The almighty “They” say that the best things in life are found when you aren’t looking for them at all.
I had suffered a horrible break up. I was lost and sad and learning to walk on my own again. Forcing it even.
The first time I saw Charlie, I thought to myself “DOUCHE BAG”. Like the kind of douche bag that would break my heart all over again. In all fairness, he had a man bun and was (still is) incredibly beautiful. My little liberally brainwashed, heart-broken brain got the best of me. As I was running up stairs to go get changed to pick up a friend of mine who had come to visit me in the midst of my travels, I heard “I’m Charlie and he’s Charlie. We’re the travelling Charlies”. This was the dorkiest thing I had ever heard and it made me smile. I came back down and plopped on the floor and chatted for a bit.
Then off I went, to go get Phoebe. Through heavy monsoon rain, her on the back of my motorbike and her suitcase wedged between the legs of my friend’s. We made it back. I dropped her off out front. Tossed my helmet to a guy I had met the night before. Kicked off my flip flops to look cool and went to park my bike like a true wild child.
We got some cheap beer from the 7-11 across the street and I sat down next to the beautiful boy on the table in front of our hostel and we talked. I had invited other people to meet up but I had completely forgotten about them. He was interesting, had a beautiful accent and was so lively and animated. I was charmed. My drunk friends leaned over a few times and said “HE LIKES YOU” rather loudly and would give me funny looks. I shook it off. There was another girl sitting beside him eagerly trying to get his attention. I wasn’t about to have a face off. After all, I just kicked off my flip flops. I’m too cool for that.
The things I remember from that night are as follows:
- I mimicked something he said, only to get a horrified look from his friend. I realised only after the horrible look that I had mimicked his lisp and was horrified with myself. Charlie laughed. I spent the next 20 minutes wondering if it was because he thought my shitty impression of a British accent was funny or he didn’t know he had a lisp. Either way, I felt like a shit head.
- He leaned in really closely at one point as I was telling a story, to which i very abruptly asked him “why are you so close to my face?”
- We talked about our families. He showed me pictures of his mum and dad and brother and we made shitty slide shows with the photo app on his iphone with music and laughed.
- He recommended podcasts and music that he enjoyed and I so wanted to be part of that world that he enjoyed.
- I asked him what made him the better Charlie and he replied “well, my parents are still together so that sums up a lot”. Other Charlie was not happy and with my limited understanding of British banter, I thought I had broken up a friendship.
- Other Charlie went to get ice cream for us and disappeared for a few hours. Only to come back with a very loud lady(?) that he tired to get into our hostel, was refused entry then disappeared again. I still haven’t gotten my ice cream.
But the most memorable for me was when he put his arm purposefully around me a few times. Laughing at whatever it was that I said or done. He did it so gently and so shyly, like I was a little bird that he might have accidentally squished to death. And at that point, I kind of was. I had cried the last time some random tried to dance with me in a club, yelled at someone to BACK OFF when asked for my number. I was fragile and angry and here he was just to protect me even from himself.
We talked and laughed and giggled until the sun came up. Then went to the beach to laugh some more. He was afraid to wake up his friend so early in the morning. I offered him to sleep in my bed, I was fairly adamant on nothing more than sleep. He declined. So we went our separate ways.
I didn’t sleep when I got back to my bed. I listened to his favourite podcasts until my friends got up and I went along.
I asked him and his friend if he wanted to come along and see a large statue. They didn’t make it but said they would be on a beach nearby later on. I wore my best bikini (I only had 2) and would “casually” glance over the busy beach to see if he was around, but he wasn’t. My friends and I got food afterwards and we bumped into each other again. I asked if they wanted to come to the club with us later and they did! I was ecstatic.
We got to the first bar and there was a bell that customers would ring if they wanted to buy the whole band shots. We hypothesised and agreed that the shots served were shots of water and the bell was a huge scam-scandal-conspiracy and we were the first to realise, then we danced. We went to a few other bars and at the last club we went to, we couldn’t bring in drinks from other places so I DOWNED Phoebe’s beer and probably slurred “LETS GOOOOOO”. I can barely keep in a beer spread out through the whole night. I was stealing ice from stranger’s buckets to try and cool myself down since my body was in panic mode with the sudden onslaught of alcohol. Then he kissed me. Bich was making out with another girl and Jeff was mad and Phoebe was somewhere not with us and at some point, other Charlie had thrown Charlie’s shoe across the club and I was lost but he had kissed me.
