Chapter Twenty Three - Cholesterol, Charcoal, Chariot, Oops Charlotte

"You left me, Felix!" I hastily slapped River's hand on mine and turned around, walking away from him.

Moments later I felt a calloused hand grasp my own again. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards him, my hand landing on his chest. I hate this.

"But that's the past! I'm here now Veronica. In flesh, in blood, my heart is yours and yours only," His jade crystal eyes looked at me in sorrow.

Slowly, he reached out to cup my cheek, as if assuring me no harm.

It took all my willpower not to smack him upside the head.

"Did you think about what it would feel like waiting for you in our spot only to find out you were gone?" I pulled away from his touch and stared him down. The turmoil inside of me is close to reaching its peak. "I spent five months Felix, five long months."

He encased both my hands in his and stared at me with tears in his eyes. "But... But, I love you." His voice broke as he regarded me with an expression full of regret, passion, and sadness.

I stared back at him as did he to me. We looked at each other for a moment with no one moving an inch.

"Well, I don't." I started. "Maybe then, yes. But now? Not eve-," My hand shot out to cover my mouth as a tired yawn escaped.

"Cut!" Marianne belted out, the script falling from her lap when she stood up and walked towards us at the front.

"Sorry," I smiled sheepishly and rubbed my eyes. Sleeping for only two hours last night; Correction, this morning is far by the most regretful thing I had ever done driven by my impulsive nature.

River handed me a bottle of water then took a sip, skewing the cap back on he raised an eyebrow at Marianne. "Why is it that you feel the need to yell 'Cut' every single time? It's inappropriate and not needed and did I mention extremely annoying?" By the end of the sentence, he was already glaring at her.

"It gives me the motivation to not throw a shoe at your faces every day. Especially you. So instead of hating it, you should start acknowledging it because that's the only reason I haven't beaten you right now." She answered casually and proceeded to flip through the pages.

River smirked and folded the sleeves of his sweater halfway through his arm. "I thought the reason you haven't beaten me is because of my dashing and handsome face. Oh, and did I mention my body? I mean, have you taken a look at this!" He gestured to himself.

She scoffed and took a moment to peek at him, drawing back her attention towards the bundle of paper in her arm. "River, honey, you out of all people should know lying is bad."

"And you, out of all people should know when to speak the truth. Right Nevaeh," He nudged me when I was in the middle of drinking making me lift the bottle at a dangerously high angle, the contents dripping down my chin, some even went in my nose.

I coughed furiously and quickly snatched my handkerchief from my pocket, wiping my mouth. "Fuck-," I wheezed. "You."

"See what your face does to people? I agree with Nevaeh, fuck you." Marianne fished out a neon pink highlighter from her pocket and started on working with the script. Her eyes were scanning at a fast pace as she roughly turned River around and used his back as a table.

"Look, you do have some use after all." She whispered just as I started walking away from them, catching my breath. I sat at the edge of the stage,

The wide, lipstick red-colored double doors opened with a bang and a skipping Sunny appeared next to an equally cheerful-looking Ashton. Her thick and dark box braids bounced along with the pieces of linen yellow paper gathered in her hand as she maneuvered her way into the crowd, a skip in her step.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked. "Ashton, don't you have detention?"

Sunny plopped down beside me, followed by Ashton. "We're here to campaign. The elections are next week, remember." She arranged the flyers.

"You look cute," I say as I assessed her clothing and I took notice of the yellow tartan overalls with a white cap-sleeved shirt underneath. She had high tops to complete the look.

"I know," She sassily flipped her hair over her shoulder and I laughed. I felt a nudge at my side and turned to Ashton who pretended to gag.

She ignored him. "My party list is almost complete, only the vice president slot is missing. I can't find anyone, hence here we are, trying to find a candidate. Where is Marianne anyway, I need to ask for her permission first."

"It must be hard. Campaigning I mean." I placed the bottle down and scooted back a little just so I could dangle my feet.

Sunny sighed and rubbed her face. "You have no idea. It's so frustrating how everyone would be confident and willing one second and then next thing you know they start saying they don't want the position and begin doubting themselves. Especially the freshmen. The only reason some even wanted to get into the club is because of this idiot right here."

Ashton grinned cheekily when he saw Sunny pointing at him. "Is it my fault they only wanted to join the club to see my strikingly handsome of a face?" He placed his elbow on his knees and laid his chin on his palm, pouting his lips.

I grimaced and scooted away from him. "Ew, they did that?"

"I know right? That was what I was thinking." Sunny played along.

He glared at us through his glasses and rolled his eyes. "You have poor taste in men, I swear." He muttered and walked away, his destination I don't know where.

Sunny and I looked at each other and shrugged. "Anyway enough about me, how about you, How's the play going? How are things with Blake? Are you still a vir-"

I cut her off with a yawn. I covered my mouth.

Slowly, she nodded thoughtfully. "Clearly one of those made you stay up all night," Her eyes sparkled with mischief

I rolled my eyes at the innuendo. "Oh shut up,"

"No can do Amiga. Talking endlessly is in my nature. It gives me a piece of uniqueness from others." She winked playfully.

Just then Ashton appeared in front of us and gave a thumbs-up. "We're good to go, boss." His eyes trained on Sunny.

Sunny's eyes brightened at this and I was startled as she suddenly stood up. SHe didn't even need to use her hands to push her body up, using only her legs to do so. It was graceful- disturbingly poised even. I almost forgot she was a dancer.

"I almost forgot. Where is Lila? I haven't seen her yet. Usually, I could detect any paranormal activity..." Her eyes narrowed.

"Wait, what's happening?" I asked her when I noticed Marianne commanding everyone to sit at the center of the room.

She gave me a bland look. "Seriously Nev? I just told you about two minutes ago that,"

I stood up and held my hands p in surrender. "Sheesh. Alright, I remember. Chill."

I jumped backward when she attempted to poke my stomach. I poked my tongue out. "Bye you bitch, I hope you the best." I smiled sweetly and blew her a raspberry at her laughed as she pretended to dodge my kisses.

I ran towards the center of the room trying to blend in with the crowd. Behind me, I heard a faint yell extinguished by the voices of my fellow peers. "Thank you for nothing, you slut!" I laughed under my breath and shook my head.

The spot I was it would've been perfect if it weren't for the occasional chatters of the people on the two chairs on either side of me. I kept leaning backward to give them privacy but in the end, I chose to leave there and walked to the back rows of red theater seats.

I was in the middle of gripping my water bottle because I felt my social awkwardness creeping in when the door opened again. Walked in was a blond-haired boy holding a coffee cup- I could tell because of the design and the signature of coffee beans at the front- and a familiar book on the other hand.

He immediately spotted me and gave me a small smile. I gave him a small smile back and let my eyes drift to the wall beside his head where a circus poster was glued. The creepy clown looked like it was mocking me with its big red nose and a wide smile.

Blake surprised me when he stopped in front of me. "Hi."

"Sup,"

Sup? Are you kidding me? How lame is that?

His lips turned up. He nodded his head at a space at the middle side of the room were not many where seated. "We should seat there if you want to be able to hear the announcements," I nodded and followed him.

He stepped aside when we arrived at the mouth of the row and I walked in first. Right after my butt connected with the strangely soft but at the same time hard cushion seat, a yawn threatened to come out of my mouth making me cover my mouth using my arm. Blake turned to me and stopped halfway through sipping.

His eyes stayed on the cup, switching to me then to the cup again. He placed it in the cup holder and smiled sheepishly. "If I had known you were also deprived of sleep I would have bought you coffee."

I waved my hand and placed my water bottle at the cupholder of my seat. "No need. I hate coffee."

"Really?"

"Well, no..." I stopped when I saw the amusement dancing in his eyes. "Oh, don't give me that look. I'm sleepy for heaven's sake."

I turned to my front and covered my face with the hood of the sweatshirt. I crossed my arms and buried myself further from my seat, silently wishing for me to have invisibility powers.

I heard a soft laugh beside me and froze. Fuck. His laugh was heavenly, adorable and a melodious tune packed all in one. The sound was so celestial that I decided that I love his laugh. I peeked under my hood at the same time he stopped laughing and peered over at me.

"I'm guessing you tend to lean more into the creamy side of coffee?" He slowly said like he was testing if we were close enough in terms of relationship to discuss these things.

It was. Over the past few weeks, I had slowly gained my courage to speak to him like a normal person and not like a toddler learning to speak for the first time.

I pulled down my hood and cleared throat, subtly trying to fix my hair. I nodded. "I hate black coffee. It tastes like death."

He nodded thoughtfully clearly digesting the fact. "So you act, have a fear of frogs, occasionally has a camera around your neck, always wears skirts with long-sleeved shirts and like coffees, the creamy and not the pure ones."

"I don't have a fear of frogs. I just dislike them. I already told you that." I stated.

His eyes searched mine for a second. In the end, he shrugged with a small smile tugging at the side of his lip, the outline of his dimple popping out. "Okay,"

"Hey! What does that mean?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Take it how you interpret it."

"If I interpreted it like you were teasing me do I have permission to punch you," I quirked an eyebrow at him.

"You can but don't-," He started but I already punched him at the side of his arm.

"Too late." I grinned at him and I laughed when he started rubbing his arm. "Rule one of being friends with me. Expect the violence, a punch means a tap of love, don't forget that."

He stared at me in puzzlement and an amused smile carved its way into his face. "I'll take note of that."

We didn't get to talk more when our focus was on the stage when Ashton starts talking.

He stood confidently, his posture similar to those politicians seen on tv. His arm was in front of his stomach and I covered my mouth to keep me from snickering when he folded his hands like one of a butler's. He cleared his throat loudly, silencing the room. His eyes scanned the crowd for a moment, a smile fought his way into his face when his brown eyes met my blue crossed ones.

"Guys, Gals, and Gays, what a wonderful morning!"

Thunders of claps can be heard just after that one statement. I clapped along with them, shaking my head at his greeting.

"You there," He pointed to a black-haired boy at the front row.

"Me?"

"No, the cupid flying at the center- of course, you!" He went down the stage and stood in front of the young man. At the side of the stage, I saw Marianne smiling and Sunny with a sardonic smile. "What do you think of the cafeteria food?"

The boy opened his mouth to speak but Ashton beat him to it. "I know right, it needs barbecue pizza and soup. Not to mention they don't give rice and sometimes the chicken has blood on it. Do you know how we could all die because of that! Too much choles-,"

"I'm sorry but is this what you call campaigning?" A girl with brown hair spoke up and a couple of people snickered at the comment.

Ashton however, remained unbothered. He walked with a calm face and posture and squinted his eyes at the girl. They were a few rows in front of us. "I'm sorry, what's your name?" His voice was oddly sweet and I knew something dramatic was about to happen again.

"Charlotte," The girl stuck her chin up and let out a smirk, mocking him. "Not that it concerns you and your joke of a campaign."

"Oh?" He rubbed his hands together. "That's a very nice opinion Cholesterol."

"If only it mattered. We need not waste another five seconds talking about inessential topics with irrelevant people." He smiled sweetly at the end.

"It's Charlotte." Her cheeks reddened and I pitied her. All I could do was hope Ashton doesn't add another person on his 'People who hate me' list.

"I'm sorry. Charcoal?" He cupped a hand around his ear, leaning closer.

"Charlotte." The girl replied, grinding her teeth and was clearly agitated.

"Chariot? Wow, nice name." Ashton nodded his head, looking at her feigning to be impressed.

"My name is Charlotte." The girl exclaimed making the others around her lean away because of how loud the voice is.

Ashton didn't seem a little bit affected by the outburst only resulting in him grinning and slowly handing out his hand for a handshake. "Hello Charlotte, my name is Ashton."

Twenty minutes later the crowd dissipated in different directions. Only a few stayed in the room. Sunny and Ashton were at the stage discussing something with Marianne and I was sitting on a long wooden box at the side of the room, talking to Blake.

The conversation wasn't as forced as it was once before that now we were laughing at a story of how he first met Sunny.

"Wait," I paused to gain breath. "You mean to tell me she just approached you and declared you're now friends?" I wheezed out.

He nodded and laughed along, drawing something at the side of his now empty coffee cup. "It was recessed I think and I was too busy drawing something that I didn't notice her standing beside me. I only did when she poked my shoulder and grabbed my hand and forcefully shook it saying her name is Sunny and that from that day on we're friends. I only stared at her like she was crazy but slowly nodded my head. I mean if you were there you would understand how bizarre that is."

A mental image of fetus Blake and Sunny shaking hands got me laughing more. "I wish I saw that."

"I'm glad you didn't. You would've run away if you saw my face then. It was an acne party." He shuddered as if thinking back to the day.

I snorted. Oh, little do you know. I covered my mouth and looked at him wide-eyed. "Shit."

He only laughed and I soon followed. After we calmed down my eyes zeroed on the book beside his lap. "Did you finish it?" I asked.

He dropped the cup he was holding and grabbed the book, turning to me. He crossed his legs and flipped through it, stopping when a laminated bookmark with colored writing came to view. He looked up at me and blushed a light pink. "It's my sister's project from the year before," I observed how it had icons of Sumer artifacts, a cuneiform one of them.

"So...did you finish it?" I slowly asked, lightly grazing the cup with my fingers.

I looked at him. He had a frown on his face. "No," He slowly shook his head. "I was in the last chapter when mom caught me still reading. She scolded me and took the book. I tried to search for the electronic copy but my phone battery died."

"That must've sucked." He nodded his head. "

"Trust me though, I know that feeling. Does your mom always do that?" I asked him curious because as far as I know, they have a huge family.

"No, not really, last night was the first time I got caught actually." He must've noticed my expression because his eyebrows scrunched together in concern. "Why? Are your parents strict?"

"Strict is an understatement." I rolled my eyes thinking about it.

"Oh," His face paled the slightest.

"Why are you making that face?"

"This is my normal face I don't know what you're talking about."

"Come on," I prodded. "Tell meeee," When he didn't budge I dismissively let my eyes wander all over the room, only giving him a sideways glance. "Fine, I guess I'll just spoil you then."

"Alright, alright I surrender with honor."

He lazily raised his hands and grabbed the cup again, sketching something in it with a pencil I had no idea where it came from.

"I just remembered you weren't there at the celebratory night at the diner. Everyone in each department was there, even your friends." I pondered over the idea for a moment then nodded my head.

"Yeah, I wish I could've been there but my mom said no. I forced the others to go there since, well they deserve it I guess." I said and absentmindedly traced the cold wooden surface. I couldn't look at his direction because if I'm honest, I'm ashamed about that part of my life.

Never being able to go out with the other kids, never-ending messages and calls when it wasn't even thirty minutes since I left home, all the kids in my old school would always point that out and toss the words lightly that I would only make a joking remark and laugh about it. I'm sixteen! Six to the fucking teen.

"They're lucky to have a friend like you," My heart warmed at his words. I looked up to see him smiling softly at me.

"Of course they are, Do you even know me?."

Talk about cocky much. I need to give a few swats at River because his ego the size of Europe is rubbing onto me.

He playfully rolled his eyes. "I would say yes I know you, but I honestly don't. You're like a puzzle. One minute you're timid and silent and the next you're... talking."

I raised an eyebrow. "Duh. Of course, I talk,"

"See?" He gestured a hand to me before going back to doodling on his cup. I wanted to ask what he was drawing or why was he drawing in a coffee cup in the first place but closed my mouth when a body entered the room. Lila's eyes were blazing as she talked heatedly at her phone. Her green crop jacket was a shade that reminded me of a frog's slimy back and I shuddered just thinking about it.

"It's final, I'm afraid of frogs." I nodded slightly, still in a daze when picture after picture of the animal that shall not be named flashed in my mind.

The shrieking of the school bell caught my attention. I watched as everyone's actions became more frantic and clumsy and the pounding of varying shoes mingled with the different voices. Blake got up and stood in front of me. He extended his hand, where the cup was in place.

"Are you seriously going to make me a janitress Mr. Owens?" My eyes were trained on the piece of hardbound carton paper and slowly glided to his face.

"I would Ms. Wilson, trust me I would." His eyes narrowed, his lips rolling into his mouth for a second."But judging by your expression you seem opposed so."

"Hmmm..." I pretended to think. "I think I might reconsider under one condition."

"And what condition is that?"

I stared at him squarely at the eye and lightly shrugged. "Tell me one thing you're afraid of."

His eyebrows shot up. "That's the condition?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Oh and don't say losing someone you love or something along the lines of that. I'm talking about real fear, like an animal or clown or... denture."

He looked appalled by the idea. "How did you even come up with that stuff." I didn't get to respond because Sunny appeared at my side.

Her eyes switching to both of us and I bit my lip when she pinched me at my backside, hiding it away from Blake's view. I glared at her and saw Blake writing something on the cup.

"What are you guys still doing here it's almost the first period. Blake can you give this to my cousin, I forgot to tell her I used it and now I'm scared to give it back. She would boil me alive if she knew."

Blake handed me the cup a second before Sunny handed him a black beanie. "Why don't you just give it to her, it's not like she's going to kill you." She gave him a blank look. "You're right. I'll go and give it to her." He started walking backward and waved at us.

When he was out of sight I looked at the cup and twisted it around wondering what he was doing with that pencil oh his. I laughed at the sketch of a boy drawing a sword to an itty bitty frog. It looked harmless but an arrow pointed at it leading to the words 'evil frog'.

On the left side of it was an even more large drawing of a maze with a small blob space in the middle. I recognized it as the maze with the cherry blossom tree we used to come to. A thick line decorated with flowers and vines caught my attention and I realized that these were the directions to reach the center of the maze. Wow. I'm speechless.

At the bottom of it all, I caught sight of a scribble.

One word.

Seven letters.

heights

"Mom. Nevaeh's hiding the remote again!" Lavender shouted and glared at me from her spot on the couch. She was in the middle of throwing and disarranging every single cushion in the living room.

I just arrived at the room after a failed attempt of searching for food at the kitchen. Only those pickles in jars and three eggs were in there. I was disappointed with the lack of sweets.

"I didn't mom, She's lying!" I hurriedly shouted and narrowed my eyes at my sister as I hid my hips behind the couch and tugged the remote from the waistband of my shorts.

Yes, I was wearing shorts instead of a skirt. Hell must be freezing over.

I jumped at the couch and lied down, placing my arms behind my head. I changed the channel and am rewarded with Violet jumping at me and grabbing the remote control from my hand.

"Give it!" She pulled.

"No. I got it first." I pulled back.

"You hid it!" She continually slapped my hands and damn does it hurt. My skin was reddening with how hard she was slapping them.

"No, I didn't. I found it on the floor. Next time use those big eyes of yours. You were just too blind to see it." I lied straight to my teeth and opened my mouth to bite down her wrist only to be slapped straight in my nose. Our fight continued until I finally got her off of me and attempted to dash away from her.

"Ahh!" My scalp burned and it felt like someone was trying to make me bald as she grabbed it.

Suddenly the remote was snatched from my hold.

Xavier limped towards the couch and fluttered his lashes at us. "Lovely evening girls. Hope you don't mind if I watch, there's a game tonight."

"We do mind." We glared at him.

"Ah, ah, ah I have the remote. The least you could do is sit and watch with me or get lost." He placed his injured feet up on the couch and proceeded to browse the television. Douche.

My mother entered the room and grabbed the remote from his hand making his eyes widen and look at her in disbelief. "Mom! I was watching. It's the finals," He pouted and tried to reach for it.

My mother gave him a look that made him immediately shut up. She turned off the television and gave us a disapproving look. "Keep your voices down. It's night, the neighbors might hear you."

Xavier rolled his eyes. "SO what if the neighbors hear us." When he met our mother's eye he shut up glared at me and Violet. "You kids are trouble. Immature, naughty kids!"

I stuck my tongue out at him and only noticed the pile of clothes that she was holding. The shirts were still attached to individual hangers and I knew that if I don't get out now I'm going to spend an hour folding clothes. "I'm sleepy. Goodnight." I faked a yawn and smiled at them, running up the stairs.

"Nevaeh, come back here." I groaned and slumped down back on the couch.

"Fold the clothes. All three of you." She instructed. "Do it properly or I'll let you do it all again."

We groaned. "But mo-"

"Stop whining and start doing it. The faster you start the faster you finish." She left the room with the last remark leaving us three staring at the pile of the clothes sprawled on the couch. As my eyes connected with my siblings, despite our hatred and differences, I knew we all share one thing in common.

I absolutely genuinely despise chores.