Winter Illusions

Chapter 4 (Mara)

Oh my gosh. What is Nova doing with Charlie. I think I might drop dead on the floor right here. Someone dig my grave already.

Cleo nudges me and smirks, but I just turn away and pin Nova with a harsh look. As we near the table I slip onto the bench beside Nova and Cleo sits next to me. 

"What on earth were you thinking?" I whisper through my teeth.

"Well, I just thought this might be good for you! To introduce you to the other gender!" Nova whispers, and I can hear her smile.

I internally groan. She really wants this for me, and I can't say no to her, and I think she might subconsciously know that. 

Charlie and Cleo sit awkwardly beside us, so I sit back up and try to not be awkward, which is a hard thing for me.

"Um, so, Charlie how was your Christmas?" I ask, hoping to break the silence.

"It was wonderful! I got some amazing gifts and my grandma made the best turkey! How was yours?" He says cheerfully.

Let's just say I was not expecting that, not in the slightest. 

"Oh, it was pretty good! Nova got me an amazing gift and made really delicious Yorkshire puddings, you Cleo?" I respond, glancing at my friend beside me.

She is so gorgeous, she looks like she is glowing with happiness. 

"It was great as well, I got to see my new cousin!" She exclaims.

Charlie's head pops into my line of vision and I remember the reason why he is sitting with us. As much as I love Nova, what was going through her head when she decided to do this?! I know she had my best interests in mind but-

"Charlie, could I talk to you? Alone?" I ask him, and stand up.

He follows behind and we go to the edge of the dining room.

"You're a sensible person, what made you think coming with my sister was a good idea?"

"Well, she was just so convincing and I didn't see what would go wrong!"

Ugh, damn him and his optimistic self.

"Now you've gotten yourself into such a mess, oh my gosh. You have no clue what is going to happen now, my sister wants you to date me, and I don't want to date you and it's all a mess-" I am cut off by his voice.

"Hold up you don't want to date me? I am charming," He says with a flourish. 

Fuck me sideways he is quite charming, but I never work well in relationships. Well, I've never been in one. I just know though, it won't end well. What happens if I end up liking him? There is absolutely no way he will forever love a girl like me.

"I mean you are charming but-" His eyes twinkle as I say that, "I just don't want to be in a relationship," I finish, crossing my arms.

This is a disaster. And now I have to try fix this.

"This is a mess, you know this isn't going to work and so do I but I'm going to be letting Nova down and I don't want to break her again I know how much this means to her and I just can't do it anymore oh my gosh what is going on this is such a catastrophe," I ramble on, until  realise Charlie is holding my arms down.

He is looking behind me and I turn around to see, Skye. Oh no. Here I thought things couldn't get any worse. 

"Oh my gosh Charlie? Hi! How was your Christmas?" She asks, her voice sweet as honey as she cuts in between us, her dark curly hair flicking into my face as I stumble backwards and Charlie lets go of my arms. 

I can see Charlie glance over at me but I look down and leave him to Sadie. She is, after all, the prettiest and most popular girl in the school, just perfect for Charlie.

"I have missed you so much! Tell me about your break, mine was so amazing! You'll never guess what my parents got me! A pony! I know so amazing! What did you get?" She asks, and I can see her big brown eyes staring into his, and I feel my heart drop a little.

Wait no no. Not drop. It's fine. Nothing happened, if anything they perfectly fit each other. 

"It was alright, um Skye could you stop holding onto my abs?" He asks awkwardly, looking down at her hands plastered on his lower chest.

"Oh, never mind that, it's not like you have a girlfriend or anything!" Skye teases.

"Well, I actually do."

Um, what? Who? Nova tried to set me up with a taken man?

"She's right here!" He exclaims, and pulls me around from behind Sadie until I am placed in his chest, and he wraps his arms tightly around me.

What. The. Heck.

Me? I'm not his boyfriend. Excuse me? What on earth is going on.

I look up at him and see the pleading in his gorgeous brown eyes, so I decided to play along, if only to save him from Sadie.

"Uh - hum what?" Sadie sputters.

"Yep! Mara is my girlfriend, we got together just before Christmas break actually!" He says cheerfully.

I nod along, and glance around the room to see that most eyes are on us, including Cleo and Nova's.

Nova. She looks like she is ready to burst with happiness. I guess she truly thinks we have been dating since before Christmas, I just wasn't ready to tell her. 

And Cleo, the girl has the cheekiest grin on her face that I want to wipe straight off. I love her so much for this but oh gosh.

I turn back to Sadie and I see her eyes cloud over as she takes a step back, fazed. Oh no, making the most popular girl in school angry is never a good idea. Her eyes turn to me and she gives me the dirtiest look. 

I am in a whole world of trouble.

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Hi lovelies! I know it has been a while, I have just been struggling to write but I'm finally back! And yes I know this chapter is really short, it is just that I wanted to publish something and I might go through and edit it, I just wanted to publish something after not doing so for weeks. I absolutely love this chapter so much and I love Mara and Charlie and hope you do too! See you next chapter (I'm so excited for you guys to see who's Pov it's in!) love you all and thank you for reading x

Word Count: 5085

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