The summer you didn't expect

Chapter 13

Charlie

We ended up making a campfire in Max's backyard and invite the rest of our friends. Stella, Baxter, and Evan showed up with alcohol and I see Baxter and Stella holding hands. "Stella since when has this been a thing?" I point at their hands. "He asked me out this morning." Stella smiles big and Baxter kisses her cheek.

"So Lor how have you been?" Evan puts his arm around Loren and she looked so uncomfortable. "I'm fine." She pushes his arm off her and walks into the house to get a drink.

I follow her into the kitchen and hug her from the behind. "Are you okay I can tell him to back off?" She turns in my arms and smiles. "I'm okay thanks love." My heart skipped a beat at that nickname. "I like when you call me that." She smiles and kisses my forehead. "Let's get some drinks and go back out there." I nodded and make mine and Keith drinks and she makes her's and Max's.

After a hour we were all pretty drunk. Stella and I were talking about how much she likes Baxter. She is really falling for this guy and I get the feeling about falling for someone. I look over to Loren she was laughing at something she was talking about with Max and Evan.

"You really like her don't you?" Stella leans in so no one can hear what she said. My face turns bright red and sigh. "I do but I'm scared. I've never liked someone this much before not even Mitchell. Especially a girl." Stella puts her hand on my knee and pats it. "It's going to be okay just talk to her and take it slow." I nodded and look back over to Loren. She wasn't where she was sitting a minute ago.

"Hey the pizza is here I'm going to get it real quick." I jump and look to my left and Loren stood there. I smile and she rubs my back before walking away. I went back to talking to Stella until I hear Loren yell. "What the hell!" I jump up and run inside.

Loren stood there with tears in her eyes and Evan in front of her with a red handprint on his face. I storm over to them and get in between them facing Evan. "What the fuck did you do!?" I basically growl at him with anger. "He kissed me and I slapped him." Loren said behind me holding onto my hand. I feel so bad for her she has gone through so much today she is not the confident Loren I know.

I point my finger into Evan's chest and glare at him. "Don't you ever fucking touch her again!" He scoffs and looks at Loren. "She acts like she hasn't been flirting with me all night laughing at my jokes and I can flirt with her all I want you're not her girlfriend." I'm about to punch him but Loren squeezes my hand and sighs. "I thought your jokes were funny that why I was laughing I wasn't flirting with you I don't like you I like someone else." She says that in a really sad tone.

I turn to see tears building up in her eyes. Max walked up to us and grabbed Evan's arm. "Evan how about you leave?" Evan groans and storms out and Loren let a sigh of relief out. "I'm sorry guys I ruined our night." She looks at her feet and tears drop on the floor.

"Don't you blame yourself for Evan being a gross asshole." I pull her into a hug and Max jumps into the hug too. "Lor do you want to stay the night in the guest room?" He rubs her back and she nods gently. He walks away probably to talk to Keith about what happened.

"Loren I'm sorry today has been rough for you but just know I'm here for you." I wipe her tears away with my thumb. She sighs and leans her forehead to mine. "Being in your arms makes my day a little easier to deal with." I smile and kiss her. "Do you want me to stay with you tonight?" I know it's a big step for us to spend the night together but I don't want to leave her alone like this.

"Really?" She looks at me with watery eyes. "Yeah I want to be here for you." She starts to cry again and I hug her close to me. "Hey I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you cry." She shakes her head no and hugs me tighter. "I'm crying because I don't deserve you. You are amazing and I'm just a low life that bad things happen to." That shocked me that she said that it's not true she is amazing.