Back To You | Ricky Garcia

Chapter Twenty Eight

Charlene's POV

Being the awkward, uncoordinated person that I am, I've come to learn that whatever tragic, unfortunate situation I get myself into (some of which include tripping down the stairs, slipping on the floor, and a new addition to my list, falling off of trees) causes some sort of jittery feeling throughout my body. Not jittery as in "That was such a rush, let's do it again.", but jittery as in "I'm visibly shaking all the way down to my last toe, and is my left eye twitching or is just me?".

And right now, with a teacup sized animal wrapped into the palms of my hands and my hair standing up in various directions whilst I stand on the middle of a dead street, I feel more jittery than ever. And it's the result of three very unusual occurrences:

1) The act of falling off that tree.
2) Spontaneously being saved while I was falling off the tree.
3) Not knowing who spontaneously saved me.

Well, I kinda - sorta know who he is. I know his name is Emery, I know he has a pair of chocolate brown eyes that practically stared into my soul a couple minutes ago, and I know he has a red and white varsity jacket.

Great. In other words, I know nothing.

But I owe him, whoever this Emery guy is. Because if it weren't for him, I would probably be rotting on the sidewalk by now. So yes, I owe Emery a whole lot of gratitude, at least a thank you if I get the chance.

In the meanwhile, I had a living, breathing animal that I have to relocate and a football game to go to, all in the span of 15 minutes or so. There was absolutely no time for me to be having a casual brain fart.

Luckily, the ice cream shop that I was trying to get to in the first place gladly took the kitten into it's care for the day, and promised me that they would find a home for her by tomorrow. And considering the owner had a 5 year year old daughter who immediately fell in love with her since we walked through the door, I knew that the kitten would probably end up having a great life right where it is now.

I triumphantly marched out the store, trying to fix myself up before I took any step forward. My sweater was all types of lopsided and I'm pretty sure my hair still looks like a hornet's nest from that epic fall of mine.

Huh, sure, "epic". Keep lying to yourself, Charlene, keep lying to yourself.

After regaining my composure, I followed my original path to Riverhead High. Although it was only a few more blocks away from where I was just standing, I prayed that I wasn't going to be late. I couldn't miss this at all costs; it was Ricky's big game, and if it was important to him, then it's important to me.

As the thought of being late grew in my mind, I found myself sprinting to pick up the pace. And as I approached the large building, I could already hear loud roars coming from the field.

I trudged around the premises of the school and, finally, got to the field only to find a huge mob of well-built football players clashing in the middle of the grass. It looked like a damn riot.

I quickly found Jon, Francesca, Evan, and, surprisingly, Annabelle standing at the third row on the bleachers, looking horrified as ever. I walked up the metal steps to grab the empty seat beside Jon, who looked too red for it to be caused by the heat.

All four of them were too entranced by whatever was happening in the field to notice my existence, so rationally, I flicked Jon up the side of his head. He turned to look at me with a flinch, rubbing his head as realization hit him that I was the cruel person who inflicted his pain. Francesca laughed at her boyfriend's stupidity and gave me a high five behind his back. A smirk rose to my face in satisfaction, which he gladly returned after a few seconds.