The Gang Leader's Shorty

Chapter 3

It would be excessive to say that I have no friends; the one friend my father allowed me to keep was Charlie. He is my neighbour and he has always looked out for me, I have known him since birth and he has stayed by my side throughout my long, draining life. 

However, since I attend a different school, we haven't had much time for one another. On lucky days like today, we both find ourselves free and set aside some time to catch up with each other. Charlie is genuine (a quality lacking from most people I have ever met) but our relationship was put in jeopardy when he revealed his feelings to me in our early teenage years. 

I fly down the stairs and to the kitchen for water, finding a spread of fruit on the table that Claire has prepared for me. Guiltily, I ignore the food as if I didn't have chance to see it before I leave the house. I am not much of a morning eater, unless it is strawberry pancakes, so I tend to avoid dramatic breakfast food before I start my day. 

Knocking on Charlie's door, I grip my skateboard, anxious to see him, "I just need to finish getting dressed, you're usually late!" He jokes and opens the door wider for me to enter, so I oblige. 

Shifting in my seat, I remain in place on his extremely uncomfortable couch until he jogs down the stairs, his hair done. Charlie has always been rather fashionable, pairing a maroon jumper with some black jeans, a gold chain hanging around his neck. His scruffy, curly black hair is tamed and his dark brown eyes glint with mischief, as usual. His complexion is very pale, however, it is porcelain and perfect as if he is a living airbrush filter.

We stroll to the front door and I jump on my skateboard and go slowly alongside him. "So, how're you getting on at school?" Charlie is home-schooled as he got bullied at his old school, so I type, "Well, I made some new friends," he looks positively shocked, much to my dismay. "Oh, yeah? Who?" He replies, slightly irritated, which I can't comprehend."Cole Stone and his friends." 

To my utter shock, instead of being the supportive friend that I once knew, he just stops dead in his tracks, as do I, "Do you have any idea who they are? Lexi, you're so stupid," He huffs, rolling his eyes whilst rubbing his hands over his face like he's trying to wake himself from a nightmare; a nightmare in which his best friend has finally made some friends. I just stare at him in disbelief, eyes wide, unable to decide whether he actually believes that he has the right to dictate who I associate myself with. I type,"They're so friendly, they make me feel better than I have in years!" 

Rudely and abruptly, he raises his voice to me, "Good friends until they ditch you because you won't talk to them. Or are they that great that you're already talking to them and you've never even spoken to me yet?" He hisses and I scoff at him. 

Heartless, that's the word to describe him, callous. "Look, Lexi, I'm so sorry-" I interrupted this time by beginning to type, "You don't get to boss me around, okay?" 

He looked livid around about now, "You're so selfish. You kept me around and it hurt, you just kept saying we're 'just friends'. Everything your father said was right. I didn't believe it before, but I do now. Maybe if I did then I would never have even met you." In his blind rage, he transformed into a monster. Not the monster of Frankenstein, sensitive and longing, but the monster of true torment; my torment. However, as quickly as his demeanour morphed, his face switches to remorse, only just comprehending the words that he has spat out into my trembling face.

Without my permission, following suit after my wavering lower lip, the tears roll down my cheeks. Right before I thought I saw a glimmer of humanity left in his muddy eyes, he just strolls away as if nothing happened and I am left to collapse to the ground underneath a tree and wallow in self pity and betrayal, not caring that I am surrounded by familiar people from my neighbourhood. Nobody will notice.