The Girlfriend

Summertime

Charlotte Wahlberg sat on the edge of her bed staring at the two packed suitcases leaning against the tiny closet in her college dorm room. She frowned as her roommate and best friend Melanie knocked one of them over as she bent down to dig through a huge pile of shoes. Charlotte sighed and flopped back against the bed grabbing a piece of auburn hair and twirling it around her fingers as Melanie cussed.

"You are never going to find that thing Mel...quit torturing yourself." Charlotte smiled as Melanie cussed again.

"I will, it's got to be here somewhere, I mean I don't own that many gosh damn sandals." She said falling back on her butt and sighing.

"I'm telling you Mel, you lost it at that frat party...we stuck you in the car and when we got here you were only wearing one...that thing is gone." Charlotte laughed staring out through the gauzy white satin curtains covering the small window.

"Well why the hell did you let me get into the car wearing only one damn sandal...what kind of friend are you?" Melanie huffed as she stood up, righting Charlotte's suitcase.

Charlotte sat up and placed her index finger against her mouth.

"Gee maybe the best kind...the kind that kept you from getting caught by campus police for drinking under age....the kind that held your hair back while you puked in the toilet...you totally reeked by the way." She said with a disgusted look.

"Whatever if it wasn't for me taking you to those parties you never would have left the dorm room. I don't know what your going to do all summer without me." Melanie argued walking back to her suitcase and mess of clothes spread out over her bed.

"Well I won't be partying that's for sure." Charlotte got up from her bed and walked over to the full length mirror, straightening out her black top and jeans. "I'm going to catch up on all the sleep I've been missing studying for those damn final exams."

"Right?" Melanie said throwing her clothes into the suitcase without folding them. "I wish they would tell us our scores now...I mean why do they have to wait for us to be on summer vacation...why so that way when we find out we barely passed our parents can ask us why the hell we wasted their thirty grand to send us here. Sneaky bastards"

Charlotte turned around and smiled at her friend.

"You think you failed?"

Melanie shrugged.

"Who the hell knows...I'll put it this way, there were more questions I didn't know the answers to, than ones I did. So if you don't see me here come September it's because my parents murdered me. Good luck finding my body."

Charlotte laughed as she pulled her black boots on.

"What about you...not that it matters at all even if you did fail. Thirty grand is like a penny to your family. Your so lucky to not have to worry about money." Melanie groaned for the thousandth time.

Charlotte frowned at her. "My brother is the one with the money...If he wanted me to mooch off him for the rest of my life I doubt he would have paid for me to come here." She laughed.

She was honestly surprised when he had offered to pay for her college tuition. She had planned on getting a job and paying for it herself, if anything just to get out of their crappy little town. But Donnie had insisted, saying she shouldn't have to struggle the way he and the rest of their family had for most of their lives. He was going to give her a better life if he could help it.

"But still, going home it must be like the biggest thrill. I mean you're the sister of Donnie Wahlberg...you probably get treated like royalty back home." She said pointing at the huge poster hanging above her bed as she mentioned Charlotte's brothers name.

Yes she was the younger sister of the founding member of New Kids on the Block. A cheesy boy band that had hit it big...well big was an understatement. They were like god's to young women everywhere, including her best friend, hence the poster on the wall.

"I wouldn't say royalty...I still have to make my bed and do the dishes. My brother is the rich one, we're just allowed to live with him." Charlotte scoffed.

She loved her brother dearly, he got them out of poverty and into one of the nicest neighborhoods in Boston. But the money didn't make up for the fact that he was never around. For her birthday last year he had sent her a cheesy birthday card meant for a five year old with a blank check inside of it. Instead of a heartfelt message he had just scribbled his name on the card, along with the rest of his band mates. Probably with no more thought than it took to sign an autograph for one of their millions of fans. Hell she couldn't even be sure it was actually him that had sent it. As for the blank check, she used it to pay for her textbooks.

"Don't act like you have it tough Princess...or should i say Hangin Tough...get it." Melanie laughed as Charlotte cringed.

"Please don't sing that crap to me...it's weird enough hearing my brother singing it." Charlotte said holding up her hand to stop her.

"What you mean, you don't enjoy hearing your brother singing to millions of girls everywhere about how he wants them?"

"Hell no." She said flatly checking her watch. She had an hour before she had to catch her flight home.

"Well what about Jordan, and more specifically how he's probably singing those lyrics and thinking about you?" Melanie asked heaving her closed suitcase onto the floor.

Charlotte looked up at the poster again, a tiny post it note covering up the face she didn't want to look at. She had put it on there as soon as Melanie had insisted on hanging it on the wall. Ignoring her impending questions about being related to one-fifth of the biggest band on the planet, and why she didn't want to look at Jordan's face (cuz who wouldn't, right), the post it note was slapped on his face and was permanently attached to it now.

Jordan Knight was the last person in the world she wanted thinking or singing about her...and if she had her way she would never see him again. But it was summer, and the boys always came home for the summer.