Moving in

It carried on like that for a while – sneaking around, capitalizing on the rare occasions that Charley staying at home coincided with Mum and Dad going out.

But the days and weeks flew by, and finally, August was here. And with it, the beginning of Charley’s lease at her new place.

Naturally, I’d been conscripted into the moving effort without any say in the matter, but I couldn’t say I was really mad about it. I was kind of getting second-hand excitement from Charley, and it would honestly be pretty cool seeing her apartment in person, after being shown extensive pictures online.

Now, I’d been happy to hear about Charley moving out ever since she’d told me, the day she got back at the end of June. But obviously, it had been for an entirely different reason: back then, I couldn’t wait to get away from her. Now … I was really, really looking forward to the idea of having somewhere we could hang out in private. And honestly, not even just for sex stuff.

On the day, Mum, Dad, Charley and I drove over with a few items of furniture Mum and Dad had sitting around in the house unused. Once we dropped it off, we were off again – Charley had bought a bunch of other stuff on Facebook marketplace, and we spent a good few hours driving around London, picking it all up.

It was already late afternoon by the time we finally had everything, and there was still a lot to do. Charley, meticulous as ever, had all three of us slaving away – making sure every couch, bookshelf, table and wardrobe was lined up to the millimeter.

It was even getting to the point that Dad of all people was starting to get tired of it. “Charley, it is quite literally an inch off your mark. I promise you it won’t make a difference.”

“I understand what you’re saying, but you’re not thinking big picture,” she replied. “If that desk is an inch off, then this shelf is an inch off, and then the whole room is just out of whack.”

“Oh sure, the room is what’s out of whack,” I muttered under my breath. Next to me, my stepmum snorted.

“Hey!” Charley glared at us. “What are you two conspiring about over there?”

“Sorry, dear,” Mum chuckled. “It’s just that you are being a bit neurotic about all of this.”

“Oh, so you’re all against me,” Charley pouted. “I’m sorry that I’m not comfortable living somewhere ruled by disorder and chaos. You better believe I’m not stepping foot in your house again. A bunch of tasteless fools, all of you.”

As much as it was over the top, Charley’s authoritarian methods at least meant that we got the job done fairly quickly. Around seven or eight we were all getting hungry from a hard day of labor, and there was obviously had no food in the fridge yet, so we ordered pizza and sat around watching Countdown re-runs.

I was actually surprised to find that I’d had a pretty good time today. Other than mealtimes, we hadn’t really spent any time together as a family in years, and despite the deep-rooted urges I often got to just escape their overbearing lectures and shut myself in my room a lot of the time, I realized I had actually really missed this sort of thing.

Finally, after a heated debate between Charley and my dad as to who had been the one to shout out the correct answer to the last question first, Mum and Dad decided it was time to head off.

“Thanks for all your help, guys,” Charley said. “You sure you can’t stay longer?”

“When you get to our age, you need your sleep,” Dad replied. “We’re not as young as you two anymore.”

“I dunno,” I said. “Charley’s getting up there for sure.”

Charley punched me on the arm, and both Mum and Dad rolled their eyes and went to put their shoes and coats on. As I went to follow them, Charley spoke up from behind me. “Oh, Luke … you can stay for a bit, right?”

I smirked. It was pretty obvious what she had in mind. “Um, okay.”

“Don’t let your sister pressure you if you don’t want to, Luke,” Mum interjected. “She’s already had her fair share of bossing everyone around today.”

Charley made a face at her, and I laughed. “I appreciate the concern. But it’s fine, I want to.”

Mum beamed. “Alright, then. But be home at a reasonable time.”

After Charley and I said goodbye and watched our parents leave, Charley turned to me and smiled. “So … wanna play Mario Kart?”

I blinked at her. “What?”

“I got a secondhand Switch – figured I’d give you an incentive to come over from time to time.” She made a show of noticing my look of confusion, and smirked. “Oh … this is awkward. You thought we were gonna have sex, didn’t you?”

“Uh, I … no,” I stammered.

She stroked an imaginary beard, like she was deliberating something. “You know what? If you beat me, I’ll consider it.”

Okay, just Charley being Charley. “Oh, you’re on,” I scoffed.