Chapter 4
Early Saturday evening, me and my so-called mentor are going to a little mall trip to see the progress of our previous morning-afternoon endeavor. But, just for extra security, I watched a ton of Youtube "how-to" videos. It's really stupid, I know. Trust me, I knew that since the idea came to mind. I'm ashamed that I even bothered resorting to that option, but I did it anyway. I mean, what else are you supposed to do if you're a sixteen-year-old girl who's about to flirt with a teenage stranger? I don't have any experience in this department, if you don't already know. I spent about an hour trying to search stuff like how to flirt with a guy or how to get noticed by a guy. Hell, I even looked up how to be sexy. Shows how savvy I am when it comes to the dating game. I guess I really do need to get a life. No joke. Hopefully, after this covenant with Charlie, I'm over it. Succesful or not.
"Does Cindy know?" he asks out of the blue.
The beautiful lighting illuminates his face in this semi-crowded mall. I take him in like this - us.
What? Did I just say us? Uh-oh. You're focusing on Drew. Not Charlie. Not Charlie!
"Uh, Elouise? Cindy know I'm out, right?" I nod blankly as I sulk in my own thoughts.
"So where shall we start?" I ask trying to sound confident, which I'm not.
"The arcade," he answers simply.
I nod and follow him anxiously. The truth is I don't give a damn about this field trip. I'd rather listen to Penelope's drama all day than risk getting rejected. I hate rejection. It already happened to me a lot, I don't need to add more to My List of Rejections. I never want that kind of feeling again. Never. But here I am, doing it anyway - risking it.
When will you learn?
There's that smart ass voice again.
You know I hate you, right?
I scream the three words in my head. That voice doesn't listen, though. It has it's own mind.
Charlie drapes his arm around my shoulders and I remove it. "I thought we were on a hunt? You taking dibs?" I joke. I'm just feeling a lot more shy than I am earlier.
He pulls me back in and replies, "Relax, I'm being friendly. Besides, you're my little sister's best friend."
I sigh in relief. In that very far corner of my head, I felt disappointed. It's as if I've already been rejected and I didn't even try. Do you see where I'm coming from here?
The arcade was smelly, full of youth, and crowded. No surprise there. It's a Saturday night, for crying out loud. Charlie points to the basketball game thing and we quickly buy a few tokens. We challenge each other with a duel to the death. Well, more like I pretend I actually have a chance in winning. Within two minutes, there was a little group of the female specimen gawking at Charlie.
My Charlie!
There you go. I don't know why I'm being a tad possessive over him. Maybe it's because he's my mentor, not theirs.
Yeah, keep telling yourself that.
I ignore the annoying voice and pretend to accidentally hit Charlie in the head with one of the basketballs.
"What the hell?" he roars.
"It was an accident." I say it sweet, like it really was an accident. I add in my puppy dog face for added measure and his lips pull up into a grin that sends my heart rate quickening. He throws his ball at me and I stumble back a little, bumping into someone behind me in the process. Oops. I glare at Charlie but he appears to be examining his sneakers. He decides to ignore me now? Jerk.
I reach for the ball and quickly turn around. "I'm sorry. I was just-"
The tall guy with an air of coolness simply shakes his head dismissively and smiles. "It's okay," he reassures.
I smile back and return to the not-so-safe and very unfair ball game. I walk back to Charlie, who is now flirting with a bunch of girls. Adrenaline courses through my veins and a plan pops into mind. Without thinking about it too much, I go with it before my faux confidence wears off.
"Charlie," I whispher, hoping it's as seductive as I think it is.
His head snaps to where his name came from and judging from the shocked expression on his face, he didn't expect any of this. "Hey, uhm, El." he says disorientedly.
One or two of the girls openly scowled at me. I stand up beside him. We were really close, but our skin didn't touch. I felt quite liberated. "Hi, I'm Elouise. Charlie's..." I glance at him for a second before continuing. He looks like he's actually anticipating for something. "Charlie's friend."
His face drops as quick at is came, and oddly enough, his arm starts to snake its way around my waist. I'm quick to swat it away.
"Hi, Elouise, pleasure to meet you," says the dark haired one. Something tells me the word "pleasure" has the same meaning as "nasty" to this girl. I nod and roughly shove the ball at Charlie's stomach.
"Aggressive," he says huskily. His voice dips into a lower register and I fight back the urge to laugh.
Touche, my friend.
I then strut my stuff elsewhere, making sure to sway my hips more than usual. I didn't look back, but I crack up after I was out of ear or eye shot. My phone buzzes and I check it out. It's not a smart move, since I'm in a crowded area - and noisy one too.
"Hello?" I practically yell.
"Have you seen Charlie? He's been gone all day." It's Cindy.
"Uh, yeah, we're at the arcade." Why did I just say that?
"Don't tell me you two are going out? It's a little disturbing," she mumbles, huffing a laugh. What's so sick about that?
"No, we'll be back in a bit. Bye!" I answer, quickly hang up. I don't know, maybe I'm just taken aback by her theory. Especially when she said it's disturbing.
Is it really that weird to date my best friend's br-
"Hi," a voice murmurs. I glance in the direction where it came from, seeing the guy that I bumped into earlier.
"Hey." I reply shyly. So much for my air of faux confindence.
"Eric Haynes," he says and I nod.
"Elouise."
We shake hands and turns out I didn't need all those YouTube videos after all. Which I wasted so much time on, by the way. I didn't even need to look like I'm bored or interested and here he is, a breathing boy who noticed me! He grins at me and takes a small step forward.
"You with that dude?" Eric points to a tall figure with brown hair who's surrounded by at least five girls.
"With him how?" I ask, amused.
"Are you dating?" Eric rephrases.
"No." I shrug it off like it's no big deal, be it's not.
But you want it to.
Shut up, brain.
I ignore that and continue on. A grin quickly blooms from Eric's lips and he steps closer. "So I guess you're free?"
I raise a brow. Charlie said a guy likes a challenge. Why not? "I don't know." I pretend acting concerned, looking around the arcade.
His face slightly drops and I try not to grin. "We're just playing a few games in here," he adds.
Well, at least it's here. It's not like I'm leaving Charlie and hitching a ride with a stranger. You never know, he could be a kidnapper who eats cats for lunch. So I glance back at Charlie one last time. My mind spins a little when I realize he's staring at me and this blonde boy. I think, he's coming this way. I turn back to Eric and say, "C'mon, let's go." I pull him to the sea of people, hoping Charlie won't spot us. Every guy likes a challenge, right? I'm just not sure if I'm challenging the right guy.
* * *
Teenagers.... *rolls eyes*
Oh yeah, that's Penny on the side.
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