Smoke and Bones (Smoke #4)

[ 49 ]

It was all too much to deal with. Between Jordanah's mess with Roughead and Vanessa's cruel plan, I was once again stuck in the middle. And it was even worse because I couldn't speak to anyone without hurting someone else.

Vanessa wouldn't be too pleased if I let slip her terrible plan. Jordanah wouldn't want people knowing about her pregnancy. And Andrew - well, we still hadn't fully made up from other previous fight. Funnily enough, he's the one blocking that from happening since he's not been responding to my calls or texts.

All I wanted to do was just hide in my room, away from the world or even go back to a time where things were normal again. 

For some reason it all came back to that rescue mission. Had I not gone and played superhero, things wouldn't have been so messed up. Andrew and I would have been in a better place. Jordanah wouldn't have gotten pregnant to a bum. And Vanessa wouldn't have turned into a total monster and would be in a happy marriage with Jordan.

I lingered my eyes over on the curly haired boy sitting in front of me. His fingers delicately tapping on the table as I kept my eyes on the motion of his hands. I stayed put, and allowed for the awkwardness between us die out - hopefully.

"Thank you for agreeing to have lunch with me Scarlett. I didn't know who else to talk to." Charlie sighed as I looked over at the heartbroken boy.

"I thought you should do with some company." I admit, unsure how I was to approach the conversation. He didn't give me much, only that he wanted to have a chat. Although, something gave me the impression that it wasn't Carlton or even football that we'd be talking about this afternoon.

"How is everything?" He questioned, seeming to patiently observe me.

"Good. How about for you?" I asked him, recieving silence. "Charlie?"

"Yeah, it's been good too for me."

"Good. That's good." I added, unsure how to approach the conversation. Maybe the others yesterday had a point about my interactions with Charlie. It seemed as if one minute I was cussing him out, and then the next I was somehow having a friendly lunch with him. Prehaps it was a little weird to say the least.

"We broke up Scarlett." He eventually spoke up as I looked up at him, surprised by his admission.

"Charlie. I am - I'm so sorry. Oh god, what happened?" I asked dumbly, wondering if it had anything to do with Jordanah and Jordan.

"Just decided that we should end things. No big deal anyway. It's cool. Probably should of broken up with her a long time ago anyway." He scoffed, but by the look of his eyes I could tell there was something he wasn't letting out.

"Oh. Well, I'm glad that it's cool I guess. But what's gonna happen now? Like I mean I don't mean to be disrespectful, but you have Ryder to think about." I added as I noticed the curly haired boy's face change suddenly.

"Yeah, we haven't gotten a chance to speak about that. Not yet anyway." He admitted, looking out at the window.

"Have you spoken about housing?"

"Not to be rude but it's between Jordanah and I. We'll deal with it when we're ready, okay Scarlett." He snapped at me as I looked down at the table. Never thought I'd be ever saying this, but that actually hurt.

"I apologise completely. Sorry, I just - I'm worried about you Charlie." I admit, feeling quite pathetic about the moment.

"No. I'm the one who should be saying that. It's good to have someone in my corner." He mumbled as I hesistated for a moment. Had Jordanah finally came clean about the baby? It was hard to read the footballer, particularly since he wasn't much of an open book. I slowly reached my hands out and clasped them over Charlie's. He still kept his eyes glanced down as I sighed.