Promises (Jack Gilinsky)

Chapter 15

Jack's POV:

I'm having a great time at this party. It's definitely one of the best parties of the year. But, I haven't seen Charlotte a whole lot since we got here. Right as I'm thinking about her, I see her go out the back door. I figure she wants some time alone, so I decide to let her go for now.

After about ten minutes, Cameron comes up to me. "Hey, is Charlotte still out back?"

"I think so, why?" I ask.

"Because I'm pretty sure I just saw Tony go out there."

This automatically gets my attention. "Thanks Cameron." I say making my way to the back door.

I expect Charlotte to be sitting on the patio, but she's not. I walk around to the side of the house and see something I never thought I would. Tony and Charlotte kissing.

I'm too shocked to move. I can't believe she would do that. A few seconds later, Charlotte pushes Tony off of her. I'm instantly relieved. She obviously didn't want to kiss him, and that makes me happy. But, what I see next is even worse. Tony slaps her.

At first, I can't think straight enough to do anything. But then, it seems like he's going to hit her again, and this knocks me back to reality.

"Hey!" I yell at Tony. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

"Get out of here Gilinsky. This is none of your business." He says. I can't believe he actually just said that.

"Are you serious? You just hit her and your telling me to leave?" By this point, I'm about to punch Tony again. Charlotte must sense this, too.

"Jack," she says grabbing my arm. "Please don't do this." I completely ignore her and push her behind me. I'm not going to stop until Tony gets the message.

"So your just going to try and protect her again? Did you ever think that maybe she doesn't want you around all the time?" Tony yells.

"Well I'm sure she would much rather have me around than you." I say, trying to keep my voice down. I don't want anyone hearing us and coming out here.

"Why don't you stop being such an ass and open your eyes, Jack. Not everything revolves around you, and you and Charlotte being together is such a joke. There's no way she would ever want anything to do with you." He says. I'm getting sick of Tony. So, I do the first thing I think of. I punch him.

Tony looks back at me with anger in his eyes. I have to admit, he can be pretty intimidating when he's mad, but it's not going to hold me back. My fist comes I'm contact with his jaw once again. Right as it does, he does the same thing.

Now, we are in a full out fist fight. I hear Charlotte screaming at us to stop, but I ignore it. We go on for a minute, but it seems like so much longer. Finally, I throw a punch hard enough to knock Tony to the ground.

When he stands up, he just stares at me and walks away. Once he's gone, I turn to face Charlotte. Instead of looking relieved, she looks angry. "Why the hell did you do that?!" She screams at me. "I told you not to get involved!" I don't know why, but for some reason, this makes me angry.

"What did you want me to do, Charlotte?" I yell, "He hit you and you just expected me to watch?!"

"Jack, all your doing is making it worse!"

"Well sorry for trying to help!" With that, I turn to go back into the house.

"You didn't have to hit him Jack!"

I turn back around to face Charlotte. "I'm sorry for caring!" I yell way too loudly.

"Why do you care so much?!?" She screams.

Before I can even think, I respond. "Maybe I care because I have feelings for you Charlotte and I didn't want you to get hurt by some other guy, okay! Did you ever think about that?!?"

I can't believe I just said that. I just ruined everything. This whole friendship is ruined because I didn't think before I said that. I blew it.

Charlotte just stares at me. I can't quite make out what her expression means, and it's driving me crazy. After a few seconds, she speaks up. "You like me?" She mutters in a voice that's barely audible. She sounds so nervous when she says this.

I decide that I need to be straight forward with Charlotte. Enough with hiding my feelings, I need to tell her now.

"Yes, Charlotte, I like you. I know you told me not to fall for you, but I did, and I'm sorry. But, I'm tired of ignoring my feelings. For the past three weeks, I've known that there was something between us but I ignored it for you. Whenever your around, I can't help but be happy. I love everything about you. I love how your hair always looks beautiful even when you don't try. I love that you don't wear makeup. I love how you look perfect no matter what you wear or what you're doing. You're so different from every other girl I've ever met, and I love it. I'm sorry for dumping this all on you now, but I was tired of keeping it to myself."

Charlotte just keeps staring at me. "Jack," she says, shaking her head slowly in disbelief. I instantly become nervous. I start to wish I hadn't told her that. After what seems like an eternity, she starts again. "I...I think..." She drifts off.

"You what?" I say as gently as possible.

"I like you too, Jack." She says. My heart stops at these words. I didn't think she likes me, but she does. The look on her face is almost scared, and I don't understand why.

"Jack..." She starts again. I look at her expectantly. "I'm sorry." Jack she says turning and walking away quickly. What's going on?

"Charlotte, wait!" I call after her. I run up to her and grab her wrist, turning her around. Our faces are only inches from eachother and I just can't help myself. Before either of us know exactly what going on, my lips are on hers. It only lasts a few seconds before I pull away. I look for some sort of expression in her face, but I see nothing.

"I'm sorry, Jack." She says again. This time, she turns and runs down to the road. She turns in the direction of her house.

I can't believe I did that. Why did I do that? She just told me she had feelings for me and I screwed it up by kissing her. Out of all of my girlfriends, Charlotte is the first girl that I've ever felt this way about, and now she's running away from me.

After standing there for a few minutes, I turn to go back to the patio. I sit on the swing for a while, and I guess nobody notices I'm missing because nobody comes out. I think about Charlotte nonstop for what seems like hours when in reality, it was only about twenty minutes. Finally, I drift off to sleep right there on the patio, that kiss still running through my mind.