Promises (Jack Gilinsky)

Chapter 13

Charlotte's POV:

I wake up late the next day. I hate when I sleep in, but after having to get up at 6 AM all week, I like to take advantage of Saturday.

I grab my phone and lay in my bed for a while, checking my Instagram and playing games. As I start to get up, I get a text from Mahogany.

Mahogany: Wanna hang out today?

Me: Sure, what did you have planned?

Mahogany: Mall?

Me and Mahogany went to the mall last weekend, but we didn't do much shopping. I guess I should get more summer clothes today.

Me: Sure

Mahogany: K I'll be at your house in an hour ;)

Me: See ya then

I go into my bathroom and turn the shower on. When it finally heats up, I get in and quickly wash my hair. I usually take pretty long showers, so about 20 minutes later, I get out and dry off. I go back to my room and go into my closet to pick out a shirt. It's that time of year where it's not winter anymore but it's still too cold to wear shorts. I decide to wear my Penn State sweatshirt and capris that stop a couple inches below my knee.

I dry my hair and run a brush through it. I don't usually straighten or curl my hair, so I just leave it as it is. I put on my blue and white striped Toms and headed downstairs. I'm not a big breakfast person, so I just grabbed a granola bar from the pantry for breakfast. Both my parents work on Saturdays, so I had the house to myself. I watch TV for a few minutes.

When I look at the clock, it's 11:56. Mahogany said she would be here at noon, so I decide to go outside and play a little basketball while I wait. I'm not a huge basketball fan, but I still like to play. We still have the basketball hoop from when my brother lived with us. He was the best basketball player in his school, so I was pretty much forced to go to his games.

A few minutes later, I hear a car honk. I turn to see Mahogany pulling up to my house. I run to her car and get in.

"Hey." I say closing the door.

"Hey Charlotte."

Just like the rest of the guys, me and Mahogany became friends pretty quickly. I guess the fact that we're the only girls in our group helped that. We hang out a lot, usually doing things that the guys would never do with us.

I turn the radio on and Rude by Magic comes on. We start singing as loud as we can, laughing as we do. Mahogany and I are a lot alike. The only major differences are our looks and wardrobes.

We pull up to the mall and find the spot closest to the entrance. Once we park, we are in the mall and heading straight to Forever 21. We shop in there for a while. I pick out some tank tops, crop tops, and shorts. After about a half an hour, we go to the register and pay for our stuff. After that, we go to Hollister. We only spend 10 minutes in there, and soon we are off to the food court.

"Where do you wanna go for lunch?" Mahogany asks.

"Hmmm... How about Panera Bread?"

"Sounds good."

After we order our food, we go find a table and sit down. We start talking, but for some reason, Mahogany won't look me in the eye. No matter what I say, she just avoids looking at me directly. "Mahogany, is everything okay? Your acting a little strange."

"Yeah, everything's fine. I'm gonna go get our food." She says, kind of nervous.

This is strange. She's been acting normal all day, but when we got to the food court, she started acting differently. What could it be?

Just then, I remember what I told her last time we were here. She asked me if I had feelings for Jack.

I told her that I might, but I wasn't sure. To be honest, I think I do like Jack, but I'm trying my best to ignore it. We both just want to be friends. Besides, I'm afraid that something might happen to us and we'll break up and we won't be friends anymore. So, I just want to stay friends for now.

I still don't understand why she's acting so weird. That's just between us two. Nobody else knows, unless...

Oh no. She didn't tell Jack, did she? I start to panic. I feel my breathing get heavier and I feel like I'm starting to sweat. Jack can't know that I might have feelings for him. That could ruin our whole friendship.

A minute later, Mahogany comes back to our table and sets the food down. Right when she does, I start talking. "Mahogany, you didn't tell Jack about what I said did you?" I say very quickly. She just stares at me. Judging by the expression on her face, I can tell the answer is yes.

"Mahogany!" I say a little too loudly.

"I'm so sorry, Charlotte. I wasn't thinking. It kind of just came up."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when we were at Matt's house last night, me and Jack were sitting on the porch watching the boys play football. It was bugging me not knowing for sure how he felt about you, so I asked him." She looked at me with sorrowful eyes.

"And?" I ask, calming down a little bit.

"He asked me why I wanted to know and I told him."

"Oh my god," I mutter.

"Well, I asked him again, and he said pretty much the same thing you did. He said he might, but he wasn't sure."

I'm almost calm now, but I'm still in shock. I'm not mad at Mahogany, just upset that she told him.

"Charlotte, I am so, so, sorry."

"It's okay. You were just trying to find out the truth."

We eat our food in silence. After we're done, we throw our trash away and head out to the car. When we get in, neither of us say a thing. It's not awkward, but it's not comfortable either.

After a few minutes, Mahogany turns on the radio. Classic by MKTO comes on and she starts singing quietly to herself. I join in eventually and sing a little bit louder. We both slowly become louder, and by the time it gets to the chorus, we both are screaming the lyrics just like we were earlier. When the song is over, we burst out laughing. It's nice having moments like this. This is what makes our friendship so fun. The rest of the car ride, we talk and sing whenever a good song comes on.

When we get to my house Mahogany comes in and we hang out for a while. She ends up sleeping over and we stay up until four, talking about the stupidest things ever. When we finally go to bed, it's so peaceful for once. I don't know why at first, but then I figure it out. For the first time in two weeks, I'm not thinking about Jack.