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That’s what we both wanted, right?
“I know,” she said again. “You’ve told me.”
She didn’t say anything else after that, and neither did I. The car settled into an uneasy silence, although I couldn’t tell if I was the uneasy one or if it was Charlie. Maybe we both were sitting there, stewing in our own thoughts.
We got back to the house, and I followed her inside. We still had a few hours until her parents got home, and the less time I spent in that stupid fucking treehouse, the better. I went straight to charging my phone, while Charlie hopped in the shower.
I sat in her room, at her desk, my hands folded over the other, staring at the wall, at no spot in particular. Charlie was driving me insane. Fucking insane. Seeing her with her ex had brought up all these dark, furious emotions inside me—strong ones, too, so strong I couldn’t fight them or pretend they didn’t exist.
Which was just stupid. I had no right to get jealous or upset at whoever Charlie wanted to talk to. She wasn’t my girl. She’d never be my girl. That stupid dream muddled the waters too damn much.
But that’s the thing, wasn’t it? It wasn’t just that dream.
It was the kiss, the almost second kiss. It was the way she could angle her head back and stare up at me with those big, chocolatey brown eyes. The sorrow hidden in their depths no one else seemed to notice. It was the way she didn’t shrink back from me, even though she knew everything I’d done. How good it felt when she was dying my hair, running her gloved fingers along my scalp.
Fuck. It was everything. It was even that tiny blade, tucked away in this very desk, a sliver of darkness inside her she never revealed to anyone.
I ran my hands along my face, then through my hair. Charlie was driving me insane. I had to get out of here soon, otherwise… otherwise I might never want to leave—and that would be a crime in itself, because that girl deserved to find true happiness with a normal, average guy and not me.
I didn’t know how long I sat there, wrestling with my thoughts, but eventually Charlie shuffled into her room, her hair damp. She went straight for her bed, sitting on the edge of it, her shoulders slumped.
“There’s something I need you to do this weekend,” she whispered, her voice faint.
Turning around on her desk chair, I looked at her. “What?” I doubted it involved her ex, but I was already thinking of how I’d do it. Steal some change. Walk to the bus stop wearing a hoodie, my creeper sunglasses, and a baseball cap. Get a ride to campus. Don’t stop searching until I find him, and then wait until he was alone… then kill him.
But call me crazy, I didn’t think that’s what this was about.
“My sister’s coming over,” she said. “My parents are throwing a little party for her and her boyfriend—fiancé, now. I need you to watch the house during the day too, just in case. I don’t want anything happening while they’re over.”
“I can do that,” I told her. What was sleep? I definitely didn’t need any of it.
“Thanks. And can we just drop the whole Zak thing? At least until we know for sure it’s him? I just… I really don’t think it’s him, Brett.”
The way she spoke Zak’s name made me want to kill something, but all I did was grin and say, “Whatever you want, sweetheart.”
Charlie’s brown eyes narrowed in my direction. I almost thought she was going to tell me to stop calling her that, but she said not a word—though her glare said enough.
So, the Mulanies were throwing an engagement party for their eldest daughter this weekend, huh? And Charlie wanted me to watch the house, just in case her stalker tried anything. Let’s just say I had something in mind, but it wasn’t one little Charlie would approve of.
Let’s just say it was probably best not to tell her until the party.
Chapter Eighteen – Charlie
I was taking a test. One hundred questions, all multiple choice, on one of those scantron sheet things. I sat in the front row of a huge lecture hall, trying to complete it so I could turn it in and leave.
The weird thing was, I didn’t remember having a test, and the questions I was reading off the test sheet didn’t make much sense at all. The words blended in together, mixing, to the point where I wondered if I needed glasses all of a sudden.
I set down my pencil and rubbed my eyes, trying to fix the problem, whatever it was. When I lowered my hands from my face and looked around, I saw I was the only one left in the lecture hall. A quick glance at the small arm desk before me revealed that the test, the pencil, and the bubble sheet had disappeared as well.
What was going on here? This was weird. No other students, no professor, nothing on the whiteboard in front. Nothing at all. Just a huge, empty room that I swore was filled seconds ago.
I got up and walked up through the aisle, to the doors, and I pushed out—but instead of walking out into the hall, I walked outside, into a world of night. The sudden flip of scenery didn’t startle me or confuse me; it was like I expected it deep down.
A familiar voice behind me spoke, “Charlie, I miss you.”
I flipped around to see Zak standing on the sidewalk, three feet away from me, his hands stuffed into his pockets. He looked so dejected, so forlorn, his blond head scruffier than I remembered it being. His hazel eyes were on me, carrying a weight I didn’t appreciate.
Opening my mouth, I was going to tell him I missed him too, but no words came. Of course I missed him. I’d missed him for so long, but now… now there was no point. A part of me would always love him, but I wasn’tinlove with him anymore.
