The parent project - Chenry

Chapter four: Get away from me

"So gross."

"Oh my god, ew."

"-And did you see what she was wearing? Ugh, we should burn those clothes while she's still in them."

While looking to the back of the bus, I peeped that Bianca and her friends were talking about Charlotte. She wasn't doing much, she staring out the window like a loser while listening to whatever was in her headphones. She was so far tucked into herself it was hard to see her whole body. She didn't want to be bothered, spoken to, or even looked at. Now was the perfect time to go say hi.

"Stay  here, I'll be right back."

I said to Bianca as I patted her shoulder.

"Wait babe, where are you going?"

She snaked her hand around my arm and started to drag me down into the seat again.

"The bathroom, Bianca can I please go take a shit by myself?"

The girls in the row in front of us snorted but immediately twisted their bodies to face forward when Bianca shot them an icy glare. Her lips perched tightly and she let go of my hand. Relief flooded my chest, I'm stepping away from her.

"Hurry up, Henry we still need to take pics before we actually get on the fucking road."

Charlotte bristles when I reach her seat, she refused to look over at me and continued staring straight ahead at whatever invisible thing her attention was fixed on.

"Morning, Char... you get a goodbye kiss and hug from your mom?"

More intense staring, she flips her phone over in her lap multiple times, locking her jaw. I leaned forward in the seat next to her, plucking an ear bud from her ear.

"You didn't hear me, did you?"

"Fuck off, Henry. I'm not in the mood."

"You're never in the mood, Char that's what makes this so fun."

"Isn't your girlfriend desperately begging for your attention up there? You should probably get back to that, and don't fucking touch..."

She snatched her ear-bud back, her eyes flashing orbs of black.

"My stuff."

I watched the center of her chest move steadily up and down, faster and faster. If I tried hard enough I could see her heart fluttering on her chest. The skin over her collarbones was so delicate, each movement of her head made her skin ripple with veins. I could almost taste the hatred simmering on her tongue.

"Look, I didn't come all the way over here to fuck off. I gotta tell you something-"

"-Could you be any more of a slut, Charlotte Bolton!"

She called across the aisle, she was trying to stand up in her seat but her friends wrapped their hands around her wrists and kept her down.

"B-"

"No!"

Bianca stomped her way to the back of the bus, fuming. Her face had plumed into an unnatural shade of red, and if it wasn't for the other girls holding her back I was sure she would have been clawing Charlotte's eyes out by now.

"Bianca chill!"

"Don't touch me! Why the fuck are you back here with her? You said you wanted to use the bathroom! Does this look like the fucking bathroom Henry Hart? What the hell are you doing?! You wanna take a piss on her huh Henry?"

I felt spit flecks from her mouth it my cheek. Her  breath was infused with fireball. Something the other girls must have snuck on the bus. Before I could answer, Charlotte tilted her head.