Romance Collision ✔

ღChapter Fourteen: Swollen Ego

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The microwave beeped for the third time after hearing up Charlie's pizza pocket. Charlie was staring at the all-capped texts from an overly excited Bea. 

Bea had been blowing up Charlie's phone of how excited Bea was about her new boyfriend and said boyfriend was a McNeill. Bea kept going on about how she couldn't wait until Monday to tell Sandra about her new beau.

Charlie sat on the counter in her new jean shorts with an embroidered purple butterfly on one leg near the hem. They were on sale at the mall and they were the only pair left. And they were her exact size.

Frowning at her phone screen with another excited text coming in, Charlie tugged at the hem of her t-shirt to cover her exposed stomach. 

Charlie knew the shirt was a size too small when she bought it. But that was the point. It was a style Charlie was going for and it was still some getting used to. But her wardrobe wasn't a concern to her right now. Not in the least with the news of Bea having her first boyfriend, and here Charlie was boyfriend less. 

If anyone of the girls was supposed to have a boyfriend, it was Charlie. She was the prettiest of the three, the most peppy, the most outgoing, and she was a cheerleader! Shouldn't that have made her one of the hot commodities at their school?Boys should have been swarming her! 

Charlie's nose scrunched at the cheerleading point. Although she was on the squad, Charlie still had a hard time "fitting in" because of Marina.

The only reason Charlie was still on the squad was because she brought Gabriel to practices. Well... actually, Charlie would head to practice and Bea would tag along with Eve. And with Eve present gave more than enough reason for Gabriel to make his appearance to bug the holy juju out of her. And with Gabriel tagged along some of the other football players which was an added bonus for the cheerleaders. Marina accepted Charlie on the team thanks to being able to show off for her on-again, off-again boyfriend. 

Charlie groaned, leaning her head back against the glass cabinet behind her and looked upward. She frowned at the icky yellow color her mom had done the year before during one of her "new me, new place" phases. Charlie's father tried to talk her mom out of it, but Mrs. Barry was not easily swayed and looked up all the colors she could find that would fit her kitchen.

The microwave beeped again and Charlie rolled her eyes, pushing herself off the counter. She stomped over to the microwave, yanking the door open and pulling out the half cold, half warm hot pocket. She slammed the door just as her twin brothers came running in squirting each other with water guns.

"Hah ha!" one of the boys yelled, a long stream of water squirted through the barrel of the water gun and landed on Charlie's thigh. She jumped back, shrieking at the cold that hit her bare leg. Her brothers had a habit of filling up their guns with ice cold water.

Charlie slowly raised her eyes from the water drop running down her leg to her brothers. Their eyes were wide, both leaning back as their sister narrowed her eyes.

"Jensen! Ackle! What the hell are you two doing?!"

Charlie's mother went through another strange phrase around a month or two before she was to give birth to the twins. Mrs. Barry was always cleaning with the CW channel on, and stopped halfway through her cleaning just to sit down and watch the show, Supernatural.

The woman was obsessed with one character in particular. So obsessed Mrs. Barry knew every detail about the actor Jensen Ackles. Charlie often asked her dad if it was healthy for a grown married woman to be obsessing over another man.