Don't Promise Me

11- Charlie Bunny

"Nice place you've got." I looked up at the large window frames of the fancy house before me quite impressed.

"Thanks," The fat guy whose name I've recently learned to be Charlie muttered, before pressing the golden doorbell for the second time with a shaking hand. Okay.

I probably should have felt bad for not knowing his name earlier in time. After all, he'd been taking English with me for at least two years or so. I think history too, I wasn't not sure. In any case, I felt nothing. Instead, I turned my attention to the girl standing right beside him, wondering if there even was any skin left on her bottom lip for her to still be chewing off. She caught me staring and quickly let go of it, offering me a tight smile. Maybe it was a bad idea to crash in on their studying session, since both of them looked like they'd rather eat shredded glass than even breathe the same air as me. But well, I asked her first, so what's fair is fair and here I am.

At the third ring, a round blue-eyed woman opened the door, greeting us with a full smile. "Hey, bunny!" She exclaimed cheerfully and squeezed Charlie's face between her hands, making him look like a fish, and kissed his cheeks. He cringed and mumbled an embarrassed "hey, mom." I don't get why some guys are ashamed of having mothers who show them affection in public, but when the matter is let's-shove-my-tongue-in-another-person's-throat-in-front-of-everyone, it's all good. Not that Charlie did the latter, cause I've never seen him with a girl. Except for Donny, but they weren't ever doing that, obviously. Wait, why was it so obvious? They were friends, right? Why was I suddenly picturing the two of them making out? Ew, stop.

The mom moved her gaze to Donny, snapping me from my disturbing trance, and her smile grew impossibly wider. "Hello, dear!" She repeated the process with the girl. "It's," — kiss noise — "wonderful," — kiss noise — "to have you here again!" She exclaimed while still holding Donny's face. Someone's popular.

"Hi, Ms. Berning," She answered with a shy smile after having gained her face back. "How are you?"

"I told you a million times, call me Morgan!" The woman playfully slapped her hand. "And I'm delighted to have you, doll! My son is so lucky to have such a lovely friend. Ain't that so, Charlie?" She pinched her bunny's cheek. I had never seen such a strong shade of red on a human face before. God. Someone should get the boy some water. His mom was about to make another comment, addressed to Donny, but she ended up acknowledging my presence when her gaze shifted.

"Oh, my."  She looked intensely at me, her eyes widening too, and lifted a hand up to her chest. I should have gotten used to this stupid reaction by then, but it seemed like I hadn't, since I let a small frustrated sigh escape. "And who are you, young man? Pleasure to meet you, I'm Morgan." She unnecessarily introduced herself and showed off a megawatt smile. In contrast with her son's red face, her teeth were extremely white. Their dentist must be rich.

"Hey, Mrs Berning. Collin. Nice to meet you." I resumed, trying my best to fake a smile. She was eating me up with her eyes and it was hella scary.

"Oh, so polite! Come in, come in!" She rushed us inside and as soon as we stepped in, she went into the kitchen with Charlie following right behind. I hoped he went in there to find a cure for his tomato countenance.

"You must get that a lot." Donny murmured from beside me and I looked at her, who was clutching tightly onto the strap of her bag, looking around.

"Yeah. It sucks." I answered and she shot me a surprised look, like she hadn't expected me to have heard what she said.  She fixed her glasses up for no apparent reason, because they already were all the way up on her nose, and cleared her throat.

"Really? How come?"

"Well, you know," I replied, now facing up to admire the huge crystal chandelier hung in the middle of the beige-colored ceiling. Who even has crystal chandeliers nowadays? What are they, Oprah?  "I could be biggest scumbag on Earth for all she or anyone knows," I motioned with a nod to the kitchen "but no one gives a flying damn about it or bothers checking. Why? Because I'm attractive and that's all that matters." I looked back down at her with a sarcastic smile to see her perplexed reaction. "What? I bet you have experienced it too. Has no one ever favored you because you're pretty?" I asked, beginning to feel annoyed about the topic. It lead me to reminisce on all the fake people I came across in my life and how I didn't even have any real friends. Damn, she made me feel down.