Loves Me Not

*REVISED* Chapter Four

Ellie doesn't even wait until we are a reasonable distance away from the Caf before she bursts with excitement. The doors haven't even swung closed as she is laughing, animatedly bouncing up and down as she recounts what just happened.

"Holy fuck, did you see that shit? Of course you saw that shit; you were there! That was you! KD, what the hell have you been hiding from me? You had two guys fighting over you! Literally fighting over you! Do you realize how insane that is?" Ellie is talking a mile a minute while literally dancing in circles around me.

"And how do you know Charlie? Do you even know who he is? Do you know who you just fucking kissed? Girl, it's only been four days and you've already hopped to the next hot thing like popcorn! You've been holding back on me girl!" Ellie purposefully bumps into my side with a laugh as we cross the quad. "But you definitely didn't hold back when you were kissing him! I just knew you were a freak! I was blushing just watching the two of you! Who the fuck are you?! Because I've never seen you do anything like that!"

Her enthusiasm is infectious and I can't help but grin deviously back at her. "I guess that was kinda badass, huh?"

Ellie laughs at how humble I am being. "You guess? You guess?! That was spectacular! And when you told off Dustin at the end? What the hell even is necro—whatever the fuck you said?" Ellie stops to hold her side as she laughs even harder. "Who says that shit? How the fuck did you come up with that? And here I thought you were such a good girl!"

Ellie wipes some tears brimming in her eyes and starts walking normally again. Every once in a while she giggles to herself as she shakes her head. "Glued his tip to his zipper. Man that would have to hurt."

"It'd probably hurt like a bitch!" We hear a voice chuckle from behind us.

I turn around to see Charlie jogging towards us with a smile on his face. I spot a minor bruise starting to form under his eye where Dustin clocked him, but other than that he looks like he escaped the fight unscathed. I look at his hands and see him holding the plate full of pizza.

"I'm sorry I interrupted your meal with all that mess." I grimace rubbing the back of my neck as I avoid eye contact.

"Don't worry," he smiles, winking at me. "That kiss was worth way more than a few slices of shitty pizza."

Ellie lets out a tiny squeal when she hears that, turning to look at me with eyes as wide a saucers and another devious smile playing on her lips. I roll my eyes as I avert my gaze, hoping that my darker complexion doesn't allow the blood pouring into my cheeks to show. Now that I think about it, kissing a stranger in front of half of the school is really not the smartest thing I could have done.

"Actually, I'm really sorry about putting you into that whole situation. I wanted to make my ex jealous and you were right there so I figured 'why not?'" I mutter. "I probably should have taken a second to think about the consequences of that though."

"Hey, if you think about it, I was the one that kissed you. And besides," Charlie steps closer and tilts my chin up with his free hand, "I would gladly get punched in the face every day for the rest of my life if I could kiss you like that one more time."

My mouth drops open when I realize he's serious. I want to turn to look at Ellie in disbelief but I can't summon the strength to tear my gaze away from his.

"Oh shit!" Ellie screeches before she clamps a hand over her own mouth, trying to remain silent. I quickly shut my mouth and pull my chin out of his grasp, taking a step backwards as I try to gather my composure.

What the hell am I doing? This is not what I need right now. I'm trying to take a break from boys. I can't let this guy get into my head.

"Well..." Charlie segues awkwardly, looking back and forth between Ellie and me. "So when did you want to go to Mikey's?" Charlie shoves his free hand into his pocket and kicks at the cracks in the sidewalk.

"Actually I'm leaving to go back home tomorrow so I don't really know if that'll work out..." Why did I tell him that in the cafeteria? I really need to keep my mouth shut. I start to rack my brain for even more excuses as to why I can't ever hang out with him. Maybe if I just put it off until after break he'll have forgotten all about me. Boys are like goldfish; they both have incredibly short attention spans.

"Well, if you're leaving tomorrow then we have to hang out tonight! I don't know the next time I'll see you!" Charlie pushes out his bottom lip slightly to emphasize his desperation. Remarkably, all I can imagine is grabbing him by the back of the neck and pulling him to me, wrapping one of my legs around his waist to hold him there as I slowly start to nibble on the puffed out lip. I shake my head to force that image out of my mind as I stare up at him in barely concealed horror.

What the fuck? What the hell is this boy doing to me? I haven't thought about doing something like that to someone since the last time I saw—

It's important that I get as far away from Charlie as possible as soon as I can before I do something else I will regret.

"I'm not sure if that's the best id—" I start to mumble before Ellie cuts me off, clapping her hand over my mouth.

"You guys have to hang out tonight! Coincidentally, I heard about this end of the semester party Prince Michaels is throwing tonight that should be lit! We were already planning on going, so you can meet us there!" I look over at her with surprise plain on my face. We were planning on doing what tonight?

"Yeah I think I heard about that, too. I don't have the address though. Can you text it to me?" Charlie asks Ellie, pulling his phone out of his back pocket.

"Yeah, I'll have Kaiydeen text it to you," Ellie volunteers, removing her hand from my mouth to grab my phone from my hand.

"Kaiydeen," Charlie whispers, a smile tugging on the corner of his lips. He turns to look me in the eyes, paralyzing me as I get lost in the blue pools of his irises. "That's such a beautiful name.

"Ha, thanks. It was a birthday present," I whisper back, smiling sadly at the lameness of my joke.

He chuckles lightly before turning his attention back to Ellie, slowly giving her his phone number as she types it into my contacts. I hear the ding of a new text message arriving to Charlie's phone.

"There," Ellie hands me my phone, dusting her hands off like she just finished a day's worth of work. "Now you have the address and Kaiy's number so you can text her once you get there." 

I look at her in amazement. Does she not realize that I just got my heart broken a couple of days ago? I'm still trying to find the pieces to the lamp I shattered against the fucking wall! I had to buy a new one too, and that shit wasn't as cheap as I thought it would be. I should have fucking billed Dustin.

"So, I guess I'll see you there then?" Charlie smiles as he begins walking backward away from us.

"Definitely!" Ellie confirms for me. I am really going to have to tell her to tone down her assertiveness.

"Well then, I'll see you later!" Charlie tucks one of his hands in his pocket and turns to walk away while still gripping the plate of pizza.

"Bye Charlie," I force out, but he is already too far away to hear me.