𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒙 𝒃𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒂 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒃𝒂𝒅 𝒃𝒐𝒚.
Charlotte Lancaster grew up as a nobody in her hometown Cherryville, California. Never interested in school gossip or boys. She was always dedic...
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She looks at me with confusion, sadness, and then anger. "What?" She mutters.
"I thought that getting you to come out of your shell more and do things you wouldn't normally do would make you realize that staying at home isn't something you always want to do," I say, "Just like how I helped Maxine take advantage of the money she had."
"Just like Maxine?" She asks. "What exactly did you even do to her?"
"All I did was give her a push, to make her realize that she can do anything and she did. Her parents encouraged her to use her money and when she did, she dressed in the clothes that made her look good, she got a car she wanted, and traveled to places that she's always wanted to visit," I say, "Maxine was always putting up excuses and now she doesn't have any. If she doesn't want to stay in this town forever, she doesn't have to. She has all the money in the world to go and live anywhere."
She scoffs. "And you thought you could do that with me? Make me more sociable and become a party animal?"
I shake my head. "Not like that," I say, "I noticed that after your parents divorced I thought that by giving you distractions, it could help with the healing process and make you realize that what happened wasn't your fault." She stays quiet. "I wanted to show you that going out and having fun wasn't going to ruin your chances of becoming a straight A student. I just wanted to show you a different world, one that you weren't used to. I didn't mean to make you fall for me in the process, nor for me to fall for you."
"So you give me mixed signals in the process?" She asks quietly, avoiding my eyes. "Why couldn't you have said that in the first place, like you did with Maxine?"
"It wasn't my intention at first," I say, "I just started liking you and wanted to test the waters first. I didn't know it would be easy to make you like me in a short period of time."
"I don't believe you," she says. "Why couldn't you just...why?...did you really have to do all that?" She mutters and fidgets with her hands. Something she always did when nervous, or anxious.
"In a way, yes." It was making me feel guilty, but this is the only way she would grow to hate me and stay away. I can't be in a relationship with her when all I do is communicate with violence or run away from my problems. I'm not stable for her nor do I feel like I can make her happy.
I like her, I really do, but I need to sort my problems before allowing her to fully enter my life. I can't make her happy if I'm not happy myself. I have way too many issues to deal with and she shouldn't be in the process of that. I would hate for her to get stuck in between my notorious lifestyle and that information can go into the wrong hands.
I was paranoid that someone bad out there would use anything I got to have more power over territories in this town. Charlotte shouldn't be a part of that world and nor would I ever allow that. "I'm sorry."
"No, you're not," She says. She shakes her head. "Was that your whole plan? Some kind of Maxine 2.0 situation? Or was this really some kind of bet to get into my pants, and you realized that you were in too deep to get out of it."
