WHERE ARE YOU CHARLIE?

NOW - CHAPTER 4

 The others must have sent silent messages because he suddenly said, "I'm not going to hurt your girl, Bradford..." He turned his attention back to me. "I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels that way actually, but I feel for you..."

What?!

"Are you telling me you're being gentle because you freaking pity me?!" I exclaimed while silently wondering what he knew that made him feel that way about me.

"Who talked about pity?!" He rolled his eyes. "It's anything but pity actually, some sort of admiration more like..." Admiration?! "We all saw how rough he was with you..." He added.

"What are you talking about?" I whispered, my eyes wide.

"Charlie..." He answered. "We saw how he was treating you..."

"David..." Tasha muttered but I cut her off.

"I don't understand what you mean..."

"There was that time when he took you to the swimming pool..." He paused as if that was supposed to trigger some awful memory or something. I barely remembered going to the pool with Charlie.

"And?"

"We must have been six at the time, and Charlie went up to the highest diving board." He paused again, hoping I'd remember and stop him but I didn't. "He'd taken you along with him, and you looked petrified. The lifeguards were shouting at him, telling him that you were too young to be up there. When he saw that everybody was looking at him he lost it. "Ah! You think she shouldn't be up there, here you go, then!" He said before throwing you down. He didn't even check whether you were alright or not, he shouted, "Happy now?!" before diving in the water and almost knocking you out in the process. A lifeguard got you out of the water and he lost it again, snatched you from the man's hands and walked away cursing at everybody..." I could hear the steady rhythm of my heartbeat as I processed what he'd just told me. "He walked past me on his way out and I remember how utterly frightened you were, and... and all the f*cking scars you had on your back..." His anger was hard to miss. The bile rising at the back of my throat gave me the perfect way out and I ran back inside the school to the nearest toilets.

I threw up for what seemed forever before I finally sat down on the cold tiled floor.

It was like my entire world was crumbling around me.

A knock on the door reminded me where I was.

"Open the door..." Cole said, and for some reason I didn't argue and unlocked the door. He handed me some wet paper to clean myself and flushed the toilet for me.

"Can you walk?" He asked.

I tried to stand up but it was like my legs were made of cotton and I would have slid back down if he hadn't caught me.

"Do you want me to carry you to the car?"

"I'm too heavy..." I pointed out blankly.

"Didn't you hear what Tasha said?" He joked probably to lighten up the mood. "I'm the freaking quarterback!"

"I can't believe I didn't even know that..." I heard myself mumble.

"Well you didn't even realize we were in the same classes so..." He pointed out. "How shall we do this? Piggy back? Bridal style?"

"I'm going to snap back out of it and walk by myself..." I answered, willing my brain to cooperate.

"Fine, but let me hold your hand to make sure you don't end up on the floor."

I let him take my hand for the second time that day.

Sam was on the phone when we got back to the car.