Charlie
"You must be Charlie." A tall brown-skinned man had opened the door. "Jessica's friend?"
"Yes, Sir." I nodded to the dominating personality infront of me. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Davis."
Everyone in the town knew who Greg Davis is, and being a U.S. Air Force Pilot he did have a confidence personality but his eyes were kind and matched with Jessica's.
I shifted the flowers to my left hand and forwarded my right hand to shake. He gripped my hand firmly and nodded in content.
"Glad to see that atleast one of Jessica's friends have manners." He stated as he let go of my hand. "You aren't a senior, are you? Because you look younger."
"No, Sir." I replied. "I'm actually a sophomore."
"Then how are you and Jessica friends?"
Because we framed one of my now-dead teammates for a murder.
"I worked at Crestmont in the summer too, Sir." I replied as he narrowed his eyes at me. "That's where we met."
"And he is also in the football team, Dad." Jessica interrupted, as she joined us at the door. "Charlie is the quarterback and captain of the football team."
Jessica was wearing a black dress, in which she was looking very beautiful. But I was still afraid to even compliment her.
"Really?" Mr. Davis asked, as he looked at me in surprise. "That's hard to believe with all the manners this young man's showing. Why can't you have more friends like him?"
I'm proud to say that parents like me.
"Charlie," Jessica said, giving me a knowing smile. "I see you brought flowers."
"Oh, yeah." I handed the bouquet to Jessica. "I didn't knew which flowers you liked, so I just brought lilies. Hope you don't mind."
"Thanks, Charlie." She nodded, as she widened her eyes at the fact that I actually brought her flowers. "I'll keep them in the water, wait for a minute."
I nodded as she went inside her house. Her father stayed outside and looked at me with his observing eyes.
"You're Victor's son, aren't you?" He asked me as I nodded. "I know your father through Booster Club. He had once told me his son is the quarterback."
Dad had always been proud that I played football. He was the one who taught me this game from the age of five, and I have always loved every second of it.
"I don't know about you much, so listen me to me clearly." He stated, with a warning tone. "Try anything out of order with my daughter, and the next thing you will have me to answer to."
Should I just tell him that I'm already afraid of his daughter?
"Ofcourse not, Mr. Davis." I assured him. "I promise you I'm nothing like you're thinking. She is my friend."
"Let's go then?" Thankfully Jessica appeared with a black clutch in hand, and kissed her father's cheek. "You should sleep now. Goodnight."
"Take care of yourself." Her father smiled at her, then turned to me with a stern look. "Hope I'll see you again, Charlie."
I nodded at him and we made our way to my car.
Like a gentleman I had decided to be tonight, I went to the passenger seat's side and opened the door for Jessica. She looked at me in surprise and got in the car.
"Alright, Cookies, I wanna clear some things first." She said, once I was seated behind the wheel and started the engine. "We are not going to literally dance at this dance."
"Okay." I continued driving without giving her a glance.
"Don't try to touch me by any sort."
"Okay."
"Don't try to kiss me infront of people."
At that sentence, I did give her a glance.
"Do you remember, Jessica?" I questioned. "You were the one who asked me to the dance. And I'm assuming it was to get Justin jealous."
She remained quiet this time as I knew it was the truth.
"I respect you, Jessica." I said, keeping my eyes on the road. "If that's not clear. And I respect Justin too, and even if you two have broken up I am not going to try anything on you. I assure you that."
"Good." She muttered, and started staring out of the window.
It was the end of our conversation, hopefully till the dance venue, and I was thankful for that.
I knew this was going to be an awkward evening, seeing we both were not that good friends with each other. Technically, I was forced to come so I wasn't even interested in dancing with her.
We finally got to the school, parked outside, and made our way to the gym where music was bursting from.
The whole gym was crowded, people dancing everywhere. Wherever I looked there were flowers, heart shapes and basically every red shade. I could see Tony up near the speakers, and he was doing a great job on the music seeing everyone was enjoying themselves.
"Can you get me some punch?" Jessica suddenly asked me.
"Is that... Do they even have punch?" I asked, confused. "Is that still a thing?"
I shouldn't be blamed for not knowing this things. This was my first high school dance, so I didn't really know how this things worked.
Jessica groaned at my response and started dragging herself to see for herself.
"I will go, and I will find out." I stopped her, as she smiled and thanked me.
I made my way through the dancing teens, and came to the table where refreshments were kept. Luke was there, and got surprised to see me.
"Charlie?" He asked, as I started looking for any decent drink. "We didn't knew you were coming today."
"Yeah, me and Jessica decided to come as friends."
"Jessica? As in Jessica Davis?" He asked, as I nodded looking at him. "Man, couldn't you get someone else? You know you aren't going to get any tonight with her."
"Luke, I'm not interested in having anything tonight." I stated. "Just tell me, do we have punch?"
"Nah, Bolan forbidden it this time." He replied, as he winked at a girl passing by. "We had it till the last year's spring fling, but everything got out of hand, so Bolan just allowed canned drinks this time in hopes that no one could mix any alcohol."
Just then someone shouted his name and he disappeared through the dancing bodies.
I grabbed three types of Diet Coke. Girls love Diet Coke, even if I don't like it much.
Clay and Ani were dancing together, and I smiled at Ani when I passed by. I also spotted Alex and Zach sitting on the bleachers, both in their regular clothes. Maybe I will also get to talk to Alex later.
For the sake of the dance, I had decided to wear a suit over my hooded sweatshirt. I knew Jessica would wear a dress and I wanted to look like I made some efforts.
Tyler was up with Tony on the music, as I made my way where I had left Jessica. Surprisingly, she wasn't alone.
"Sorry, I couldn't find any punch," I informed, as Diego grabbed one can off my hand and went his way. "But I got, like, three different kinds of Diet Coke."
Jessica grabbed one from my hand and I opened the remaining can for myself.
Can't Stop Your Lovin was playing, and I started to nod my head at the beats of the music.
Jessica wasn't paying attention, and was thinking about something else. It really made me wonder what Diego might've said to her.
"You know what, Charlie?" She suddenly turned towards me. "I'm sorry that I had you bring me here. I didn't even knew if you had a date or not, and I didn't even asked you properly."
I just stared at Jessica in surprise, because it was my first time seeing her apologize for something.
"And you don't have to stick with me the whole night." She continued, searching for someone in the crowd. "You can enjoy yourself."
"Are you sure?" I asked her. "What are you going to do?"
"Enjoy myself." Jessica shrugged, then disappeared in the crowd too.
This is not how I imagined my first dance to be.
I silently groaned to myself, and decided to go sit at the bleachers. Atleast I will chat with Alex for sometime.
But both Alex and Zach had disappeared too.
"Never thought the quarterback would get ditched by his date." A familiar voice said from behind, and I turned around to face a smirking Betty.
She was wearing a tight sparkly dress, which was hugging her body well. Her blonde hair were tied up, and heavy makeup covered her face. To be honest, she was actually looking good but I wasn't going to say that to her multiple layered face.
I didn't wanted her to get any ideas from any of my complements.
"So how does it feel?" She asked, as I rolled my eyes at her. "C'mon Charrypoo, did you really thought any other girl will be better for you, rather than me?"
"Where is your date, Betty?" I asked back, and pretended to look around. "Did he got bored by staring at your multi-layered cake face? Or you decided to come alone because of your self-obsessed behaviour?"
"Funny how you are still insulting me when I'm just here stating the facts." She sneered at me. "But my date just happened to be hanging with his friends, when I decided to be nice and come talk to your lonely ass."
Betty pointed towards a guy from the track team, who gave me a wave and winked at her.
"And I am spotting Jessica being quite interested in Diego's lips." She said smirking, as I also saw Jessica and Diego making out in the middle of the dance floor.
Oh god.
"Enjoy your night, Charrypoo." Betty winked at me and went to join her date.
Just then I heard my phone ping, indicating I've received a message.
Justin 🏈
How's the dance?
What was I going to say here? That your girlfriend ditched me and is now kissing someone else? Nope, that would be worst. So I decided to tell him half-truth.
Dance is great. Jess
ditched me for Diego.
"Charles!" Brandon, another guy from the track team greeted me as he and his girlfriend Minty joined me at the bleachers. "Why are you sitting alone?"
"Well, I actually came with Jessica Davis," I told him, then pointed towards Jessica and Diego. "But..."
"Aah, I see." He nodded, as Minty gave an awkward smile. "You're free to join us though."
"Yeah," Minty nodded. "My cousin, Lily, she is feeling sad that her girlfriend couldn't stop for this dance. Her girlfriend is in college, but I got Lily to come with me tonight. You two can hang out with us."
Brandon, Minty and Lily, all of them were sophomores and also in my Biology and Maths class. I've actually worked with Lily on a project last semester, so I already knew she was a decent girl to hang with.
At times like this I really wish Estela wasn't an introvert.
"If you don't have any plans already." Brandon said. "I heard the football team was planning something tonight."
What?
It was the first time I was hearing about this. Maybe they thought I wouldn't be coming so they didn't told me. They must've planned a party or something afterwards.
"Can we go home already?" Lily joined us too, and got surprised seeing me. "Hey, Charlie! How you been?"
"I've been good." I replied, giving the girl a smile. "And why are you leaving so early? We haven't even danced yet?"
She looked at me in astonishment as both Brandon and Minty chuckled.
"We asked Charlie to hang out with us tonight." Minty informed her. "You don't mind, do you?"
"Only on one condition though." Lily said, narrowing her eyes at me. "Do you have your famous cookies with you?"
"The theory is correct then." I joked, as I pulled a small bag of cookies from my pocket. "The way to a girl's heart is really through her stomach."
This cookies were normal, not like my other cookies. I knew it would be a risk to bring the special cookies to a school dance.
"Then I don't mind you." Lily joked too. "I've been feeling like a third-wheel the whole evening. Glad I got a friend to dance now."
And that's what we did. I danced with them, and I was enjoying my first high school dance.
I knew Liberty had a history of infamous dances, but I thought what could have gone wrong tonight?
But it did.
We are talking about Liberty High School, for god's sake, I should always remember that.
×××××××××××××××
New Chapter!
I actually feel bad for Charlie in this chapter, and also in the episode of Valentine's Dance. I didn't like how Jessica didn't give an option to Charlie for the dance, and afterwards she ditches him for Diego.
I mean, they aren't even that good friends that she just considered him to be happy with the decision. That's just my opinion.
On other hand, we are so close to 5K reads! Thank you so much for reading this book and patiently waiting for the updates.
I also noticed the book has been #1 on #Chalex for two consecutive weeks, I feel so grateful to you all.
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