Chapter 20

Sheridan

When I woke up, I was laying on a lounge chair outside on the deck.

I looked over beside me, and saw Charlie was still in his chair too.

I guess we were having too much fun to get up last night.

I learned more about Charlie in a few hours than I'd learned about Chaz in a few weeks.

I heard Charlie start to move around, so I sat up.

"Morning beautiful," He said when he saw me.

I smiled and looked down at my hands. "Morning."

A few minutes later, he was leading me to a bathroom.

"Take a shower, and then I'll take you back to where you're supposed to be."

I shook my head. "But I don't wanna go back there."

"You're gonna have to at some point. And plus, I like being with you. I think I should at least let your friends see me."

I thought about it. "I don't think Chaz would like that."

He shrugged. "Well, he didn't seem to like you either."

That hurt, but he was right. "I guess you have a point."

I took my shower and put my hair in a loose ponytail. I had to wear the clothes I had on yesterday.

When I walked out, Charlie was in the living room waiting for me.

"You ready?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Let's get this over with. I know they're gonna be pissed at me. This isn't the first time I've run away."

He raised his eyebrows. "It isn't?"

"Nope. I ran away from something Chaz did before."

He whistled. "Wow. This Chaz guy doesn't seem all that great."

I felt bad for making Chaz look like a horrible person.

Charlie led me to his way-too-nice car, and we drove off.

Later, at the hotel

I led Charlie upstairs to our hotel room, and knocked on the door since I left my key behind.

I head footsteps, and immediately stared to turn around.

Charlie pulled me back, and made me face the door again.

"You can't run away from all of your problems." He whispered to me.

A second later the door opened. Shelby was now in front of me.

She jumped on me, without even noticing Charlie.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay Sher? I was so worried…"

Then Justin came out of nowhere. "Where the hell did you go Sheridan?"

"Well hello to you too, Justin." I said, rolling my eyes.

He sighed. "Why did you leave Sher? You scared the hell out of us."

Then they all noticed Charlie standing there.

"Oh, hi." Shelby said, blushing. I could tell she thought he was gorgeous. Justin looked at her and grabbed her hand.

"Are you this "Charlie" person?" Justin asked.

Charlie nodded. "Yeah. Hi."

Justin looked at him harder, then grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside. "Well, thanks for taking care of her. Bye."

Justin attempted to close the door, but I stopped him.

"No, let him in."

I grabbed Charlie's arm and pulled him inside.

Charlie put his arm around me. "I don't think this is a good idea."

I looked up at him. "Why not?"

He looked somewhere behind me, and I turned around.

Chaz was standing there, obviously pissed off.

I rolled my eyes. "So? Who cares? We'll just go somewhere else."

I pulled myself out of Charlie's grasp and went to go my room.

"Where are you going?" Justin asked.

"I'm changing my clothes."

I made sure I put on something that made me look totally hot, and walked back out.

Charlie was already waiting beside the opened door, and I walked right to him.

"We'll be back eventually." I said, following Charlie out the door.

Shelby

Well, that certainly was awkward.

Chaz was just standing in front of the door, staring at it.

Justin was looking down at the ground.

I was actually feeling bad for Chaz, but I still didn't really know what happened between them.

"What did you do this time, Chaz?" Justin asked, still looking down at the ground.

"I didn't do anything. She asked me if I ever think we should start dating, and I said I didn't think we were ready for that."

Justin and I both looked at him. "Why not? Why aren't you ready?" Justin asked.

Chaz crossed his arms. "Because, we're just not."

"I think you're leaving something out." I said to him. "There's no way Sher would run away just because you said you weren't ready to date her."

Chaz sighed. "Okay, maybe I left out a little detail."

Justin and I looked at him. "What?"

It looked like Chaz was debating whether or not he should tell us.

"I tried to have sex with her. Then she said she wasn't ready."

I gasped. "Are you serious? And you told her you weren't ready to date her when you tried to have sex with her?"

He nodded.

"That's really low Chaz." Justin said.

"I realize that now." Chaz said.

I sighed. "Guys, what are we gonna do? What is this, the third time this has happened?"

Justin wrapped his arms around me. "We're not gonna do anything. Chaz is."

"She obviously wants nothing to do with me now. I think I should just leave."

He walked into the guys' room and started packing his things.

Justin sighed. "I don't have time for this. What do you wanna do today?"

I looked down at the ground. "Well, I really think we should get to know that Charlie guy, if Sher's gonna be hanging around with him."

Justin thought about it. "Maybe you're right. Does she have her phone with her this time?"

I looked at the place she left it last night when she left, and it wasn't there.

"Yeah, she has it."

"Call her then, and find out where they are."

I dialed her number, and waited.

Sheridan

Being with Charlie felt so much better than being with Chaz.

I actually felt like Charlie was only paying attention to me, and not every girl around, like Chaz always did.

After a little while of driving, Charlie parked his car on the side of the road, and he got out of the car and opened the door for me.

"Thanks," I said.

I looked at where we stopped, and we were at the Santa Monica pier.

"Oh my gosh, I've never been here before." I said, smiling.

Charlie wrapped his arm around my waist and led me toward the entrance.

Just then, I got a call. I looked at the caller ID.

It was Shelby.

I sighed and answered. "Hello?"

"Hey Sher, Justin and I want to get to know this Charlie guy…so we were wondering if we could come hang out with you guys."

I smiled. Before, something inside me was saying that they wouldn't want to have anything to do with Charlie. But I'm glad they do.

"Okay sure. We're at the Santa Monica pier. We can wait at the entrance for you guys."

Then I thought about Chaz. "Is Chaz coming?"

"Nope. Chaz is going home."

I don't know why, but I felt really bad.

"Oh. Well…could you tell Chaz that I'm sorry for acting the way I did? I wasn't trying to make him go home or anything."

Shelby was silent for a moment. "Yeah, sure. I'll tell him. We'll be there soon."

"Okay."

I hung up and walked with Charlie until we reached a big hill that led down to the pier.

I decided to ask Charlie some questions.

"So Charlie, what grade are you in?"

He looked down at me. "I'm a junior. What grade are you?"

"Sophomore." Great. That was perfect. I've always wanted a guy a year older than me.

"What school do you go to?"

He started messing around with my hair. "Hollywood High. Where do you go?"

"I just moved to Massachusetts, so I'm starting my sophomore year at a school called Amherst High."

He looked surprised and disappointed. "You live all the way in Massachusetts? That's…really far."

"Yeah, it is really far away."

I looked down at my feet. How on earth was I going to be able to leave here if I got connected to Charlie?

We were interrupted when Shelby ran up to us.

"Hey guys!" She said.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked.

Then I saw Justin trailing behind her with Chaz beside him.

"Oh, you guys brought Chaz too?" I asked, automatically leaning into Charlie.

"Yeah. We dragged him along. He's been sitting in his room this whole time."

I nodded.

Justin walked up to me and smiled. "Hey Sher."

He gave me a hug, and then I looked at Chaz.

"Hey." I said.

Chaz seemed surprised that I even spoke to him.

"Hey." He responded.

"So, what are we gonna do now?" Shelby asked, looking around.

I shrugged and looked at Charlie.

"How about we sit on the beach here, and interrogate Charlie?" Justin said, punching Charlie in the arm like they've been friends forever.

I wasn't expecting that.

I smiled. "Okay. Cool. Let's do it."

We all walked down the hill and turned right, trying to get to the beach.

I took off my shoes and put my feet in the sand. It was so warm, and felt good between my toes.

After finding a comfy spot, we all sat down in a circle. Ironically, I ended up in between Chaz and Charlie.

Then we played 20 questions.