A year after losing her older sister in a tragic accident, Charlie's Mom marries the father of the most popular boys in school. Still grieving, Charlie struggles to accept her new family and gets involved with her stepbrothers worst enemy, the capta...
"Anyway, don't you think we should move to the side of the road? It's getting dark - a car could easily make us roadkill." Joe suggested as the two of us continued walking down the middle of the empty road.
"Who cares? You only live once, isn't that right?"
"I can't say I disagree with you, but I love you too much to see you get squashed like a pancake." Joe told me and grabbed my hand and guided me to the side of the road.
The two of us walked in silence for a bit as we walked down the seemingly never-ending road. The silence didn't last long as we soon heard storm clouds forming above us.
"You have got to be kidding!" Joe yelled, looking up at the sky as the rain started to pour down.
I started laughing, "you've got to admit, this would only happen to us."
"This is what we get for going to a high school football game." Joe replied, smiling with disbelief.
"We fuelled the high school illusion. This is the world's way of punishing us." I said, shaking my head. "I'm going to call my Mom. Maybe she could leave work early?"
"Go ahead."
I pulled out my phone and searched for my Mom's number. However, when I tried to ring her, the line went dead. That's when I realised, I had no signal.
Typical.
"No signal. It must be the weather." I told him.
"Great. Why does this happen to us - haven't we behaved ourselves lately?" Joe sighed.
"It happens." I shrugged, "Do you want to go and find some shelter? Maybe if we wait it out, the rain will stop."
"Sounds like a plan. You know, if we head through the woods, we can find shelter from the weather in that old beach hut?" Joe suggested.
"Good idea."
The two of us walked through the part of the forest and headed in the direction of the beach. The trees still didn't provide us much protection from the rain, but we go a lot less wet than we would have done if we carried on along the road.
By the time we arrived at the beach and had made our way to the beach hut, it was starting to get dark and the two of us were soaked. It seemed that the rain only started to get heavier as we walked.
I followed Joe up the front steps of the large beach hut and he opened the door, which was unlocked. The beach hut had been abandoned for years. It was hardly furnished, and it had no electricity or running water, but it had often been the place me and my friends would wake up in after drinking on the beach.
"It's actually looking really bad out there." Joe said as he looked out of the window and out at the choppy sea.
"If I had known that we'd get stuck out here, I would have asked my stepbrothers for a ride back." I replied.
I should have stopped them before they got back in their car. I should have asked them for a ride back. I don't know if they wouldn't have given us one, but It wouldn't have hurt to ask. Now, we were stuck here and I may have been able to prevent it.
"Don't worry, I'm glad you didn't. I'd rather be stuck here with you than have gotten in a car with those three muppets."
"They probably would have refused to give us a ride."
"Probably." Joe shrugged. "I did enjoy the way Billy Montgomery pissed them off, though."
"I wonder why they hate each other so much. I mean, that couldn't have just been about them being football rivals."
"Who knows what goes on inside the Lakewood brother's heads. I mean, it's hard to tell whether Billy overstaying his welcome on was the only reason that they were mad."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Billy was talking to you. Maybe that's what mad them so angry about Billy being there." Joe suggested.
"How would that make them mad?"
"It shows them up." Joe shrugs, "it's a pride thing."
"What?"
"God, Charlie. Put two and two together. They are rivals -- right? They can't exactly have their stepsister being friends with their enemy, can they?" Joe explained.
"What difference does it make? It's not like I'm their sister."
"You're as close to being their sister as anyone can get. You're associated with them now — whether you like it or not. Those brothers are obsessed with loyalty. You talking to Billy kind of contradicts that."
I shook my head. "I never agreed to be loyal to them. If it was the other way around, they wouldn't be loyal to me."
"Hey, I'm not saying you have to be loyal to them. I'm just making an observation. It's like how you and Alice were — if someone made an enemy out of one of you, they also made an enemy out of the other. Same goes with me you and Taylor."
"Yeah, I get it." I sighed. " I wonder what Alice would make of all of this now.".
"Who knows, but may she rest in peace." Joe smiled and turned to me.
I watched Joe's sympathetic eyes look into mine and I sighed. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug. I could smell cigarettes and cinnamon as he pulled me in. It made me smile.
The two of us ended up lying down on the floor and watched the storm through the fragile windows. I rested my head in my hands as I lay on my stomach. Joe lay down beside me, lying on his back and looking up at the ceiling. I think we were both starting to get the feeling that we would be here a while.
It was going to be a long night.
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