Choosing Love

Chapter Twenty Three

Chad sighed as he shook his head, making his way down the halls of Auradon Prep. Lately, he found, it was a lot easier to be alone than to be around other people. Especially Audrey.

It wasn't that Audrey was necessarily difficult to be around but whenever he was with her, his head would go all...cloudy and for the life of him he couldn't remember what had happened. What he did know, though, was whenever the cloudy feeling faded, there was usually someone mad at him.

Sometimes it was people he didn't even know existed, like Quasimodo's daughter Macy or Phoebus' son Zeypher. However nine times out of ten, it would be either Kitty or Lucy who'd be the one mad at him. Sometimes it would even be Alexandria but she was the bright ball of sunshine that seemed to consist of endless optimism. The few fights she had had with the other two Charming sisters had been because of him.

"Guys, honest! Chad's changed!"

Chad looked up from his computer as he heard his sister's voice outside his dorm room door. Why was she there? And more importantly why was she talking to someone about him? Was everything alright?

Maybe it was one of her friends, he told himself. After all, you do have a bit of a rep for being a womanizer around the school.

But...I haven't dated anyone since Audrey broke it off. If one of Alex's friends was upset with the fact that I messed with their sister, why wouldn't they say so before now?

"I'm sure you think so Alex but...I don't know."

Chad's heart sank as he heard Lucy's voice and wondered if he shouldn't step outside, let them know that he could hear everything they were saying. Though he couldn't help but wonder if that wasn't the point of their conversation. To let him know how they truly felt about him without risking getting in trouble with their parents.

"Lucy, you weren't there," Alex said firmly. "He didn't even make a comment to Mal, Uma or Harry. Not even to Hadie."

"Well our brother's an idiot but he's not a moron," Kitty stated. "Mal, Uma, and Hadie are Godlings after all and Chad's the heir to Charmington. He's not going to risk making an enemy of Olympus by making one of them mad at him. And making Harry mad at him is basically the same as making Uma mad at him from what Mal's said."

"Besides, he might make a change but you know he's still pining over Audrey," Lucy told them and Chad could honestly see her roll her eyes. "Never mind the fact that she was the one who broke it off and never mind the fact that he cried over her. He'd still take her back if she asked him. Not that she would since you know, Chad's not Ben."

"Chad wouldn't do that!"

"Alex, there's being positive and then there's being naive," Kitty sighed. "Chad's always had a crush on Audrey but lately it's like it's been moved into hyperdrive. Ever since Ben removed his consent from his betrothal contract."

Chad shook his head, biting back a sigh. Ben was practically another brother to those three, considering he'd been Chad's friend since birth. Chad couldn't help but think that his sisters would have preferred to be Ben's sisters rather than his.

Ben was really close to the girls too, happy to act as another brother to them. When they were kids, Chad'd been a little jealous that Ben was so close to his sisters. After all, they were the Charming girls, not the Le Bete girls!

It wasn't until Chad was about eight or nine and his mom had sat him down, explaining about Queen Belle's miscarriage back when Ben and Chad were three or so. Ben wasn't trying to replace him with his sisters, she had said. He was probably just trying to see what having sisters was truly like.