People Like Us: Part I [MxFxM]

Chapter Fifteen

"You know, you seem to be getting here earlier lately."

Adrian glanced over to Charlie from where he stood next to her locker, waiting for her to finish going through her books. It was Friday, and he liked Fridays. Easy classes, the day before the weekend. Fridays didn't require a lot of thinking. "Are you telling me to go back to being late all the time?"

"Of course not," she said, closing her locker in order to turn and look at him. "I'm just making an observation."

Adrian hummed at that, raising an eyebrow as Charlie turned and started down the hall, gesturing for him to follow. "So, points. Where are we?" she asked.

That made Adrian pause. At some point he'd lost track during the whole thing with River, so he wasn't entirely sure where they stood. "Good question. I lost track."

"So did I."

"Wanna make it an even forty-five then?"

Charlie frowned. "You're at forty-five?" she asked. Adrian thought for a minute, then shrugged.

"I think so. I'm giving you a major boost here, wanna make it even or not?" he asked. Charlie rolled her eyes as she nodded. "Forty-five it is then."

"You realize this just makes me that much closer to sixty. And then you'll have to buy lunch again," she mentioned casually.

Adrian raised an eyebrow, looking down at her. "What makes you so sure you'll get to sixty before I will?" he asked. She only smiled up at him in response, and Adrian sighed. "You're too competitive."

"This whole thing was your idea. It's not my fault if you're losing."

"Excuse me, who the hell just got you up to forty-five points?"

"Irrelevant." Charlie said, making Adrian narrow his eyes at her. "However I do have a second observation."

"This'll be good, I'm sure." Adrian muttered.

"All this time I thought you were just an anti-social jerk who hated practically anything that so much as breathed around you, and didn't do anything but get in trouble—"

"I get it, thank you."

"When actually you're just a giant teddy bear."

Adrian stopped walking at that, turning to look at Charlie fully as she tilted her head a little. "Excuse me?"

"A teddy bear. You know. The little brown, fluffy stuffed animal."

"I know what a teddy bear is. My question is why are you comparing me to one?"

"Because you are." Charlie snorted. "At least with River, anyway. You're all nice and whatnot."

"I'm not that nice."

"You buy him food and kiss his head."

Adrian stuttered for a second, not sure how to respond at first. "Yeah, well, have you seen how much the kid eats? Seriously he eats enough for a small army."

Charlie raised her eyebrows. "Doesn't mean you need to buy him food. You do that just because you want to. So—giant teddy bear. I think that's what I'll call you instead of six-foot Hawaiian native," she said thoughtfully, moving to walk toward class again.

"What? Why?"

"To piss you off."

Adrian groaned in irritation as he followed. "You're a bitch," he muttered. Charlie laughed, but it was cut off abruptly as she turned back to Adrian, frowning slightly.

"Oh, just to be clear on something. River's uh, condition? I mean, it is what I think it is, right?" she asked.

"You mean his balls? Or lack of. The kids balls haven't dropped. To put it bluntly," he said. She nodded.