WHERE ARE YOU CHARLIE?

NOW - CHAPTER 1

"Zoe?" I turned around and came face to face with Dennis Monroe, my best friend.

"Hey Dennis." I answered as cheerfully as I could.

"Where have you been?"

I knew he would ask me that question.

"I caught a cold..." I answered quickly.

"You were away for more than three weeks, Zoe..." He pointed out with an eyebrow raised to let me know I wasn't fooling him.

Three weeks? Really?

"It was a really bad cold..." I laughed it off, hoping he would move on to another topic.

He studied me closely and slowly shook his head once before sighing loudly.

"Fine. You don't want to talk about it, I'll respect that." He said in a disapproving tone. "I just hope that brother of yours is not behind this..." He added, the anger in his tone hard to miss, now.

I froze at his comment.

How did he even know I had a brother?!

Charlie was six years older than me so we'd never gone to the same school together, and I'd made sure to never mention Charlie to any of my friends.

I'd known Dennis since I first walked in Chamberlayne High.

We'd arrived in our homeroom at the same time- almost twenty minutes early – so had decided to get to know each other.

With its one thousand six hundred something students, Chamberlayne High was a very big school, and a very intimidating one, so Dennis and I had thought it would be good to stick together on our first day. Luckily for us, we had several classes together and the same lunch break, so we soon became inseparable.

Tall and lean with short brown hair and chocolate eyes, Dennis was pretty popular with girls but at the time, he didn't seem interested at all. When I made the Varsity volleyball team that year, he decided to join the boys' team so that we would hang out with similar crowds. We'd been friends ever since.

"What are you talking about, Den?" My voice betrayed my sudden anxiety.

"Oh, please Zo!" He snapped angrily. "I've known you for more than three years, give me some credit!"

What does he mean? I panicked. And why does he look hurt?!

I didn't know what he was expecting me to tell him, or if he was even expecting anything at all, but what I did know was I couldn't deal with this, so I did what I did every time I was faced with a similar situation, I shut down.

"Zo!" I heard him groan behind me when I started walking quicker. "Zoe, don't do that!" He shouted but he knew it would be useless.

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My morning classes kept me busy. I was not a stellar student but I had always managed to get Bs and C+ to all my classes.

I'd always known that I'd never go to a proper university but I was hoping to continue my studies at our local community college to maybe become a social worker or a counsellor.

"Still mad at me?" Dennis nudged me in the arm softly as we got to the lunch room at the same time a few hours later.

I shook my head.

"Good." His relief tugged at my heart. "Now let's go and pile up that tray of yours with food." He stated determinedly. "You've lost some weight again..."

I knew I had, who could blame me?

He added an extra cookie on my already heavy tray just as I reached the check point. I paid and headed to our usual table by the windows at the other end of the room. I was tempted to go to a table outside but I knew some of our friends would complain it was too chilly to eat outside in October.