Chapter 8
eight
“Okay, but why would you open the door with your face mask still on?” Violet laughed.
“Because I thought it was you,” I said. I swear she’d asked me for the story three times in our fifteen minutes of rollerblading and she laughed a little bit harder every time.
I hadn’t bothered to tell her about it when it first happened, but now that she knew who Charlie was, I figured it was a fun story to share.
“But a face mask is so easy to take off.”
“It said to leave it on for fifteen minutes, and it hadn’t been the full time yet! I’m not going to waste my money by throwing out a face mask while it’s still working.”
“Well, then you run into this as a potential problem,” Violet said.
“Maybe I’ll just never answer the door again.”
“Better yet, never leave your room again,” Violet said. “You can have your parents put a little food slot on the door like in Harry Potter.”
“Does that mean you’ll break me out of my room with a flying car at the end of the summer so we can go to school?”
“Obviously,” she said with a big grin that made her freckles wrinkle up cutely.
Despite my continued embarrassment and annoyance at how my morning had gone, I smiled back just as widely.
Violet had this contagious personality, where if she was happy, it meant you would absolutely be happy too.
It was one of the things I loved most about her.
“So, are you looking forward to starting work?” Violet asked.
“How dare you bring up the forbidden topic?” I shook my head and tsked.
All I wanted was a few days where I didn’t have to think about my job and everything terrible that came with it.
“Honestly, we were having such a lovely afternoon and you have to go and ruin it by— Hey!” I yelled as Violet shoved me lightly, making me veer off course slightly. “Interference!”
“You can’t call interference,” Violet laughed. “It’s not like we’re in a competition.”
“I will call interference where I want and when I want!” I crossed my arms over my chest and started pumping my legs faster to get ahead.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry!” Violet called after me. I slowed down a little as she sped up and caught up to me. “Forgive me?”
“I shouldn’t,” I said, trying to keep my face straight but utterly failing.
“Good thing you always do anyway, right?” Violet asked rhetorically. “But if you want a change of subject… how about we talk about Charlie?”
“I swear, if you ask me for that story one more time, I am going home.”
“You’re going to go home... where Charlie is?
” Violet asked with a raised eyebrow. When she’d swung by to meet me, Matthew and Charlie had been making some weird protein smoothie concoction in the kitchen.
Charlie had offered to let us have some, but I didn’t even want to smell it, let alone taste it.
“You don’t know that he’s there,” I said. “He and Matthew could have left.”
“They could have,” Violet conceded. “But do you think they did?”
“I hate you,” I said.
Violet laughed. “Come on, seriously. What’s going on between you and Charlie?”
I frowned. “What do you mean? Nothing’s going on between me and Charlie. Do you mean what happened the other morning? Because I really don’t think he was actually upset by it or anything, you know.”
“No,” Violet said pointedly, “I’m talking about the fact that you have a mega-crush on him.”
Oh. That.
Honestly, if I’d known Violet was going to make such a big deal about this crush, I would have done a better job of hiding it.
I wasn’t sure why she found it so interesting, honestly.
I had a new crush practically every week, and while this one being my brother’s best friend made it a little more interesting than usual, it didn’t mean it was that different from the rest. Violet was acting as if I was going to start dating him any second, even though I’d told her I absolutely couldn’t do that—as she herself had pointed out, my brother would kill me.
She seemed to have forgotten that little key piece of information.
Even though the forbidden nature of it made it all the more tempting, it wasn’t worth the risk.
“Nothing’s going on,” I said. “And nothing is going to happen between us.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Violet said.
“What makes you say that?”
“Just that I know pretty much every boy you’ve ever met would love to be with you,” she said. “Charlie included.”
“You’ve barely even met him.”
“I don’t need to know him to know it.”
I laughed and shook my head. “While I appreciate you hyping me up, you’re being ridiculous.”
“You’ll see,” Violet said. She waggled her eyebrows. “Actually, speaking of home—”
“We weren’t—”
“I’m hungry. Let’s go back to yours.”
“We probably won’t see Charlie, even if we’re there.
” I wasn’t even lying by saying it. Matthew had never liked me being around his friends, but it had been even worse after the game of Seven Minutes in Heaven.
For a while after that, he had made sure that Charlie and I were pretty much never in the same room.
He’d relaxed a little lately, but he still didn’t like me being around.
I guess I couldn’t really blame him because I wouldn’t want him hanging around me and my friends either, but I didn’t like the feeling of being forced to stay away.
But it was useful to me today because I had no idea what Violet would say in front of Charlie if she saw him.
“Are you sure about that?” Violet asked. “Like really, really sure?”
“I…” Okay, maybe it was possible that he would come out and talk to us briefly, so I guess I couldn’t say that we wouldn’t see him at all, and I knew Violet would call me on that technicality. Luckily, a loud notification from my phone gave me an excuse not to answer.
Mom
Hey sweetie, we’re going to go for your graduation dinner tonight. Be ready at 6 xx
“What is it?” Violet asked.
“Just my mom. Apparently, we’re finally having my graduation dinner tonight.”
“Honestly, I’m surprised they managed to organize it this soon.”
My parents had strange work schedules, so it was hard for the whole family to go out together like this. But I was happy we had to wait a few days—so much happened on my actual graduation day that I appreciated spreading everything out a little bit more.
“Come on,” I said, turning back in the direction of my house. “I need to get ready.”
“I’m sure Charlie would love to help,” Violet teased.
“Shut up.”
“Oh, we are so proud of you,” Mom said for the thousandth time that night. She swished her wine around in her glass. “I just can’t believe my baby is all grown up.”
Matthew and I shared a glance. We both knew she would be like this at my graduation, but this was even more than I expected. I appreciated the sentiment, but she was getting a little more emotional than either of us wanted to deal with.
“Save some of your tears for when she leaves in the fall,” Matthew said. Mom made a choked sound and put a hand to her mouth as she looked at me with tears in her eyes. I kicked Matthew under the table. “Ow!”
“You’re not helping,” I hissed. I looked at Mom. “And don’t worry, Mom. I’ll be home all summer, remember?”
“Oh, summer will go by so fast!” Mom cried, waving a napkin around in the air. “And then you’ll be off to another city, and I’ll be left all alone!”
“You’ll still have me, hon,” Dad said, squeezing her hand.
“Oh, don’t pretend like you don’t think it won’t be the same.”
“Are you all right, Mrs. McKinnon?” My stomach dropped as I heard the voice. Why did Charlie have to be here, of all places, right now?
Mom turned to look over her shoulder to where Charlie was now standing. He pressed one hand to Mom’s shoulder and rubbed it a little in a comforting gesture.
“Oh, hello, Charlie,” Mom said. All her previous theatrics disappeared, like seeing Charlie cured her of all emotions. “What are you doing here?”
Charlie’s eyes flitted toward Matthew for a second before returning to Mom. “Didn’t Matthew tell you? I work here—my shift actually just ended a minute ago.”
“How wonderful!”
“What a coincidence,” I said drily. I turned my gaze to my brother, who had a mischievous smirk on his face.
I was sure it was no surprise we’d come to this restaurant of all places for dinner—he’d suggested it so that I would have to see Charlie so soon after the little towel incident from the other day.
“So this is your summer job?” Mom asked.
“No,” Charlie said. “Actually, I was just working here for the past couple of months until lifeguarding started again.”
Mom elbowed me lightly. “Did you hear that, Madison? Charlie will be working with you again.”
“I know,” I said.
“He gave her a ride home today,” Matthew said. “Remember?”
I glared at him. I didn’t know why he was acting so strange about that ride home. It’s not like Charlie, and I had gone on a date or something.
“Oh, how sweet!” Mom said. I could just imagine what was going through her head right now—probably thinking of how Charlie and I would make the perfect couple since he was basically part of the family anyway.
“If you’re done working, why don’t you sit with us?” Dad suggested.
“Oh, no, I don’t want to intrude,” Charlie said.
“It wouldn’t be an intrusion at all,” Dad said.
“We also don’t have enough chairs,” I said, gesturing around the full four-person table we were at. Where exactly did he expect Charlie to sit?
“And I have to get going now too,” Matthew said. He stood and pulled his suit jacket on. “I have to get my own serving job.”
Dad frowned and checked his watch, his eyebrows raising as he looked at the time. “Gee, I didn’t realize we’d been here so long! Go, go.”
Matthew rested his hands heavily on his shoulders and leaned down to kiss my cheek. “Congratulations, Mads.”
I was tempted to snap at him not to call me that, but I thought that might be petty considering the circumstances. “Thanks.”
“I guess we should head out too,” Dad said after Matthew left. “Do you have any plans, Madison?”
I shook my head, feeling a little pathetic. There should be something I wanted to do tonight, right? I had just graduated from high school for goodness’ sake—was I really going to spend what should have been one of the best nights of my life watching reruns of sitcoms at home?
“I’m not doing anything now,” Charlie said.
I stared at him in confusion. If I didn’t know any better, I would think he was suggesting we do something together, but that would be ridiculous.
Charlie and I never hung out alone outside of work.
Sometimes, he and Matthew let me go out with them, but that was the closest we ever got.
“What a great idea!” Mom said, even though Charlie hadn’t actually suggested anything.
I was sure all of our minds went to the same place, but I didn’t want Charlie to feel trapped into hanging out with me if that wasn’t his intention.
“Why don’t you two go out and have some young people fun? Your father and I will head home.”
I cringed a little at the way my mom said “young people fun” but I looked to Charlie to gauge his reaction to the suggestion.
It wasn’t as though I would be opposed to hanging out with him—Charlie was a lot of fun to spend time with, even if Matthew was of the opinion that I should stay far away from all of his friends.
Actually, the fact that Matthew got so annoyed about it made it all the more fun.
I loved annoying him in any way I could.
“I’m down if you are,” Charlie said. “And I have my car, so we can go wherever you want.”
Mom and Dad were already standing up and getting their things together like it was all settled. I was still a little confused about Charlie’s intentions, but considering the alternative way my night could go, I thought that maybe this was better.
“All right,” I said. I stood up and looked at my parents. “I guess I’ll see you guys later?”
“Have a good night, sweetie,” Mom said, pulling me into a hug. Dad did the same after her.
“Thanks,” I said. Charlie led the way out, and I followed him to the parking lot.
“So,” I said as I slammed the car door closed behind me. “Where are we going?”
“It’s your special day,” Charlie said. “Where do you want to go?”
“You make it sound like I’m getting married or something,” I said.
I played with the seam of my dress, wishing I could go home and change out of it.
I didn’t mind wearing dresses in general, but my mom picked out my dress for tonight and made such a big fuss about it that I finally gave in even though I didn’t love it on myself.
“It was just some dumb high school graduation. Everybody graduates.”
Charlie shook his head. “Not everybody.”
I appreciated the sentiment, but his words didn’t help me at all.
Sure, not everyone in the world graduated, but basically everyone at Bayshore did.
Dropping out or failing any classes wasn’t even seen as a remote possibility, let alone an option.
The closest I’d ever seen anyone come to that was Sabrina, who made it through all of tenth grade by the skin of her teeth.
It might have been different at Falcon High where Charlie went to school, but even so I doubted there were that many people dropping out.
“You know what I meant,” I said. “It’s not just my special day. There’s like 300 people in my year.”
“Just because the day is special to 300 people doesn’t mean it can’t still be special to you,” Charlie said.
He pulled out of the parking spot and turned onto the main road.
He tapped his hands on the steering wheel twice, which I knew was a habit of his when he was thinking.
We sat in silence for a good minute while he did so, then he made such an abrupt left turn that I was basically slammed into the car door.
Charlie looked at me with a determined look in his eyes.
“Sorry—I just realized where we should go.”