Project GoldCrest ✓

Chapter 25

Charlotte

I stayed with Mickey and we had a normal conversation. We talked about normal, neutral stuff. It was like we were old friends or something. I left shortly after.

Upon arriving home, I was hungry. I went into the kitchen and made myself instant noodles. Beef flavour. After that I went to find Maddie.

She was in her room. Doing homework, at first glance. But then I saw the phone right next to her displaying a picture of a model. Maddie wanted to be a beautiful exotic model. She'd entered a lot of beauty pageants when she was younger.

And of course she won. The looks she inherited from our mom made sure of it.

"Any special food requests today?"

"I thought you'd gone away." She sighed and took her phone back. Probably figuring that there was no point in hiding it when I'd already seen it. "To answer your question, no."

"Are you even hungry?"

"Not really."

"I'll be in the kitchen," I closed her door and went to my room. I needed to do something important first.

I took the Red Book and decided that it was best to keep it in my backpack. Safer even. Once that little detail was finished, I went back to the kitchen.

Turns out I shouldn't have bothered, because I heard the rumble of my dad's car outside. Maddie descended from the stairs and together we went outside.

Our parents were awkwardly quiet during whole evening. So we didn't even bother to ask how the conference went. They'd brought takeouts and we ate in our separate bedrooms. I'm not even sure if our parents ate. They'd locked themselves in their room.

It was so unusual. I'd deduced that they had a fight. But about what? I was always so used to them in tune with each other. We've never, and I mean never, seen them fight.

The following day, I got to school early. I saw Sophia and Chrissy arrive at the same time. And they were laughing together. It's been so long since I heard Chrissy laugh.

"Hey guys," I greeted.

Sophie greeted me back. Chrissy sent a wary look my way, probably wondering if I was still annoyed with her. I tried to tell her, in the form of a smile, that I wasn't. Eventually, she gave me a nod.

Cold.

But I guess I deserved it for treating her badly. We somehow managed to slip into small talk on the way to class. Sophie was the one who initiated it, and I was glad. The first two periods went by pretty fast, and soon enough, it was lunch time.

Halfway through eating, Blake strode in the cafeteria looking as up-to-no-good as ever. He went to get food, but while he was in line, he shot a wink to our table. My cheeks grew hot with annoyance.

Instinctively, I looked at Chrissy and found her smiling like a fool. I fought the urge to comment or make an expression. The last thing I needed was to become a jerk to her again. Sophia sent me a warning look.

So I kept my face neutral and kept eating. When I was done, I excused myself. I wandered the halls to distract myself. That's when I came across the sight of a blur of shiny blonde. I watched as Olivia fluttered around someone, and lowkey wanted to laugh.