Eldritch

Chapter 11

Ella pulls in at the curb outside Sophie and Martin's home, having trailed behind Daniel's car. As Sophie and Lisa make their way towards the car, Charlene scowls at the sight of her foe. 'Why does she have to come?'

'Relax, Charlie,' Lisa dead pans. 'I'm just going as Sophie's friend. I won't be bothering you for the rest of the night.'

Charlene sighs. 'Why can't you drive yourself there? You've got a car.'

'If you must know,' she replies. 'My drunken mother decided to do a few circuit runs of the town with it and drained it of gas. I can get out, if you'd like, Charlene, and get a ride with your boyfriend instead.'

She shoots Lisa a glare through the mirror and tenses her shoulders.

Ella places her hand over Charlene's and whispers to her. 'Charlene, it's okay. You only have to tolerate her for the ride.'

Charlene nods and releases a sigh. 'Fine. Let's go.'

Ella revs up the engine and pulls out onto the street after Martin hops into Daniel's car and they begin to head to the other end of Starryton.

----

Charlene presses her body further into Daniel as all the pupils surrounding them dance to the blaring music. He pulls her closer and she rests her hands at the nape of his neck. He caresses her cheek as she locks lips with him. As he slowly lowers his hand to rest at the small of her back, she pulls away abruptly.

For a moment, Daniel assumes he's done something deeply wrong. 'Charlene, what is it? What's wrong?'

'Nothing,' she states. 'I'm sorry.'

And then, she barges her way through the crowd, dashing away from her boyfriend, who chases after her. He doesn't bother to call her, for he knows that over the clanging racket in the house, nobody will hear him, including Charlene. Once they are outside, he wills for her to stop running. 'Charlene,' he calls. 'Please, tell me what I did wrong.'

She closes her eyes for a moment, opens them, takes in a deep breath and bites her lip to suppress her tears. Slowly, he catches up to her and fills the space between them while she turns around. She looks down as she responds. 'Daniel, I'm sorry, I can't be with you anymore.'

'What?' he stumbles, perplexed. 'What do you mean? What did I do?'

'You didn't do anything,' she swallows. 'In fact, it's what you didn't do. You haven't been honest with me.'

He looks at her, gobsmacked. His heart thumps rapidly against his chest. How does she know about the game?

'Daniel, I know about you and Abi and how she was coming on to you. And I've been thinking about it over and over for the past two weeks and I've come to realise that I'm not okay with you having not told me about it.'

Daniel feels a tad of relief wash over him. He relaxes his shoulders slightly. 'Charlene,' he says softly. 'I'm sorry. But the reason I didn't tell you was that I didn't want to hurt you. Okay, I really like you. And when she kissed me, I pushed her away. And she told me if I told you—'

'That she'd make sure to convince me you were the one who had initiated it. I know. Ella told me. She saw it. But she also saw that Abi did manage to kiss you for a couple of seconds. You didn't push her away for a few seconds.'

Daniel can feel his heart sinking. 'I'm sorry. I had told her no and she kept going. I was trying to push her away without hurting her and I—'

'Did you enjoy it?' she blurts, an earnest expression on her face.

Daniel looks at her, pleading with his eyes for her to end this conversation.

'Did you enjoy it?' she repeats. 'The kiss, while it lasted.'