Four Doors Down(15)

Ryan smirks as she blushes. “I was just trying to cheer Ryan up,” she defends herself.

I cross my arms. “And you’re the one to do it?”

“What no round two, Becca?” Mason asks grinning over at me.

My eyes flash over to him and narrow. Before I stopped ignoring this crowd entirely, I went to Jake’s thirteenth birthday party and got stuck playing a game of spin the bottle. Mason spun and it landed on me; he promptly launched himself my way. That was my first kiss. We’d never spoken before that and I don’t think we’ve ever spoken more than two words to each other since. He’s grinning at me smugly but quickly stops when he glances behind me. Jake’s probably just sent him the same death glare he’s been giving to me.

“We’ll play a few games on the Xbox,” Jake decides, shooting me a look that clearly tells me to shut up and stop arguing.

“There’s too many of us,” I state.

“We can team up. You’re on my team, Becca,” he decides before I have a chance to back out.




Two hours later and I’m pretty good at this video game—whatever it’s called. I’m getting into it and can’t believe the time when I check my watch. The moods lightened up and everyone is actually being civil, even cracking a few jokes, to my surprise, and I’m surprisingly quite enjoying myself. I’m about to shoot down a wall to free myself when my phone starts to ring. I don’t hear it at first, but Jessica, who is sitting this game out, picks it up off the table and waves it at me.

“It’s Charlie,” she says, a big smile on her face.

I’m immediately distracted from the game and reach out to grab my phone, leaving me open to get shot much to Jake’s annoyance. I scowl at his reaction as I answer the call. Overreaction much?

“Hey, sexy.” I can’t help but smile at his greeting to me and stand up to move away from the sofa for some privacy. I talk to him for a couple of minutes before hanging up and heading back to the group.

“So, I’ve gotta go.”

Jake turns and glares at me. I mean seriously, if looks could kill. “What! We’re in the middle of a game.”

“You can finish it.”

Jake just gives me a thunderous look, cocking his head toward Ryan.

Oh right. “Um, sorry again, Ryan. See you at school,” I say.

Jake shakes his head in disgust. What’s his problem? Ryan doesn’t care. He hasn’t even looked up from the TV. Jake’s clearly in a bad mood and has decided to take it out on me. I wave half-heartedly at them before leaving the room, trying not to rush, eager as I am to see Charlie.

I trek up the stairs and into Charlie’s waiting car. It’s only later that night when I’m finally climbing into bed and thinking over the day’s events when I remember my conversation with Lisa. How did she know about Charlie? I yawn widely and decide it must have been my mom that told her.





I try not to wince as Charlie hits a bum note on his guitar and it echoes through the garage. I’m watching Charlie’s band practice, and I’m trying to stay engaged but, to be honest, they do not sound the best. I mean, I’ve only ever seen them live once because they’ve not had many gigs, but they were definitely better than this. The drummer Jimmy, who is also Charlie’s cousin, keeps looking over at me and I get the distinct impression he doesn’t like me, and I’m starting to feel uncomfortable.

The song comes to an end and Charlie calls the practice, looking over at me. Two of the guys, Jack, and Dean leave right away waving goodbye to me, but Jimmy hangs back and ends up sitting on the sofa next to me. Charlie goes over to the fridge to pull us out some drinks, but it’s empty.

“I’m gonna go grab some sodas from inside,” he tells us and exits the garage before I have a chance to go with him. I look over at Jimmy, who’s flipping through pictures on his phone. Silence stretches between us and I can’t help but feel like I want him to like me, knowing how close he and Charlie are.

“That was a good practice,” I lie.

He grins at me. “We blew.”

I start to laugh unable to argue with that.

“You go to MacAllister, right, Becca?” he asks.

I nod. “Yeah. S’alright. You like it at Madison?” I ask, cringing at how eager I sound.

“Sure.”

“It’s good to have Charlie back in town?” I persist. God this is so not me, desperate to make someone like me.

He looks over at me and opens his mouth to say something but then stops himself.

“Look, I know you don’t like me,” I blurt out.

He looks surprised. “I don’t not like you, Becca, it’s just…” he trails off as Charlie wanders back in and hands us our drinks.

Charlie looks between us and our blank faces. “What have you said?” Charlie demands of Jimmy, his gaze passing to me. I shake my head blankly. I’ve no idea what’s going on here. Charlie seems to relax and drops down onto the sofa between us, throwing his arm around me and pulling me into his side.

I smile up at him. “Sam wants to know if we want to go to the movies with her and Chris on Saturday,” I tell him.

He pulls a face. “I wish I could Becca, but I’ve gotta go out of town this weekend. My parents are making me visit our grandparents. Right, Jim?” he says waving his hand toward Jimmy.