Charlotte's Scars

Chapter 19 - Charlotte

Chapter Nineteen

Charlotte

Five minutes after leaving Christian's house, Cecilia pulled up next to me. I couldn't bear to face her after she humiliated me in front of Christian so I continued to walk. Although Christian knew I wasn't the most popular girl at my school, being referred to as the "Guttergeek" merely minutes after he admitted that sleeping with me was a mistake was like kicking a person when they're down.

"Hey Guttergeek!"

Clenching my jaw, I refrained from turning around and tried to pick up my pace. I refused to give her the satisfaction of a response.

"Guttergeek, get in the car." Cecilia said a bit louder this time.

I scoffed, unable to hold back and said, "You're delusional if you think I'm getting in a vehicle with you."

With a loud, palpable sigh, she crept her car forward and drove alongside me. "You can't walk all the way home from here. It'll take you, like, all day."

Folding my arms, I turned toward her and raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps – and yet, it still sounds more preferable than being stuck in a car with you."

"Well, excuse me Miss. Sassy pants, when did you grow a pair of lady balls?" When it was evident I wouldn't reply to that, she continued, "Look, I'm not trying to offer you a ride out of the kindness of my heart, because we all know I don't do kindness. To be honest? I don't want my Bae feeling obligated to come and drive you himself."

The blood drained from my face. "Your...what?"

"For a geek, you sure are stupid." She rolled her perfectly mascaraed eyes, and said, "My Bae – you know, Christian."

Tilting my head, I narrowed my eyes at her. Christian didn't date girls, and even if he did, I couldn't imagine him choosing a materialistic narcissist like Cecilia. I wanted to call her out on it, but I withheld because a loud, irritating voice in my head kept telling me that I shouldn't care either way. Christian, as much as I loved him, could not be a part of my life. I had no regrets about last night – it was, after all, the best night of my life, but I couldn't trust him. Between last night and this morning, I was officially convinced that people couldn't change.

The reality of it didn't hurt so much anymore – the pain was replaced by an empty numbness.

"Just get in the car and I'll drive you home."

I stared down the long, never ending gravel road ahead of me reluctant to give in to her but also dreading a long walk with only my thoughts for company. Admittedly, I was also a little nervous that Christian would come pick me up, and I knew I wouldn't stay strong in his presences. He merely had to look me in the eyes and all my resolve would shatter into a million pieces, I'd melt into his embrace like the love sick puppy I was, and one day, he would destroy me.

Closing my eyes, I let out a heavy breath and got into the car. Naturally, her car was as clean and perfect as everything else about her. I sat straight up with my hands clasped on my lap afraid that if I so much as breathed it would somehow dirty her spotless dashboard.

"You live over on the west end, right?" When I nodded, she snorted and said under her breath, "I better not get shot up or something."

I didn't dignify that with a response. She came from a snobbish upper class family, so I didn't expect much better from her. I never considered my neighbourhood to be abnormally dangerous or anything, but Cecilia certainly viewed it as the "ghetto". I was lucky Karla and her family refused to stereotype me because of where I lived as most upper class citizens did.