Stalking Charlie

Fixer-Upper

Nick Stone

It was a week of uncomfortable silence.

My sister avoided me and Charlie. I don't exactly know what happened between them, but I just noticed one day that they're not talking to each other.

Alex seems preoccupied and hurt. She looks normal but I know my sister, she's almost the other half of me. She busied herself to work that I rarely see her. And when I do bump into her, she'd scurry away like a frightened little mouse.

And I can't help feeling guilty. I kissed my sister's girlfriend. I liked it. Too much. And my feelings for her seems to grow annoyingly more. I want to ask her about her injured hands. I want to know who sent her the flowers. I want to hold her and kiss her again.

But, again, dammit, she's my sister's girlfriend!

Did they broke up? I wondered, watching them eat breakfast. They eat silently, sitting beside each other. Their annoying early morning banter is gone, and tension seems to crackle between them. Charlie has her dark glasses again. And Alex seems to be in a hurry to leave for work.

I asked Charlie if she told my sister anything about us when I can't bear the awkward silence any longer. She had shrugged her shoulders, asking coolly;

"What's there to tell?"

I was hurt for the next thirty seconds. But then I remembered how she kissed Ashley. I bet she forgot all about our kiss because of that.

What a bitch. I thought, wrapping a bandage on her injured knuckles. My father ordered me to clean her wounds, much to my dismay. Like Alex, I've been trying not to be in the same room with Charlie.

Kissing her was wrong, but wanting her to be mine is worse. Even just the feel of her soft hands in mine was enough to make me shiver with anticipation.

"Nicky, that's not my neck. Stop choking my hand." her cool voice told me.

I frowned, and saw that her hand I was bandaging had turned blue. I had cut off blood circulation on it because I gripped her hand too hard.

It's amazing how her face remained the same cool and distant expression.

And it's equally amazing how much I still want to pull her to me right now and kiss her senseless when she had just denied our first kiss.

I'm such an idiot.

She didn't go to school for a week. It doesn't need a doctor to see how damaged her hands really is.

"How are you and Alex?" Kenneth asked me one time we were at the cafeteria. I glared at him, remembering how he rejected my sister.

"We're fine." I retorted. He looked surprise at my response, then shrugged. After that I didn't bother to talk to him, since he also seemed not too keen to be around me after what happened between him and Alex, which by the way, he never brought up.

I avoided Natasha Duncan like plague, and she seems pissed off about it.

"You're gonna regret this!" she screamed at me, fury in her stormy gray eyes.

"I don't think so." I told her icily, my eyes wintry cold as I gazed at her lovely face. I'm still angry about her remark on my sister. "There's not much to regret, anyway."

Her jaw almost dropped to the ground after I observed her body up and down. Yeah, she's curvy. But so does many number of girls out there.

Charlie's sexier.

Goddamn it.

"Jerk!" she slapped my face and walked out of there. I saw Dustin Maxwell smiling at my direction.

"Good decision, Stone!" he yelled over the murmur of students about our fight. I just nodded at him.

"Dustin looks awful." Jake had said as we watch the basketball captain march out of there.

I frowned on Dustin's direction. Jake was right. He don't look good. I've never seen him go to school dishevelled and looking like trash. He's easily the richest kid here at campus, being the son of a very wealthy businessman.

Maybe he intends to follow Charlie's penchant for trash clothing.

Dammit, her again! Why do I have to associate everything with her?

"Maddie's still not found." Jake whispered to me. I nodded, that might be the reason for Dustin's sudden shift of appearance. He's got bags under his eyes, and was that a bruise on his face? I was never close enough to confirm it.

I asked my father about his opinion on Maddie's sudden disappearance when we all sat down for dinner. Alex, for once, seems interested, while Charlie ignored us and kept on eating.

"The police don't have any clue. She just disappeared, with no leads." Marco sighed. "There's not really much to go on with the case. Unless she had an accident and no one still hadn't found her body, or she's, as suspected, abducted."

"All of those are negative, Dad. You think she's dead?" Alex asked, her face sad. Maddie was a good girl, if not a bit stubborn.

"There's no talk about ransom, is there?" my father questioned back, not answering Alex clearly.

"But half of the town thinks she eloped." I supplied. My father frowned on that.

"And how likely is that?"

My father's getting good at evading questions, I realized. Is he getting lessons from Charlie?

There I go again, fuck it!

I scowled, observing Charlie as she push her plate away from her and excusing herself. My father just nodded, while my sister ignored her.

I felt that annoying twinge of guilt somewhere in my gut again. Yes, I had admitted that I like Charlie Raven, more than I am supposed to. But seeing my sister act like this, it makes me want to punch my own face.

Even if there's nothing going on between Charlie and I, I need to do something to fix this. I don't want to keep feeling guilty, I want everything to be clear.

I gotta fix this.

And I know just what to do.