By extending our {\it victory} implementation of the parquet approach to include non-local Coulomb interactions, we study the extended Hubbard model on the two-dimensional square lattice with a particular focus on the competition of the non-local charge and spin fluctuations. Surprisingly, we find that their competition, as the mechanism driving the phase transition towards the charge density wave, dominates only in a very narrow parameter regime in the immediate vicinity of the phase transition. Due to the special geometry and the Fermi surface topology of the square lattice, antiferromagnetic fluctuations dominate even for sizable next-nearest neighbor interactions. Our conclusions are based on the consistent observations in both the single- and two- particle quantities, including the self-energy, the single-particle spectral function, the two-particle susceptibility, the density-density vertex function and the optical conductivity. Our work unbiasedly establishes the connection of these quantities to the charge fluctuations, and the way of interpretation can be readily applied to any many-body method with access to the two-particle vertex.