Time doesn't matter

12. Sis, I need you opinion

CHARLIE POV

I finally make it home after school without crashing my car. I don't waist any time to get to my room and take a long nap.

Unfortunately my body decides it's a good time to wake up right at 9 pm. I ignore the fact I still feel tired and go downstairs to the kitchen to get something to eat. I sit on one of the stools next to the island counter and just sit there for god knows how many minutes with my head resting on my hands, blankly contemplating what I can eat.

When I realized I forgot to think. I get up and walk to the fridge. I open it and it feels like my eyes just had an orgasm. The fridge is neatly re-stocked and everything is organized into Tupperwares. This is one of things I genuinely appreciate about my mom, she's a neat freak. Practically everything at our house is nicely in its place using all kinds of containers keeping them there.

I finally decide I want fruit so I take a bowl from the cabinet and grab a little of every kind of fruit in the fridge. I also take a Red Bull from its nice row and take it with me. I smile at I stare at it for a second, reminding me of Paige.

As I'm walking back to my room is when I start to thinking more about her. How am I supposed to deal with her. How am I supposed to play my cards so this, whatever this is, turns out good.

Naturally, being the most closed off person, I go consult the only person I actually tell anything to, my 13 year old sister Hayley.

Is it weird that I talk to my little sister about stuff? Probably. Do I worry about us having a good enough relationship to do so, knowing it isn't normal? Maybe sometimes. Am still gonna tell her? Yes.

Ok, to be fair I don't tell her everything completely as it is, I obviously bend the truth to make it somewhat child friendly, but she's very mature for her age and she doesn't mind it too much.

"Come in!" She says from the other side of her door. I do as told and walk into her room, I throw myself on one of her beanbag chairs, as I take my bowl of fruit and start eating some of it. "What is it?" She asks as she takes off her gaming headphones and turns her gamer's chair to face me.

"I need your opinion on something." I tell her.

"What is it about?" She asks leaning forward to grab a strawberry from my bowl.

"About a girl, her name is Paige." I tell her.

"Ok, go ahead, spill what you're worried about."

"Ok so... we've been going to school together since the 1st grade and I might of never talked to her even though I developed a small crush that kept growing in the 5th grade." I start with the basics.

"You've had a crush this whole time and you didn't tell me!" She says while reaching her foot to hit me with it on my knee.

"Ouch. But yeah, I didn't tell you about it because I've never actually talked to her until now." I reason.

"Ok, I'll let it pass. Go on then." She tells me.

"So turns out she sits next to me on practically every class. So one time I... invited her to study..." I say trying to see if I can get away with that metaphor. I glance up at Hay and I can already tell by her face that she isn't buying it.

"Studying... ok sure..." she says while rolling her eyes.

"Well anyway we studied and I explained to her something. But then after I was gonna drop her off because, normally when I... study with someone I just explain some stuff and they leave." I say feeling a little worried that my metaphor isn't working. I look up and I see Hay nodding with a smirk on her fase. "What?" I ask her.

"Nothing... just... if that metaphor is helping you tell me about your sex live that's ok, just continue." She says unbothered.

My face turns red but I continue. "Anyway... so after I explained to her that thing, like right after a explained she called another guy to explain to her what I just explained and more of the lesson. Right in front of my fase." I explain.

"Oof, that's tough, I like her." Hay says.

"Yeah well... anyway I told her that if she ever needed a study buddy I was happy to be it, but then she told me that the person she called was already her study buddy, and she likes any kind of study partner to be from out of school." I say already missing the point with the metaphor because it makes no sense. I look at Hay for approval to continue and I see her nodding. "Ok so the next day... I found out that... we use the same pens. So the whole day I was trying to ask her about that and she ignored me. Until we had study hall and we finished talking about our matching pens and had a civil conversation. Then when I left, I kissed her and she didn't pull back... so yeah I don't know what that means because I don't normally just kiss girls." I say failing to find a metaphor for the kiss.

"Ok well, you lost me at that matching pens situation but I don't wanna know. Also if she didn't pull back maybe she likes you too." She pitches in. That thought brings butterflies to my belly, the thought of her actually liking me back.

"Maybe," I say "There's more. So later that day I went to her house and she explained to me something about school without me even asking for it." I say.

"Well... if she studied with you without being asked, considering she already has a study buddy, maybe deep down she want you as a study buddy instead." She says making my head turn.

"You might be right..." I agree. "Well today we actually talked without studying and I was feeling sick and she took care of me." I tell her.

"That's cute, she didn't have to do that. That seems like a good sign to me." She says.

"You think? The thing is that I might of confused her a little because throughout our interaction I might of both implied that I would gladly be her new study buddy but also very vaguely told her that I don't feel about her the way I would feel about just a study buddy, but more a study boyfriend and girlfriend." I spill.

"That's not good." She tells me, making me worried. "Girls overthink stuff, she'll go crazy if she has to figure your riddles out. But I think either she decides to completely ignore any talk about big stuff like being study boyfriend and girlfriend, or she's just going crazy thinking about what you said." She says. Making me understand a little more of the girls' point of view.

"So what should I do?" I ask.

"Well... ok I think you should let her make the decision. But without completely ghosting her because she'll think there's something wrong. Wait to see what she ends up doing and just go along with it. You can work your way up from being friends first, I just don't recommend trying to push her to being boy/girlfriend right away without knowing how she feels first. It'll be too much, and if you push to hard everything you've built could easily fall down." She tells me.

I think about it for a minute while I pop some raspberries into my mouth. "You know what Hay, I think you're right. Thank you." I say while I get up from her beanbag chair, and I start to walk out her room. As I'm walking she stops me and signals to give her my bowl of fruit. I roll my eyes and give it to her anyway because I owed her one.

After I come back from getting myself another bowl of fruit, I throw myself on my bed. I lay there staring at the sealing and think about this. The few things that I know is that I don't want to mess up what I have with Paige. Second, if she gives me anything, I'll take it without hesitation.