Chapter Five

Adam is truly a gentleman. I was fully expecting him to just honk his horn when he got to my house, but instead, he came up and knocked on the door.

"Charlie!" Dad called up the stairs. "Adam's here!"

I glanced in the mirror and quickly fluffed my hair before going downstairs. Adam looked slightly uncomfortable standing in the kitchen with my parents, but he smiled at me when I came down the stairs.

"Hey." I said shyly. I still felt shy around him, but I have been shy my whole life, so it wasn't really a shock.

"Hey, Char." Adam answered with a smile. "Ready to go?"

"You bet." I answered. I grabbed my jacket off the back of one of the kitchen chairs. "Bye Mom, bye Dad." I said as I walked out the front door.

"Bye Mr. and Mrs. Johanssen." Adam said, following me out the door.

"Have fun." Mom called after us. As soon as the door was shut, Adam grabbed my hand and pulled me around the corner. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close.

"You smell really good." He murmured into my hair, before he pulled back and kissed me. "You taste really good too."

I laughed and kissed him back. "Ditto." I said between kisses.

"Well, you ready to face my horrible sister?" Adam asked, taking my hand and walking me towards his truck. I shrugged. Adam put his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. "It will be fine." He promised, opening the passenger door for me. I climbed in and buckled up as Adam climbed in his side. He glanced and me sitting on the passenger side and shook his head.

"This isn't right." He told me.

"What isn't?" I asked.

He indicated to the space between us. "This, you're too far away." He said. "I think you need to sit closer to me."

"Isn't that called riding bitch?" I asked, unbuckling my belt.

Adam laughed. "I don't know what it's called." He said with a grin. "I just want you closer to me."

I laughed as I slid over to the middle seat. Adam immediately rested his hand on my knee.

"This is better." He declared, giving my knee a squeeze. I bravely moved my hand to his knee as well.

"I'm starting to think you're not as shy as you let on, Miss Johanssen." Adam teased me. I felt myself starting to blush and Adam laughed.

"Okay, maybe you are." He joked, kissing my cheek before backing out of the driveway.

I felt myself getting more nervous as we approached Slate St. I saw Vanessa's car parked in the driveway, so I knew she was home. Adam sensed my nervousness and gave my knee a squeeze.

"Remember, it will be okay." He assured me again. "And I can take you home at any time, okay?"

I gave him a forced smile. "Okay." I said. "Let's go."

Adam led me up the familiar front steps and into the Pike's house. I could smell the fresh peach pie, and I could hear the hustle and bustle coming from the rest of the house. The Pike house is never quiet, with eight kids in the house.

Only seven of the kids still live at home. Mallory, who was best friends with Becca's older sister Jessi, moved to Cincinatti after she graduated high school. She is a year older than Adam and goes to school for free at Ohio State because she is also an assistant to a professer there. It's the perfect job for Mallory, and perfect situation for a family who needs to send eight kids to school.

Obviously, Adam, Byron and Jordan are next. I think I've said enough about Adam. Jordan is a bit of an arrogant guy. He definitely thinks he is king. I've never had a problem with him, but he is best friends with Jeff Schafer for a reason. Byron is a weird, pot head, emo kid. He paints his fingernails and everything. He wears all black, and always seems like he wants to kill someone. I don't like him. He scares me a bit.

Vanessa is next. She is a year younger than the triplets and a year older than I am. She used to be into writing and rhyming. She talked in rhyme all the time when she was about nine (and I think I just rhymed too!). When we were friends, she was a great friend, very caring and generous. I think she still has a big heart, though I haven't seen it much over the past year.

Nicky is next. He is my age. He is even a bigger dork than I am, if you can imagine. He is not very smart though, and is in the special class in school. He is a huge computer fan too. He's actually smart with those, I think he'll probably be a computer tech or something. But his spelling and grammar is another story!

Margo is next. She is a punk kid, but not as bad as Byron. She has multicoloured hair, but only blonde and black. She is a vegetarian and huge protector of the environment.

Claire is the baby. She is in 7th grade. I don't really know her much anymore, but I know she still acts like the 'baby' and isn't ready to grow up yet.

John and Dee Pike are the heads of the household. John is a lawyer in town, he has his own small firm, and Dee works for him part time. They are very liberal parents, they let the kids drink and smoke pot at home, they have virtually no rules, no curfew. Sometimes I wish my parents were a bit more laid back like the Pike's are.

"Charlotte!" Dee looked up from her tea and smiled at me. She stood up and gave me a big, warm hug. "It's so good to see you again, honey. I've missed you coming around."

"Me, too." I told her, hugging her back.

Adam handed his mom a bucket of ice cream. "Here you go, Ma." He told her. "It was on sale, too."

"Perfect." Dee replied, taking the ice cream from Adam. "Thanks hon."

"No problem." Adam said, taking my hand. "We're going to go hang out in the rec room until the pie is ready."

"Sure, I'll hollar when it's ready." Dee answered, sitting back down at the table. Adam led me though the kitchen and down the stairs to the rec room. Jordan, Margo and Claire were sitting around the TV, watching an episode of Don't Forget The Lyrics.

"Char!" Claire jumped up and gave me a hug. "I've missed you!"

I hugged her back. "I've missed you too." I told her.

"I didn't believe Adam when he said he was dating you." Claire continued. "I told him that you were too good for him!"

Adam burst out laughing and covered Claire's mouth with his hand. "Char, don't listen to her." He said with a grin. "Come sit."

I followed him around the couch and sat down on one end of it. Adam sat beside me and put his arm around me.

"Hey, Char, I'm sorry about Vanessa the other night." Jordan spoke up. "I gave her shit the whole ride home."

I laughed. "Thanks, but it's okay." I told him. "I'm just going to let her say what she wants and she can be the little one."

"Good for you." Adam said, squeezing my arm.

We sat on the couch for about half an hour, watching the show and watching Claire and Margo get up and sing and dance to nearly every song. During 'I Wanna Rock And Roll Every Night', Claire even got the guitar from Rock Band and pretended to strum along.

"I don't think those two ever stopped performing." I said with a laugh.

"Nah, it's pretty much Soul Train here." Adam agreed.

"Guys, come get the pie!" Dee called down the stairs. Claire and Margo raced for the stairs, and Jordan quickly followed them.

"Let's wait a minute." Adam murmured, pulling me closer and kissing me on my neck.

I laughed. "Adam, your house is hardly the house to make out at." I teased.

"I know, but they're all upstairs getting pie." Adam said as he continued to kiss me. Just as he finished speaking, Claire and Margo thundered back down the stairs.

"Oh, God guys." Margo said, rolling her eyes. "Get a room."

Adam stood up. "We thought we had one." He joked, helping me up. I followed him back up the stairs and into the kitchen. There, standing in front of the fridge, plate of pie in her hand, was Vanessa.

I felt Adam squeeze my hand as soon as we saw Vanessa. She saw me and glared. She picked up her glass of milk and took her dessert up the stairs, without a word to either Adam or I.

"Well, I guess that makes it easier." Adam lamely joked, handing me a plate with pie and a scoop of ice cream on it.

"I'm going to go talk to Vanessa." Dee said, standing up. "This is unacceptable. Just because you two had a falling out doesn't mean she needs to be rude to you for dating Adam."

Dee headed up the stairs, and I immediately felt guilty.

"What's that look for?" Adam asked me gently, touching my hand.

"I feel like I'm just causing trouble." I mumbled, mashing my ice cream with my fork.

"Why?"

I sighed. "Your mom is up there yelling at Vanessa, she doesn't even want to eat in her own kitchen cause I'm here!"

"That's Vanessa's problem, not yours." Adam told me. "You are more than welcome in this house! My parents, my brothers, my other sisters, they all love you and want you to be around!

"Do you know what they all said when I told them that I was dating you?" Adam asked me. I shrugged and looked at him.

"They were all so excited that you would be hanging around the house more." He said. "My mom, Claire, Margo... they've all missed you over this year. You were a big part of our family up until the last year, and I want you to be a big part of our family now. I want you to be comfortable here, and I want you to spend time here, with me."

I still didn't say anything. Adam reached over and took my fork away.

"You're totally destroying your pie, babe." He said with a small laugh. I folded my hands on the table and looked at them.

"Char..." Adam began. "I need you to... My family is really important to me, and I know Vanessa is being a cow right now. But I really want you to feel comfortable here, because I'm here."

"Adam, I am here!" I said, hearing my voice start to shake. "I came here, and she still was a cold bitch to me! How many times am I going to have to get treated like that?"

"I wish you could just ignore her." Adam said softly, as someone came down the stairs. I turned, thinking it was Dee, but it wasn't. It was Vanessa.

Before she could say anything, Adam motioned to an ampty chair. "Vanessa, sit down."

Vanessa glared at me. "I'd rather not." She sneered.

"Sit down!" Adam shouted. Vanessa's eyes widened. Adam is not the yelling type. Jordan, yes, but Adam never yells. Vanessa slinked into an empty chair and stared at the table.

"Okay, first of all, Ness, you're my sister." Adam began. "I care about you a lot, and nothing is thicker than blood. But-" he continued, "I really care about Charlotte too. It's pretty shitty to have two people who are so important to me have so much hate and animosity towards each other.

"Vanessa, I know that it must be hard for you to see me with Char." Adam continued. "But it's not your choice. It's mine, and only mine. You need to figure out a way to deal with it.

"And Char." Adam turned to me. "I've liked you for a long time. Like, a long time. I liked you before this stupid little tiff with my sister-"

"It's not stupid!" Vanessa interrupted.

Adam glared at her and continued. "But my family is so important to me, and I need you to feel comfortable here."

Vanessa and I were quiet, taking in what Adam had said to us. Then he stood up.

"So you two need to figure this out together." He said, walking out of the room.

My jaw was dropped. I couldn't believe Adam did that. He must feel pretty strongly about Vanessa and I getting along. I guess she wouldn't be able to kill me inside her house. Too many witnesses. That fact didn't make me feel any better, though.

I took a deep breath and looked at Vanessa. She felt me looking at her, and looked up at me with a normal, Vanessa face... not the snotty, rude Vanessa I see at school.

"Do you actually like my brother?" was the first thing Vanessa said to me. "Or do you just want to be in a relationship?"

"Vanessa, you've known me forever." I told her. "You know that I'm not like that. I wouldn't be over here, at your parents house, dealing with you, if I didn't really care about Adam and have feelings for him."

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "I don't think I believe you." She told me.

I threw my hands in the air, exasperated. "Why the hell not?" I demanded. "When have I ever lied to you? You are the one who completely shattered this friendship, not me, so do not make me out to be the bad guy!"

"I did not shatter this friendship!" Vanessa exclaimed. "You and Becca ditched me and Haley because you didn't like our new friends!"

"You picked those so-called friends over us!" I cried. "Me and Becca didn't like them, yes, but you and Haley chose to be friends with them and not us!"

"You could have at least tried to be friends with them." Vanessa shot back. "If our friendship meant anything to you, you would have at least tried."

"If our friendship meant anything to you, you wouldn't have picked those sluts over us!"

"This is fucking bullshit." Vanessa leaned back in her seat and angerly crossed her arms. "I can't believe I am sitting in my own house, being yelled at and accused by some loser who thinks she's got a future with my brother!"

I turned my back to Vanessa and pulled my knees up to my chest. I could feel the tears coming on, and I did not want to cry in front of her.

"Why do you even care so much?" Vanessa asked. "Why do you even care if I don't like you? You are the one making this awkward for yourself, not me."

I whirled back around. "Vanessa, you were my best friend!" I exclaimed. "We had so many plans for our life! We were going to be best friends all though high school, go to the same college, marry brothers and raise our families next door to each other!"

The tears were starting to pour out, but I kept talking. "Even though some of those plans seem crazy, we still always planned on being friends forever. And then, you got the urge to be popular, and I wasn't good enough to be your friend anymore. Do you know how much that hurt? Do you know how horrible I felt, knowing that my best friend thought so little of me that she didn't want to even be around me anymore?

"And not just that you didn't want to hang out anymore." I continued, crying. "You torment me at school! You make my life friggin hell! Friends sometimes do grow apart, but then they just let it go. I did nothing to you, nothing at all, and you feel the need to harass me every single day. Why? So you look cool around Kerry and Tiffany? Who the fuck cares what Kerry and Tiffany think?"

"I fucking care what they think!" Vanessa shouted. "You know what it it was like growing up, you know! I had to wear shit clothes that used to be Mal's, I wore glasses and braces, and I fucking talked in rhyme! I got teased so much in school. When the cool girls actually wanted to be friends with me, I fucking jumped on that chance to be popular! I couldn't handle going though school being bullied anymore."

"If you know what it feels like to be bullied so much, why do you insist on bullying me?" I asked her.

Vanessa shrugged. "I honestly didn't think it bothered you so much." Vanessa admitted.

"How could it not?" I asked. "How would you feel if I called you a loser every time I saw you? Or threw spitballs at you? Or tripped you in PE and got you covered in mud?"

"I honestly didn't think it bugged you that much." Vanessa admitted. "You always seem happy and cheerful. I didn't think I bugged you."

"Well, you do!" I exclaimed. "How can it not bug someone? Especially when the person calling them that used to be their best friend?"

Vanessa sighed and brushed her hair out of her face. "Look, Charlotte." She said. "It's not my fault if you can't handle a little teasing. I'm not going to sit here and try to build up your confidence, because we all know that is a friggin project and a half. If you can't handle it, maybe you just should leave, and not come back. My brother does not deserve a whiny and pathetic girl like you. He deserves someone fun and cool and actually confident. He can't be expected to constantly be bringing you up. You're such a fucking loser, and you don't even know it!"

I couldn't believe she said that to me. I was so seething mad, so upset. I had so many emotions running though my body at that moment, I didn't know how to react. So I pushed my chair back and stood up.

"Fuck you, Vanessa." I snapped, before slamming the door behind me.

I felt really terrible about just walking out of Adam's house without even saying goodbye. I almost wanted to turn back around, but now that I left, I didn't want to go back. I couldn't believe Vanessa. I had tried, I really did. I thought that she was opening up, when she made the comments about having to wear Mallory's old clothes as a kid. But then she completely 180-ed and turned back into the bitch that she has become.

I walked though the gate at the back of the elementary school. As I came closer to the swings, I remembered how Becca, Vanessa, Haley and I would have competitions... Who could swing the highest, the fastest, the longest, who could jump the farthest, anything we could think of. We would spend hours on the swings. We would purposly leave for school early, just so we could swing before school started.

I sat down on one of the swings and started to cry. Life had gotten so hard over the last couple years. It used to be the four of us, just having fun, and doing whatever we wanted. Nothing else mattered but playing and having fun. Then we started getting older. Boys came into the picture, along with clothing styles and 'cool' music. We couldn't just be ourselves anymore, because someone was always there to judge us. We always said that we didn't care what anyone thought of us. As long as we were friends, that was all that mattered. But slowly and surely, Vanessa and Haley started to outgrow the swinging competitions and started to grow into liking boys and spending all their free time at the mall. We grew apart, which wouldn't have been the end of the world if we still could talk and get along. We can't even do that anymore. At that moment, sitting on the swings with the cold, autumn wind blowing on my face, I had never felt more alone.

I had been sitting on the swings for about ten minutes, just crying and thinking, when I spotted someone walking towards me out of the corner of my eye. It was Adam. I stopped swinging and watched him walk towards me. I couldn't tell if he was mad at me for storming out of his house like that. I hoped he wasn't.

"Hey." He said, walking closer towards me.

"Hey." I answered back, rubbing my eyes with my jacket sleeve.

Adam sat down on the swing beside me. He reached over and grabbed onto my link and pulled me towards him.

"You okay?"

I shook my head. "I'm sorry, Adam." I blurted out. "I'm sorry, I tried really, really hard! I was doing everything I could! I tried so hard to-"

"I know." He cut me off. "I was listening to everything you guys were saying."

I covered my face with my hands. "I don't know what to do!" I moaned. "I know your family is so important to you, I get that. But Adam... I can't go though this!"

"My parents are talking to Vanessa." Adam said. "When I left, they were talking about grounding her for a month, and then taking away her car for another month."

"Are you mad that I left?" I asked.

"I'm surprised you stayed at the table with her for that long." Adam told me. "She was being a bitch to you, big time."

I was quiet for a minute. "Can I ask you a question?" I asked.

"Of course."

"When you said you liked me for a long time..." I began. "How long is a long time?"

Adam blushed. "Um... since I was eleven." He admitted.

"Six years!" I yelped. "Why didn't you ever say anything before?"

Adam laughed. "Well, when I was eleven, you were nine... so that's not exactly prime dating ages." He said. "And then, you know, you and Vanessa were such good friends and I didn't want to make things weird for anyone that way. So I just let it go.

"But I've been noticing you at school a lot, since this year started." Adam continued. "And after my bitch of a sister threw her drink at you, I figured, hey, I'll offer her my sweater and it will be smooth sailing from here on out."

"Or so you thought." I said with a laugh. "I'm glad you asked me out. I wouldn't have been able to ask you out."

"I'm glad I did too." Adam answered, leaning towards me. "Your lips are cold." He said after kissing me. "I should take you home."

"Okay." I agreed, standing up. Adam took my hand and walked me back towards his truck. As we walked past the monkey bars, I remembered an April Fool's Day where me and Haley covered the bars in Vaseline, and Vanessa slipped and fell on her ass, completely humiliated. A small smile creeped onto my face. I realized that I wasn't going to get mad at Vanessa. I was going to get even.