The Arabella Conundrum

Part Thirteen- The Fantastic Four Recurrence

Ben told me about the lockdown on Saturday morning once I had recovered enough. It was brutal to hear the facts but thankfully nobody had died, there was just severe life altering injuries for two soldiers.

I managed to get myself into school on Monday morning despite still feeling extremely shitty and tired. I was sat in the common room on the sofa waiting for my first lesson, I had surprisingly got in early. My head was titled backwards as I looked up at the ceiling. A shadow appeared over me but I didn't bother to move.

"Uhmm" Theo started and then coughed. "Arabella..."

I titled my head upright to see Theo stood there looking at me. My gaze shifted to a plastic box he was holding briefly before turning my attention back to him.

"I..." he stopped again and looked like he was physically hurting himself. I heard him curse under his breath.

I stood up and walked towards the kitchen area to grab myself a glass of water. I still hadn't forgotten what Theo had done the other night, well more specifically his mother. I wasn't ready to forgive him, I wasn't ready to hear any excuse he came up with. I wasn't angry at him per say just pissed off at him more than anything.

"What I was try..." Theo started again as he kept pace with me. His sentence was abruptly stopped by the door swinging open. The loud bang of the door hitting against the hinges was barely audibly over the loud proclamation that immediately surrounded the room.

"Daddy's home!" A smile crept onto my face as soon as I heard that voice.

"CHARLIE!" I shouted as I ran over towards where he had entered.

I was engulfed into his arms as they scooped around me. He lifted my body up and span me around a few times. Before I could get dizzy though he stopped spinning and slid me down to the floor. His cheeky smile came into vision as he bent his head to look at me in the face.

His deep brown eyes were glistening and his perfectly sculptured eyebrows were raised in amusement. I took a moment to look at his appearance. His dark brown hair was slightly longer but still had its characteristic curls. He seemed to have got taller even though he was only away for a few weeks and his full lips were turned upwards into a smile.

"Hey Charlie boy," I laughed as he bent forward to kiss me on the cheek. I lightly slapped his cheek in mock disapproval. He was always over affectionate and did it on purpose.

"Hello gorgeous." I knew I looked the complete opposite but I humoured him. Fact one about Charlie, he was a ladies man.

"I forgot you were back today."

"You forgot me Bells?" He faked a sad expression which was actually quite believable for the slightest of seconds before his sparkling eyes and cheeky smile returned.

"No, you love this." He pointed at his body and moved his hands up and down. "You love this too much to ever forget it." The crown for the king of narcissism goes too...

"And the flirting comes back," Ollie chimed, appearing from my right. I rolled my eyes and gave him a slight wave and smile whilst still clinging to Charlie.

"Where did you come from?" I asked Ollie.

"I mean your bad enough with Ollie and Ben but the affection with Charlie is just horrible at times," Lily added instead of anyone answering my question. Seriously where were they popping up from?

"Shut up!"

"We're just very close," Charlie added at the same time.

He walked over to the sofa and sat down, with me on his lap. He was right, we were incredibly close. I was close to my other friends, but with Charlie there was something different. I trusted Charlie the most out of all of my friends. We were inseparable at times, he knew exactly what to say to cheer me up, he knew how to make me laugh, he knew how to be tough to make me do things for my own good and he was so protective of me. Basically he was the best friend a girl could ask for. And yes, just a best friend.