P&P

Chapter Thirty-Two

"I don't recall our dear mother inviting Charlie and Darcy over to dinner when they were here yesterday." Lydia whispered to me. Our family, along with Charlie and Darcy, were sitting around the dinner table at dinner time, eating spaghetti and meatballs, in what was probably the most awkward fashion possible.

"Neither do I." I whispered back to Lydia.

As my mother went on about one of our neighbors, Charlie and Darcy fake laughed and Jane exchanged glances with Charlie. He seemed to be enjoying himself, at least.

Meanwhile, Darcy was trying a little too hard not to look at me.

I wanted desperately to excuse myself from the table, if only to stifle the urge I had to tell Darcy I knew what he had done. I decided to keep my mouth full of pasta and meatballs instead.

"Well, that didn't go so bad." Jane said after Charlie and Darcy had left – although not without being invited over for dinner again tomorrow by our mother. I gave her an incredulous look as Lydia scoffed.

"Are you kidding?" Lydia started. "That dinner was more awkward then all of the Richard dinners combined!" She had a point.

"To be fair, the Richard dinners weren't so much awkward as they were mind-numbingly boring." I pointed out. "But yeah. Jane, you are so out of your mind if you didn't feel the awkward to your very soul."

"Honestly, you two exaggerate everything." Jane told us, a knowing smile on her lips.

"You know, there's only one explanation for this." Lydia told me. "She was oblivious to the awkwardness because all she could think about was Charlie." I nudged Lydia as Jane scoffed, sounding a bit too offended.

"Ah, that's right." I said thoughtfully. "I forgot how easily distracted Jane gets when in love."

"I do not!" Jane exclaimed. "And I'm not in love either." She added quickly.

"Yet." Lydia and I mumbled in synchronization. Jane stormed up the stairs in a huff while Lydia and I high-fived each other.

"I can't believe I'm just now getting a chance to talk to you." Charlotte said on the other line of my cell phone the next morning. "It feels like forever ago since you were up here."

"I know. It's been way too long." I agreed. "Especially with all of the drama going on here." I had just caught her up on everything that had happened since I left, from me visiting LA, to Lydia's disaster with George, and finally to the awkward dinners with Charlie and Darcy.

"Hey, remember your life in high school?" She said suddenly, and I knew I was about to be teased. "I bet your missing the days when you complained that nothing interesting ever happened in your life!"

"You'd win that bet way too easily." I admitted with a sigh. "So when are you visiting? Spring Break is next week, and don't you dare tell me you're too busy to come down and visit your best friend!"

"I might be coming sooner than that." She told me. The doorbell rang, and suddenly I was filled with a surge of excitement. I threw the phone on my bed and ran down the stairs and to the door in what I considered lightning speed.

"Surprise!" Charlotte exclaimed on the other side of the door. I ran out the door and into her arms with a loud squeal. I hadn't realized how much I had missed her until tears stung my eyes.