Falling Helplessly episode 8

🔥 FALLING
HELPLESSLY 👠

( For his brother’s friend …. 😇 )
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Written by:- Williams Kendall____✍🏽
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🏈 CHAPTER EIGHT🏈

I shifted in my seat awkwardly as I stole glances at the small girl sprawled out on my bed. There was something to it—a woman, in my clothes, in my bed… it did something to me. I made it a rule not to bring anyone back to my place, ever. If I was going to hook up with a girl, I’d go back to her place or maybe on a wilder night find a secluded area. But not my bed.

It didn’t help that she looked f-cking adorable in my hoodie and sweats. Her hair was barely contained in that fluffy, pink, elastic thing and curls flew out in every direction. My clothes were so big on her that you couldn’t tell where they ended and she began. She looked like a little nymph I wanted to pick up and put in my pocket.

After the events of last night, I kept waiting for her to break down or lose it. But so far, she was a lot stronger than I had given her credit for. That, or her ability to compartmentalize pain was better than most. I wished I could be like that.

Charlotte was currently sprawled out on my bed with her head down at the end. She laid on her stomach while she chewed on a Red Vine and watched the movie. The Goonies. Ugh, Oliver loved this f-cking movie and made me watch it all the time growing up. Clearly, shit-taste ran in the family. But compared to her other choices, this had been the lesser of many evils.

Guilt settled in my stomach as I thought about Oliver. He was my best friend, and if there was one thing in this world I knew he loved—it was Charlotte. What would he do if he knew that every time I looked at her, I couldn’t stop my eyes from checking out her round ass? I mean f-ck. I’m a guy and it’s right there.

A thought dawned on me and I cleared my throat to get Charlotte’s attention. She twisted around to stare at me and I was distracted by the Red Vine resting on her plump bottom lip. Jesus, man. Pull yourself together.

“Your roommate,” I said blankly, before shaking myself. What the f-ck. “Uhm.”-I cleared my throat-“your roommate was with you last night when… when all that happened. You might want to text her.”

Charlotte’s eyes w¡dened as she scrambled around for her phone, which I realized was still in the plastic hospital bag. I got up to grab it and saw that she had placed her old clothes in there as well. My jaw tightened when I saw a white lace b-ra peeking out from behind her jeans. Grabbing her phone quickly, I went to my desk to plug it in. When it turned on it pinged non-stop as texts came buzzing in.

The sound brought Charlotte over, brushing past me to pick up her phone. Her small thumbs flew across the screen as she texted people back. Looking down at her, I had to clench my fists at my side to stop from reaching out to touch her. The blood rushed through my veins at her close proximity. How many bras had I seen in my day? Too many to count. But seeing Charlotte’s innocent lace—and knowing she currently wasn’t wearing it—made me want to pick her up and push her against the f-cking wall.

My p-nts tightened at the thought and I stepped back from behind Charlotte in case she saw—or felt—it.

“I’ll be right back,” I muttered as I stiffly walked into the bathroom.

I paced back and forth for a minute, thinking about Coach in a dress to calm down my arousal. Oh f-ck. Coach. Football… The stress of last night completely washed my memory. It was Friday, which meant tonight was my football game. What the f-ck was I supposed to do with Charlotte? I wasn’t supposed to leave her alone but I doubted she’d want to come to a game. Besides, I couldn’t watch her any better in the stadium while I was on the field.

I walked into my room to see Charlotte back on my bed. She had paused our movie and was staring at her hands with a thoughtful expression.

“Hey, are you okay?” I asked.

“Oh uh yeah. Madeline was just so… worried about me. I don’t know it’s stupid. Anyways, want to keep watching?”

“Actually… I have some bad news. I have a football game soon.” Charlotte’s eyes snapped to me, and I thought I saw sadness flash in them.

“Oh right of course. Do you want me to head home then?”

“What? No. You aren’t f-cking going anywhere.” She cringed at my curse word. “Sorry… I just meant. Look, I don’t think I can miss this game, but I’m supposed to be watching you for 24 hours. So we have to figure something out.”

“Well, I’ve felt fine since I woke up. I’m sure I’ll be good here alone for a bit.”

“Alright…” I said as I rubbed my chin trying to think of a plan. I needed to know she was okay the wh0le time. “How about this? I’ll give my phone to a third-stringer—since he’ll just be on the bench the wh0le time anyway. I want you to text me every 20 minutes to tell me you’re fine. If he doesn’t get a text, I’ll come back right away. Fair?”

Charlotte rolled her eyes at that, “Every 20 minutes… really? Why not every hour.”

“Because Charlotte,” I said sternly. “If something is wrong for a wh0le hour then I won’t know.” I thought I saw a small shiver run over her but I wasn’t sure why. Was she cold? How could she be wrapped up in all those clothes? “Do you want me to turn the heat up?”

“Wha-? Oh! Gosh. No. Uhm, I’m fine thank you,” She stumbled out as a blush spread across her cheeks. Alright then…

We spent the rest of the day watching movies and eating snacks. I offered to order us real food but Charlotte was happy with her ch¡ps and juice. At four I had to leave, but standing there with my football bag over my shoulder, I couldn’t move.

“Seriously Archer. I will be fine, just go.”

“Okay, but you better f-cking text me Charlotte, I mean it,” I said as seriously as possible.

“Yeah, yeah. Every 20 minutes. I’m about to put Tangled on so you better get out of here.”

“What! Don’t watch that shit on my Netflix! People could see it on my account…” That made her laugh, which I didn’t understand because I was being completely serious. Finally, with a huff, I left her alone.

The game was stressful but not because of the idiots we played—that was simple. No, it was because I spent the wh0le game craning my neck over to the guy who had my phone. He’d give me a small thumbs up every time—but I still worried.

As soon as we won the game I grabbed my phone and raced off the field to rip my gear off. I could hear my teammates still celebrating at the end of the tunnel but I had to go. Throwing my clothes on, I packed up my stuff and ran for the parking lot. When I exited the locker rooms there were people everywhere—waiting for players or celebrating on their own.

I raced past everyone—dodging a few groupies and almost running over a couple of moronic teens. But I got to my truck and sped home, back to Charlotte. She had texted consistently as promised so I didn’t know why I was worried, but until I saw her safe and sound I just couldn’t settle.

Pulling in front of the house, I threw my truck in park and hightailed it into the house. I took the stairs two at a time and burst through my door instantly scanning the room.

Charlotte barely looked up from her damn phone.

“Oh hey, Archer,” she said casually, as she pushed a button. “How was the game?”

“You’re fine?” I asked as I str-de over to her. Worry had me grabbing her chin lightly and turning her face up to mine. “Any dizziness? Confusion? What’s the date today?”

“Uhhhhh…” Charlotte’s brows scrunched together as she thought, “September 4th?” I gave her one more pass over to convince myself she was fine and when my eyes returned to her face she had scrunched up her nose.

“Archer… you stink,” she giggled.

“Well sorry for rushing back here, to make sure you were alive,” I deadpanned back before giving myself a sniff. Yeah, okay. That’s not great. “I’m going to order some real food because I can’t handle Red Vines for dinner. Are you good with pizza?” She nodded enthusiastically so I placed the order on my phone and left to hop in the shower.

I was wiping the steam off the mirror as I dried myself when I heard my teammates come home. Loud yells and crashes alerted me that they’d brought people back. Someone was shouting orders before music drifted through the floorboards. These idiots are not seriously having a party right now?

I quickly got dressed before shaking the towel once last time through my hair and tossing it on the ground. In my room, Charlotte was sitting up in bed with her back against the headboard. Her skin was paler than usual and as I walked over I noticed her hands shaking.

“Charlotte? Are you okay?” I asked as I sat on the edge of the bed. She looked at me, but her eyes were focused off in the distance as she whispered, “I think I remember.”

BOOM BOOM BOOM. A fist on the door made Charlotte jump straight up and stare wild-eyed around.

“It’s just one of my roommates Charlotte, it’s okay,” I tried to say soothingly.

Getting up to walk over to the door I swung it open and glared at James.

“Do you have to f-cking knock like that?” I seethed.

“Sorry man, but you should be giving me a big ole’ smooch right now. I saved your pizza!” He celebrated as he passed me the two boxes of food. “The guys were about to steal ’em, but I saw your name on the receipt and sniped them. We both know how grumpy you get when you’re hungry.”

“Now is not the f-cking time man,” I growled at James as I attempted to shut the door on him. “By the way tell those f-ckfaces downstairs that I’ll personally shut down their party at midnight.” Slamming the door I turned to see Charlotte still lost in her own head. Putting the pizzas down at the end of the bed I sat next to her and hesitated before placing my hand on her leg.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked unsurely as she stared at her fingers. She raised her head to face me and my heart squeezed at her big, glassy eyes and wobbly bottom lip. Tears spilled over as she shook her head.

“Shhhh it’s okay Charlotte,” I cooed at her as I rubbed my thumb in circles on her leg. I was panicking internally because I knew I was about to f-cking make this worse. “Look it’s okay, we don’t have to talk if you don’t want to…”

Charlotte continued to shake her head rapidly as the tears poured down her cheeks. Her breathing sounded weird like it was catching in her throat. Before I could second guess myself I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her tightly to my chest. Her frail frame vibrating against me invoked those caveman urges again and I wanted to protect her. But how could I protect her from her memories? I’m going to kill that f-cker that did this to her if I ever track him down. I didn’t think she even noticed at first because she just continued to cry with strangled breaths. Her face was pressed into my chest and I could feel the wetness on my shirt.

I adjusted so that I could lean against the headboard and hold Charlotte, cradled between my legs. I rocked gently and whispered comforting words in her ear—trying to drown out the music and shouting from downstairs. I was so far out of my f-cking element. Totally lost, I thought it might help if I patted her head—but instead, she froze and turned her face up towards me.

“Did you just… pat me like a dog?” She whispered through tears. Her face lit up gently as a smile tugged at her l-ips.

“Well, f-ck Sweetheart. I’m not exactly an expert on what to do when someone’s upset,” I grumbled back—but I could hear the relief in my voice that she was recovering.

Charlotte stiffened in my arms as though she just registered exactly how we were sitting.

“Uhm,” I said as I cleared my throat. “Sorry, I just… well f-ck I really didn’t know what to do.” I shrugged and gave her a small smile.

She stared at me for a moment with her head tilted as though she was considering something. The brown in her eyes melted and suddenly I was staring into a pool of warm chocolate. They s-cked me in like a riptide and my mind went fuzzy as I stared back at her. The urge to be closer had me almost swooping my face down to her. Almost.

Before I could, she climbed off my lap with a sheepish grin and reached for the pizza.

“You did help… Sorry, sometimes I just get, overwhelmed I guess? It’s hærd to control,” she said as she averted her eyes with a blush. Was she embarrassed?

“I get that way too. Uhm. Out of control, you know,” I mumbled quietly as I grabbed some food too.

“Really?” She wondered with wide eyes, “What do you do? I mean… when it happens?”

f-ck I didn’t think this through. Charlotte might have weaselled her way into my conscious recently—but talking about my feelings and shit was off the table. Her inquisitive stare was so sincere though, it had me wanting to give her something.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Nothing healthy that’s for sure. Sometimes I hit stuff.” I didn’t add that sometimes I hit people too. Or that I hit brick walls until my knuckles pour blood. Charlotte already looked concerned at my admission—her sensitive little heart couldn’t handle all the shit going on in,side of me.

Charlotte nodded her head as though she understood before moving next to me. She settled beside me with her pizza so we were shoulder to shoulder against the headboard. I liked that she didn’t push me for too much information. She seemed comfortable in the quiet just like I was. It made me smile as I reached for another slice and handed her the remote to pick a show.

She was so much smaller than me, her head barely came up to my shoulder as we ate. She would look up at me occasionally to see if I approved of a show and I was tempted to pull her into my side—but I resisted. I needed to remind myself that this was Ollie’s little sister.

“Hey, Archer?” Her quiet voice pulled my attention back down.

“Thank you… for last night. For today. Just… thanks,” she smiled softly at me before turning back to the tv. I stared down at her for a few seconds. I couldn’t remove my eyes as I got lost in the pride that her words resurfaced.

“mmm?”

I was a useless piece of shit, but somehow—twice now—Charlotte had thanked me. I had done something that helped her. My cheeks lifted in an unfamiliar smile, as I swallowed my pizza and looked back at the tv.

“No problem Charlotte. I’m glad you’re doing okay. Oh, and we are not f-cking watching Frozen—turn that shit off.”

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Tbc…