My Best Friend's Brother // Young Love Book 1 ✔️

My Best Friend's Brother Ch. 49

Chapter 49

"Admit it, Elouise," he urged with a cheeky smile, "you sooo love me."

I snorted. "Really? You're going there--this soon?"

He smiled smugly, an expression I've grown familiar with. "Yes," he replied, his yellow eyes alight with joy. "As a matter of fact--"

"As a matter of fact, I think you should stop kidding around and ask her out. God knows you have dragged this on slower than Slowpoke Rodriguez," Zeke interrupted, cutting Charlie off and eyeing him like a disapproving father.

Zeke's bluntness rendered everyone at the table silent; slack jaws, wide eyes and all. We stared at him, stunned, asking the same question in our heads: did he seriously just say that? Although, since I'd been his friend for a whopping thirty days, I knew better than to forget that he's as crude as they come. Nevertheless, it still took a solid two minutes before someone got over Zeke's rude interruption. I tried to suppress my smile as I watched Hector hit him upside the head, but I failed miserably at that. Count on Hector to break shocked silence as quick as he did.

"Aren't you such a Romeo," Hector said sarcastically, laughing it up with the rest of us.

I saw Cindy roll her eyes as she giggled at me. "Actually, I agree with Romeo over here," she stated, sipping from the straw of her juice box. It earned her a shit-eating grin from Zeke. "I say we kick 'em out of this table."

Benjie, Diana, Henry, Hector, and Zeke all agreed cheerfully, making me red in the face and just about ready to shrink. I dared not to glance at Charlie who was probably in the same embarassed state as I was. Unfortunately, without warning, Zeke pushed Charlie off the edge of the metal bench, making him land on his butt. For Charlie's sake, I held back my laughter. A few seconds later--and I should've seen it coming--Di, of all people, nearly made me face plant when she gave me, and I quote, "a little push". Everybody was laughing as I glared at all of them. Charlie was chuckling too, though I had no idea why. I guess I would never really know what could've happened if I told them off about how immature they were being or how much they all sucked, because Charlie's already snatched me away by the hand and pulled me along. Zeke even winked at me before I turned my whole body around.

Double-crossing bastard.

"C'mon, Eli-cat, stop pouting," Charlie requested, flicking my nose with his free hand. "On second thought...maybe I can kiss it away for you?"

I looked at him with a raised brow. "As if," I quipped with a shake of my head. "Where are we going anyway?" Looking around, however, I start to form a tiny hunch.

"Behind the bleachers," he replied with a carefree shrug. "You'd think it would be digusting and suffocating down there, but it's actually a pretty neat spot," he elaborated, smiling at me with that boyish look in his eyes.

We walked in comfortable silence until we sat down at his spot. It was just sunny enough for it to be nice and there was a cooling breeze, which was great. Sitting cross-legged opposite Charlie, I started picking at the luscious grass. It always made me feel bad doing this, but it was a habit of mine and the guilt it gave me wasn't strong enough to make me stop doing it.

Look at you, thinking about grass and ignoring Charlie, my brain narrated.

Shut up, stupid, I replied harshly, shaking my head in exasperation.

Wanting to prove the voice in my head wrong, I decided to turn my undivided attention to Charlie. "You don't have to do anything, you know," I muttered quietly, afraid of looking up at him. "Don't let them peer pressure you," I added, feeling the texture of the grass.