Not Who You Thought (BxB Drama-Romance)

What Boys Want

It was a terrible winter. On the lake, it was exceptionally cold, and after our second large snowstorm of the year, we promptly had another. There was such a huge volume of snow that it took down some trees on our street which knocked over power lines, and we lost electricity. My mom and I were plunged into freezing darkness for several days until the electric company finally fixed the lines. The midday sun did nothing to melt the snow on the ground because the air outside was too frigid for the warmth of the sun to cut through the freeze.

This is why I was extremely surprised when Charlie showed up on my front steps in only his jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. On his feet were these pink, canvas sneakers, that he had ironed on little patches.

His lips were blue.

"Charlie." I stood there in shock at the sight of him. I didn't think he would ever come over again after what he overheard me say about him to my sister. "I didn't think you'd come back."

We stood looking at one another. Me standing in the doorway of my heated home, him outside in the cold, looking up at me from the lower step. Ten thousand things I wanted to say came rushing into my head, most important of all I missed you and I'm sorry.

"Is your mom home?" He didn't say hello, ask me how I was, or if he could come inside.

"No." I opened the door for him.

"Good." He came inside.

"Let me get you a sweater or a blanket," I said hastily once I rushed him inside. "Why aren't you wearing a coat?"

He was looking around as if expecting things to be different in the two weeks he hadn't been over. There was something off about him, something strange in the way he blinked at me with no recognition of the words I was speaking. When I took his hand to lead him his fingers felt like ice, and then I started to really worry.

"That was stupid of you to go outside without a coat." I brought him to my room and began to pull warmer clothing out of my drawers. "What were you thinking?"

He didn't catch the sweater I threw at him, it fell to the floor and landed at his socked feet.

"Charlie?"

His mouth twitched.

"Here." I was afraid to touch him. "Sit on my bed."

He sat.

I picked up the sweater and sat beside him, the sides of our thighs pressing together. "Put it on." I was starting to get freaked out by his apathy. "You're cold. You shouldn't have walked here without bundling up."

"Why would I bother putting on more clothing?"

"What do you mean?" My stomach lurched when he looked at me. His expression was flat, devoid of any of the emotion it had the last time we were together.

I could see the thin silver chain around his neck that the crystal pendant hung off of, hidden underneath his shirt. I realized with a pang that he had never taken the necklace I bought him off. Despite us not being on speaking terms, he still wore it.

He placed a hand on the inside of my thigh. "I think you know."

"No." I shook my head, carefully removing his hand. "It's alright. I don't want to mess around."

"Come on," he said hoarsely. "Don't you want to?"

This wasn't how I envisioned what would happen when we saw one another again. I don't know what I expected; it wasn't as if we were going to walk around in public holding hands as we did in Portland. It wasn't as if we would become boyfriends. I hoped we would make up, and that our precarious friendship would ensue without any hard feelings. Even though our friendship had been tumultuous, I was frightened by the possibility of losing him.