Days to Insanity

Chapter One

Day One

Charlie

There is always something that you know. Perhaps the way your mother wakes you up at seven every morning before going and making lunch before you go to school, or the way you take the bus every morning, or the way your little brother wakes up early on Saturday mornings and makes a ruckus downstairs while he plays video games.

What I know is this. All of this. I know the way I spend more than ten minutes on a hot, summer morning, pondering what to wear before opting for jeans instead of shorts. I know to put on a thin black hoodie and letting myself feel extremely warm instead of wearing crop tops, short skirts and showing off my cleavage to all the boys in class. I know the way I look out for my little brother, even though he's in middle school and is going through his "I hate my family" phase. I know the way my best friends I meet up every Friday to have a sleepover, how we text each other into the later hours of the night, and into the early hours of the morning.

I know the way my best friend Rye has long, shiny, golden hair and striking blue eyes, while I have chestnut hair and gray eyes. She has perfectly tanned skin while I'm pale. I know the way my other best friend, Sylvia, has brown hair and hazel eyes, with the perfect thin body and tanned skin, too. Then there's Finn, my third (and final) best friend, who also has blonde hair and green eyes - with the perfectly thin and healthy body too. I know the way the four of us love to hang out. And I also know how Finn is the cutest and probably the closest to me out of all of them.

What I don't know, is when it's 12 in the morning on January 30th, and I am woken up to a FaceTime call.

"Charlie! It's my birthday!" Rye screams as soon as I click 'accept'.

Flinching, I let my phone drop from my hands and rub my eyes tiredly, pulling the covers closer to me - the heating must have turned off again. I pick up my phone, turning on the bedside lamp so she can see my face. "Happy birthday," I say with a small groan. I know better than to tell Rye to calm down; especially on her birthday.

"Thanks, thanks," Rye says, calming down now. "I'm adding Finn and Syl."

"Guess I'm awake now," I mutter to myself, putting on my headphones and plugging it into my phone. I hesitantly take the covers off of me, a wave of cold air brushing over me. I shiver, standing up and looking out the window. "It's snowing again," I tell Rye, flipping my camera so she can see. "Think we'll get a day off?"

"Uh, no thanks," says Rye, looking mortified at what I said. "I won't get to see you guys, and you guys won't be able to give me your amazing gifts! I can already feel you're giving me better ones than last year."

"Is she talking about gifts again?" a familiar voice speaks up before his face pops up on the screen. "Of course she calls you first, Charlie."

"Well, duh," I say. "Finn, I gotta say, I like you the least."

"Well, that works out well for me, because I'm not too fond of you either, Charles," Finn replies.

"Shut up," I say, rolling my eyes. Finn has called me Charles since we met in kindergarten - he thought I was a boy when we first met, but who can blame him? My hair was short, and I was wearing blue pants and a blue t-shirt. As a kid, blue must mean I'm a boy. After I corrected him and said my name was Charlie and not Charles, he laughed and till now, teases me with it.

"Could you guys shut up? It's way too late for me to deal with this," Rye sighs, "Sylvia's not picking up. I'll try calling her normally. Be back in a sec." The FaceTime makes a beep sound, indicating that she left the call.

"Guess it's just you and me, Charlie," says Finn. I avert my gaze from the window to the call. The way Finn says my name - my real name, at least - makes my heart melt. I can see that he's sitting at his desk with the lamp on. I can see his blue eyes perfectly - they're even sparkling.