Don't Fall in Love in Witness Protection

Chapter 5: Playing Games

C H A P T E R  ( 5 )

'Do I look like I'm kidding?' Max laughed. 'I'm hanging off the side of your house, get your butt out here.'

Charlotte winced at his loud voice, 'Keep it down Max! My mum is asleep! Like normal people at...' She looked over in the direction of her alarm clock that read 1:24AM in blaring red. 'Oh my God, it's so early and on a school night!'

'Waa, waa baby.' He rolled his eyes. 'You coming or not? You're making everyone wait.'

Charlotte glanced out again and this time saw a car parked out the front of her house filled with people. 'Where are you guys going?'

'Eli's parents are out of town, we're having an impromptu Happy Monday party,' Max grinned holding out his hand. 'You coming or what?'

'I've known you two days and you've already made me do something illegal, skip school and sneak out,' Charlotte rolled her eyes and took his hand stepping out onto the ledge. What the hell.

Max helped her climb down from the window sill to the ledge above the front door, and onto the bins next to the wall. They jumped from the bins and landed on the grass outside her house.

'I've never done that before,' Charlotte confessed kind of excited as they jogged over to the already full car.

'I popped your cherry,' Max said delighted with himself.

'Easy tiger,' she laughed as he opened the back door for her to climb in.

It was a tight squeeze as Charlotte found herself pushed up against Carter as Max jammed the door shut on her. She watched as he opened the front door sliding in beside a girl who gave her an awkward wave from her squished spot. Charlotte tried to peer around at the rest of the car that was meant to seat five people but she was counting at least eight - that she could see anyway.

The car ride to Eli's house was painful to say the least. Liam was driving and thought it was amusing to take corners fast, throwing the people in the car around the place. Their protests and frustration were only fueling him.

When the car eventually stopped and Charlotte opened the door falling out onto to a white stone driveway.

'Clumsy,' Max grinned holding out his hand to pull her up. She took it quickly getting up feeling embarrassed, finally getting a look around at the group climbing out of the car.

The boys from last night were there, Liam, Carter and Tristan, and then two girls practically hanging off each other as they headed up the driveway. A huge beautiful driveway leading up to a house that could only be described as a mansion. Eli's mansion... Now she definitely felt embarrassed for asking if he lived in that shed.

'Welcome to my humble abode,' Eli greeted her and Max from the front door. He smirked at Charlotte. 'It's not much... but we like it better than the shed.'

'Huh? What shed?' Max asked as he pushed past Eli into the house.

Charlotte kept her head down and followed Max into the house. They walked through the front room or 'lobby' as another word to describe the extravagance of the house. A beautiful, large crystal chandelier hung over the winding staircase and the floors looked to be made of marble.

She followed Max through the room and down some stairs at the back of the hall, which led into a basement lounge room. Charlotte nearly gasped when she saw the room, it was the ultimate hang out room, with a huge screen TV across the back wall, lots of comfy looking couches facing it giving it a cinema feel. A pool table was over to the right, with a bar in the corner stocked heavily with every alcohol type imaginable.