My Best Friend's Brother // Young Love Book 1 ✔️

Chapter 3 (Partially Edited)

Here I go.

I am going to ask him.

Almost there.

I sluggishly dragged my feet towards Charlie's general direction. I mean, it was okay to be nervous (what I was planning to do wasn't exactly conventional), but this anxious feeling I kept getting was beyond me. I mean, how hard could it b--

A hard shove was suddenly gifted to me and I stumbled forward in the most ungraceful way possible. Thank you for that, lack of coordination. This rude shoving of sorts was, of course, my best friend's doing. It didn't surprise me--like at all--but I shot her a dirty look nonetheless. It translated into something like: I am going to get you back for this, bitch. Feigning innocence, Cindy simply set her thin lips in an I-can-do-no-wrong sort of smile. I waited for the usual flash of guilt in her grey eyes to appear before returning to my task. I calmly collected myself and then, began to slowly walk again. I was about to bargain with Charlie, who, according to Cindy, was apparently a devil. But I knew better, Cindy was just overreacting. Charlie was far from a saint, but he wasn't evil; he wasn't Satan. So, I approached him anyway. I had nothing to lose.

Sarcastic Voice In My Head: You make it sound like it's a life or death situation.

I really needed to stop that voice, because at this rate, I was gonna have to kick my own butt for being so annoying.

"Hey! Charlie, buddy, how's it going?" I said once I was an arm's length away from Charlie. I cursed myself for having a little too much fake enthusiasm. It was such an I-need-a-favour giveaway.

"What's the catch?" he deadpanned, looking bored as ever.

I pretended to get hurt, putting a hand on my chest for effect. "Oh, that's right! People aren't supposed to care about their friends' wellbeing," I muttered with a roll of my eyes.

Charlie gazed at me with his amber eyes. I felt like I was being psychoanalysed by a shrink, but I perished the thought. The boy didn't know me, how could he possibly understand anything that concerned me? That's right, he very well can't.

"You're wasting time, kid. Get going," he sighed dismissively.

Oh, boy. Did he seriously just call me 'kid'?

"Fine," I grumbled, dropping the nice act. No point in lying now, he was being difficult. "I need you to do something for me."

Charlie didn't bother looking up from what he was doodling on the corner of his textbook. "Go on, spit it out."

"I can't tell you until I know you're agreeing to it."

"Do you hear yourself, Eli? I don't even know what I'm getting myself into and you're asking me to agree!"

Sarcastic Voice In My Head: He's right.

I racked my brain for something witty to say. It seemed impossible for a while, but a comeback came to mind eventually. "Oh, you're going with that? Okay." Given, it was a pretty shitty comeback.

Charlie smirked as if he had won. He was wrong.

I whipped out my phone from my pocket, feeling excitement fill my entire being; I was buzzing now. "So, tell me, Charlie, since you like knowing the details of an agreement first, what's the third page of Apple's terms and conditions on about? You know, since you've read and agreed to it."

As planned, the smirk vanished from his face rather quickly. It was like one of those infomercials, when the actor wipes a stain on the counter using the special cleaning spray they're advertising and it disappears like magic. Anyway, now that I've laid the groundwork, I went on to fulfil my real purpose.