Bad Boy + Good Girl = ?

Chapter 3

"Did you actually agree to go on a double date with Rea?" Lewis asks as I take a bit of my salad.

"...Yeah?" I respond, swallowing the lettuce.

"Good luck. Do you know who she's chosen for you?" I shake my head. Luna sits down beside me with Henry across from her. "Hey, Henry."

"Hey." Henry says.

"Has Rea asked someone out for me yet?" I ask, looking at Luna.

"Yeah, we did it this morning. He said yes, after what felt like forever, he's going to pick you up with Dylan."

"Who is it?"

"Rea wants it to be a surprise."

"Does he know who he's going with?"

"No, that's why it took so long for him to agree. I think he thinks it's Jade because he kept saying absolutely not."

"He's probably scared of Jade. Everyone is, except us." Lewis says. Luna agrees and smiles at Henry.

"...What?" Henry asks, looking back at her.

"Can we go out this weekend?" She asks, sweetly. His face goes red and he nods. Rea sits down across from me and smiles.

"Why can't I know who I'm going out with?" I ask.

"Because it makes you excited for the date since you want to know who you're going with." She responds.

"No, it doesn't. It makes me not want to go because I don't think I'm going to like him."

"Cupid Luna says you will end up together so we're going to make it happen before we turn eighty years old."

" 'Cupid Luna'?" I ask. Rea and Lewis nod.

"Luna pictures two people together and then does everything she can to put them together. It works almost all the time." Lewis explains.

"It most likely won't work. I'm horrible at dating. Besides, I promised myself never to fall in love...again." I mumble the last word. I shake my head, getting rid of the horrible memory.

"That's a promise that will never be fulfilled, Charlie. You have to fall in love to get married and have children." Luna says, bumping me with her shoulder. I shrug.

"I can just grow old with a million cats and I'll be happy." They smile and shake their heads.

In art, Luna left early with Lewis because they had doctor appointments and Henry cut himself while trying to cut cardboard so he spent the rest of the period in the nurse's office. It was just Aidan, me, and all of the awkwardness. I didn't look at him as long as I didn't have to.

"Charlotte, I'm sorry about-" Aidan starts but I shake my head.

"Just drop it. Pretend it didn't happen."

"But-"

"Stop it, Aidan," I turn to look at him and then go back to writing. "Forget it. It didn't happen."

And the rest of the period was still very awkward. I walked home so I could get all of my thoughts out of my head.

My dad's car wasn't in the driveway, but Aidan's was in his driveway and he was standing outside, smoking. I notice him glance at me before I rush into my house. I sigh as I notice the stack of dishes in the sink and the laundry is close to overflowing. I put my stuff on the kitchen table and start a load of laundry.

As I start doing dishes, someone knocks on the front door. I was lost in thought so when I heard the knocking, I got startled and accidentally cut my hand with a knife. I gasp and wince. I grab washcloth and wet it down with water. I open the door with my uninjured hand. Anna and Aidan are standing on the other side, Anna holding a plate of chocolate chip cookies.

"Hi, Charlie." Anna says, happily and smiling. "I made these as a thank you for last night." I smile. I didn't notice Aidan staring at my hand until he said something.

"What happened?" He asks, turning his head to the side. I look down at my hand and laugh nervously.

"I just, uh, cut myself doing dishes." I respond, trying to hide my hand behind my back but Aidan grabs my wrist. I gasp at the electric shock that runs through my body at his touch. He unwraps the washcloth and I wince at the cold air that comes in contact with the cut.

"Woah." Anna says, looking at it. My face heatens a bit. The cut is still bleeding, it doesn't look like it's slowed any.

"Um, can you let my hand go? I have to go finish the dishes."

"You can't do dishes with this." Aidan says, motioning to my hand. "Besides you should probably clean it and wrap it with gauze. It doesn't really look deep enough to need stitches."

"I can do the dishes while you take care of her hand, Aidan." Anna offers. I shake my head and start to say no but Aidan nods and tells her to go ahead.

"Where's your first aid kit?" Aidan asks, sitting me down on the couch.

"Under the sink in the bathroom down the hall. It's the first door on the left." He nods and walks down the hallway. I sigh and try to calm my beating heart. He sits down next to me with the kit. He puts some peroxide on the cut and I hiss and wince at the sting.

"Sorry, I should've warned you." He mumbles and dabs it with the washcloth. "Charlotte, will you please let me apologize?"

"You just did."

"No, I mean for yesterday. You were right."

"Can we please just forget about it? I just want to forget about it." He slowly nods and slowly and gently wraps my hand with gauze.

"There you go." He mutters.

"Thanks." He nods and stands up. I walk into the kitchen to see Anna still doing the dishes but she's almost finished. "I can finish those." I tell her, walking over to her.

"No, it's good. Besides, you probably shouldn't get that wet." Anna says, smiling.

Dad came home shortly after. Anna just has a few more dishes and Aidan is sitting on a kitchen chair, playing on his phone. "Oh, hello." Dad says, walking into the kitchen.

"Hi, Dad. These are two of our neighbors, Aidan and Anna."

"Why is she doing our dishes?" I show him the gauze wrapped cut and he stares at it. "What did you do?"

"Cut it doing dishes. They wouldn't let me finish them."

"Well, good. Charlotte, I've told you over and over again to be careful."

"I know, I know. I'm usually careful about everything. I haven't gotten hurt like this in forever." Dad smiles and shakes his head.

"I'll cook dinner-"

"No! Absolutely not! You burn everything you cook." I cut him off and he shakes his head.

"Hey, Charlie, we're going to go ahead and leave." Anna says from beside me.

"Oh, hang on." Dad says to them, walking over to his stuff in the other room.

"Thank you, Anna, Aidan. I really appreciate it."

"Glad we could help." Anna says, smiling. Aidan nods. Dad comes back in with his wallet and hands them each a ten dollar bill. "Oh, no, sir! We don't need this. We just-" Anna exclaims, handing Dad back the money.

"We just did the dishes. We don't need that." Aidan says, not even taking the money. They all three turn to me. Dad's silently asking for to convince them to take it while Aidan and Anna are silently asking for me to tell Dad stop it.

"How did I get stuck between this?" I ask, shaking my head. "Dad, they don't want the money, you can't force them to take it."

"Are you sure?" He asks the two and they nod. "Okay, will you at least stay for dinner? As a thank you?"

Aidan and Anna finally got away after repeatedly telling Dad no.