Come Home With Me
Charlie sighs, stroking Thandi’s hair. The NEWTs are over. They made it through and school is winding down, and now that she isn’t occupied with studying, she’s simply lounging in his lap and enjoying his touch.
But there’s a look on her face that’s been haunting him and she wears it now as she stares at him. Sad. Lonely. Why? He’s been here the whole time. In fact, he’s been giving her the space she needed to begin with. She should be thrilled?
“Charlie…” Thandi’s voice is quiet as she calls him. “What are you doing after it’s over?”
“Well…” His chest tightens. “You’re…coming home with me, right?”
The silence after he says this is mortifying. His assumption was that she ended up feeling something for him after all these years together, and they would always be together. His heart starts to race. Is she done with him? He hasn’t been working to hide it lately. Not since the end of sixth year. Was she…is she…she didn’t fall for him after all? Is she relieved to finally wash her hands of him?
Thandi’s eyes drop and she takes a breath. “I’m not, Charlie. I…my family expects me to go back to London.”
The tears that have gotten rarer through the years come back. He feels them spilling over as he stares at her. “No…come home with me, Thandi. London is…bad for your health. Polluted and the like…please?”
“I can’t, Charlie. My family–“
No. She has to know how he feels! This won’t do!
His hand comes up behind her head and he pulls her into a kiss, a small peck and then a long, soft, squeezing kiss that he’s been saving for her. She doesn’t pull away, and she doesn’t stop him. The sound of them kissing is the only thing they could hear before the world comes back.
Thandi’s eyes are glittering with tears. “I thought I was disgusting? I thought you couldn’t stand me? And now…”
“It’s you. It’s still you…” The tears don’t stop, even as he wipes Thandi’s tears away. Again, he leans toward her, kissing her gently, again and again and again. She presses back to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Please?? Come home with me? Don’t go back. You haven’t since year one. Just come home.”
“Charlie…I can’t, I–“
She’s kissed again.
“Charlie, no, my family–“
Another kiss.
“It’s not as if you really want me around…”
Charlie stares at her. He opens his mouth, brow furrowing, shaking his head. “I. I love…I love you! T-take a hint!!”
Thandi shakes her head, “But you said–“
Charlie kisses her again before taking her left hand and tapping her ring. He tugs at her scarf. He gestures to the pin in his hair. To her in his lap, to both their lips, to the sweater he’s wearing. Thandi quirks a smile.
“You weren’t doing that…just to mess with me?”
“Thandi…I. Well…Look, um. You see–“
He’s silenced by a kiss this time, Thandi running her fingers through his hair. “Then I can’t leave you now. My parents will just have to get over it. Let’s go home.”
Charlie squeezes her and buries his face into her chest, breathing in deeply. He kisses her there and sighs as he rubs away his tears with her sweater.
“I love you,” he mumbles. “Okay? I love you.” He sounds a little ashamed of it, but Thandi giggles. He’s still the same Charlie.
“I love you, too.” His arms squeeze her harder as he hears this and he sits up. That familiar blush is still there. The look of hesitant happiness, his crooked smile and–she knew it.
They kiss again and again. Nothing can stop them now.