” He thought to himself. “Smokin’ hot model girls barge into hotel rooms looking for Gerard.”

“Hello?” She asked irritably. “Where is he?”

“Oh…um hang on.” Mikey said flustered. “Gee? Gerard! There’s someone here to see you.”

Charlie didn’t wait for Gerard to come out of the bedroom area of the hotel room. She stormed past Mikey into the room.

“Damn!” Mikey mouthed to Bob, Ray and Frank.

“Give it back.” Charlie demanded, walking into the bedroom to find a shirtless Gerard, lying on the bed looking at the ceiling.

Gerard lifted his head to see who was speaking to him and his face darkened.

“Give what back?”

Charlie had to concentrate very hard on not staring at his bare chest as she answered him. “My phone. You took it. Now give it back.”

“Oh.” He said, remembering that he had in fact taken it and had forgotten to give it back. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. Charlie had to bite her lip to keep from staring as he reached into the back pocket of his tight fitting jeans and pulled out her cell phone.

“Thank you.” She said curtly, reaching for the phone.

“Wait.” He said pulling the phone from her reach.

“What?”

“What are you doing tomorrow?” He asked.

“What?” She repeated.

“To-mor-row.” He said separating each syllable. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing, why?” She asked suspiciously.

“Dinner.” He said. “Have dinner with me tomorrow night.”

“In your dreams.” She scoffed.

“Fine.” He shrugged, returning the phone to his pocket. “I needed a new phone anyways.”

“Hey!” Charlie shouted angrily. “You can’t do that! That’s mine!”

“Finders keepers.” He taunted. “That is, unless you go out with me.”

“You’re an asshole. You know that, right?”

“Yeah I’ve heard that a couple of times.” He grinned.

“Fine.” Charlie said darkly. “I’ll go. But just to get my phone back.”

“Oh,” He said in a mock hurt tone. “I thought you were going because you liked me.”

“I don’t like you.”

“Sure you do.” He said.

“No, I don’t.” She said. “Hence me calling you an asshole.”

“You can call me an asshole and still like me.” He said.

“And why on Earth would you think that?” She asked.

“Because I’m cute.” He said simply. “And you haven’t stopped staring at my chest since you walked in here.”

Charlie flushed and snapped her eyes back to his hazel ones.

“Tomorrow.” She said coldly before turning and stalking out of the room.

“Finished already?” Frank asked as Gerard walked back into the lounge area of the room.