You, Me & 'Charlie'

You, Me & 'Charlie' - chapter 15

Chapter 15

Paloma was leaning against the fence post near the school gates texting when the bus pulled up to the school. She looked up from under her fringe and grinned. This made me nervous.

I was greeted with a vice like hug as I stepped off the bus. “Hey Tabby! How was your weekend?” I could tell there was a hidden meaning behind those words.

“It was great.” I smiled, and kinda choked.

“Oops, lack of air.” Paloma said, letting me go to avoid me dying right here and now.

She stepped back and gave me a knowing smile. I rolled my eyes as I readjusted the bag on my shoulder.

“Well, are we gonna go find ‘him’ or what?” Bree asked, bouncing on her toes.

“Oh yeah! Totally forgot about that!” Paloma said sarcastically, winking at Bree.

“Guys, please, just, uh, and yeah.” My nervousness was causing me to have the inability to string words together into sentences.     

“Calm yourself, we’ll just stumble across him on our way to class.” Bree reassured me.

I shook my head at the thought of them being like this all day.

Paloma shoved her phone back in her bag and skipped ahead excitedly. Bree followed, while I trailed behind, hiding behind my fringe.

Obviously the news wouldn’t get around school too quickly, because not many people from here went to the party or knew about what had happened.

I felt self conscious walking through to the main buildings. No one looked at me though, so I looked up and tried not to think about it.

“Hey! Tabby?” A deep voice called from behind me.

Paloma and Bree stopped and turned quicker than I did. I eventually turned too, my heart leaping in my chest. Thankfully it was Matt. He motioned for us to come over.

“Hey Matt.” I smiled shyly.

“Hey Tabby, how was the rest of your birthday?”

“It was great thanks.” I answered, smiling at the memory of my birthday.

“Great.” he replied. “I came over ‘cos Jake wanted to see if you guys were here. He’s waiting by the field.” He grinned, probably remembering what had subtly gone on between me and him on my birthday.

Paloma snorted. “Thanks Matty-boy. Tabby was getting worried he wasn’t here!” she said. I shot her a look.

“Haha, somehow I don’t think that’s necessarily true Paloma.” Matt replied.

I gave him a smile to say thanks for getting me out of the hole she was currently digging for me.

“Well thanks Matt. Are you coming down with us?” Bree asked, trying to help me further.

He nodded. “Sure, I’ll escort you ladies down there.” he grinned again. Matt was usually so quiet, it was quite strange seeing him so verbose.

The girls walked down jabbering in my ear and telling Matt all about me and Jake. He laughed at how excited the girls were getting. He saved me the embarrassment by not looking over at me too much though, he only grinned once or twice at me, which I could handle. He was such a nice, considerate boy. Unlike some people I knew who were currently hyperventilating over my unknown relationship status.

I was sure we’d passed Calvin on the way down, but if it was him, he didn’t say hi to Bree, and she didn’t take one look at him either. I think it was just my nerves getting the better of me, now I thought of it; it looked nothing like him anyway. Phew.