Sketches [Charles]

Charles' empty seat was such an eyesore to what would otherwise be a perfect classroom. It had gone two days since they had first met. She looked out of the window next to her, wondering what Charles was doing. She couldn't help but feel a little worried. The way he had left the classroom still didn't make much sense to Mae, so after classes, she did some research. She tried finding where Charles actually lived. She felt like she needed to talk to him. Not just that, but the way he had left made Mae confused.

So, after she took a good look around the Class Roster for 3-A, she went to the Faculty office, asking for where Charles actually lived. The teachers gave Mae some strange looks, but in the end, she got what she wanted, and set out to visit her suspended classmate in San Malarus.

It took a while to find, but eventually, Mae found herself standing outside the apartment building Charles was supposedly living in. She took a deep breath, and entered the large block of flats, and walked up the staircases until she finally stood in front of the door to his apartment. She knocked on the door, silently praying that this was indeed the right door she was knocking on.

Mae would be able to hear tiny footsteps and scratch noises against the other side of the door after knocking...

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It's been two days since Charles last attended school, two days which Charles spent focusing more on doing part-time jobs than usual so that he could pay for all the new expenses brought to him by Gao. He worked at several places from two to three times per day, depending on the work hours, to do so.

Anyways, Charles was just returning home from one such busy work day when he noticed somebody standing in front of his apartment door and knocking. He stopped in his tracks. The doorman warned him about some girl as he entered the building, but he just shrugged it off. Who could it be... Long, red hair... It must've been Mae then, but why would she come to visit him? Charles decided to approach the girl.

"Greetings." He greeted her, waving his hand with a straight look on his face. "Were you looking for me?"

Mae hopped up at least a centimeter off the floor in suprise. Charles had startled her with his sudden appearance behind her. She quickly turned around, and saw the very student she was going to visit, standing with one foot still on the stairs. "Geez, don't startle me like that!" Mae puffed up her cheeks, frowning a bit at Charles. "Yeah, I was, actually. I just wanted to see how you were doing... The way you left had me worried for the last two days, silly!" She exclaimed, her eyes shut tightly. "Baka..." She muttered to herself.

"You... Just got off work or something?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. Since he was outside his apartment when she arrived, Mae assumed it to be the case. "I was really worried, you know." She looked Charles straight in the eyes.

"My apologies for that." He muttered, recalling in his head the events of that day. After coming home he searched his apartment thouroughly for that one thing he wanted to give Mae at that time... "You just... reminded me of someone I knew." He glanced down, but regained his composure in an instant. He was feeling uncomfortable with that situation... he had to change the subject. "To answer your question, yes, I have just been to work. Without school, I now have an appropriate amount of free time to spend on completing various part-time jobs. I have already managed to earn enough to buy enough food for Gao to last her a month." His monolgue was far too long and he spoke at a fast pace without allowing Mae a chance to interfere. Once he was finished, though, he realized Mae did not know about Gao yet, but stayed silent.

"Don't worry about it, since you're doing fine, I can't really complain!" Mae smiled back at Charles, before tilting her head to the left with a curious expression on her face. "I... Remind you of someone? Who?" She gave him a concerned look.

"To be honest, it really doesn't explain much as to why you left the way you did, but If it's something you don't want to talk about, I completely understand." She was really curious. Anyone would've been. If he didn't wish to talk about it, that was completely fine by her. It was his deal, and his deal alone.

"Gao?" Mae raised an eyebrow at Charles. "Who's... Gao?".

"Hmm... You must have misunderstood. I was apologizing for what happened on that day." He raised an eyebrow at Mae's concerned look, but lowered his head slightly. He didn't know who it was Mae reminded him of. It was like the phenomenon people refer to as deja-vu.

Charles stayed silent and approached the door. "It is customary for a person to invite their guest to enter..." He put his hand on the doorknob and opened the door. He always kept them unlocked. As he did so, a grey furball scooted out of the apartment and began sniffing at Mae's feet. Charles kneeled down to pick her up and smiled. "Behave appropriately, Gao." He said to the possum, gesturing with his hand for Mae to enter. The possum climbed around his neck and settled on his right shoulder.

"Aaaw... There's no need to apologize, Charles!" Mae said, chuckling slightly. "As long as you're feeling good, I'm fine!". Mae smiled at her classmate brightly.

"Oooh~ Why thank you!" Mae walked into Charles appartment and took off her shoes, the jacket and earmuffs. "Well, this is nice and comfy. You live here by yourself?" She looked back at Charles after inspecting the room. It wasn't the largest appartment ever, but it did it's job nicely, and it was plenty spacious for just one person and a possum.

She walked back to Charles and held out her left hand for Gao to smell. "Hey there, Gao." She said in a cheerful tone while smiling at the gray furball. "How old is he?" Her gaze returned to Charles while the possum was busy investigating Mae.

"He is a she. And I don't know." Charles said as he led Mae into the cramped up apartment. There was no bed and no furniture either. There was just a bunch of sketched out paper thrown around and a small fridge in the corner of the room. He put Gao on the floor but she stayed close next to his foot.

"Will you have anything to drink?" Charles asked her, thinking in his head whether that was what he was supposed to do. It crossed his mind that there actually was something he wanted to meet mae for again... It was there, laying hidden in his pocket. He would serve Mae the soft drink (if she wanted it) before turning away and speaking up. "There was... something I wanted to give to you..." He glanced down as he pulled his hand from his pocket. It was clenched as he was holding something in it. Charles pushed it towards Mae and opened his hand, revealing a small star-shaped pendant attached to a pin in the back. "I... take it."

"Oh! I'm sorry, Gao!" Mae said to the possum in an apologetic tone, with a smile on her face. "I just assumed you to be male." She looked back at Charles with a raised eyebrow. "You... Don't know?" How could he not know? Gao was his pet after all. "So, where do you sleep?" Mae asked him. On the floor she assumed, as he didn't have a bed to speak of. Not even a futon. Mae had a spare one back in her dorm room, which was reserved for guests of hers which had nowhere else to sleep, as the Dorms themselves didn't have any guest rooms to speak of.

"Sure! What do you have?" Mae asked Charles, tilting her head slightly to the left, smiling brightly. Now when thinking about it, she was rather thirsty, so anything would do. Even a glass of water, if there was nothing else.

Mae accepted the drink with a smile and popped the can open. "Thanks!" She took a small sip out of the can before returning her attention to Charles.

"A Gift...? For me?!" Mae was taken completely off guard by this. So much so that she almost dropped the can she was holding. "Why all of a sudden...?" She stood there with her cheeks being almost the same color as her hair. A gift...? For her? On the palm of Charles open hand rested a small pendant, shaped like a star. Mae was speechless.
"T-thank you..." Was all she could manage to say, smiling sheepishly, as she picked up the pendant, and put it on. "It's really pretty..."

"I... sleep on the floor... yes..." Charles avoided looking at the pin in Mae's hair as he spoke. "And I am glad you like it..." When he finished, he sort of jumped as if he had just noticed something. "I will get a chair! I should have one somewhere..."

Gao closely observed as her master turned around and began picking through the piles of paper, eventually pulling out a simple looking wooden chair from one of them. His behaviour was completely out of the norm. She snickered and skittled over to Mae.

Charles offered the chair to Mae, putting it on a spot he cleared up for it. "... How is... school?" He would have asked her after she had sat down or declined the offer. It was an odd question for him to pose, as it was irrelevant judged by his terms... still, for some reason, the words left his lips and spread through the air of the cramped up room.

Gao snickered and laid on the floor beneath the chair.

"Isn't that... You know, uncomfortable?" She asked Charles, tilting her head slightly to the left. "So, how do I look?" She asked him, smiling brightly, making sure she looked extra pretty. The pin was clearly visible from where Charles was standing.

"Umm, is something wrong, Charles? You seem... Nervous." Mae looked at him with slight worry. Charles was acting very peculiar. He seemed very stressed about something. She put her left hand on his shoulder, in order to grab his attention. "Just take a deep breath, and calm down. There's no reason to be nervous."

"Hehe, thanks." Mae said to him, as she sat down, and picked up one of the sketches that were lying on the ground. "It's going. Finals are wrapping up for everyone else now, so I finally get something to do instead of reading while everyone else are doing tests." Mae looked back at Charles after inspecting the sketch. "So, how have you been doing?" She turned the question back on Charles. "I'm guessing you have things under control?"

"So, how was school..."

It was a warm afternoon and she had just arrived at the apartment, a small apartment with one bed, a table and a kitchen. It seemed cramped up, but simple and comfy. It was illuminated by a single lightbulb flickering from above. The place was just right for two teenagers to live in.

He sat on the bed when the door opened and she waltzed in, cheerfully throwing her backpack on the floor and skittling over to the fridge to get some cold water to drink. Her blonde hair, almost white in tone, danced behind her as she spoke. "Huh, that's a weird thing for you to ask."* She fluttered her bubbly voice, taking a sip out of the bottle.

He frowned and glanced away. "It is nothing... forget it." He would always stay at home while she went to school and, during the weekends, they would go together to investigate... those places. He was usually okay with it, but it seemed to bother him that day for some reason. She noticed something was wrong. One could imagine cogs in her head twisting against each other as she furrowed her brow and puted her lips, directing her eyes at some invisible dot on the ceiling.

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"I am fine, thank you." Charles shrugged Mae's hand off. "I am glad to hear you are doing well... and I am glad to report that my efficiency has risen by 37.9 percent since my suspension." He still avoided looking at Mae as he spoke. "I have almost eliminated all of my current financial problems this way... Only several more weeks will suffice." He noticed the sketch Mae was holding. It was one of those odd "starry sky shots" he found all over the place, which was odd because he had no recollection of ever drawing those. The picture was of a night sky filed with stars above a darkened city. One half of the sketch was drawn in a childish manner while the other one was far more refined, like all of Charles's other works.

His eyes froze on the paper in Mae's hands. For some reason, just watching it made him feel all fuzzy inside and it bothered him... "..."

Charles fell silent.

((*I'm using a different color from now on for Charles's mistery girl's dialogue))

"You sure?" Mae raised an eyebrow at Charles. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was... Off. "Thanks. And excuse me what now?" What Charles had just said confused Mae somewhat. He sounded like a robot. Mae had never once in her life heard someone speak like that. "And... Why are you not looking at me, Charles?" She asked gently, her expression somewhat sad. "I'm not entirely convinced that everything is fine... You're acting very strangely."

Mae took a good look at the sketch in her hand. It looked almost as if it was drawn by two different people... "Who is this "someone" I remind you of anyway?" She asked finally after starting at the picture for a couple of seconds. She looked up at Charles again. "You drew this together with that person... Didn't you?"

"Isn't this awesome, Cha-chan!?" The girl dragged Charles to the top of a small hill. It was a chilly night, unusually calm, silent and cloaked in darkness. The only lights came from the stars above, which could be seen clearly as all the neon city lights seemed to be out, hiding the darkened city which was merging with the blackness of the horizon behind it. "So cool!" She let go of his hand and stood at the top of the hill, stretching her hands upwards and forming a rectangle with her fingers sticking her tongue out and closing her left eye. "It just makes you wanna draw it, doesn't it?"

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Why do people always tend to ask the very worst possible questions in certain situations?

*snap*

Charles frowned all of a sudden and forced his stare directly at Mae's eyes, allowing her to see a distinct glint in them appear for a fraction of a second as he unsealed his lips. "Is this better then...!" As if realizing his outburst, he took a hold of his head and staggered backwards. Gao hopped instantaneously as this happened and skiddadled over to her pillow and watching them from below. Every hair on her body raised and her eyes wide opened.

Charles glanced down again and tightly grabbed his left arm with his right hand. "Please... leave." Even if Mae tried to protest, he would've continued shooing her off and he would've kept it up until she left.

"*Gasp* Oh! I'm so sorry, Charles...! I didn't mean to..." Mae looked down on the floor, ashamed of what she had just done. "I'm so sorry... It was stupid of me..." She gave Charles an apologetic look before standing up. "I... I guess I'll leave, then... Take care, Charles." Mae said as she walked towards the door, and put on her shoes and jacket. "Oh, and before I go... Thanks again for the pin... And if you ever need to talk.. Don't hesitate to call me okay?" She opened up her backpack, taking out her notebook and a pencil, writing down her number on a page, which she ripped out, and carefully placed it on the floor. After which, she opened the door, and left, unless Charles tried to stop her...