The Locket

Chapter Five

The drive home was a complete blur; I don't even remember getting in my car. I went to the library after seeing Father Mulligan to search for any information about what he told me. I spent hours there and came up empty handed. I pull into Brooke's driveway and she comes running out.

"So...don't hate me," She says.

"Why, what's going on?" I say.

"Just come inside and you'll see." She looks nervous. What did she do?

"Okay..." I say and start following her into the house. There's no one here. I wonder what she's up to. As I was about to ask, someone comes out of the bathroom. Oh crap.

"Chase?" I ask

"Hey, Charlotte," he says completely casually.

"Hi, uh I don't mean to be rude, but what are you doing here?" I ask.

He laughs but Brooke replies "Well I went out for a run today and as I was coming up Winchester Road I ran into Chase. I didn't literally run into him, but I saw him and we started talking...so I decided to invite him over to go swimming since it is totally hot out and I figured you wouldn't mind." I think she's looking for some type of approval from me. I subtly gave her, my 'Brooke you are totally out of your mind' look.

"Oh yeah, it's cool." I hope no one caught my sarcasm.

"Awesome! I'm going to go get some drinks and snacks and bring them out to the pool!" Brooke eagerly replies.

After she leaves the room, the tension in the room rises to an almost unbearable level. He doesn't know what I saw him do.... Well I don't even know what I saw him do but it sure was something totally crazy.

"Well I'm going to go get changed into my bathing suit," I say. I need to get out of this room.

He grabs my arm as I'm turning around. He looks at me and it's as though his dark eyes are piercing right through my soul. A shiver runs down my spine and goose bumps arise. Any longer and I'm pretty sure he could probably see that I know something's different about him.

He looks down and starts to speak, "I wanted to apologize for the other night. I didn't mean to cut you off and leave like that. There was just something, something that I had to take care of. If it weren't so important then I wouldn't have left so fast. I was having a great time talking to you, and I hope we can do that again. Well maybe without the whole party thing." He awkwardly laughs and waits for me to reply. Is he asking me out or just being polite?

"Oh, don't worry about it, I understand. Was everything all right?" I ask.

"Yeah it is. I just had to do something important for my father; work related."

"Oh okay, I'm glad everything's alright." The awkwardness is back and we're both just looking at one another. I really hope Brooke comes back in soon.

"You guys coming?" Brooke shouts from the patio.

"Yeah!" We both shout in unison. We both just smiled at each other, more amusement in his smile than mine.

"Well, I'll meet you out there, I have to go get changed." I say, thankful for my escape.

"Okay, see you soon," He says and smiles at me again. He should stop doing that; it makes my insides quiver.

I hurry up the stairs; maybe I just shouldn't come back down. But then Brooke would surely kill me. I hurry to find my bathing suit. Drat, I don't have any nice ones! Wait, why do I care? Ugh...Chase is messing with my head, and I don't like it! Especially since I don't even know who he is, or really what he is.