Handsome and the Hideous

Chapter 13

I placed my hand on top of my heart, feeling it race. Pausing on the staircase, I knew I wasn't ready to see Cody. Not after what happened the day before.

No matter what his words hurt, but I also felt bad about what I said. Cody seemed offended and the sight was permanently stitched into my mind. But sighing, I knew there was no way I'd apologize. Not when I could still hear his laugh clearly, making me wish I could disappear.

Walking down the stairs, I went to the kitchen and saw that Cody and Rosalie were already seated at the dining room table. There was a pot of pasta at the centre of the table and I internally groaned when I saw that there was an empty plate beside Cody, where I would have to sit. Going to my seat, I made sure not to look at Cody.

As I sat, I could feel his eyes on me. They were drilling into me, willing me to look at him, but chose to look at Rosalie instead. She smiled at me immediately and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Hi Charlotte, how are you?" she asked.

"I'm good," I said. "How are you?"

"Great," Rosalie answered. "I-"

Rosalie went on to tell us about her family and how they were planning on moving to a nicer house. I tried to listen, but I couldn't when I could see Cody glancing at me continuously. Trying to ignore him, my eyes went to my food and remained there as Rosalie continued to talk.

"Okay, what's going on between you two?" Rosalie asked. "Charlotte, why won't you look at Cody?"

I blushed and wished Rosalie wasn't so blunt. I didn't want to talk about what happened.

"I'm just eating," I mumbled. "Why do I need to look at Cody to eat?"

Rosalie stared at me, her eyes questioning what happened. I averted my eyes back to my food and kept eating, but I noticed Cody had stiffened.

We all ate in silence for a bit. The silence was painful because usually, we were deep in conversation when we had dinner, but with the tension in the room no one was willing to cut it. I sighed, realizing how awkward the next month and a half was going to be.

"You know, there's a legend behind this mansion," Rosalie blurted out, bringing our attention to her. "Do you want to hear it?"

"Sure," Cody said.

"Apparently, Charlotte's ancestors were a family full of secrets," Rosalie said, looking at me. "They used to do a lot of illegal things that no one knows about, but there's hints about what they did hidden around the mansion."

"That's... morbid," I said, frowning. "What if we stumble upon a body?"

"I don't think it was that bad... I hope so, at least." Rosalie frowned. "But anyways, if you are interested you two should look around the house and try to find out what they did."

Cody and I didn't say anything to that. The idea of finding my ancestors' crimes sounded morbid and we were also adults, which meant playing scavenger hunt wasn't as thrilling as it would be to younger people. So staring at Rosalie, we didn't know what to say.

"You two aren't interested in finding out what happened?" Rosalie asked. "Don't you love a good mystery?"

Cody and I still didn't say anything, which left Rosalie huffing. I felt bad, but searching for clues for a crime my ancestors did didn't sound exciting. Especially when it would mean I would have to spend time with Cody, who I wanted to avoid. So staring down at my food, I was thankful when everyone remained silent as we finished off our meals.