Charlotte's Scars

Chapter 28 - Christian

"Don't worry – all good things," Lizz said with a wink.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable with the situation, I put my arm around Charlie to discretely tell these girls I was not interested.

Unfortunately, they didn't seem to care because Summer giggled flirtatiously before saying, "Christian Steele - that really is a strong, masculine name." Smiling, her chubby cheeks squished her eyes into small slits. "A strong name for a strong man."

"Summer, stop it," Lizz hissed under her breath but we could all hear her. "I call dibs."

Summer started to open her mouth to say something, but I cleared my throat to get their attention. "As flattering as this is, I should probably tell you that I'm already taken."

"Oh." Summer frowned. "Who's the lucky girl?"

I raised my eyebrow and glanced down at my arm wrapped around Charlie's waist. As obvious as it was, apparently they needed me to spell it out for them. Charlie's eyes met mine and even she seemed to have a curious, almost hopeful look on her face.

I grinned at Charlie like the love sick puppy I was and said, "She's not the lucky one – I am."

"Wait, you're talking about Charlie?" Summer asked in disbelief.

Lizz started laughing, but after a couple seconds she stopped and said, "Oh, you're serious?"

"Wow," Brittney drawled. "That wasn't rude at all."

Lizz furrowed her brows, and then, very slowly, her eyes began to widen. "Oh shit, no. I didn't mean for that to sound so bad – I just meant that you two are kinda an odd couple."

I raised my eyebrow at the girls before looking down at Charlie. "Do you want to get out of here?"

"Yes, please."

"Sorry girls, but I'm going to steal Charlie for a little bit," I said without guilt, while guiding Charlie over to the passenger side of my truck. I opened the door and helped her in before going around to the driver's side.

As I was pulling out of the driveway, I couldn't help but notice a red haired girl watching us from a second story window of the house – something about the way she was staring unnerved me.

"Who's that?" I turned to Charlie, but when she looked up to see what I was talking about, the girl was gone.

"Who?"

"Uh ... nevermind."

Charlie frowned, but as we drove further away from the house, a slow smile crept onto her face. She looked up at me with her distinctive goofy grin and asked, "So where are we going?"

"That, my little nerd, is a surprise..."

ϴϴϴϴ

Rather than parking the truck at my house, I drove it straight to my private beach. One of my buddies, who worked for a Highway Construction company, helped me make a gravel road leading from my house to Crystal Lake.

    It was one of the nicest days we'd had in over a week. The sky was cloudless, and the blazing sun made the lake shimmer like it was sprinkled with glitter.

    As corny as it sounded, there was no other way to describe how peaceful it was.

    Glancing sideways at Charlie, she looked completely mesmerised by the lake's beauty. I myself was more captivated by hers. Even though her hair was about the same length as mine now, she was still as beautiful as ever. Her large, curious brown eyes seemed to scan every inch of our surroundings, taking in everything and evaluating it with such precision.