weekends and voicemails by Caro
Charlie walks her to her car and carries her bag. It's not heavy, but he does it anyway. When she goes to reach for it, he holds on a second too long, so their fingers brush against each other.
Astrid's not the dependent type, and Charlie's not sappy enough to be upset about a long weekend apart, but he stands on the side of the road, watching until he can't see her car anymore.
Metropolis seems much stranger when Astrid's not in it, and that's weird because Charlie's lived here his entire life.
He sees Clark and Lex, later, at one of the local college bars. They wave him over. He's never hung out with either one of them without Astrid around.
"She leave?" Clark asks, as Charlie drops into a seat next to them.
"This afternoon."
"Where'd she go?" Lex asks.
"Gotham. She hasn't seen her folks in a while," Charlie replies. "Aren't you guys going home this weekend?"
"Not till tomorrow," Clark says. "Lex had some stuff to finish up." Clark rarely goes home without Lex and Charlie thinks that must make it easier. Neither one of them left behind.
There's a lame band performing, and the crowd is weak because it's a holiday weekend. Charlie wonders what Astrid's doing at the moment. It's probably too soon to call her. She won't even have reached home yet.
"I called him three times the first night," Lex says, leaning over to whisper to him while the lead singer wails on-stage. Clark's disappeared somewhere and they're sitting alone. "The first time Clark went home without me, I called him three times the first night. Actually the first hour he was home. For stupid reasons. Asking him where he kept something or the other. Finally, his dad just told me to come over the next day."
"Yeah?" Charlie's cell phone is right in his jeans' pocket. "She won't be home yet."
"She has her cell phone, right?"
Charlie nods. "Ok, I'll be right back."
He walks out of the bar and stands on a corner, under a street lamp, pulls out his cell, and starts dialing. The phone rings on the other end, but no one picks up. Instead, her voicemail message comes on.
"Hi. Just me," he says into the phone. "You must still be driving, but that's okay. I hope you get there okay. The band at the bar sucks, and their drummer wouldn't know rhythm if he married a metronome. I miss you. Talk to you later."
He hangs up and then checks his voicemail. There's one new message, and he picks it up. It's her.
"Hey, just me. Just passed a bunch of cops who pulled over a doughnut truck. Think they're looking for bribes in the form of crullers? Miss you. I'll call you when I get home."
He smiles into the phone, and saves the message. He's still grinning when he walks back into the bar.
Lex looks at him, and returns the smile. "Feel better?"
"Much," Charlie replies.
The weekend doesn't seem so long right now.
06/19/03