Call Me Crazy

Chapter Twenty

Sorry about the lack of Lucas in this chapter, but the other characters needed a chance to be in the spotlight!

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The day after our date, Lucas unfortunately had ‘duties’ to attend to. I had no idea what they entailed, and I was quite fine with not knowing. I was on a post-date buzz, so anything he did would have been fine with me.

I was in the kitchen making a hot chocolate when a pair of footsteps approached the room. Their voices were still too hard for me to distinguish who was who, but there was something different about one of them...it was a girl’s voice! I spun around to see Jared and Briar walking into the room.

“Hi!” I called happily.

Jared smiled at me said ‘hey,” and Briar followed suit. I turned back to my drink and put the spoon in the sink. The pair came up next to me.

“It’s Charlotte, right?” Briar asked softly.

“Sure is! And you’re Briar. We met the other day but I guess I should appologise...I wasn’t really in the know...” I blushed, remembering the day I had met Briar and asked if she was kidnapped too.

A warm smile spread across her lips and she burst into laughter. “It’s fine! I can imagine your confusuion!”

Jared laughed beside her. I noticed that he seemed a lot happier since meeting Briar. Huh. They must be mates! Duh Charlotte, a voice in my head retorted, how dumb can you get?!

“It was so hard living with her not knowing though! We all had to keep our mouths shut and she would not shut up about being kidnapped!” He joked.

I grinned. “Well now that everything’s making sense...well kind of... it would be nice to get to know everyone better! With no secrets this time.”

Briar nodded eagerly. “Yeah! Awesome! There seems to be a shortage of girls around here, so I think it would be good if we stuck together. Beat up the boys and all that.” She punched Jared in the arm, and he responded by tickling her.

I smiled and watched their playful fights, thinking about how Lucas and I frequently did the same thing.

“Okay okay! Truce!” Briar squealed. Jared stopped attacking her and she ran behind me.

“Hah! Can’t get me now!” I laughed and could tell that I would like hanging out with Briar a lot.

“So we were going to go get some lunch. You want to join us?” Briar asked earnestly.

I hesitated. “...I don’t want to intrude on a date or anything...”

Jared shook his head. “No, you’re welcome to come! Besides, missy here needs a girl to talk to. If I hear one more thing about the latest fashion or ultra absorbent tampons I think I’m going to have to give back my man card.” He shuddered and wrapped his arm around Briar.

She glared at him but couldn’t help but smile.

“Okay, sure I’ll come! We wouldn’t want that would we Jared? Thanks for the offer, I’ll just go put some proper clothes on.”

I put my cup in the sink and ran upstairs, pulling off my sweat pants and replacing them with a skirt and blouse. There was no salvation for my hair, so I left that in its messy bun. That was the good thing about having crazy hair – I could always pull off the perfect messy bun. But that was about the only good thing.

When I ran back downstairs, Briar and Jared were waiting for me by the door. “Let’s go!”

The ride to the car was quiet, but I discovered Briar and I had the same music taste, which gave us a topic to talk about. Jared was his usual demure self, but I noticed the smile that was constantly plastered on his face.

We pulled in to the same restaurant where the two had first met. “Ah the memories,” Briar said wistfully, putting a hand over her heart.

“It was only about three weeks ago babe!”

“Time flies when you’re having fun I guess!”

Okay my cue to leave! I jumped out of the car and we all walked in together.

“So, Charlotte. What are you into?” Briar asked, taking a bit of her burger.

“You mean other than Lucas?” Jared snickered. I smacked his head.

“Hmm...well I love reading. I...er...I guess that’s the most interesting thing about me. Oh! I once won a hotdog eating competition!” They laughed and we discussed the morals and ethics of food competitions. They were much more open minded than many people I had spoken to about it. And come on...it was a onetime thing.

Turns out Briar was living in town alone, well until she practically moved in with Jared. Her parents were way down the bottom of the country, and she left for a gap year to earn money to travel, but whatever plans she makes they will definitely involve Jared. She likes reading too, but prefers music and goes crazy for peanut butter.

Jared commented occasionally, but left the talking up to us girls.

When we left the restaurant, I was buzzing because I had a new friend to talk to who was actually a girl! I had gone from being a lonely, neglected, mopey kid to a girl who was crazy for a guy and surrounded with awesome people.

Not bad for a month’s work. Not bad at all.