Chapter 4: Football and King's
Sam PoV:
Why is there always a queue for the ladies toilet? That was going through my head as I watched enviously the way the men's toilet door almost remained open with the number of people going in and out, I had been here for the past ten minutes and I must admit, Pattrick was right, the extra-large soda was a mistake. Not that I'll ever give him the satisfaction of knowing. Finally. As soon as I walked in I regretted that soda even more.
I was walking back to my seat and I saw Charlie sitting with Patrick. I had spent some time before the match looking for him but gave up when the match was starting assuming he hadn't come. I could hear them talking.
"... my dad is building mine" to which Patrick answered with a smile "Yeah, mine looks like a boat. Hey Sam"
"I don't think I've ever been to a more disgusting bathroom in my life". I told while I sat down next to Charlie.
"Well, that's because you haven't had the pleasure of going to a men's room". He said before jumping up and celebrating when the Devils scored.
After sitting down he said, "Oh, Sam this is.."
"Charlie Kelmeckis, I know we have English together. So how did you two meet?" I said while stealing one of Charlie's nachos
"We have Shop class together" Charlie answered while moving his nachos away from me right into Patrick's reach.
"Kelmeckis - said Patrick while serving himself to Charlie's nachos - Oh shit, your sister is Dating Ponytail Derek"
"that's what they call him? And leave my nachos alone" he said without an ounce of malice in his voice.
After a couple of minutes one of the teams called a timeout and Patrick asked what we were going to after the game to which I answered "Dunno, Bob is still trying to get into that Waitress's pants and Mary Elizabeth got caught sneaking into her parent's liquor cabinet so that's a no go"
"well, that sucks. Got any ideas Charlie?"
I could see that it caught him off guard because he stammered before replying that he didn't have any.
"Let's just go to King's" I ended up saying after a while and after getting an affirmative from Patrick I asked Charlie what he though
"Sorry, what's King's?"
"It's a cafe, good food and good music, you'll like it"
After that, we got back to listening to Patrick's play-by-play of the game till the game ended and we set off to King's.
At king's
Once we got to King's we sat down at one of the outside tables and after ordering, coffee for Patrick and me while Charlie got himself a brownie, we started talking and I realized that even though Charlie and I had talked and had known each other for a couple of weeks we didn't know anything about each other but we quickly got to remedy that.
"So, Charlie what's your favourite band?"
"I think The Smiths are my favourite"
This got a smile on my face and I said: "Are you kidding!? I love The Smiths! The best breakup band ever. What's your favourite song?"
"Asleep. It's from Louder Than Bombs. I heard it on PonyTail Derek's mixtape"
Patrick laughed at that and said "That works on so many levels"
Charlie laughed with him and said "Yes, it's called Autumn Leaves and the cover is hand-painted"
We were all laughing at this point and it took almost ten minutes for us to calm down because we would look at each other and start laughing again. Once that was over I kept asking Charlie questions about himself.
"What's your favourite movie?"
"I don't know really. They're all the same to me."
"Charlie, I saw you talking with Mr Anderson today, what's up with that?"
"Oh that, he gave me another book to read after I finished To Kill a Mockingbird"
"You already finished it?. I'm only halfway done. So what book did he give you?"
"This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I haven't started it yet"
"So, Charlie... what are you going to do when you get out of here?"
"My Aunt Helen said I should be a writer, but I don't know what I'd write about"
"Ohh, you could write about us - said Patrick - you could call it The Slut and The Falcon and make us solve crimes" I smiled and with faux indignation, I answered, "I assume I would be the falcon you the slut, right Pattrick?" but I couldn't hold it and just laughed.
"You guys look happy together," Charlie said after our little outbreak. "How long have you been boyfriend and girlfriend?"
This set us off again and I began laughing while Patrick made kissy faces at me, All the while Charlie was looking at us with a look of confusion that was so cute. Where did that come from?. "What?" He asked.
"He's my step-brother. My mom finally left my worthless dad and married his nice dad 3 years ago"
"Be careful around this one Charlie, I used to be popular before she got me into good music. If you don't watch out she'll ruin your life forever" Patrick said jokingly. I slapped his shoulder and replied "Don't listen to him charlie he was never popular, to begin with"
We spent another hour at King's before heading back and dropping Charlie off outside his house.
Charlie PoV
I watched the tail lights of the truck fade into the distance. I probably look ridiculous standing in the middle of the road with a manic grin at half-past one in the morning. I should probably go inside before one of the neighbours sees me and calls the police. Dad's car wasn't in the garage, meaning my parents hadn't returned from dinner with my dad's boss. But I could see Derek's car parked across the street. As I went in I saw light coming from the basement accompanied hushed voices drifting up the stairs along with the faint smell of alcohol. It sounded like my sister and her boyfriend were arguing, I was right. I was halfway down the stairs and neither of them had noticed me.
I'm not sure what they were arguing or what Candace said and frankly, I didn't and still don't care but I'll never forget what happened next. A sharp SNAP followed by a deafening silence disturbed only by Derek's angered breathing. It was at that point that they noticed me and we all looked at each other for a moment that seemed to last forever, and then the anger came and I remembered all that Chris taught me about fighting. Before I knew it I was rushing down the stairs ready to pounce on Derek. Candace managed to stop me but not before I managed to get one punch to his face. She was holding me back and whispering in my ear "Charlie stop, don't do this. Please, I can handle him". She then grabbed my face and made me look at her and with a pleading expression said "Please trust me, Charlie, I can deal with him. Just please don't tell mum and dad" She then pushed me up the stairs and I let her.
I ended up in my room sitting on the floor just listening until I heard the main door open and close I raced to the kitchen and took an ice pack from the freezer before peeking out the window to see Derek getting in his car but not before receiving a kiss from Candace. I waited on the stairs for my sister to come back inside and offered her the ice but she didn't take it.
"Candace, what are you doing?" I asked
"Look, I egged him on. You saw it"
"That's no excuse and you know it" I interrupted her.
"He's never hit me before. I promise he'll never do it again. Just don't tell Mum and Dad"
I'm not sure why I agreed but I did and she went up to her room. But I just stayed there on the stairs.
I don't know how long I was there but it wasn't until I heard my dad opening the garage that I went up to my room. I spent most of the weekend there reading This Side of Paradise because I knew that if they saw me like that they would ask me what was wrong and I wouldn't be able to tell them it was all okay.
