Tales from the Intermediate (gxg)

Chapter 20

Breakfast that morning was painfully awkward. Charlie and Farren were exceptionally quiet, both still steaming internally, casting various glances at each other and trying not to smile. Matt was still half-asleep, and Dani was just pissed off still. The breakfast room was filled with people, and they had almost forgotten their situation.

"So what are we doing today?" Matt asked. "It's Halloween!"

"We're gonna go fucking trick-or-treating," Dani said sarcastically as she took a bite of her scrambled eggs, letting the fork scrape her teeth.

"Can we?" Matt questioned genuinely, and they all stared at him. "What?"

"No, we cannot go trick-or-treating," Dani harshly said. "That would be stupid."

"Why?" he asked. "Wearing costumes in the middle of a crowd of kids. They wouldn't even think to look for us there."

"We're in a city, Matt," Charlie added in a gentler tone than Dani.

"There's suburbs not a mile from the city," he argued, and Dani sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, which caused him to shut up.

"I want to fucking drink," Dani said. "And forget about all of this shit."

Charlie remembered another poster she had seen at the pizza place the day before. "I think there's a club here doing a little Halloween thing this evening. That could be fun."

Dani only shrugged. "Maybe. Till then, I'm going back to sleep." Abruptly, she stood up from the table and marched away to go back to the room.

Once she was gone, Charlie turned to Matt. "Please tell me what her fucking problem is."

Of course, Dani had vented to Matt all night long, and he had lost track of how many curse words she had used to describe Farren. Matt was a terrible liar, because he nervously pushed up his glasses as he shrugged. "Just stressed, I guess."

"You're lying," Charlie pointed out. "You know I know when you're lying."

Matt cleared his throat nervously and stood up. "A nap sounds great right now, yea, I think I'm gonna go nap." He turned and followed where Dani left, leaving only Charlie and Farren at the table.

Charlie sighed and rested her elbows on the table, covering her face with her hands. Did Dani know what Farren had told her last night in the car at the drive-in? Did she know that they slept together?

Farren's hand met Charlie's back and rubbed it slowly. "It's okay," she whispered, feeling Charlie ease under her touch. "She'll calm down soon. We're all stressed. This is bound to happen."

Charlie leaned into Farren's touch, resting her head on her shoulder. She wondered what the end of all this would be. Would they survive? Would Farren still want her if things went back to normal? Would she lose Dani as her best friend? It was all too much.

After a day of lying in bed watching TV in the hotel room with Farren, along with some more kisses and touches, Charlie was getting antsy. Her leg was starting to feel better, and she really had her mind set on that club.

"Come on, let's go," she begged Dani and Matt as she stood in their room, the sun outside starting to set. "It's Halloween."

"I don't give a fuck," Dani said, laying on the bed with her arms crossed.

"I'm not one for parties, but I am getting pretty bored," Matt declared, standing up from the bed and stretching. "And I have to celebrate Halloween one way or another. If you guys don't want to trick-or-treat, then I'm fine with a Halloween party at a club."

"You guys can go," Dani harshly said, determined to stay there on the bed even if it would be the death of her.

Getting irritated, Charlie stomped over to Dani and snatched her wrist, yanking her to sit up. "Hey!" Dani declared as Charlie began using all her strength to pull Dani off the bed. "Stop it!"