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neshabeingchildish · 5 years

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So, What the Heck is Goin’ On?

Last year of school and Henry had senioritis on the very first day. His, Charlotte’s, and Jasper’s calendars were linked up for senior events and work schedules, and he was anxious seeing everything on Charlotte’s plate. Stu-co meetings, yearbook committee, L.I.M.P. events, monthly ‘girl time’ with Piper (which Henry realized from now having access to her calendar that those fell upon Char’s menstrual cycle, and learned after asking about how she could bear to be around Piper of all people during said time that the two of them were “synched up” for said cycles), his birthday, holiday breaks… Wait…

Near Henry’s birthday, there were some blocked off days but he didn’t see any notes. They were highlighted, but no notes were included. Maybe Charlotte was planning something? She was good at planning. Her Ray’s Days of Fun had become excellent over the years. He wasn’t going to dwell on it. He’d just like whatever she had planned, because honestly, he’d likely forget all about this until his birthday actually got closer. She also had several college appointments, and this, that and the other… “Hey, Char… Are you gonna schedule some us time? Because the copy of our year’s schedule that I’m looking at is severely lacking that.”

“Pick some free days and enter it in. You’ve got working fingers,” she said, not looking up from her laptop, as she worked.

She had been working since they got out of school today, he just realized. “What are you doing?”

“I have a research paper due next week,” she said.

“But, school just started! How do you already have a research paper?”

“I have three,” she said. He groaned. If the rest of the school year was going to be like this, she would have very little time to spend with him! “Three research papers, two science projects, and I’m trying to make sure that I finish at least two versions of my application letters for college this month.”

“Your what?”

She finally looked up at him and gave him a sympathetic smile, “I figured that you wouldn’t be thinking about writing yours yet, so I sent you a document with the stuff that you should mention and the stuff that you definitely should not mention, for whenever you get around to writing it. I’ll revise it after you’ve completed the first draft.”

“When should I start on it?”

“Well, you should get on it right away, to be honest. The Dylexicon app has been glitchy, and I don’t want your words to be too confused and be last minute.”

“If the app is glitchy, they’ll definitely be confused. Glitchy, how?”

“Well, you know how it’s supposed to autocorrect the things that you get switched around? It’s been switching around incorrectly written words, but not switching them around properly. Several dyslexic people have complained about it, because they depend so heavily on it's assistance and can’t always tell that the words are still messed up. What you need is a top of the line voice to text app. Those are usually always dysfunctional, though.”

“What needs to happen is that if colleges or institutions, or whatever know that people are dyslexic, they need to give us an option of an in person or over the phone presentation. Why, in this day in age does anybody still have to write anything? If they just met me and let me tell them who I am, instead of me writing to them about it, they’d be a hundred times more impressed.”

Charlotte reached out and intertwined her fingers with Henry’s and he smiled at her. “Hey. Whatever medium that we have to use, you know I’ll help you out.”

He couldn’t help but melt at that, but realistically, “I mean, yeah, now… But, it’s not like you can do that for the rest of my life.”

She looked taken aback, but recovered quickly and smoothly said, “I’m almost absolutely certain that I’m definitely gonna outlive you. Therefore, as a matter of fact, I can do that for the rest of your life.” Now, he was practically gushing. She pulled her hand back and resumed typing wondering, “What are you grinning about? You should’ve already known that I’ll always help you out, no matter what.”

“Yeah, but I like stuff like you promising to do that for the rest of your life.”

“The rest of your life,” she corrected him. He smiled and laid his head on her shoulder, then moved around to wrap himself around her from the back and lay his head on her pillow of curls. She shook her head and kept typing. It was sort of like having an overgrown adorable pet sometimes.

For the rest of my life! Yeah. Of course! Henry was a little bit irritated that Charlotte hadn’t made the time that she promised to make for him. He’d put dates into their calendar and she’d change the color and make notes of why she couldn’t make it or edit that she had something come up!

Now, he and Jasper were planning on going to Swellview University’s Autumn meet and greet (which was HER idea, btw) and she had to bail because a publication wanted to speak with her about her study on relationships, availability and attractability from last school year! Which… Was awesome and he actually wanted to go with her, but she told him that he’d only be sitting in the waiting room while she spoke with the publisher and that wasn’t a good enough usage of his time for him to miss out on the chance to rub elbows with staff and students at his future school!

So, he and Jasper made plans for a little staycation in a hotel near the university so that they could do the weekend tour, the mixer, and the assembly of interested applicants and Charlotte went to her thing… Only, she didn’t.

Her location was on and Henry noticed that she was nowhere near the publisher’s at the time that her appointment was for. He figured that maybe she rescheduled or something, so when he got a break, he gave her a call. “Hey… How’d your thing go today?”

“It went well. They’re going to publish my studies in next month’s issue and they’re interested in me possibly writing other pieces for them. I’m honestly thinking about showing them my debate for the you know what talk”

“That’s awesome, Baby! When did you wind up going to see them?”

“4:00,” she said without a second thought.

He twitched a little. Was this a lie, or a simple mistake? “No, at 4, your location was turned on and that showed that you weren’t there at that time.”

“You calendar stalking me, Babe?” she joked. He was apprehensive though. Why is she avoiding what I said? She sighed and told him, “I actually left my phone behind by accident. I had to read magazines in the waiting room!”

Now, he felt relieved. He knew that there had to be an explanation. Even though… something still felt off. Left her phone behind, where? He couldn’t remember the exact location of where she had registered, but it certainly wasn’t her house. Instead of dwelling on it, he moved on. “Magazines? What is this, 1988?” He teased. He was looking at the calendar and noticed that she made sure to turn off her location, now. “So, what other plans do you have for the night? Wanna come hang out at our hotel, since you’re done with your business?”

“My business is never done. I have some other things that I was gonna finish up while you two are gone. But, be sure to tell me all about it whenever you’re back, okay? Gotta go, though.”

“O...K. Okay. Well… I love you.”

“Love you too. Click.”

“Click.” Henry stared at the phone for a while as Jasper waxed his belly. “Dude… I think that Charlotte might have lied to me.”

“Why would she do that?” Jasper wondered, bracing himself to pull the wax strip from his belly.

“I don’t know. That’s what bothers me. What could she possibly feel like she has to hide from me?” Jasper ripped the strip off and let out a loud groan as he did. Henry turned up his nose at the whole scene, but his mind was stuck on what was happening with his girlfriend.

Charlotte’s article was published and Henry bought actual copies for everyone, got his and hers framed, downloaded it on his phone, and made her a little congrats gift basket with balloons and flowers. “This is a lot,” she said, trying not to gush too much over his excitement, but honestly he was just glad that she had at least told the truth about that. She had been weirdly secretive and kind of cold with him since that lie that he was sure that she told him and he was worried that they were possibly on their last legs.

“It’s a lot, but not too much. You did something great! I want you to know that you’re appreciated,” he said. “Also, I was wondering if you wanna go half on Halloween costumes this year?”

“We’ve done team costumes before. Remember? But, then Piper got kidnapped by a monster and that kinda put a dampener on Halloween to be honest.”

“Yeah, but I meant like maybe me and you, not the three of us…”

She gasped and offered, “But, Jasper will feel left out!”

“Dude, I already talked to him about it. Do you just not want to do this with me or something?” He kind of was fussing.

“Nothing like that. Sure, let’s do it. Any ideas?”

“A couple. A few, actually! I was thinking Thor and Valkyrie, or Deadpool and Domino…”

“Henry! Those would take a lot of time to get prepared for. Why didn’t you ask me about this sooner? You know that I’ve been busy…”

Yeah, if anybody knew that she had been busy, it was him. But, yet again, he didn’t address that. “I’m gonna take care of securing the costumes. Did you have anything you were maybe thinking about?”

“I was gonna be Red, the Tethered. But, I can always use that jumpsuit as a work suit when I’m tinkering on machinery this semester, since you’ll be handling my Valkyrie battle outfit costume.”

“How’d I know you’d pick the one with the flying horse?”

“Because the other one’s belly is out,” she said and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for my gift basket. You’re too sweet for me,” she said and something in her tone worried him. What did she mean by that? Had she done something that might hurt or betray him? Was he just being paranoid???

“I am definitely not being paranoid,” Henry said as tried to convince Schwoz to hack into Charlotte’s phone so that he could rest his mind on what she was doing in those times that they weren’t together.

“You are being paranoid and I don’t want any part of spying on Charlotte. She’s the only one here who is my friend!” Schwoz said, pushing past the tall boy.

“Don’t you want her boyfriend to be secure? Don’t you want us to be happy? That can’t happen if I can’t find out what she’s been up to.”

“The moment that you let fear run your relationship is the moment you let fear ruin your relationship,” Schwoz said and finally moved past Henry.

“It would be different if she was transparent! Charlotte’s hiding something, and she is very smoothly avoiding letting me know what it is.”

“Why are you so sure that it isn’t a nice surprise?” Schwoz asked. “It’s Charlotte. When has she ever done something bad to someone?”

“I made a checklist of the suspicious stuff that she’s done in the past couple of months. I didn’t include every single instance where she rescheduled things, but some of the lies I’ve suspected, and this one here… She said to me, in a pretty weird way “You’re too sweet for me.” What did she mean by that, huh? Huh? Who ever thinks that I’m too sweet? A guilty conscious, that’s who!” Schwoz rolled his eyes and left. Henry continued to try to spy on his own. He was so into it that he didn’t hear whenever the elevator opened and Jasper and Charlotte caught him trying to hack from the control panel.

“I’m sorry, what are you doing, Henry?” Charlotte asked. He let out a tiny scream and tried to clear the screens of her logins and his failed attempts. “Are you… investigating me?” She asked, angrily.

Jasper commented in a low voice, “I tried to tell you that he was on to you.”

Henry stood up out of the seat and it slid when he did. He approached with his arms folded and nodded his head, “Yeah, I’m on to you, alright. One doesn’t pay obsessive attention to detail in order to impress his observant intellectual sweetheart and not know when deception is afoot.”

“Okay, cool,” she said and walked passed him. She logged on to her accounts for him, left the on the screen, opened her phone and handed him that, and pulled out her Pearpad, to do the same. “I’ll be up in the store. Let me know when you find what you’re looking for but were too chicken to just ask me about, like a big boy.” She slammed the Pearpad into his chest and punched the elevator button with fury. He whispered ‘ouch,’ but then rushed to check out her accounts.

Jasper wondered, “Are you kidding? You’re not gonna chase her and apologize for what was clearly an epic fail on your part?”

“An epic fail? Mr. Told Her I Was On to Her? I’m gonna get to the bottom of this.”

“You’re gonna lose Charlotte. I’m gonna go tell her that you’re so upset that you can’t think straight and try to salvage this, since I’m somehow the one with the clear head right now.”

Henry didn’t find anything and Jasper was right - Charlotte was pissed. Now, empty handed and honestly embarrassed, he finally asked, “What was it that I was noticing, if it wasn’t something going wrong?”

“Me being busy, maybe? Me having a lot on my plate. Me literally trying to complete my senior year and get all of the accolades for my graduation sash as I can?” She clasped her hands together and wondered, “Henry… If you can’t trust me while I’m here, how are we going to make a long distance relationship work for the time that I’m not in Swellview? If you don’t trust me when I give you full and complete access to my calendar and my life, how will you be confident that I’m not doing anything wrong whenever you can’t see me for weeks at a time?”

“I can… But… Are you honestly telling me that there’s nothing, ABSOLUTELY nothing, that you’re hiding from me right now? Nothing that you’ve been hiding from me for a while?”

“There IS something! Because you love surprises and I wanted to bless you with a few - for your birthday, for Christmas, for the end of the school year. Henry, I have to put things together whenever I can and I don’t want to ruin surprises for what could be the last special days that we spend together in a while. You think I’ll be able to come home for your birthday when the college semester is in progress? You think I’ll be able to spend whole holidays at your house when I come to visit my parents? I’m TRYING to make sure that everything goes as perfectly as possible, still keep some mystery and excitement, and do all of that while maintaining a perfect GPA and looking like a whole snack!” She folded her arms. “And to be honest, you not trusting me, and to go as far as to try to spy on me when all you had to do was ask if something was going on… That’s a deal breaker, for me, Hen.”

He felt his heart sink. “No, no, no, no…” He collected her hands into his and nodded his head, “Okay, I should have asked and if you’d told me all this, I hope that I would have let it go. But, please… I made a mistake. We’re more than sweethearts. We’re best friends. Adjust the deal, for me. I’ll never do anything like this again. We usually have great communication. I think I got a little possessive and insecure after we… you know what… and you even said in your research that sometimes, teenagers react and respond differently than they feasibly would have after taking that step.” She fought a smile. “I’m getting through,” he noted and smiled at her.

“Don’t ever make me feel the way that I did whenever I caught you snooping on me. I felt like you punched me in the heart. I’m not supposed to feel that way about you and if it ever happens again, I don’t care how cute you are or how gentle your touch is, I’m gonna walk away.”

“Deal! I’ll never do it again.” He gave her a tight hug and she sat there against his chest for a while.

“I’m exhausted,” she admitted. “I’ve barely gotten any sleep lately trying to get your birthday gift secured.”

“Hey, if we’re good, I don’t care, Char. As long as we’re together…” His phone made a notification sound and he checked it. “You’ve been approved for a birthday Spa Ship reservation?” He read out loud.

“Oh, thank God!” Charlotte cried out. “That removes one thing from my hectic schedule.”

“Spa Ship??? Are you kidding???” He cheered. “Those tickets are virtually IMPOSSIBLE to get, Dude!”

“With the right one, anything is possible,” she said. “I just felt like you rarely have time for yourself. Even on your birthday, Ray has been known to put you to work, and since the Spa Ship will have a fall tour, you could enjoy a spa getaway on the sea and step into 18 with comfort and tranquility.”

“I can’t believe I thought that you, a literal perfect freakin’ angel was up to no good.” He kissed her on the forehead. “What can I do for you? You haven’t been sleeping well. Want me to I don’t know… I feel like I should do something.”

“Walk me home and give me goodnight kisses?”

“I always get the best parts of our deals!”

#henry danger #chenry gifset #So #So What the Heck is Goin On?

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