Call Me Crazy

Chapter Eleven

“Ah, look what the cat dragged in.” Lucas grinned at something over my shoulder, and picked up another card from the deck.

“Shut up,” a male voice grunted. Wait, I knew that voice! That voice hadn’t been home for three whole nights, after leaving us at the restaurant. Jared was home!

Sure enough, I spun around to see him standing in the doorway, wearing the same clothes as the last time I saw him.

Adam and Finn came running into the room. “Jared! You’re back!” They did one of those guy handshake things that I never really understood.

I threw my cards into the pile along with Lucas’ and we stood up to go any say hi.

“Well, are you going to introduce us?!” Ben called from the other side of the room.

Jared grinned and took a step to the side, revealing the girl from the restaurant. I was too bewildered over seeing Jared grin that it took me a while to register what I was seeing.

The girl was short, shorter than me, and was standing close to Jared and holding her hand. She looked nervous, but there was a light of happiness in her eyes.

Hold up! Did Jared kidnap her too?!

The poo girl, I knew just how she was feeling. I mean, it did happen to me about a week before.

“Everyone, this is Briar. Briar, this is everyone!” Briar smiled around the room, and her eyes settled on me. She furrowed her eyebrows slightly and opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by Lucas.

“It’s nice to meet you Briar. I’m glad to see Jared has found his...er...” Realisation flashed in Briar’s eyes as Lucas stumbled over his words.

“Thank you! It’s great to finally see you all, I’ve heard so much about you.” She smiled at us, but looked back at me again.

Something weird was going on, and my suspicions and confusion from the day at the restaurant were returning. The boys were all talking to Jared, so seeing the opportunity, I sidled up to Briar.

“Hi, my name’s Charlotte,” I smiled at her.

“I’ve heard a lot about you! But I didn’t know you were...um from out of town...” She stumbled over her words.

“Yeah I live ages away. But hey, I just have to ask... Were you kidnapped too?”

Her eyes widened and confusion reflected in her eyes. “No, I went with Jared on my own will. Did your m- um Lucas kidnap you?”

I nodded quickly. “Although he’ll argue that it wasn’t kidnapping. But whatever. You can tell me you know, I won’t tell the others. I know how it feels to be taken-“

“Okay Briar!” Jared interrupted, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “I’ll show you around the house.”

“But-“ She protested, looking at me.

“I’ll explain later, okay?” He whispered, but I still heard.

Oh, so she gets to know why I’m kidnapped before I do?! How is that fair!? I turned around to face Lucas who was sitting on the back of the sofa nervously.

“Care to explain what is going on?” I asked cooly. He scratched the back of his neck with guilt clear on his face.

“What do you mean? Everything is normal,” he said in an oh so convincing tone. I narrowed my eyes at him and crossed my arms across my chest.

“Fine.” Then I spun on my heel and walked out of the room. For a guy who has such a big effect on me, he sure knew how to piss me off.

A quick glance at my phone told me it was 10:23 so I figured I may as well go to bed. I hadn’t been sleeping well the past few nights, so an early night would be a good idea, I reasoned.

The room I had stolen was cold and bare. I hadn’t made any efforts to make it homey as it simply didn’t feel like my room. It felt as cosy to me as the laundry room did.

Crawling into my blankets, I turned off the lamp and closed my eyes. Images from the past few days flashed behind my eyelids; Lucas twirling me around, our heart to heart and him constantly being there to comfort me. I knew I couldn’t stay mad at him for whatever he was hiding from me. I just hated not knowing something that everyone else obviously knew.

I lay there for exactly 54 minutes, until I couldn’t take it any longer. I was cold; the bed was suddenly uncomfortable and smelt all wrong. I was exhausted and in desperate need of sleep, but like all the nights before it had only come for a few hours.

I had an idea, but I wasn’t sure if it would work. If it did work, I would get sleep but it would be really embarrassing, and if it didn’t work then I’d get no sleep and still get embarrassed. So either was I was going to be embarrassed, but at that point I was too tired to even care.

Groggily hauling my body out of bed, my feet dragged me out of the room and across the hallway. I wouldn’t have done this if I wasn’t so tired, and the logic buried inside me was turning on the alarms. But they weren’t loud enough.

As soon as I opened the door to Lucas’ room, I was enveloped in his smell. I could see his sleeping figure on the far side of the bed. As quietly as I could, I pulled the covers back and slipped into his bed. My head hit the pillow and content settled in my body. My eyelids fluttered close and I fell asleep to Lucas’ slow breathing.