Picture This

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Charlotte

I started at the nickname he’d given me when we were in kindergarten.  No one ever called me that except for Ian.  Just hearing him say his stupid nickname for me made tears well up in my eyes and I hated him for it. 

I could not believe he could be such a fucking idiot.  I mean, seriously?  Did he really think I would be just like any other whore in this school and fall for him ‘charm’.  Pssh, whatever!

“Yes, it’s me,” I said, rolling my eyes.  “And don’t you dare call me that.”

“But you look…” he started, scanning down my body.  I thought I was used to it since it had happened already a hundred times since I’d gotten here.  But with him it felt…different.  I had to fight urge to shiver.

“Different?  Not fat?  Not ugly?” I asked.  “Yeah, well, it’s been a few years.  I lost a few pounds.  Got some curves that all of the guys seem to like.  Actually grew a backbone so that I could stand up to assholes like you.”

“Charlie,” he said, still shocked.  “I…”

“Stop calling me that!” I yelled.  “You don’t have any room to say anything to me anymore, Ian.  You made my life miserable the year before we moved to England.  So whatever you have to say, you can save it because I will so not believe you.”

Pulling my bag higher up on my shoulder, I turned on my heel and headed toward my Physics class. 

“Please, kill me now,” I groaned as Freddie walked up toward me as I waited in front of the dining hall for him.

“That bad, huh?” he asked, laughing. 

“Yes,” I said, leaning my head back against the wall.  “All of the guys keep hitting on me and the girls keep staring daggers at me.  At least none of them actually seem to remember me, even when I tell them my name.  That’s good, right?  I get to start all over.”

“Yeah, but you’re still miserable,” he said.  “What happened?”

I groaned again.  “After you left me after first period, Ian tried to hit on me,” I said. 

He laughed.  “Oh, this is going to be good.  So…?”

I rolled my eyes.  “I started telling him embarrassing things that happened to him as a kid.  I think he actually didn’t know that I was the only one who was with him when all of them happened.  He might have started to realize but it really didn’t hit him until I said what happened that night at the winter formal.”

“Nice,” Freddie said.  “I would have loved to see his face.”

I closed my eyes for a moment before I pushed off the wall.  “We’d better go before we miss lunch,” I said, and headed into the dining hall with Freddie behind me. 

I still wasn’t used to the stares everyone gave me.  When I was here with the people that I’d grown up with, I was used to being the invisible one.  But now it was totally different. 

Freddie and I went to get our lunches – a choice of steak or chicken, baked potato, and an assortment of vegetables; totally different from a regular schools lunch – and looked for somewhere to eat. 

“Hey, Freddie, over here!” someone yelled from a few tables away. 

Freddie and I turned to see Levi standing up and waving. 

“I so don’t want to sit with them,” I said, eyeing Ian, who was staring at me.  “Why’d you have to make friends with them when you know I hate them?”